Using evolutionary anthropology to improve women’s health in Ethiopia
Professor Mhairi Gibson, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, has developed a novel approach to addressing public health and social policy issues, resulting in meaningful and sustainable impact in Ethiopia.
How can life history theory be applied to sustainable development challenges?
Her research uses methods and ideas from evolutionary biology to understand reproductive behaviour and child-care practices in rural settings. This includes life history theory, a branch of evolutionary biology that explores variations in the survival, growth, and reproduction of species. Her approach has been applied to two key population-health challenges in Africa:
- Can we make rural development interventions more sustainable?
- Can we limit and eradicate female genital mutilation/cutting?
In order to make rural development interventions sustainable, Professor Gibson’s work has assessed the needs and wellbeing of women, built links between local academics and development practitioners, and engendered expertise among local academics.
Ensuring rural development initiatives assess women’s needs and wellbeing
Professor Gibson first applied her “evolutionary” approach to field research conducted in the Oromia region of South-Central Ethiopia.
Her research found that existing labour-saving development initiatives, combined with an improved water supply, have led to larger family sizes. This in turn has led to constrained household resources, child malnutrition, restricted out-migration, and an increased interest in contraception in a region where local people struggle to access culturally appropriate forms of family planning.
The research ultimately revealed gaps in the protection of women’s and children’s wellbeing within existing regional government development measures.
These findings have influenced revisions to Oromia government programmes and strategies, including the routine assessment of women’s needs in any intervention, particularly their sexual and reproductive health needs. The research has also provided locals with leverage for their demand for improved access to reproductive health services and family planning from the central government.
Building links between Ethiopian academics and development practitioners
Over 2016-2018, Professor Gibson collaborated with Dr Tigist Grieve, the co-founder of UK-based NGO For-Ethiopia, via Grieve’s Knowledge Exchange Secondment to the University of Bristol. The secondment was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council, and contributed to a shift in focus of the NGO’s development work to include short- and long-term impact analysis on areas of reproductive health and education.
Over 2016-2017, Professor Gibson and Dr Tigist Grieve led a workshop series in University Addis Ababa on academic-stakeholder partnerships, which has increased mutual capacity for future evidence-based interventions to be developed locally in Ethiopia.
“The workshops we led with Professor Gibson represent the start of a paradigm shift in the way that Ethiopian academics and development practitioners work together beyond the evaluation-oriented partnership that happens frequently”.
Engendering expertise among African researchers/Ethiopian academics
Academic discourse on population health efforts in Africa is too often dominated by high-income country researchers, rather than by African researchers, who have a far greater understanding of local contexts in which development occurs.
Recognising this, over 2016-2018, Professor Gibson provided advanced methodological training and analytical computer software training (NVivo and MlwiN) to staff and graduate students at Addis Ababa University. The University incorporated this training into their teaching curriculum, created over 43 posts and training programmes for field staff and technicians.
Improving the efficacy of anti-female genital mutilation/cutting campaigns
PhD student Janet Howard (University of Bristol) has been working with Professor Mhairi Gibson to apply her pioneering approach to the issue of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Applying ideas from cultural evolution and behavioural ecology to the study of datasets from five West African countries, their research has identified how and why FGC rates may vary according to local cultural contexts.
It was revealed that in ethnic groups with high FGM/C frequency, women with FGM/C have significantly more surviving offspring than their uncut peers. Whereas in ethnic groups with low FGC frequency, the reverse is true, women without FGM/C have more surviving offspring . That people follow the behaviour of the majority and that this leads to reproductive/survival benefits may explain why the practice remains so persistent in certain areas despite (local and international) campaigning efforts.
Source: 28 Too Many
Source: 28 Too Many
Closing the data gap
Another strand of Professor Gibson’s research has revealed that traditional survey methods and campaigns based exclusively on raising awareness and education may result in hidden FGM/C practice. Instead, efforts should be focused towards improving FGM/C data quality, monitoring and evaluation. In 2019, Professor Gibson presented these findings in a webinar to the UNFPA-UNICEF joint programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, an event which attracted over 40 technical specialists and programme officers in UNICEF/UNFPA offices across 10 countries.
Gibson has subsequently collaborated with two UK non-profits, 28 Too Many and the Orchid Project, seeking advice on their anti-FGM/C campaigns.
“Efforts to stop the practice are being frustrated by lack of accurate data. Dr Mhairi Gibson’s research has provided us with an opportunity to close some of the data gap."
Related publications
- Gibson MA, Gurmu E, Cobo B, Rueda MM, Scott IM (2018) Indirect questioning method reveals hidden support for female genital cutting in South Central Ethiopia. PLoS ONE 13(5): e0193985. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193985
- Howard, J., Gibson, M. Frequency-dependent female genital cutting behaviour confers evolutionary fitness benefits. Nat Ecol Evol 1, 0049 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0049
- Gibson MA, Gurmu E (2012) Rural to Urban Migration Is an Unforeseen Impact of Development Intervention in Ethiopia. PLoS ONE 7(11): e48708. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048708
- Gibson MA, Mace R (2006) An Energy-Saving Development Initiative Increases Birth Rate and Childhood Malnutrition in Rural Ethiopia. PLoS Med 3(4): e87.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030087
Prof Mhairi Gibson is a Professor of Anthropology in the School of Arts, Faculty of Arts.
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