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Research Assistant

Contact detail:
Email: g.chakona@ru.ac.za

Qualifications: 
BSc (University of Zimbabwe), BSc (Hons); MSc; PhD (Rhodes University)

Dr Gamuchirai Chakona is a Research Assistant at ELRC where she provides research support for the Amanzi for Food project. The overarching objective of this project is to support skills development for farmers to improve household and community food security through growing of fresh healthy foods. As a Research Assistant at ELRC, Gamuchirai also provides administrative support for ethics reviews in the Faculty of Education.

Dr Chakona’s PhD research evaluated household food security, women’s dietary diversity and nutritional status of young children in rural, peri-urban and urban areas in South Africa. Her research interests are centred around the need to provide better understanding of the effects of food insecurity on human livelihoods, with specific focus on vulnerable groups, particularly women of reproductive age (15-49 years) and young children (≤5 years). These groups face the greatest risk of food and nutrient insecurity, yet the paucity of information hampers the determination and implementation of effective intervention measures. Gamuchirai has experience of engaging and working with women and children in communities in KwaZulu Natal, Free State and the Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The overall long-term objective of her research is to integrate aspects of food and nutrition security in education focusing on social learning and sustainable development.

Food and nutrition security is currently renowned global development priority- a well-nourished, healthy population is essential for successful economic and social development.

Publications

Chakona, G. 2020. Social circumstances and cultural beliefs influence maternal nutrition, breastfeeding and child feeding practices in South Africa. Nutrition Journal, (2020) 19:47,1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-020-00566-4

Chakona, G. & Shackleton, C.M. 2019. Food taboos and cultural beliefs influence food choice and dietary preferences among pregnant women in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Nutrients, 11, 2668. DOI: 10.3390/nu11112668.

Chakona, G. & Shackleton, C.M. 2019. Food insecurity in South Africa: to what extent can social grants and consumption of wild foods eradicate hunger? World Development Perspectives,13:87-94.

Taylor, P.J., Kearney, T., Dalton, D., Chakona, G., Kelly, C. & Barker, N.P. 2019. Biomes, geology and past climate drive speciation of laminate-toothed rates on South African mountains (Murinae: Otomys). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 1-21. Doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz134/5641518

Chakona, G. and Shackleton, C.M., 2018. Household Food Insecurity along an Agro-Ecological Gradient Influences Children’s Nutritional Status in South Africa. Frontiers in Nutrition, 4:72. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2017.00072

Oluwole, D.O., Achadu, O., Asfour, F., Chakona, G., Mason, P., Mataruse, P., McKenna, S. 2018. Postgraduate writing groups as spaces of agency development. South African Journal of Higher Education, 32 (6),1-12

Chakona, G. and Shackleton, C.M., 2017. Voices of the hungry: a qualitative measure of household food access and food insecurity in South Africa. Agriculture and Food Security, 6(1), p.66.

Chakona, G. and Shackleton, C., 2017. Minimum dietary diversity scores for women indicate micronutrient adequacy and food insecurity status in South African towns. Nutrients, 9(8), p.812.

Chakona, G. and Shackleton, C.M., 2017. Local setting influences the quantity of household food waste in mid-sized South African towns. PloS One, 12(12), p.e0189407.

Chakona, G., Swartz, E.R. and Chakona, A. 2017. The status and distribution of a newly identified endemic galaxiid in the eastern Cape Fold Ecoregion of South Africa. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 2017:1-13. DOI: 10.1002/aqc.2850

Chakona, G., Swartz, E.R. and Chakona, A., 2015. Historical abiotic events or human?aided dispersal: inferring the evolutionary history of a newly discovered galaxiid fish. Ecology and evolution, 5(7), pp.1369-1380.