[afro-nets] Public Health Advocacy in Disaster Times

[Tirivanhu Juru <tjuru4@yahoo.co.uk>]

Public Health Advocacy in Disaster Times: A Reference to Food 
Famine in Zimbabwe 2000-2004
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By Tirivanhu Juru
 
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of 
MA in Public Health by examination and dissertation, Sheffield 
Hallam University 2004
 
Download as MS WORD document (74 pp. 272 kB) at:
http://afronets.org/pubview.php/116/
 
The current food famine in Zimbabwe can be classified as one of 
the disasters of our time and its impact on the vulnerable vic-
tims make it a public health concern. In this manner advocacy is 
a valuable tool in attempting to reverse this tragedy as well as 
charting up a long term solution.
 
The research thesis identifies this Zimbabwean food insecurity 
and subsequent starvation as a social phenomenon with its deep 
rooted linkages in the political/ policy, and economic planning 
causes. This sharply departs from the official explanations of 
this disaster being an unavoidable natural phenomenon that has 
brought untold public health crisis on the entire nation. The 
research goes on to identify the way forward within the much em-
phasised multi-sectoral approach of community participation.