Rushinga Rural District Council Baseline Survey Wards 1 and 2

US Agency for International Development (USAID

CGIAR Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa and CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality: Stakeholder Consultation Workshop

A stakeholder consultation workshop was conducted by the CGIAR Initiatives on Diversification in East and Southern Africa (Ukama Ustawi) and Gender Equality on 31 January 2023 at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop aimed to identify and address barriers that limit participation of women and youth and how these are addressed in an ongoing "Veggies for People and Planet" program at the World Vegetable Center. The workshop also sought to investigate existing opportunities and recommend possible integrated solutions for more equitable and inclusive value chain development

Scaling Up Sustainable Land Management and Restoration of Degraded Land

With current rates of land degradation reaching ten to twelve million ha per year, there is an urgent need to scale up and out successful, profitable and resource-efficient sustainable land management practices to maintain the health and resilience of the land that humans depend on. As much as 500 million out of two billion ha of degraded land, mainly in developing countries, have restoration potential, offering an immediate target for restoration and rehabilitation initiatives.1 In the past, piecemeal approaches to achieving sustainable land management have had limited impact. To achieve the ambitious goals of alleviating poverty, securing food and water supplies, and protecting the natural resource base, we need to recognize the inter-connectedness of the factors driving land degradation, so that solutions can be taken to scale, transforming management practices for millions of land users. An analysis of the critical barriers and incentives to achieve scaling up suggests that the most appropriate options should be selected through the involvement of stakeholders at all levels, from local to national and international. New incentives for land managers as well as the public and private sectors are required to achieve a land degradation-neutral world

A temporally cyclic growth model of urban spatial morphology in China: evidence from Kunming Metropolis

Rapid urbanization and complexity of political-economic transition in China has brought about continuous and remarkable changes of urban morphology over the past decades, which were driven by a mixture of spatial, social-economic and institutional forces. Understanding such urban morphological evolution requires new mixed evidences and holistic perspectives. In this paper, it is argued that two dominant types of urban growth in China: low-density expansion and high-density infill might be driven by different forces at different stages. To interpret the processes of urban development, two easy-to-understand morphological indicators: expansion-induced investment density index” (EID) and “infill-induced investment density index” (IID) are defined to measure the investment density per unit of developed land and used to compare the morphological changes between different phases in a long period by integrating spatial and socio-economic data. The temporal variation of these indicators suggests a cyclic growth model (CGM), which means the periodic switch between low density expansion and high-density infill. Using Kunming metropolis as a case study, this paper has confirmed that its urban morphological evolution from 1950-2014 was periodically and reciprocally driven by a set of vis-à-vis dualistic dynamics, in which low-density expansion is led by pro-growth infrastructure oriented public investment, while the high-density infill is activated by collective and rational actions of individual enterprises and their economic behaviors. It is concluded that the confirmed CGM model, together with two morphological indicators, offers a new holistic perspective and method to easily and integrally interpret urban morphological evolution and accordingly has potential theoretical implications for reasonably understanding the urbanisation in China

Conditions socio-économiques et pratiques agricoles de gestion de l'eau des petits exploitants agricoles dans le bassin quaternaire B72A, bassin de l'Olifants River, Afrique du Sud

This report synthesizes the results of research undertaken under the Challenge Program Water and Food on socio-economic conditions and water management practices of smallholders in the Olifants river basin of South Africa. It is mainly based on field work conducted in the B72A quaternary catchment of the basin, the focus of field studies for several research projects of IWMI. Primary data were collected in 2005 through three households surveys on: i) land and water management practices of farmers, ii) the impact of socio-economic conditions and water management on food security of households, and iii) the viability of small-scale irrigation farms. Secondary data from the 2001 Census, reports from NGO working in the study site, research reports on similar issues conducted in neighbouring districts, and previous research by IWMI in the Olifants River basin were also used. Data analysis is based on the sustainable livelihood approach and comprises the construction of a typology of farm-household systems based on their livelihood activities and asset endowments. Results include the presentation of demographic characteristics of households, their livelihood activities, water sources, uses and management, agricultural production and farming practices including access to markets, and food security status, and the presentation of the typology of farming households

Addressing conflict through collective action in natural resource management: a synthesis of experience

The food security crisis, international "land grabs,? and new markets for environmental services have drawn renewed attention to the role of natural resource competition in the livelihoods of the rural poor. While significant empirical research has focused on diagnosing the links between natural resource competition and (violent) conflict, much less has focused on the dynamics of whether and how resource competition can be transformed to strengthen social-ecological resilience and mitigate conflict. Focusing on this latter theme, this review synthesizes evidence from a wide range of cases in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Building on an analytical framework designed to enable such comparative analysis; we present several propositions about the dynamics of conflict and collective action in natural resource management, and a series of recommendations for action. These propositions are: that collective action in natural resources management is influenced by the social-ecological and governance context, that natural resource management institutions affect the incentives for conflict or cooperation, and that the outcomes of these interactions influence future conflict risk, livelihoods, and resource sustainability. Action recommendations concern policies addressing resource tenure, conflict resolution mechanisms, and social inequalities, as well as strategies to strengthen collective action institutions in the natural resource sectors and to enable more equitable engagement by marginalized groups in dialogue and negotiation over resource access and use

Why gender matters: reflections from the Livestock-Water Productivity Research Project

Livestock water productivity (LWP) is becoming a major area of research. IWMI and ILRI are attempting to understand the gender implications of different interventions to increase LWP, through research funded by BMZ (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung). This paper draws on research conducted in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and also the wealth of information emerging from the Multiple Use Systems Project (CPWF Project 28 on www.musproject.net). Some of the emerging results show that technological innovations are not gender neutral, because their design, timing, and labor requirements have differential gender implications. Some technological interventions to increase livestock water productivity might result in more work for women and fewer benefits going to the women. Secondly, gender and power relationships also shape the benefit terrain, which results in differential access and control of the benefits from the improved livestock water productivity. What matters is not just improving livestock water productivity, but the type of livestock targeted. Smaller livestock are seen to be largely benefiting women, thereby improving education and health prospects of the children within poorer households more than larger livestock. Therefore improving LWP does not necessarily result in improved well-being for men, women, and children and reduce poverty at large. Gender nuanced interventions are likely to contribute toward improvements in the livelihoods of both men and women