Annotated Bibliography

Problem

Climate change having extreme impacts on the Nicaraguan people. Nicaragua is experiencing both high temperatures and droughts, but also flooding. Another issue in Nicaragua is around neonatal health. The negative effects of a changing enviroment could potentially have a negative impact on pregnant women and their children. How exactly is climate change impacting the future generation of Nicaragua? Nicaragua has issues with governmental corruption, health care, and economic equality. What can be done at an administrative level for pregnant women and their children experiencing issues as a result of climate change?

1. Côte, M. (2010). Mainstreaming Climate Change in Nicaragua. United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved from https://www.undp.org/content/dam/aplaws/publication/en/publications/environment-energy/www-ee-library/climate-change/mainstreaming-climate-change-in-nicaragua/CCCC%20risk%20Mainstreaming%20Climate%20Change%20in%20Nicaragua%20ENG.pdf

   ​ The paper published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) illustrates how the climate is changing, how it is affecting the people, and the predictions for the future in Nicaragua. UNDP begins by making the claim climate change is not only negatively impacting human development but actually reversing it. Human development, as defined by Amartya Sen, is the expansion of real freedoms. The paper discusses how climate change is affecting those in poverty the most. That means people with less economic and social freedoms will become even more unfree as a result of the impacts of climate change. Climate change in Nicaragua causes a decrease in agricultural production, insecurity in water resources, an increase coastal flooding, etc. All of these factors directly negatively impact those in poverty because their already limited access to resources is even more limited.

   ​ The publishing is promoting a goal of a long and healthy life and a decent standard of life. The paper discusses the negative impacts climate change has to the health of the Nicaraguan people. For example, higher temperatures result in an increase in malaria and other diseases and a change in topography results in raspatory issues. While the main emphasis of human development is related to a long and healthy life, there is also a mention of how climate change could affect the economy or a decent standard of life. Climate change would negatively impact agriculture which would get rid of an income for farmers. Also, severe flooding and winds will displace people from homes and communities causing other communities to become overpopulated. An overpopulated area will not have enough opportunities for people to get jobs. Thus, resulting in a negative impact on the economy. ​ To support the project, integrating climate change risks and opportunities into national development processes and United Nations country programming, backed by the UNDP, they first had to develop a climate profile. They created a map using the main vulnerabilities of the country to climate change. This project was supported by the Nicaraguan government, so the data collected by the government was accessible to the UNDP for their use to create the climate vulnerability map. The UNDP also had access to a Climate Risk Screening of the UNDAF Nicaragua 2008-2012. There was also a Climate Risks Screening of four sectors of the PNDH. There was also an emphasis on the geographical location of Nicaragua which made it more prone to some effects of climate change. MARENA provides the data analysis on how climate change has impacted or will impact the different areas in Nicaragua. For example, the North and West of the country are located in zones are the most prone to the affects of climate change, such as high winds and flooding. ​ The article is more about what has to be done in order to promote human development surrounding climate change, so it is not discussed what data science tools are used in order to draw such conclusions. Based on such conclusions, the UNDP discusses the need to place an emphasis on support led development. They believe that the Nicaraguan people cannot become freer without climate change being solved first. They are pushing for policy change in order to combat the impact of climate change. The UNDP was looking to see how climate change was impacting Nicaragua. Once they discovered this, the next question was what can be done to support the people of Nicaragua?

2. Lion, K. C., Prata, N., & Stewart, C. (2009). Adolescent Childbearing in Nicaragua: A Quantitative Assessment of Associated Factors. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 35(02), 091–096. doi: 10.1363/3509109

   ​ Nicaragua has one of the highest adolescent teen pregnancies. The study conducted by Lion, Prata, and Stewart illustrated that those who had their first sexual experience prior to the age of 15 were more likely to get pregnant at a younger age. They were then able to identify younger sexual experiences had a correlation to a lack of education and financial support. According to Amartya Sen’s definition of human development, the lack of human development is a result of unfreedoms surrounding teen pregnancies.

   ​ The dimension of human development that is most relevant for this research is knowledge. It was determined that only 37% of women who have had a sexual experience attended secondary school. There is a correlation between a lack of education and younger sexual debuts. While 96% were aware of contraceptive methods, only 11% knew about the ovulatory cycle. If women do not understand how their own bodies work it is harder for them to have comfortable and safe sex. Another dimension of human development that was illustrated in their findings was a decent standard of living. It was observed that people from rural regions were at higher risk of having an earlier first birth than were urban residents. Rural communities are known to have lower chances for economic prosperity. Those living in poorer conditions have children at younger ages. Having a child at such a young age could also be considered an unfreedom because they are physically, mentally, and financially draining. Children are expensive to care for. They also tend to prohibit mothers from working full time in many cultures. When a young woman has a child, her education is then impacted because children tend to take priority.

   ​ Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all is a sustainability goal that applies greatly to this study. Many of the women who had a young sexual debut had not had a secondary education. If they had gone to secondary school, would many of them have a sexual experience as young? Also ensuring better access to economic support would support women to have children later in life. Finally, better access to health care services will give women better access to contraceptives. While 70% of sexually active females said to have used contrceptives, other surveys illustrated inconsistent contraceptive use. In 2001, it was reported that only 3% of women ages 15-49 used condoms.

   ​ Much of the data came from 2001 Nicaragua Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). They received survey data from 13,060 women aged 15–49 in randomly selected households. They used data from 45 minute interviews of 3,142 females aged 15–19 who answered questions about their sexual activity. Data were analyzed with Intercooled STATA 8.0, using the appropriate DHS-assigned survey weighting. They performed the Cox proportional hazard modeling with residence, education, and wealth quintile in a bivariate model. To get a multivariate model, they combined all of these variables. Bivariate testing was used to select the most important variables.

   ​ The paper discusses how there is a need for higher education and economic support. These both have to happen prior to human development. In order for Nicaraguan women to have their first child later in life, they need support first. The question the research is trying to answer is why Nicaragua has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates.

3. Radel, C., Schmook, B., Carte, L., & Mardero, S. (2018). Toward a Political Ecology of Migration: Land, Labor Migration, and Climate Change in Northwestern Nicaragua. World Development, 108, 263–273. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.04.023

   ​ The research conducted by Carte, Mardero, Radel, and Schmook looks into how climate change is affecting labor migration. They are trying to illustrate the unfreedoms of labor as a result of climate change. As climate change is destroying the land, rural peasant families are having to migrate to find jobs and places to live. These already struggling people are being forced to uproot an start over, as a result of the destruction of climate change. The unfreedoms of survivability and lack of employment opportunities are preventing human development in Nicaragua.

   ​ This publishing focuses on the negative impact of climate change. The research focuses on the Northwestern region of Nicaragua. The region over the past 50 years has experienced an increase in temperatures and a decrease in precipitation. For a region that places an emphasis on agriculture, this is detrimental to their survival both economically and physically. Food insecurity is a sustainability issue. It was reported that 40% of families experienced “total scarcity” in October, the month prior to their fall harvest. The people cannot sustain themselves in their current conditions, so they have to migrate to other regions. This is impacting the Nicaraguan people’s ability to have a decent standard of a living. They cannot work because their arms are not able to yield crops. The rest of the country does not have enough job opportunities for all of those from rural communities migrating.

   ​ The data used to come to such conclusions mostly came from face-to-face interview surveys. These surveys were conducted by the research team to learn about labor migration and the reasoning behind it. The recordings from the qualitative surveys and workshops, which were iteratively coded for specific topics, alongside of the quantitative themes to draw conclusions. They used SPSS, a software package that uses machine learning for statistical analysis, to analyze the quantitative data. To illustrate temperature and rainfall change they looked at data from the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies. Climate change was also illustrated by the use of an online analysis tool, World Climate Analysis. The World Climate Analysis tool uses satellite data from the University of Delaware’s Global Climate Research Page’s.

   ​ Climate change is causing a negative ripple effect on the Nicaraguan people and economy. Climate change is a major factor in labor migration for the Northwest region of Nicaragua. People are fleeing their communities because they cannot provide food or financial support for themselves or their families. The research was focused on finding why are there so many families involved in labor migration in Northwest Nicaragua.

4. Pérez, W., Peña, R., Persson, L. Å., & Källestål, C. (2011). Tracking progress towards equitable child survival in a Nicaraguan community: neonatal mortality challenges to meet the MDG 4. BMC public health, 11, 455. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-455

   ​ Universally, deaths of children under the age of five has been decreasing since the 1980’s, but neonatal mortality has not. Meaning the world is getting closer to reaching Millennium Development Goal-4. The goal calls for a two-third reduction of under-five mortality by 2015. While some countries saw great improvements, other countries, such as Nicaragua, have seen little to no improvement. Amartya Sen discusses human development in terms of freedoms and unfreedoms. How can a community or country support human development if the next generation cannot survive? There is an unfreedom of life in Nicaragua. Those who succumb to neonatal mortality do not have the freedom to live.

   ​ Neonatal mortality directly relates to the human development dimension of a long and healthy life. If children are dying within 5 years of birth, they are not living a long or healthy life. Neonatal mortality started to increase in the early 2000’s while child mortality decreased. Even though the decrease in child mortality appears to be good, the rural population had started to see an increase in child mortality. This means that the urban population, or the rich, are seeing a decrease in child mortality. This means the illustration of a lower child mortality rate is skewed by the rich receiving better care. The sustainability goal that wants to be achieved is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. If a population can’t take care of it’s next generation, how can the community develop?

   ​ There is a lot of data on death and health factors. Health information systems place a focus on quantitative data. Most of the data used came from EPI and DHS data. The combination of DHS and EPI data shows both current and predicted conditions. In order to fill the gaps, they use proliferation of model based approaches to estimates. The group linked retrospective reproductive life surveys to a continuous health and demographic surveillance. Statistical models are then used to analyze the data collected from various sources.

   ​ The authors are trying to illustrate the difference between the stabilization of deaths of children under the age of five and the increase of neonatal mortality. Within this discrepancy, there is also a look into how the rural population is more afflicted by such deaths than the urban population. The findings illustrate a need for focus on neonatal mortality. They also claim that progress is reliant on must use an equity approach. The group’s question was is Nicaragua on track to reach the Millennium Development Goal-4 by 2015? They determined that Nicaragua was on track to reach that goal, but found a more pressing issue of neonatal mortality.

5. Rylander C, Odland JØ, Sandanger TM. Climate change and the potential effects on maternal and pregnancy outcomes: an assessment of the most vulnerable–the mother, fetus, and newborn child. Glob Health Action. 2013;6:19538. Published 2013 Mar 11. doi:10.3402/gha.v6i0.19538

   ​ The authors explain how it is recognized that climate change has a negative impact on human health, especially pregnant women and newborns. They illustrate lack of food and safe drinking water, poor sanitation, population migration, changing disease patterns and morbidity, more frequent extreme weather events, and lack of shelter as the repercussions of climate change that are affecting health. The problems in this journal focus on how pregnant women, fetuses, and infants are the most vulnerable to such unfreedoms. Again, a community cannot develop if they cannot raise the next generation. Human development is stunted by the effects of climate change.

   ​ Pregnant women and infants are at risk of not having a long and healthy life. Climate change is causing temperatures to rise which results in various issues. For example, rising temperatures results in diseases to be spread more easily and rapidly. Heat can alone can also cause a lot of issues for pregnant women and children because working in the heat can cause one to experience extreme dehydration. If climate change is not taken care of, then we cannot ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Those left out will be pregnant women, fetuses, and infants. This study focuses on two sustainability issues: climate change and health and survival.

   ​ A lot of the data the researchers used came from WHO’s database. This includes data on dieses, pregnancies, and overall health of people all over the world. They also got data analysis from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The publishing does not discuss how the data is collected and analyzed. The group just was able to draw conclusions from combining various publishings.

   ​ The group concludes that human development cannot occur until climate change is addressed. Moving forward the group wants there to be a focus on pregnant women when talking about climate change and its impact on health. They also believe that there needs to be more access to health care, so women who are negatively impacted by climate change. The group wanted to know how climate change can influence maternal and pregnancy health.

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