Community Based Fisheries Management: The Right Option

The principle behind community based fisheries management is handover of fisheries resources to community groups and they will manage the resources sustainably and equitably. The benefits of this approach are obvious -- it is pro-poor, equitable and sustainable. Handing over fisheries management to community groups secures access to fisheries resources for those people whose lives depend on them i.e. the poor fishers. This ensures a pro-poor approach supportive of the national goal of poverty alleviation. In addition to this, by making sure that the best fisheries do not forever end up with the few local elites, community managed fisheries guarantees equitable distribution of benefits from fisheries resources. The lives of some millions of people are dependent on fisheries resources and they must be allowed to enjoy the benefits from these resources. Moreover, unlike the current revenue based system of fisheries management, community managed fisheries approach is not driven by the overarching desire for profit. As a result, community groups responsible for managing fisheries resources balance the need for production with conservation which results in sustainability. A brief comparison of the approaches adopted for fisheries management (presented in the following tabular form) clearly demonstrates the advantages of community managed fisheries approach

Poverty and community: understanding culture and politics in poor places

This lack of participation, low trust and failure to invest in community wide institutions allows corrupt politics to emerge in poor inner cities and rural communities, and then that bad politics in turn becomes an obstacle to change and development. Those in charge see schools and local government as sources of patronage jobs and political power rather than as public institutions to serve the common good. Politics and political forces become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Only investment and organizing can turn the poor community around and provide real opportunity for low income residents to succeed

Opening Address For The Seventh Annual Stein Center Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges

This article is a published version of the opening address of Peter Edelman at the Seventh Annual Stein Center Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges, which identifies the challenges in lawyering to the poor and proposes approaches for lawyers to reduce poverty. Peter Edelman\u27s speech challenges the private Bar to take on greater responsibility in helping to formulate policy that will work to eradicate the plight of the poor, calls for greater lawyer involvement in policy adaptation and implementation, identifies new roles that lawyers can and should play in helping to build and strengthen community institutions, and maintains that community building needs to become a major focus of lawyering for the poor

Outside Funding of Community Organizations: Benefiting or Displacing the Poor?

In response to the widespread consensus on the importance of social capital, and to concerns about the scarcity of institutions giving voice to disadvantaged groups, some donors have begun programs designed to strengthen indigenous community organizations. We use a prospective, randomized evaluation to examine a development program explicitly targeted at building social capital among rural women's groups in western Kenya. The program increased turnover among group members. It increased entry into group membership and leadership by younger, more educated women, by women employed in the formal sector, and by men. The analysis suggests that providing development assistance to indigenous community organizations of the disadvantaged may change the very characteristics of these organizations that made them attractive to outside funders.

We Can't Wait: A Report on Sanitation and Hygiene for Women and Girls

This paper raises awareness of the impacts of poor sanitation on women across the world and calls for a concerted effort on a different scale from all levels of government, business, and civil society. It looks at how poor sanitation affects women's health, education, livelihoods, and what the global community, from governments to NGOs to business, can do to make a difference

Peer Group Effects, Sorting, and Fiscal Federalism

Suppose that, other things equal, an individual's utility increases with the fraction of residents in his community who are rich. Suppose further that the rich are more willing to pay for a local public than are the poor Then the rich may over-provide a local public good, with the aim of dissuading the poor from moving into a community inhabited by the rich. We describe conditions under which the equilibrium will have mixed or homogeneous communities, and conditions under which the rich or the poor benefit from central government rules which constrain local decision making.Status; Migration

Sanitation options in rural and urban areas: best practices

Suitable low-cost sanitation systems for use in poor rural and urban areas are described. For dispersed rural areas Arborloos generally represent the ‘best’ choice. As the density increases other options may be used, including alternating twin-pit or twin-vault systems providing they can be desludged by the users. In poor urban areas the choice is normally between simplified sewerage, low-cost combined sewerage and community-managed sanitation blocks

Education in chronically poor rural areas lags across generations

As part of the Community and Environment in Rural America (CERA) initiative, the Carsey Institute has been investigating broad trends between rural community types, including the education level of residents and their parents. Since 2007, Carsey researchers have conducted over 17,000 telephone surveys with randomly selected adult Americans from twelve diverse rural locations to ask about both their own and their parents’ educational attainment, as well as their perceptions of school quality in their communities. Survey results conclude that educational achievement varies significantly by type of place in rural America. In chronically poor rural areas, 45 percent of residents have completed only high school or less, compared with 22 to 33 percent in amenity-rich, amenity-transition, and declining resource-dependent rural areas. Although people from all types of rural communities generally have more education than their parents, those in chronically poor rural areas still have relatively low education levels — a disadvantage that persists across generations. This brief highlights the need to invest in the educational systems of chronically poor rural areas where generations of underinvestment have contributed to persistent poverty

Suburban Poverty and the Health Care Safety Net

Examines trends in the number of suburban poor, their access to health care, and efforts to improve safety-net services in the suburbs of five cities. Explores causes of limited safety net capacity, community strategies, and policy implications

Targeting poverty through community-based public works programs

Since the transition to democracy, South African public works programs are to involve community participation, and be targeted to the poor and women. This paper examines the targeting performance of seven programs in Western Cape Province, and analyzes the role of government, community-based organizations, trade unions, and the private sector in explaining targeting outcomes. These programs were not well-targeted geographically in terms of poverty, unemployment, or infrastructure. Within localities, jobs went to the poor and unemployed, though not always the poorest. They did well in reaching women, despite local gender bias. Targeting guidelines of the state are mediated by diverse priorities that emerge in programs with multiple objectives, local perceptions of need and entitlement, and competing voices within civil society.Public works Africa. ,Community participation. ,Women. ,Unemployment Africa, Sub-Saharan. ,