53 research outputs found
Vulnerability and Resilience in West Africa: Understanding Human Mobility in the Context of Land Degradation
No full textThe loss of productive land is often one of the key drivers of human mobility. Land degradation
might lead to increases in migration because of the need to diversify incomes, but it can also cause
reduced mobility by eroding the financial or physical assets and capital required to finance
migration. When on-site adaptation is either impossible or undesirable, migration allows people
to modify their exposure to climate and environmental stressors. On one hand, temporary and
circular labour migration, internal and international remittances, and family relocation are among
the most common strategies used throughout history, and increasingly so in the past decades, to
cope with harsh climatic variations, increasingly hostile natural environments, and natural
disasters. On the other hand, land abandonment and out-migration can lead to further isolation
and marginalization of both vulnerable rural populations (increasing their vulnerability if migration
occurs in unplanned ways) and migrants who relocate toward areas of high environmental risk,
such as resource-scarce or urban areas within insecure expanding cities. Based on existing
evidence on the West Africa region, the research in this paper aims at gaining a better
understanding of how land degradation interacts with drivers of migration by analysing the factors
determining vulnerability at individual, household, and community levels, as well as those factors
affecting capacities—whether inherent or acquired—and strategies that contribute to building
resilience
Effects of land degradation induced migration in Africa : providing evidence on the role of climate and environmental change as drivers of migration
No full textClimate change and migration are closely interconnected in many parts of the world. Migration is a key way by which households cope with and adapt to rapid and slow environmental changes. Under extreme conditions of drought, economic hardship, and political instability, migration is used as a last-resort survival mechanism. Although these cases continue to happen, they are a less common form of climate-induced migration. Most migration associated with environmental and climate change does not occur under conditions of absolute distress, but of diversification, as households search for opportunities to generate new income sources and to reduce their exposure to environmental and climate related risks and hazards. This type of migration tends to be ignored and raises almost no interest in the media. However, to fully understand the dynamics of migration in less developed countries, it is essential to consider climate change and environmental degradation and increase understanding on the role they play in driving the decision to migrate.
In this thesis, the author tried to address this complex subject by adopting a mix of different approaches that take in consideration the challenges and gaps in knowledge. In particular, the aim of this thesis is to provide new evidence on relationship between climatic and environmental changes and migration by: (i) adopting an inter-disciplinary approach and comparing concepts and paradigms from different academic and policy fields; (ii) elaborating a conceptual framework that shifts from the dominant focus on climate change and addresses migration as a response to gradual environmental changes, such as land degradation and natural resource depletion; (iii) producing new empirical data through a survey conducted on migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
This thesis consists of a collection of articles and is structured in three chapters, each of which contains one articles/paper. The first two articles have been co-authored, peer-reviewed and published, while the third one has been done in collaboration with the Institute for Scientific Research of the Rabat University that administered the questionnaire in Morocco under the supervision of the author.
The first article is a chapter published in the book “Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses” published by Springer under the series Global Migration Issues in 2016. The title of the chapter is “Remittances for adaptation: an ‘alternative source’ of international climate finance?”. Bringing together literature on climate finance and remittances, the article analyze whether remittances could be considered as an ‘alternative’ source of adaptation finance in international climate negotiations. The second article is a on “Vulnerability and resilience in West Africa: understanding human mobility in the context of land degradation” reviews the evidence on land degradation induced migration in West Africa and explores the circumstances under which migration can actually increase the resilience of households in the face of climate and environmental change. The third article, titled “Environmental change and migration: the role of climatic and environmental conditions in the migration decision”, aims at discussing the nexus between climate/environmental change and migration by focusing on perception of the hazards and motivations for migration from an individual’s perspective. The result of the survey confirmed that, in general, climate and environmental change are important determinants of the decision to migrate, even though concurring with other major motivations. In particular, they turned out to be the most important reasons to migrate for a non-negligible number of migrants
Remittances for Adaptation: An ‘Alternative Source’ of International Climate Finance?
No full textClimate finance is a key issue at the UN climate negotiations, but explicit international funding possibilities for adaptation in developing countries remain limited. According to the recent Paris Agreement, climate finance will come from a ‘wide variety of sources, instruments and channels’. To the extent that these are understood, they do not seem to generate the USD 100 billion per annum that was repeatedly pledged by developed countries, and they flow to mitigation rather than adaptation. Remittances have potential to finance adaptation, because (1) the potential is huge and unexplored); (2) remittances directly reach to households, including in remote and vulnerable areas; (3) remittances are often employed for (climate-induced) disaster relief and sometimes also for investments in long-term adaptation strategies. Whilst not ignoring ethical arguments against poor migrants’ remittances as an alternative source of adaptation finance for developing countries under the UN climate negotiations, this chapter examines whether remittances could technically constitute such a source. It analyses empirical evidence from remittance literature against ten climate finance criteria from the UNFCCC Copenhagen Accord. Our analysis finds that remittances could match criteria such as ‘adequacy’ and ‘predictability’. However, ‘improved access’ can only be matched if developed and developing countries create the right incentives to reach out to potential diaspora investors. ‘Transparency’ is unlikely to be met. Whether remittances contribute to the USD 100 billion climate finance pledge is a controversial political decision, but in any case remittances can support adaptation at household and community level. Public climate finance could increase the potential of remittance for such purposes
Gastrite erosiva da allergia alle proteine del latte vaccino: una patologia rara ma non troppo.
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Atopic dermatitis in italian children: evaluation of its economic impact.
No full textINTRODUCTION: The aim of our study was to evaluate the economic impact of atopic dermatitis (AD) on the family of young children affected by the disease in Italy. METHODS: Thirty-three families of young children affected by AD were asked to fill in a questionnaire about financial costs associated with providing health care during the past year for their child affected by AD. For each child AD severity was evaluated by using the SCORAD index. RESULTS: By analyzing the questionnaire, an annual average cost of 1254euro (about U.S. $1540) for each family was determined. Main expenses concern the use of moisturizing therapies, particular detergent, and private specialist consultations. Annual family average cost was lower for children with mild AD compared with those with moderate to severe AD. DISCUSSION: AD has a deep impact on the family budget, with an increasing cost in proportion to the increasing severity of the disease. These data support previous reports suggesting that the management of AD in children is complex and costly, altering the quality of life of children and their families
Atopic dermatitis: quality of life of young Italian children and their families and correlation with severity score.
No full textThree years of Italian experience of an educational program for parents of young children affected by atopic dermatitis: improving knowledge produces lower anxiety levels in parents of children with atopic dermatitis.
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FOOD ALLERGY IN CHILDREN WITH ASTHMA : PREVALENCE AND CORRELATION WITH CLINICAL SEVERITY OF RESPIRATORY DISEASE
No full textEpidemiological evidence suggests that there is a link between asthma and food allergy. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of food allergy in asthmatic children and to evaluate a possible impact of food allergy on asthma severity. The study enrolled 103 asthmatic children (mean age: 11 years). Skin prick-test, dosage of specific IgE to a standardized panel of inhalant and food allergens and spirometric evaluation was made for each patient. Twenty-four (23%) patients presented food allergy, 75 (77%) were sensitized to at least one food. A lower rate of children with controlled symptoms was found in children with food allergy and a higher rate of persistent asthma was found in children sensitized to at least 4 foods. In conclusion, food allergy/sensitization should always be investigated in asthmatic children for its association with increasing severity (only in food sensitized patients) and reduced control of asthmatic symptoms
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