The Role of Development Aid in addressing issues of rurality, Livelihoods and Gender in Developing Countries

This paper mainly emphasized on the contributions of Swedish development aid in improving rural livelihood and gender equality in developing countries. The issue of poverty and food security remains a key global concern. The majority of the poor people lives in rural areas of Africa, Latin America and Southern Asia where agriculture is their main source of livelihood. The fight against eradicating poverty has taken a successful step forward in East and South-East Asia. On the contrary, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the rate of poverty remain stagnated compare to other developing regions is attributed to; a less attention given to rural development, prevalence of corruption in the public sector, terrorism, migration, under-developed infrastructure, weak market chain, lack of strong institutions and poor policy to incorporate the role of women in development. To solve this challenge, the parliament and the ministry of foreign affairs of Sweden have given the mission to Sida to execute development activities in 30 prioritized developing countries. Accordingly, Sida has been implementing sustainable livelihood approach in Africa, South Asia and Latin America to improve their living condition and eradicate poverty. This includes community-based forest management, soil and water conservation,  livestock management; market chain, capability, health, access to clean water as well as land certification and registration, safety nate programs, education, gender equality and security. Hence, in these countries, the level of poverty have reduced by half. However, the question left unanswered is whether foreign aid is the major economic engine in the national gross domestic product (GDP) of developing countries. This is mainly due to the fact that the amount of money spent is less (1% of Sweden’s national budget),  poor monitoring and performance evaluation of the projects. Key words; Foreign Aid, Sida, livelihoo

Crop Theft and Soil Fertility Management in the Highlands of Ethiopia

Theft of crops in rural areas is largely attributed to poverty and hunger. Crop theft has the consequence of soil fertility management being vastly impaired, a possible association examined by very few studies. The emphasis of most soil fertility studies has been on the effect of biophysical conditions and economics, which are the lack of capability of farmers as well as the failure of macro-economic policies to support good soil fertility management practices. The challenges that farmers face at the individual, household and community levels, as well as the barriers hampering farmers from practicing adequate soil fertility management, are still poorly understood. We need to extend our thinking beyond contextual issues of poverty, hunger, climate and seasonality to acquire a more nuanced understanding of food security in transforming rural agrarian societies. This study investigated the role of crop theft, particularly of legume bean crops, and its impact on soil fertility management. The results revealed that crop theft of legume bean crops deteriorated local intercropping and crop rotation soil fertility management practices. Crop theft had serious consequences on other socio-economic and cultural aspects of day-to-day life that deteriorated human relationships and eroded trust

Tackling Household Food Insecurity: The Experience of Vietnam

This paper is a systematic review of the facts and figures related to the issues of food security in Vietnam. Based on a comprehensive definition of food security as “access by all people at all times to enough, nutritionally adequate, and safe food for an active and health life†(Kennedy 2002), it describes and analyzes food security in connection with poverty or macro policies, in order to identify and understand thoroughly the problems related to food security. It shows that poor households are, per se, food-insecure, and that policies which target rapid economic growth using a socioeconomic approach help alleviate poverty and food insecurity. Its findings mainly confirm that household food security─specifically issues concerning food safety, availability, access, adequacy, and vulnerability ─ is still a vital concern in Vietnam.

What Is the Evidence Base Linking Gender with Access to Forests and Use of Forest Resources for Food Security in Low- and Middle-Income Countries? A Systematic Evidence Map

In nearly all parts of the world, an important part of people's livelihood is derived from natural resources. Gender is considered one of the most important determinants of access and control over forests. It is thought that women and men within households and communities have different opportunities and different roles and responsibilities in relation to forest use. It is probable that when women have equal access to forests, better food security outcomes can be achieved for individuals and households that are dependent on forests for their livelihoods. A systematic evidence map of the evidence base linking gender with access to forests and use of forest resources for food security was undertaken. Ten bibliographic databases and 22 websites of international development and conservation organisations were searched using keywords suggested by stakeholders. Other articles were found by emailing authors and organisations to send potentially relevant publications. 19,500 articles were retrieved from bibliographic databases and 1281 from other sources. After iterative screening, 77 studies were included: 41 focussed on Africa, 22 on Asia, 12 on Latin America, 2 were global. Most indicators of food security measure access to food, measured by total consumption, expenditure, or income. Studies showed strong gender specialisation: commercial access and utilisation of forests and forest products dominated by men, whereas access for subsistence and household consumption is almost exclusively the task of women. Despite the large number of studies reviewed, limitations of the evidence base, including methodological heterogeneity, a dominance of case studies as the study design, and unequal geographical representation in study locations, make it difficult to generalise about the overall importance of gender and its effect on access to and use of forests for food security in developing countries. The critical gaps in the evidence base include geographical representation in primary research and a greater breadth of study designs to assess gender implications of access to forest resources globally

Citizen Science as Democratic Innovation That Renews Environmental Monitoring and Assessment for the Sustainable Development Goals in Rural Areas

This commentary focuses on analyzing the potential of citizen science to address legitimacy issues in the knowledge base used to guide transformative governance in the context of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (henceforth SDGs). The commentary develops two interrelated arguments for better understanding the limits of what we term "traditional" Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (EMA) as well as the potential of citizen science (CS) for strengthening the legitimacy of EMA in the local implementation of SDGs. We start by arguing that there is an urgent need for a profound renewal of traditional EMA to better implement the SDGs. Then, we present CS as a democratic innovation that provides a path to EMA renewal that incorporates, develops, and extends the role of CS in data production and use by EMA. The commentary substantiates such arguments based on current approaches to CS and traditional EMA. From this starting point, we theorize the potential of CS as a democratic innovation that can repurpose EMA as a tool for the implementation of the SDGs. With a focus on the implementation of SDG15 (Life on Land) in local contexts, the commentary presents CS as a democratic innovation for legitimate transformative governance that can affect socio-ecological transitions. We see this approach as especially appropriate to analyze the implementation of SDGs in rural settings where a specific resource nexus can create conflict-laden contexts with much potential for a renewed EMA to support transformative governance towards Agenda 2030

Gender dynamics in cassava leaves value chains: The case of Tanzania

There is growing recognition of the importance of African leafy vegetables for achieving healthy diets, particularly amongst low-income households. In Tanzania, cassava leaves are an important vegetable, yet little is known about how their markets are organized and who benefits from participation and how. This study examines the structure of and gender dynamics in the cassava leaves value chain in Mkuranga District, Tanzania. Data was collected through structured and semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and observations. The findings show that the value chain is in its formative stage, yet, two thirds of the sampled farmers market cassava leaves. While the value chain is dominated by women, participation at different nodes is highly gendered, and so is the distribution of benefits. Private and public institutions urgently need to increase their support to the value chain, given the importance of the leaves in enhancing diets and as a source of income for women. Finally, future research on cassava should consider both tubers and leaves to understand the trade-offs and synergies between them