The University of Kara (abbreviated UK) is the second university in Togo after the University of Lomé. Located in the city of Kara, it was established by a presidential decree on 21 January 1999, and opened on 23 January 2004.
To sustain vegetable production and enhance food supply, farmers increasingly rely on intensive pesticide use, raising significant public health and environmental concerns. This study characterized pesticide use patterns in vegetable farming, with emphasis on the prevalence of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs), associated risks, and farmer practice profiles in Togo and Kenya, and identified determinants of safe or unsafe behaviors. A total of 219 farmers (162 in Togo and 57 in Kenya) were surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire and respondent-driven sampling. Phytosanitary practice typologies were assessed through Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) followed by hierarchical clustering. The results revealed the use of 157 distinct pesticide products, with Togo recording the highest diversity (105 products, 66.9
Climate change (CC) is a major environmental externality that threatens households in developing countries, especially where adaptive capacity is limited. Expanding financial inclusion (FI) through decentralized financial services and digital finance can strengthen households’ ability to cope with climate-related shocks. This study analyzes the effect of FI on household resilience to CC in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using cross-sectional data from 51,044 households in 37 countries, we estimate a fractional probit model with country fixed effects and an instrumental-variable extension to address endogeneity. Sensitivity tests are performed to account for biases linked to regional population size. The results show that FI significantly enhances overall household resilience to CC, with particularly strong effects for women and rural households. By considering a three-pillar resilience framework, the results indicate the need for a more cautious and context-sensitive approach to FI in climate resilience policies. While FI improves households’ coping and adaptive capacities, it has a statistically significant negative effect on transformative capacity, suggesting that expanded access to financial services alone may reinforce existing structural constraints if complementary reforms are neglected. This pattern is consistent across gender and rural–urban groups. These findings suggest that expanding digital financial services, particularly in rural areas, should be complemented by targeted financial education, climate-responsive financial products, and institutional support to avoid deepening structural vulnerability. Strengthening FI alongside complementary reforms can enhance household resilience while supporting sustainable development in SSA.
Background School canteens play a central role in the school food environments and influence children's nutritional status and eating habits. They are key settings for the promotion of healthier and more sustainable dietary behaviors. Methods This systematic review examines impacts of school canteens on children's nutrition and their eating behaviors, based on published evidence. The sanitary and nutritional quality of meals served in school canteens were also assessed. The literature search was performed in PubMed and ScienceDirect databases from inception to the search date. Retrieved hits underwent rigorous screening by two reviewers in order to identify relevant articles Results In several countries, school canteens face challenges regarding nutritional and hygiene quality. Some canteens fail to meet sanitary standards, and meals are often nutritionally imbalanced with, high contents of saturated fat, sugar, and salt, and low in essential micronutrients. The impact of school canteens on the nutritional status of children is difficult to quantify but it is clear that the presence of nutrients such as saturated fatty acids, sugar and salt combined of micronutrients decreases the potential for children to have a nutritional status. Regarding children's eating behavior, most studies underlined the fact that school canteens are key settings for the nutritional education of children toward healthier and sustainable behaviors. Conclusions Overall, the implementation of school canteen programs should take into consideration the necessity to provide good quality meals but also the opportunity to provide nutritional education and sustainability awareness to children as childhood habits-are more likely to persist into adulthood.
Climate shocks increasingly threaten Africa’s economic and institutional stability, yet their indirect effects through social sectors such as health remain insufficiently understood. Guided by political economy and welfare theory, this study examines how climate-induced disruptions affect access to healthcare, public or institutional trust, and the broader risk of social unrest and attitude towards coups d’état support across African countries. The analysis uses cross-sectional data from 53,176 households across Africa and applies an ordered probit model with country fixed effects to account for country size and population structure. Climate shocks notably drought and flood events, significantly reduce access to healthcare services and erode public trust in health governance systems. Diminished health access and declining institutional confidence further increase the likelihood of social unrest and coup events, serving as key mediating channels through which environmental stress contributes to political instability. Strengthening climate-resilient health infrastructure, decentralizing public health financing, and investing in highly exposed regions are essential policy responses. Enhancing social protection and institutional credibility can help break the destabilizing feedback loop between environmental shocks, welfare declines, and political unrest.
This study investigates the effect of financial inclusion (FI) on household well-being in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with particular attention to gender and rural–urban disparities. Using Afrobarometer round 9 data from 51,044 households, we estimate ordered probit models and conduct robustness checks with instrumental-variable approaches, while accounting for country-fixed effects to control for heterogeneity in economic size and institutional contexts. The findings are consistent across model specifications and indicate a positive and significant association between FI and household well-being in SSA. However, the findings reveal persistent inequalities: male-headed and urban households derive greater welfare benefits from FI compared to female-headed and rural households. These disparities indicate that, although FI is positively associated with overall household welfare, structural barriers—such as limited access to health services, education, electricity, clean water, freedom of expression, and unemployment—particularly constrain the welfare gains of female-headed households and rural populations. These results suggest that when implemented in conjunction with supportive socio-economic policies, FI can contribute to enhanced household well-being across the region. To achieve the welfare-enhancing effects of FI, we suggest prioritizing gender-responsive FI programs that expand women’s access to financial services, especially in rural areas, through mobile banking, savings groups, and flexible microcredit schemes. Complementary measures, including vocational training, entrepreneurship support, and education, are likely to reinforce the benefits associated with FI, thereby enhancing the sustainability of welfare gains.
