Pius Krütli

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Krütli

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Pius

ORCID

0000-0001-5807-1811

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Publications1 - 10 of 31

Circular bioeconomy in African food systems: What is the status quo? Insights from Rwanda, DRC, and Ethiopia
Sekabira, Haruna; Nijman, Elke; Späth, Leonhard; et al. (2022)
PLoS ONE
Increasing global food insecurity amidst a growing population and diminishing production resources renders the currently dominant linear production model insufficient to combat such challenges. Hence, a circular bioeconomy (CBE) model that ensures more conservative use of resources has become essential. Specifically, a CBE model that focuses on recycling and reusing organic waste is essential to close nutrient loops and establish more resilient rural-urban nexus food systems. However, the CBE status quo in many African food systems is not established. Moreover, scientific evidence on CBE in Africa is almost inexistent, thus limiting policy guidance to achieving circular food systems. Using a sample of about 2,100 farmers and consumers from key food value chains (cassava in Rwanda, coffee in DRC, and bananas in Ethiopia), we explored existing CBE practices; awareness, knowledge, and support for CBE practices; consumers’ opinions on eating foods grown on processed organic waste (CBE fertilizers), and determinants of such opinions. We analysed data in Stata, first descriptively, and then econometrically using the ordered logistic regression, whose proportional odds assumption was violated, thus resorting to the generalized ordered logistic regression. Results show that communities practice aspects of CBE, mainly composting, and are broadly aware, knowledgeable, supportive of CBE practices, and would broadly accept eating foods grown CBE fertilizers. Households with heads that used mobile phones, or whose heads were older, or married, or had a better education and agricultural incomes were more likely to strongly agree that they were knowledgeable and supportive of CBE practices and would eat CBE foods (foods grown on processed organic waste). However, the reverse was true for households that were severely food insecure or lived farther from towns. Rwandan and Ethiopian households compared to DRC were less likely to eat CB foods. Policies to stimulate CBE investments in all three countries were largely absent, and quality scientific evidence to guide their development and implementation is currently insufficient.
“The bad job brings the good one”: photovoice study with female and male waste workers in Rwanda
Surchat, Mélanie; Irakoze, Micline; Kantengwa, Speciose; et al. (2024)
Local Environment
Within the circular economy framework in Africa, sustainable waste management can contribute to improving the environment and creating green jobs. However, recycling activities are mostly carried out by informal workers, who are often forgotten in discussions about the circular economy. To ensure the development of a socially just circular economy, their voices must be heard and their needs accounted for. This study took place in Rwanda, a circular economy leader in Africa, and explored the experiences of workers engaged in biowaste recycling, with a particular focus on the distinctions between the experiences of female and male workers. We used photovoice as a methodology, allowing waste workers to visually report on the benefits and drawbacks of being involved in biowaste recycling. Seventeen waste recyclers took pictures representing different working experiences, which was followed by individual in-depth interviews to elicit the meaning behind each picture. Data analysis consisted of a reflexive thematic content analysis of interview transcripts and a participatory data analysis with the workers. The results show that the workers valued their jobs for their social relations at work, being responsible for a task, being productive, and generating savings. Workers negatively highlighted the health risks associated with waste sorting, difficult working conditions, and low salaries. We found gendered differences in workers' marital status and access to paid work opportunities. Although working in waste recycling encompasses occupational risks, this photovoice study highlights that access to work improves workers' relative well-being and that this type of circular economy can help create meaningful jobs.
Jobs in the circular bioeconomy under scrutiny: The challenging reality of compost production in Rwanda
Surchat, Mélanie; Irakoze, M.; Hansmann, Ralph; et al. (2023)
World Development Sustainability
Today, most African countries have dysfunctional municipal waste management system, negatively impacting the environment and human health. However, as most of this waste is recyclable, informal actors are making their income out of the collection/sorting of waste. Accounting for the risks involved in waste manipulation, it is important to ensure decent working conditions for those recycling it. This study focuses on biowaste recycling in Rwanda, a Circular Economy leader in Africa, with the purpose of: (i) characterizing the working conditions of waste recyclers along the definition of ‘decent work’ and (ii) assessing workers’ satisfaction and its determinants. We surveyed 63 workers employed in three compost production and three biowaste processing companies. Our results show that the work can be considered relatively decent compared to national references, except for insufficient social protections and occupational safety. Workers reported being rather satisfied with their jobs, although our analyses of covariance showed that workers employed in composting were significantly less satisfied than the others. These findings highlight the importance of household-level waste separation for improving not only worker safety, but also nutrient recovery. Further research should investigate how to push forward waste sorting at the household level and improve worker safety (SDG 8) without negatively affecting the women currently employed in waste sorting at the company level (SDG 5).
Circular bioeconomy practices and their associations with household food security in four RUNRES African city regions
Sekabira, Haruna; Feleke, Shiferaw; Manyong, Victor; et al. (2024)
PLOS Sustainability and Transformation
Achieving the United Nation’s 2030 agenda which aims, among other goals, to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, requires a sustainable resource use model deployed at scale across global food systems. A circular bioeconomy (CBE) model of resource use has been proposed to reuse of organic waste in agricultural production to enhance food security. However, despite several initiatives recently introduced towards establishing a CBE in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), minimal scientific efforts have been dedicated to understanding the association of CBE practices and food security. This study use data from 777 smallholder farm households from DRC, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Africa, to examine associations between three CBE practices (use of organic waste as compost, as livestock feed, and sorting waste) and household food security. Using different regression and propensity score matching models (PSM). Result reveal that using CBE practices more likely adds a 0.203 score of food insecurity access prevalence (HFIAP), 1.283 food insecurity access scale (HFIAS-score) and 0.277 for household dietary diversity score (HDDS) among households using CBE practiced groups. Associations regarding using organic waste as compost are generally positive but insignificant, while those with sorting waste are significantly and consistently negative. Thus, CBE innovations aiming to enhance household food security could prioritize organic waste valorization into livestock feed consider socio economic aspects such as access to land, access to market, education level, using mobile phone, income and city regions where interventions took place. However, prior sorting of waste is necessary to enable effective waste valorization.
Positive aspects of high-level waste disposal: what do German citizens think?
Seidl, Roman; Drögemüller, Cord; Krütli, Pius; et al. (2025)
Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences
The fact that nuclear waste is a problem waiting to be solved is perceived to be a matter of common sense worldwide. Nonetheless, the negative aspects of nuclear waste disposal often dominate public debate. This is also true in the German case of a currently planned deep geological repository (DGR) for high-level nuclear waste (HLW). In studies about risk and benefit perception one may wonder whether the positive aspects proposed by the literature are really part of people's mental models. To date, any positive aspects that the German public associates with a DGR are unknown. In this bottom-up study, we explored the German public's positive perceptions of a DGR based on a sample of N = 2,490 survey respondents in 2022. Our most compelling finding was that while some citizens viewed the resolution of the nuclear waste problem as a key benefit of a DGR, the majority either provided no positive feedback or explicitly stated that there were no benefits. Although workplaces and financial incentives are benefits recognized in existing literature, these were not prominent in our sample. Moreover, there was a clear association between the perceptions of risks and mentioned benefits: individuals who perceived high risks identified fewer positive aspects, whereas those with low-risk perception proposed more benefits. Interestingly, some respondents demonstrated ambivalence, recognizing both moderate risks and positive aspects of a DGR. Our findings indicate many people's tendency to focus on the risks associated with a DGR, overshadowing its potential benefits - a result aligning with the availability heuristic, where risks are more salient in public debate about nuclear waste. This suggests that in discussions typically framed around risks, mentioning benefits might seem inappropriate. We propose that discussing the tradeoffs between a DGR and the status quo, particularly surface storage, could broaden the conversation. Emphasizing both positive and negative aspects might shift the focus from solely on DGR risks to a more balanced view. Despite the majority of the respondents' support for DGR rather than continued surface storage, they struggled to articulate positive aspects of the solution. These inconsistencies in mental models can be expected to a certain extent, highlighting the complex nature of public risk perception and benefit recognition.
Correction to: Smallholder farmer resilience to extreme weather events in a global food value chain
Thompson, William J.; Varma, Varun; Joerin, Jonas; et al. (2024)
Climatic Change
The original article has been corrected. The Funding information section was missing from this article and should have read'UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), UKRI Food System Resilience Initiative grant. Funder ID https://doi.org/10.13039/100014013'.
Siting of nuclear waste repositories in Switzerland and Sweden
Schori, Salome; Krütli, Pius; Stauffacher, Michael; et al. (2009)
Providing laypeople with results from dynamic infectious disease modelling studies affects their allocation preference for scarce medical resources – a factorial experiment
Rübsamen, Nicole; Garcia Voges, Benno; Castell, Stefanie; et al. (2022)
BMC Public Health
Background Allocation of scarce medical resources can be based on different principles. It has not yet been investigated which allocation schemes are preferred by medical laypeople in a particular situation of medical scarcity like an emerging infectious disease and how the choices are affected by providing information about expected population-level effects of the allocation scheme based on modelling studies. We investigated the potential benefit of strategic communication of infectious disease modelling results. Methods In a two-way factorial experiment (n = 878 participants), we investigated if prognosis of the disease or information about expected effects on mortality at population-level (based on dynamic infectious disease modelling studies) influenced the choice of preferred allocation schemes for prevention and treatment of an unspecified sexually transmitted infection. A qualitative analysis of the reasons for choosing specific allocation schemes supplements our results. Results Presence of the factor “information about the population-level effects of the allocation scheme” substantially increased the probability of choosing a resource allocation system that minimized overall harm among the population, while prognosis did not affect allocation choices. The main reasons for choosing an allocation scheme differed among schemes, but did not differ among those who received additional model-based information on expected population-level effects and those who did not. Conclusions Providing information on the expected population-level effects from dynamic infectious disease modelling studies resulted in a substantially different choice of allocation schemes. This finding supports the importance of incorporating model-based information in decision-making processes and communication strategies.
Determinants and success of engagement in circular bioeconomy practices in African food systems
Sekabira, Haruna; Simbeko, Guy; Feleke, Shiferaw; et al. (2023)
Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy
Ending hunger and ensuring sustainable food production and consumption patterns globally, as outlined in the United Nations 2030 agenda of sustainable development goals (SDGs), cannot be accomplished through a linear resource use model that has proven to be non-restorative and unsustainable. Therefore, a more sustainable model of resource use - the circular bioeconomy (CB) - has been proposed as an alternative to achieve circular, resilient, and sustainable food systems. This approach can help achieve strategic SDGs reliably. However, there is currently insufficient evidence regarding the factors that contribute successfully to the likelihood of engagement in CB practices, particularly in smallholder households in vulnerable global regions such as Africa. To address the breach, this study evaluated three pairs of CB practices, and multivariate probit regressions were applied to identify the factors that influence smallholders' engagement in CB practices. The study aimed to predict the probabilities of engagement among smallholders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Rwanda, and South Africa. The results showed that sorting organic from inorganic waste and using organic waste as compost had a 31 % likelihood of contributing to successful engagement in CB practices while sorting waste and using organic waste as livestock feed contributed to such success by 17 %. Using organic waste as compost and livestock, feed had the lowest success rate of 11 %. Thus, CB innovations that promote combinations of CB practices among smallholders, particularly those that involve sorting waste and using organic waste as compost, have a higher chance of succeeding in achieving circular food systems.
Putting people back at the center of livelihood vulnerability analysis
Nef, Danny Philipp; Nef, Susanne; Krütli, Pius (2023)
SN Social Sciences
The sustainable livelihoods framework is an analytical tool that allows livelihoods to be conceptualized in a holistic manner. This understanding is an important prerequisite to addressing potential vulnerabilities in people’s livelihoods. However, the framework places relatively little emphasis on people and their agency, although this aspect is central to vulnerability analysis. For example, factors hindering or enabling people’s capabilities to convert potentially available assets into desired livelihood outcomes are not explicitly disclosed in the framework. Instead, they are seen as part of the assets themselves or of site-specific processes and institutions. Accordingly, the framework is of limited use to analyze to what extent a person or group is capable of accessing a particular resource or converting them into a livelihood strategy and determining how power and power relations, as well as locally institutionalized practices and relationships, influence vulnerability. Yet, such analytical why-questions are central to the alignment of interventions that address vulnerability with people’s needs and local realities. Otherwise, there is a risk of remaining at a purely descriptive level. We propose an extension and partial redesign of the framework to better account for such dynamics and to better reflect the complex realities of peoples’ livelihoods. In particular, we propose the “personal realization capability” as a complementary component for analyzing the capability of individuals or households to convert assets into livelihood outcomes. The new component allows for a more person-centered analysis that focuses on people, their social living conditions, and the social structure surrounding them.

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Pius Krütli

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