Twenty-second International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

Whereas food security has now stabilized in most continents, Sub-Saharan Africa has continued to experience chronic food insecurity and threats of endemic famine with the number of malnourished people steadily increasing. Amongst others, bad governance and nutrition illiteracy could be some of the contributory factors. Although good governance has become buzzwords in development literature it still remains a dynamic concept worth examining analytically and systematically because of its notoriousness and slipperiness. This paper explores the role of good governance in promoting health and nutrition literacy in Sub Saharan Africa with specific reference to the recurrent famine in Somalia. The authors argue that unless governments promote good governance, enhancing health and nutrition literacy among the population will remain a wishful thinking and the pervasive malnutrition resulting from the years of sustained conflict, the collapse of basic social services; and the erosion of resilience for the case of Somalia will worsen with time. First, a brief background to the context of health and nutrition literacy in Somalia is provided; second, the concept of good governance that underpins discussions in the paper is discussed before describing the methods used to prepare the paper; third, efforts are made to consider the synergies between good governance, community’s nutrition literacy and resilience in fragility. Lastly, challenges faced in fostering nutrition literacy and resilience in fragile contexts and possible ways forward are highlighted.

Presenters

Michael Abaasiku Lei
PhD Candidate, Peace, Governance and Development, United Nations-University for Peace, Africa Regional Program, Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Ethiopia

Willy Ngaka
National Coordinator, Makerere University Centre for Lifelong Learning