Promoting resilient livelihoods through adaptive social protection: lessons from 124 programmes in South Asia

Adaptive Social Protection refers to efforts to integrate social protection (SP), disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA). The need to integrate these three domains is now increasingly recognized by practitioners and academics. Relying on 124 agricultural programmes implemented in 5 countries in Asia, this paper considers how these elements are being brought together, and explores the potential gains of these linkages. The analysis shows that full integration of SP, DRR and CCA interventions is still relatively limited but that when it occurs, integration helps to shift the time horizon beyond short-term interventions aimed at supporting peoples’ coping strategies and/or graduation objectives, toward longer-term interventions that can assist in promoting transformation towards climate and disaster resilient livelihood options.

Can REDD+ reconcile local priorities and needs with global mitigation benefits? lessons from Angai Forest, Tanzania

The scope of the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) mechanism has broadened REDD+ to accommodate different country interests such as natural forests, protected areas, as well as forests under community-based management. In Tanzania the REDD+ mechanism is still under development and pilot projects are at an early stage. In this paper, we seek to understand how local priorities and needs could be met in REDD+ implementation and how these expectations match with global mitigation benefits. We examine the local priorities and needs in the use of land and forest resources in the Angai Villages Land Forest Reserve (AVLFR) in the Liwale District of Lindi Region in Tanzania. Primary data was collected in two villages, Mihumo and Lilombe, using semistructured key informant interviews and participatory rural appraisal methods. In addition, the key informant interviews were conducted with other village, district, and national level actors, as well as international donors. Findings show that in the two communities REDD+ is seen as something new and is generating new expectations among communities. However, the Angai villagers highlight three key priorities that have yet to be integrated into the design of REDD+: water scarcity, rural development, and food security. At the local level improved forest governance and sustainable management of forest resources have been identified as one way to achieve livelihood diversification. Although the national goals of REDD+ include poverty reduction, these goals are not necessarily conducive to the goals of these communities. There exist both structural and cultural limits to the ability of the Angai villages to implement these goals and to improve forestry governance. Given the vulnerability to current and future climate variability and change it will be important to consider how the AVLFR will be managed and for whose benefit?

‘Everyone now is concentrating on the mining’: drivers and implications of rural economic transition in the Eastern Region of Ghana

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is replacing smallholder farming as the principal income source in parts of rural Ghana. Structural adjustment policies have removed support for the country’s smallholders, devalued their produce substantially and stiffened competition with large-scale counterparts. Over one million people nationwide are now engaged in ASM. Findings from qualitative research in Ghana’s Eastern Region are drawn upon to improve understanding of the factors driving this pattern of rural livelihood diversification. The ASM sector and farming are shown to be complementary, contrary to common depictions in policy and academic literature.

Negotiating social identities: the influence of gender, age and ethnicity on young people’s ‘Street Careers’ in Tanzania

This paper explores the diverse ways that children and young people negotiate their social identities and construct their life course trajectories on the street, based on ethnographic research with street children in Tanzania. Drawing on the concept of a ‘street career’, I show how differences of age, gender and ethnicity intersect with the time spent on the street, to influence young people’s livelihood strategies, use of public space, access to services, and adherence to cultural rites of passage. Using the notion of ‘gender performativity’, I analyse how young people actively reconfigure gender norms and the concept of ‘the family’ on the street.

Perceptions of informal safety nets: a case study from a South African informal settlement

The relevance and importance of informal safety nets that buffer poor households from livelihood hardships have been given little attention in South Africa’s development programmes to date. This article contributes to the understanding of informal safety nets by investigating local perceptions in a South African informal settlement. The main findings of the study are that families perform an important safety net function, but that these sources of assistance can be susceptible to social isolation. Immediate neighbours and friends also play an important safety net role, but these reciprocal-based sources of assistance may be difficult to secure. Community-wide threats can have a severe impact on people’s ability to engage in safety net transfers. Many of these difficulties stem from South Africa’s structural unemployment crisis. This factor is the greatest danger to the future of the informal safety net system in the informal settlement.

"The ladder that sends us to wealth" : artisanal mining and poverty reduction in Tanzania

This article explores the contribution that artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) makes to poverty reduction in Tanzania, based on data on gold and diamond mining in Mwanza Region. The evidence suggests that people working in mining or related services are less likely to be in poverty than those with other occupations. However, the picture is complex; while mining income can help reduce poverty and provide a buffer from livelihood shocks, peoples inability to obtain a formal mineral claim, or to effectively exploit their claims, contributes to insecurity. This is reinforced by a context in which ASM is peripheral to large-scale mining interests, is only gradually being addressed within national poverty reduction policies, and is segregated from district-level planning.

The researcher-farmer interface in the rice-wheat system: moving from agricultural productivity to livelihoods

This chapter explores some of the implications of adopting a research approach that focuses on people and their livelihoods in the rice-wheat system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains. We draw on information from a study undertaken by the authors in Bangladesh and then consider the transferability of our findings to other situations. We conclude that if our research is to bridge the researcher-farmer interface, ongoing technical research must be supported by research that explores how institutional, policy, and communication strategies determine livelihood outcomes. The challenge that now faces researchers is to move beyond their involvement in participatory research to understand how to facilitate a process in which they provide information and products for others to test. Building capacity at various levels for openness in sharing information and products–seeing research as a public good for all–seems to be a prerequisite for more effective dissemination of the available information and technologies.

The role of incentives for sustainable implementation of marine protected areas: an example from Tanzania

Although Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an increasingly popular policy tool for protecting marine stocks and biodiversity, they pose high costs for small-scale fisherfolk in poor countries. With Tanzania’s Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park as an example, we develop a spatial economic decision-modelling framework as a lens to examine fishers’ reactions to incentives created by an MPA. We argue that MPAs in poor countries can only contribute to sustainability if management induces changes in incentives to fish through a combination of enforcement (‘sticks’) and livelihood projects (‘carrots’). We emphasise practical implementation issues and implications for fostering marine ecosystem sustainability.

Participatory research approaches in the development of improved management practices in indigenous chickens production systems with smallholder farmers in Kenya

This thesis is concerned with development of improved management practices in indigenous chicken production systems in a research process that includes participatory approaches with smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in Kenya. The research process involved a wide range of activities that included on-station experiments, field surveys, stakeholder consultations in workshops, seminars and visits, and on-farm farmer participatory research to evaluate the effect of some improved management interventions on production performance of indigenous chickens. The participatory research was greatly informed from collective experiences and lessons of the previous activities. The on-station studies focused on hatching, growth and nutritional characteristics of the indigenous chickens. Four research publications from these studies are included in this thesis. Quantitative statistical analyses were applied and they involved use of growth models estimated with non-linear regressions for the growth characteristics, chi-square determinations to investigate differences among different reciprocal crosses of indigenous chickens and general linear models and covariance determination for the nutrition study. The on-station studies brought greater understanding of performance and production characteristics of indigenous chickens and the influence of management practices on these characteristics. The field surveys and stakeholder consultations helped in understanding the overarching issues affecting the productivity of the indigenous chickens systems and their place in the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. These activities created strong networking opportunities with stakeholders from a wide spectrum. The on-farm farmer participatory research involved selection of 200 farmers in five regions followed by training and introduction of interventions on improved management practices which included housing, vaccination, deworming and feed supplementation. Implementation and monitoring was mainly done by individual farmers continuously for close to one and half years. Six quarterly visits to the farms were made by the research team to monitor and provide support for on-going project activities. The data collected has been analysed for 5 consecutive 3-monthly periods. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyse the data collected involving treatment applications, production characteristics and flock demography characteristics. Out of the 200 farmers initially selected, 173 had records on treatment applications and flock demography characteristics while 127 farmers had records on production characteristics. The demographic analysis with a dissimilarity index of flock size produced 7 distinct farm groups from among the 173 farms. Two of these farm groups were represented in similar numbers in each of the five regions. The research process also involved a number of dissemination and communication strategies that have brought the process and project outcomes into the domain of accessibility by wider readership locally and globally. These include workshops, seminars, field visits and consultations, local and international conferences, electronic conferencing, publications and personal communication via emailing and conventional posting. A number of research and development proposals were also developed based on the knowledge and experiences gained from the research process. The thesis captures the research process activities and outcomes in 8 chapters which include in ascending order – introduction, theoretical concepts underpinning FPR, research methodology and process, on-station research output, FPR descriptive statistical analysis, FPR inferential statistical analysis on production characteristics, FPR demographic analysis and conclusions. Various research approaches both quantitative and qualitative have been applied in the research process indicating the possibilities and importance of combining both systems for greater understanding of issues being studied. In our case, participatory studies of the improved management of indigenous chickens indicates their potential importance as livelihood assets for poor people.

Characterising loss and damage from climate change

Policy-makers are creating mechanisms to help developing countries cope with loss and damage from climate change, but the negotiations are largely neglecting scientific questions about what the impacts of climate change actually are. Mitigation efforts have failed to prevent the continued increase of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Adaptation is now unlikely to be sufficient to prevent negative impacts from current and future climate change1. In this context, vulnerable nations argue that existing frameworks to promote mitigation and adaptation are inadequate, and have called for a third international mechanism to deal with residual climate change impacts, or “loss and damage”2. In 2013, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) responded to these calls and established the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) to address loss and damage from the impacts of climate change in developing countries3. An interim Executive Committee of party representatives has been set up, and is currently drafting a two-year workplan comprising meetings, reports, and expert groups; and aiming to enhance knowledge and understanding of loss and damage, strengthen dialogue among stakeholders, and promote enhanced action and support. Issues identified as priorities for the WIM thus far include: how to deal with non-economic losses, such as loss of life, livelihood, and cultural heritage; and linkages between loss and damage and patterns of migration and displacement2. In all this, one fundamental issue still demands our attention: which losses and damages are relevant to the WIM? What counts as loss and damage from climate change?

Insiders, outsiders, and the role of local enforcement in forest management: an example from Tanzania

In low-income countries, both nearby local villagers, “insiders”, and non-locals, “outsiders”, extract products from protected forests even though their actions are illegal. Forest managers typically combine enforcement and livelihood projects offered to nearby communities to reduce this illegal activity, but with limited budgets cannot deter all extraction. We develop a game theoretic model of a forest manager's decision interacting with the extraction decisions of insiders and outsiders. Our analysis suggests that, depending on the relative ecological damage caused by each group, budget-constrained forest managers may reduce total forest degradation by legalizing “insider” extraction in return for local villagers' involvement in enforcement activities against outsiders.

No asylum for “Infiltrators”: the legal predicament of Eritrean and Sudanese nationals in Israel

This article explores the precarious status of Eritrean and Sudanese nationals in Israel. Having crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border without authorisation and not through an official border crossing, Israeli law defines such individuals as ‘infiltrators’, a charged term which dates back to border-crossings into Israel by Palestinian Fedayeen in the 1950s. Eritreans and Sudanese nationals constitute over 90 percent of ‘infiltrators’ in Israel. Their livelihood is curtailed through hostility, sanctions, and detention, while (at the time of writing) Israel refrains from deporting them to their respective countries of origin, recognising that such forced removal could expose them to risks to their lives and/or freedom. Israel was the 10th state to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention, and has acceded to its 1967 Protocol which removed the 1951 Convention’s temporal and geographic restrictions, yet it has not incorporated these treaties into its domestic law not has it enacted primary legislation that sets eligibility criteria for ‘refugee’ status and regulates the treatment of asylum-seekers. Israeli law also fails to accord subsidiary protection status to persons that the state considers to be non-removable, whether or not they satisfy the definition of a ‘refugee’ under the 1951 Convention. Absent legal recognition of ‘refugee’, ‘asylum-seeker’, and ‘beneficiary of subsidiary protection’ statuses, Eritreans and Sudanese nationals are left in legal limbo for an indefinite period qua irregular non-removable persons. This article takes stock of their legal predicament.

The Economic Effects of Ski Resorts on Communities in the State of Maine

Skiing and snowboarding is a fairly expensive activity for participant and one in which the industry as a whole makes handsome profits. In the 2005/06 season, resorts in the Northeast reported an average gross revenue of $18.5 million. (NSAA) With the current weather phenomenon of El Nino, however, resorts in New England especially, have been suffering economically. The gross revenue in New England in the ’05/’06 season was down 4% from the previous year, likely due to the fact the total snowfall declined by 16%. (NSAA) Much of this loss in revenue came during the Christmas to New Years vacation period. In the 2007 season, most mountains were less than half-opened during this peak week and the number of skiers and riders was especially low. With such a large decrease in profits, it is likely that many people will soon be affected (if they have not already been), including local employees. This project, therefore, seeks to analyze the impact that the resorts have on the local economies in order to determine the potential problems the changing snowfall patterns could have on locals’ well-being. It is hypothesized that there will be a strong correlation between the proximity of a community to a resort and the relative economic prosperity of that community; meaning that the ski industry is a pivotal part of their income and livelihood.

Vivendo do mar: tradição, memória e mudança na vida pesqueira de Pitangui-RN

This research focuses on the fishery activity, aligned to knowledge of past generations, and the transformation to those who depend on this activity for their livelihood, at the seashore community of Pitangui in Extremoz municipality, which lies 40 km away from Natal, seat of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The intense modernization which has taking place during the last few years may be considered the result of a number of economic, social and cultural factors, as the introduction of new fishery technology. On the other hand, the present study seeks to show how this changing process happened, and to what extent those affected understand and evaluate this transformation. The methodology to carry out the ethnographic work was mainly adopted by qualitative methods and techniques - by participant observation, oral history, photography and the audiovisual records besides reference to data extracted under quantitative methods, as an important instrument of analyses. This induces a conclusion that the transformation of the community is a consequence of the globalized market, though still tied up to specific local relations. The emerging results are: the use of new fishery technology, and new ways of orientation and navigation; the opening to new jobs and occupational activity, the re-order of space s appropriation; changing sociability, larger access to consumer goods, besides bringing on some new conflicts land appropriation and the fishery and the protection of the environment. All this comprehended as a result of the movement of the local relations participating in the global spaces

A recepção da criança com deficiência intelectual ao texto literário na educação infantil

The focus of this thesis is children's reception to literary texts starting from literary livelihood in an inclusive literary context, looking for the possible evidences that are present in the construction as reader/hearing of literature. Based on a study case, we search the ways of participation of a child (girl) with intellectual deficiency in situations of offering and reception of literary texts, looking for the understanding and explication of some aspects of her processing and the building up of an initial reader. The data were taken starting from observations in moments of reading and story-telling in the period from November to December/2008 and May to June/2009 in a public school of children education, in Natal- Brazil, in which there was a registered student showing intellectual deficiency associated to Down syndrome. As research tools we used: field diary, interview scripts and video recordings. The analyses were based on research from Amarilha (2001, 2006a, 2006b), Bettelheim (2007), Coelho (2008), Iser (1996), Jauss (1979, 1994), Luria (1990a, 1990b), Vygotsky (1991, 1993), Wallon (2007, 2008) amongst others. The research showed that although expressing little verbalization and limited levels of attention, body attitudes, movements and talks of the child under investigation, denounced engagement and rendition to the sonority of the texts shared. These data gives us traces that, under a mediating action, the child with intellectual limitation can turn into a reader/hearing subject of literature, developing a sensitive and a selective attitude towards the literary text. Amongst other aspects, we identified that (1) a conception of deficiency present through the school that recognizes his/her potential of developing and learning (2) the situation of sharing, that favours a relation with the texts through the other, and (3) the relevance of orality providing the semantic paths that help the child in the building up of meaning, presenting themselves as fundamental to her/his viewing of the literary text, and, therefore, the formation of the reader. Thus, recognizing her/his capacity and possibilities, we think it is important to guarantee to the child with intellectual deficiency, a space towards interaction with the fictional text in which the child can learn and live its ludic and interactive character, to enjoy its hearing abilities, benefiting, then, from the aesthetic experience lived, mainly, in collective situations mediated through the more experient reader and shared with her/his different pairs. The research shows yet that, looking after conditions that guarantee a comfortable environment to the story hearings in the classrooms that focus on children education, being aware of a selection and the prosody of stories, the didactic contract, the attention to individual reactions, enlarge the possibility of any child deficient or not to enjoy her/himself as reader/ hearing subject of literature, engaged in its richness and magic