Circular economy, environmental quality and tourism receipts in Europe: A time series data analysis.

The study examines how progress towards a circular economy (CE), patents related to recycling and secondary raw materials as a proxy for innovation, affect tourism receipts. The study uses Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Error Correction Method (ECM) to analyse time series data from EU countries from 2000 to 2020. Our estimates show that there exist long-run and short-run equilibrium relationships. In sum, evidence shows that promoting circular innovative practices, including recycling and using secondary raw materials in tourist destinations, could improve environmental quality and positively impact tourism receipts. The study concludes with policy and practical suggestions for circular economy innovation towards green tourism, destination management, and sustainable tourism.

Whole egg powder makes nutritious diet more affordable for Ethiopia: A cost of the diet and affordability analysis.

Despite sustained nutrition education, consumption of animal source foods (ASFs) has been hindered by their low availability, accessibility and affordability. Drying eggs into powder can reduce transport/storage costs, increase shelf-life and allow easier dosage for use of smaller portions. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of integrating egg powder to the nutrient adequacy and affordability of diets. Using the 'cost of the diet' analysis, we simulated the incorporation of egg powder into households' and children's diet and evaluated its contribution to the nutrient adequacy and affordability of diets. Analysis of the household consumption and expenditure survey (HCES 2016) revealed that only 0.2% of the total consumption expenditure was allocated for eggs, far below the 2.2% and 4.3% required to allow the consumption of one egg a day by the average and the poorest households, respectively. However, the minimum-cost nutritious diet required only 2.5 g of egg powder/person/day to reduce the cost of the optimized diet by 14% (0-24%), allowing an additional 1.2 million households (~4-6 million individuals) afford the optimized diet. The optimized diet for a child 6-23 months of age could be afforded by all households, except by those in the poorest wealth quintile. But, free distribution of egg powder to households in the poorest wealth quintile, if supplemented by effective nutrition education, can allow them to afford the minimum-cost nutritious diet for their 6- to 23-month child. The simple dehydration of egg into egg powder can have a substantial contribution towards increased egg consumption by increasing the affordability of the minimum-cost nutritious diet.

Exploration of Barriers to the Uptake of Nutritional Services Among Adolescent Girls from the Rural Communities of Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a time of tremendous physical growth and mental development, with high nutrient requirements. Ethiopia is among the countries with a high prevalence of nutritional deficiencies among the women of reproductive age group, whilst adolescent girls from rural areas suffered disproportionately. However, there is a dearth of evidence regarding the barriers that hinder adolescent girls to utilize the available nutritional services. PURPOSE: The current study aimed to qualitatively explore the range of barriers for the uptake of nutritional interventions among adolescent girls in rural communities of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. METHODS AND PARTICIPANTS: We employed an explorative qualitative study among purposively selected adolescent girls and school teachers from rural districts of Tigray region. We conducted 11 focused group discussions with adolescent girls, 17 in-depth interviews (seven with teachers, seven with in-school adolescent girls, and three with out-of-school adolescent girls) using a semi-structured guide. Data was audio-taped, transcribed verbatim in local language, translated into English, and imported into ATLAS.ti version 7.5 qualitative data analysis software for analysis. RESULTS: Adolescents perceived that stunting, anemia, and thinness are among the main nutritional problems in their community. Food insecurity, limited nutrition awareness in the community, limited access to a water source, high workload, service provider's little attention for adolescents' nutrition, and food taboo have emerged as barriers for the uptake of adolescent girls' nutritional interventions. Though limited in reach, available nutritional interventions include awareness creation, nutritional supplementation, and disease prevention. CONCLUSION: Food insecurity poses a strong challenge to adolescent girls' nutrition. As access to safe drinking water continues to be a considerable bottleneck for nutritional interventions, a multi-sectoral response to integrate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is required. Bounded by food taboo, high burden of workload among the adolescent girls, women empowerment and nutritional status seem to be the unfinished agenda in resource limited settings such as the rural areas of Tigray region.

Exploring barriers and enablers for scaling up a community-based grain bank intervention for improved infant and young child feeding in Ethiopia: A qualitative process evaluation.

Child malnutrition remains high in Ethiopia, and inadequate complementary feeding is a contributing factor. In this context, a community-based intervention was designed to provide locally made complementary food for children 6-23 months, using a bartering system, in four Ethiopian regions. After a pilot phase, the intervention was scaled up from 8 to 180 localities. We conducted a process evaluation to determine enablers and barriers for the scaling up of this intervention. Eight study sites were selected to perform 52 key informant interviews and 31 focus group discussions with purposely selected informants. For analysis, we used a framework describing six elements of successful scaling up: socio-political context, attributes of the intervention, attributes of the implementers, appropriate delivery strategy, the adopting community, and use of research to inform the scale-up process. A strong political will, alignment of the intervention with national priorities, and integration with the health care system were instrumental in the scaling up. The participatory approach in decision-making reinforced ownership at community level, and training about complementary feeding motivated mothers and women's groups to participate. However, the management of the complex intervention, limited human resources, and lack of incentives for female volunteers proved challenging. In the bartering model, the barter rate was accepted, but the bartering was hindered by unavailability of cereals and limited financial and material resources to contribute, threatening the project's sustainability. Scaling up strategies for nutrition interventions require sufficient time, thorough planning, and assessment of the community's capacity to contribute human, financial, and material resources.