Access to sanitation
The percentage of the population which has access and are using improved
sanitation facilities.
Agribusiness
The business sector encompassing farming and farming-related commercial activities.
It involves all the steps required to send an agricultural good to market, namely
production, processing, and distribution.
Blue water
Fresh surface and groundwater, in other words, the water in freshwater lakes, rivers
and aquifers.
Contagious diffusion
Infectious diseases are a prime example. A disease follows no rules, nor does it
recognise borders as it spreads. A forest fire is another example that fits this
category. A kind of expansion diffusion.
Cultural trait
A single identifiable material or non-material element within a culture.
Daily per capita calorie supply
The total calorie supply available for human consumption divided by the total number
of actual population utilizing it.
Diffusion
The spread of a phenomenon, such as an idea, a technological innovation, or a
disease, over space and time.
Diffusion of innovations
The leading theory in agricultural extension post World War II until the 1970s. It is still
used today in agricultural extension, particularly when extension is concerned with an
adoption of a particular technology. It is proposed that five main elements influence
the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels,
time, and a social system. The categories of adopters are innovators, early adopters,
early majority, late majority, and laggards.
Disease burden
The impact of a health problem on a given population, and can be measured using a
variety of indicators such as mortality, morbidity or financial cost. This allows the
burden of disease to be compared between different areas, for example regions,
towns or electoral wards.
Disease continuum
The continuum from diseases of poverty to diseases of affluence.
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Diseases of affluence
Those so-called chronic "degenerative" diseases whose incidence has been rising
conspicuously in industrialized societies as incomes have risen, as living standards
have gone up and even as health indices have improved. Examples of diseases of
affluence include mostly chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and other
physical health conditions for which personal lifestyles and societal conditions
associated with economic development are believed to be an important risk factor —
such as type 2 diabetes, asthma, coronary heart disease etc.
Diseases of poverty
Diseases that are more prevalent in low-income populations. They include infectious
diseases, as well as diseases related to malnutrition and poor health behaviour. HIV,
Malaria and Tuberculosis (TB) also known as “the big three― have been
acknowledged as infectious diseases that disproportionately affect developing
countries.
Energy efficiency ratio
A property of agricultural systems. It is defined as the ratio of energy out to energy in.
The energy out is the energy that the system outputs in the food we eat. The energy
in is the energy that the system consumes in order to produce the food. Different
types of agriculture systems vary widely in energy efficiency, a fact that has important
implications.
Epidemic
An unexpected increase in the number of disease cases in a specific geographical
area.
Epidemiological
The study (scientific, systematic, and data-driven) of the distribution (frequency,
pattern) and determinants (causes, risk factors) of health-related states and events
(not just diseases) in specified populations (neighborhood, school, city, state, country,
global).
Expansion diffusion
When innovations spread to new places while staying strong in their original locations.
Famine
It can be declared only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger
are met. They are: at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food
shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent;
and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons.
Food acquisition
Refers to the process of obtaining food, either through growing it, raising it, hunting it,
or purchasing it from a market. It involves a combination of activities, including
cultivation, harvesting, storage, transportation, and processing of food to make it safe
and usable for consumption.
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Food consumption
The amount and dietary composition of food consumed by an individual or population.
Food security index
The index is based on a dynamic benchmarking model constructed from 68
qualitative and quantitative drivers of food security including Political stability risk,
Sufficiency of supply, Proportion of population under the global poverty line and Food
consumption as a share of household expenditure.
Gender equality
When people of all genders have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities.
Gender roles
The role or behaviour considered appropriate to a particular gender as determined by
prevailing cultural norms.
Global Hunger Index
A tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional,
and national levels, reflecting multiple dimensions of hunger over time. Each
country’s GHI score is calculated based on a formula that combines four
indicators that together capture the multidimensional nature of hunger:
Undernourishment, Child stunting, Child wasting and Child mortality.
Green water
The precipitation on land that does not run off or recharge the groundwater but is
stored in the soil or temporarily stays on top of the soil or vegetation.
Grey water
Refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from
streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater from
toilets. Sources of greywater include sinks, showers, baths, washing machines or
dishwashers.
Healthy life expectancy (HALE) at birth
Average number of years that a person can expect to live in "full health" by taking into
account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.
Hierarchical diffusion
Follows a chain of command, something you see in business, government, and the
military. The CEO of a company or the leader of a government body generally knows
information before it is disseminated among a wider employee base or the general
public. Fads and trends that start with one community before spreading to the wider
public can also be hierarchical. A kind of expansion diffusion.
Infant mortality rate
The number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a
given year.
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Life expectancy at birth
Indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of
mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.
Malnutrition
Refers to deficiencies or excesses in nutrient intake, imbalance of essential nutrients
or impaired nutrient utilization. The double burden of malnutrition consists of both
undernutrition and overweight and obesity, as well as diet-related noncommunicable
diseases. Undernutrition manifests in four broad forms: wasting, stunting,
underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies.
Maternal mortality ratio
The number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or
within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births.
Nutrition transition
A model used to describe the shifts in diets, physical activity and causes of disease
that accompany changes in economic development, lifestyle, urbanisation, and
demography. It most commonly is used to refer to the change from traditional diets
towards “Western― diets rich in fats, sugars, meat and highly processed foods
and low in fibre, and accompanied by a rise in sedentary lifestyles.
Pandemic
An epidemic occurring worldwide or over a very wide area, crossing international
boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people.
Prevention
Action taken to decrease the chance of getting a disease or condition.
Processes
Processes are human or physical mechanisms of change, such as migration or
weathering. They operate on varying timescales. Linear systems, circular systems,
and complex systems are all outcomes of the way in which processes operate and
interact.
Ratio between doctors/physicians and people
Medical doctors per 10000
Relocation diffusion
Occurs when people move from their original location to another and bring their
innovations (or disease) with them.
Social marginalisation
Occurs when a person or groups of people are less able to do things or access basic
services or opportunities.
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Stunting
Defined as low height-for-age. It is the result of chronic or recurrent undernutrition,
usually associated with poverty, poor maternal health and nutrition, frequent illness
and/or inappropriate feeding and care in early life. Stunting prevents children from
reaching their physical and cognitive potential.
Systems approach
Based on the generalization that everything is interrelated and inter­dependent.
Urbanization
The process by which an increasing percentage of a country’s population comes
to live in towns and cities. It may involve both rural–urban migration and natural
increase.
Vector-borne diseases
Vector-borne diseases are human illnesses caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria
that are transmitted by vectors. Vectors are living organisms that can transmit
infectious pathogens between humans, or from animals to humans. Many of these
vectors are bloodsucking insects, which ingest disease-producing microorganisms
during a blood meal from an infected host (human or animal) and later transmit it into
a new host, after the pathogen has replicated.
Wasting
Defined as low weight-for-height. It often indicates recent and severe weight loss,
although it can also persist for a long time. It usually occurs when a person has not
had food of adequate quality and quantity and/or they have had frequent or prolonged
illnesses. Wasting in children is associated with a higher risk of death if not treated
properly.
Water footprint
The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total
volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by the
individual or community or produced by the business.
Water-borne diseases
Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to transmission of diseases such
as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio. Absent, inadequate,
or inappropriately managed water and sanitation services expose individuals to
preventable health risks.
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