14 research outputs found
Revisiting the Factors Shaping Outcomes for Forest and Landscape Restoration in Sub-Saharan Africa:A Way Forward for Policy, Practice and Research
Les marches du manioc et du "gari" dans le Sud et le Centre du Benin: Performances et principales contraintes a leur developpement.
Realizing Inclusive SAI: Contextualizing indicators to better evaluate gender and intergenerational inequity in SAI processes and outcomes - Cases from Southern and Western Africa
Despite increasing sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) investments, indicators for detecting gender and intergenerational inequities in SAI costs and benefits sharing often remain overgeneralized, theoretical, or locally irrelevant. We examine the relative value of, and how to, customize standard SAI indicators to detect such inequities in specific socio-cultural contexts to enhance data collection for evidence-based decision making in fostering gender/youth inclusive SAI. Using focus-group discussions and key informant interviews among farmers and diverse government, NGO, private sector, and academic stakeholders in two districts in Malawi and three in Ghana, we assess the perceived roles, differentiated needs/ priorities of men, women and youth, and the sharing of SAI burdens and benefits within farming households. We investigate what context-appropriate questions to ask, to whom, and how, to collect reliable information on indicators of SAIinvestment inequities. Results illuminate context-specific, gendered and intergenerational factors shaping access to and ownership of productive resources, household decision making, SAI participation, and appropriateness of selected indicators. Combining farmers’ and local field-expert’ perspectives offers practical insights for customizing inequity indicators. Findings highlight advantages of local contextualization of SAI indicators, including insights on appropriate data-collection approaches that challenge orthodox survey/quantitative methods for detecting and assessing gender/age inequities to foster inclusive SAI
A decision makers’ guide to equitable sustainable agricultural intensification
In many parts of the world, there is a clear need for investment in agriculture to counteract low yields and food insecurity.
Focusing only on short-term production gains, however, through technologies such as improved seeds, irrigation,
fertilizers and pesticides, increases risks to the environment and human health.
Assessing the sustainability of agricultural intensification must go beyond simply finding economical ways to preserve
agriculture’s natural resource base and reduce environmental harm from agriculture. The process of sustainable agricultural
intensification (SAI) has to also be inclusive and move towards social equity if it is to be truly sustainable. There are many
tools for assessing agriculture through an environmental or economic lens, but relatively few that use social criteria. This
leaves a gap as more SAI projects and investments aim to achieve equitable benefits across gender and age lines.
This guide provides decision-makers with data collection tools to assess gender and youth inequities associated with
changes during SAI. These tools were developed and refined following workshops, field work and interviews with decisionmakers
in Ghana and Malawi.
In agricultural research, important social data often comes from large-scale household surveys that need significant
investment of time and money. This guide focused on non-survey data collection tools, many of which originate from
participatory learning and action, for two reasons: participatory tools encourage reflection by participants to increase
stakeholder equity, and they are often better matched to the resource requirements and time constraints of those involved.
Tools are presented based on their ability to provide information about three identified risks to equity from the SAI process:
(i) unequal increases in workload, (ii) unequal access to and use of agricultural resources and (iii) inequitable impacts from
changes in technologies and markets. For each tool, an overview explains how the tool relates to SAI. Then, the steps
needed to facilitate use are presented, followed by special considerations for effective implementation.
The guide supports decision-makers in choosing appropriate data collection tools and in effectively using the information.
To make the choice of tool easier, information is provided on affordability, timeliness and human resource requirements
for each. Also considered is each tool’s ability to assess potential technologies ex ante, so decision-makers can adapt them
before implementation to better foster gender and youth equity. Finally, a number of examples of decision-making tools
are presented with how to use the data collected to inform more inclusive SAI.
The goal is to enhance the capacity of decision-makers to make a robust analysis of the distribution of benefits and burdens
resulting from SAI investments. Decision-makers are encouraged to apply the tools within a community-driven gendertransformative
process that aims to change the norms that perpetuate social inequities, by simultaneously influencing
household, community, market and political domains
An assessment of Participatory Forest Management inspired by adaptive collaborative management in Malawi
This chapter begins with a description of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in Malawi and its legislation and related projects – laying out the similarities between the legislation’s ‘standards and guidelines’ and adaptive collaborative management (ACM). The first author was the lead researcher in the Center for International Forestry Research’s original ACM work in Malawi and has been a consistent advisor to the Government of Malawi. The authors then provide a summary of each of the numerous studies undertaken to assess the efficacy and value of the approach there. Building on these findings, they examine the intended outcomes of PFM, from the standpoints of livelihoods, strengthened forestry institutions, community participation in forest management and ecological health. They summarize by recounting eight lessons that have been learned in the process; and conclude with enthusiasm for the ACM/PFM approach, in recognition that more could still be done to improve it
Poverty and Environmental Degradation in Southern Burkina Faso: An Assessment Based on Participatory Methods
Revisiting the Factors Shaping Outcomes for Forest and Landscape Restoration in Sub-Saharan Africa:A Way Forward for Policy, Practice and Research
A lack of systematic understanding of the elements that determine the success of forest and landscape restoration (FLR) investments leads to the inability to clearly articulate strategic and practical approaches to support natural resource restoration endeavors across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This review examines the different challenges and opportunities for effective restoration interventions. Using a structured literature review, we draw evidence from a broad range of scholarly works on natural resource conservation and governance to investigate the early dynamics of FLR in SSA. We first engage in a contextual clarification of FLR concepts and then provide a synthesis of the factors that influence the results of FLR interventions at the social and institutional level to inform relevant restoration stakeholders—policy makers, investors, and practitioners. The review finds that several interacting factors shape the outcomes of FLR interventions. We classified them into three categories based on their features, intensity, and scale of occurrence: (1) micro-scale factors that enable or limit individual engagement in FLR and sustainable management practices; (2) project/program-level factors, including the design and implementation stages; and (3) institutional, policy, and governance factors, and issues of inequity that operate at the local or national government scale. The review goes beyond underscoring funding constraints as a major challenge to the up- and out-scaling of restoration interventions and FLR success. The findings also set out a premise for future research to guide the design and implementation of successful FLR models in SSA