A governance analysis of the Barotse floodplain system, Zambia: identifying obstacles and opportunities

The Barotse floodplain is an ecosystem characterized by a paradox of widespread poverty amidst high ecological and agricultural potential. The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) seeks to address this paradox on the assumption that the rural poor have the potential to transform their lives using the aquatic resources in their environment. Understanding the conditions for natural resources use and management is critical for a program that seeks to transform the livelihoods of households dependent on natural resources. The purpose of this report is to identify and analyze key governance variables influencing the livelihood outcomes of AAS program interventions in the Barotse floodplain system

Rushinga Rural District Council Baseline Survey Wards 1 and 2

US Agency for International Development (USAID

Strengthening collective action to address resource conflict in Lake Kariba, Zambia

Where natural resources are a key component of the rural economy, the ability of the poor to realize their visions for the future depends significantly on institutional structures that govern resource access and management. This case study reports on an initiative on the shores of Lake Kariba in Zambia, where lakeshore residents face competition over fishing, tourism, and commercial aquaculture. Multistakeholder dialogue produced agreements with investors and increased accountability of state agencies and traditional leaders, enabling communities to have greater influence over their futures through improvements in aquatic resource governance. The report documents the rationale for the approach followed and steps in the capacity-building process, discusses obstacles encountered, and identifies lessons for policymakers and practitioners seeking to implement a similar approach

Transforming aquatic agricultural systems towards gender equality: a five country review

Aquatic agricultural systems (AAS) are systems in which the annual production dynamics of freshwater and/or coastal ecosystems contribute significantly to total household income. Improving the livelihood security and wellbeing of the estimated 250 million poor people dependent on AAS in Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Zambia is the goal of the Worldfish Center-led Consortium Research Program (CRP), “Harnessing the development potential of aquatic agricultural systems for development.” One component expected to contribute to sustainably achieving this goal is enhancing the gender and wider social equity of the social, economic and political systems within which the AAS function. The CRP’s focus on social equity, and particularly gender equity, responds to the limited progress to date in enhancing the inclusiveness of development outcomes through interventions that offer improved availability of resources and technologies without addressing the wider social constraints that marginalized populations face in making use of them. The CRP aims to both offer improved availability and address the wider social constraints in order to determine whether a multi-level approach that engages with individuals, households and communities, as well as the wider social, economic and political contexts in which they function, is more successful in extending development’s benefits to women and other excluded groups. Designing the research in development initiatives to test this hypothesis requires a solid understanding of each CRP country’s social, cultural and economic contexts and of the variations across them. This paper provides an initial input into developing this knowledge, based on a review of literature on agriculture, aquaculture and gender relations within the five focal countries. Before delving into the findings of the literature review, the paper first justifies the expectation that successfully achieving lasting wellbeing improvements for poor women and men dependent on AAS rests in part on advances in gender equity, and in light of this justification, presents the AAS CRP’s conceptual frame

Dialogue to address the roots of resource competition: Lessons for policy and practice

Conflict management is an intrinsic element of natural resource management, and becomes increasingly important amid growing pressure on natural resources from local uses, as well as from external drivers such as climate change and international investment. If policymakers and practitioners aim to truly improve livelihood resilience and reduce vulnerabilities of poor rural households, issues of resource competition and conflict management cannot be ignored. This synthesis report summarizes outcomes and lessons from three ecoregions: Lake Victoria, with a focus on Uganda; Lake Kariba, with a focus on Zambia; and Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Partners used a common approach to stakeholder engagement and action research that we call “Collaborating for Resilience”. In each region, partners assisted local stakeholders in developing a shared understanding of risks and opportunities, weighing alternative actions, developing action plans, and evaluating and learning from the outcomes. These experiences demonstrate that investing in capacities for conflict management is practical and can contribute to broader improvements in resource governance

Role of brokerage in evolving innovation systems: A case of the Fodder Innovation Project in Nigeria

This paper looks at brokerage functions in a project on building innovation capacity through improved networking. Innovation capacity influences how actors respond to changes in their environments. In such dynamic environments well connected sets of actors are at an advantage in that they can combine skills to address the emerging opportunities and challenges. However, policy and cultural barriers especially in African innovation systems raise the transaction costs of networking leading to weak connectivity among actors thus poor innovation capacity. This paper uses case studies from West Africa to illustrate that actors that play brokerage functions are critical in navigating around or dismantling the barriers and thus enhance innovation capacity. This paper assumes that innovation capacity rather than innovations per se is lacking in African agriculture. The paper is a product of an action research based study of Key Partner Organizations and the coalitions of stakeholders they formed around fodder innovation themes in Nigeria. We show that brokerage negotiates innovation barriers and improve networking. The paper concludes that brokerage roles are context-specific; policies that facilitate eclectic brokerage functions are critical. This paper is shedding light on the broadened scope for actors playing boundary roles, e.g. extension organizations under more relaxed organizational and policy contexts. There are few studies on brokerage and boundary work particularly in African agriculture. This study is a grounded discussion on the brokering functions in African rural development. It uses data from similar programmes to qualify observations and conclusions from the Fodder Innovation Project (FIP) case study

The role of e-banking in reducing transport costs: a case study of Harare

Paper presented at the 27th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 7 - 11 July 2008 "Partnership for research and progress in transportation", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.This paper was transferred from the original CD ROM created for this conference. The material on the CD ROM was published using Adobe Acrobat technology. The original CD ROM was produced by Document Transformation Technologies Postal Address: PO Box 560 Irene 0062 South Africa. Tel.: +27 12 667 2074 Fax: +27 12 667 2766 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.doctech.co.z

Platforms for institutional change: assessing the potential of livelihood enhancement groups as community entry points in Zambia

Published online: 10 Aug 2017To address the livelihood problems faced by the poor and vulnerable in Northern Province of Zambia, a novel collective action approach called livelihoods enhancement groups (LEGs) was used as a platform for facilitating research on development initiatives to generate change. Using focus group discussions and key informant interviews, this article assesses the potential of using the LEGs approach in generating change. The livelihood changes observed arose with the LEG as a platform through which different knowledge nodes interacted. Livelihood areas that LEGs affected included crop production, livestock production, nutrition, and access to credit. Afin de discuter des problèmes de subsistance auxquels sont confrontées les personnes pauvres et vulnérables dans la Province Septentrionale de la Zambie, une nouvelle approche d'action collective appelée Livelihoods Enhancement Groups, ou LEGs, (Groupes d'amélioration des moyens de subsistance) a été utilisée en tant que plateforme de recherche sur des initiatives de développement visant à générer du changement. Basé sur des groupes de discussion thématique et des entretiens avec des informateurs clés, cet article évalue le potentiel de cette approche pour générer du changement. Les changements observés dans les moyens de substitution ont augmenté avec l'approche LEG en tant que plateforme d'interactions entre différents noyaux de connaissance. Les domaines de subsistance impactés incluent la production agricole, l'élevage du bétail, la nutrition et l'accès au crédit. Para abordar los problemas vinculados a los medios de vida enfrentados por la población empobrecida y vulnerable de la Provincia del Norte de Zambia, se impulsó un novedoso enfoque de acción colectiva llamado “grupos destinados al mejoramiento de los medios de vida” (leg por sus siglas en inglés); se trata de una plataforma encaminada a facilitar la investigación de aquellas iniciativas de desarrollo orientadas a generar cambios. A partir de discusiones realizadas en varios grupos de enfoque y de entrevistas con informantes clave, el presente artículo evalúa la posibilidad de usar el enfoque de leg para promover la generación de cambios. En este sentido, se constata que los cambios que tuvieron lugar en los medios de vida surgieron tras el uso de los leg como plataforma en la que interactuaron diversos nodos de información. Éstos incidieron en varias áreas vinculadas a los medios de vida, por ejemplo, la producción de cultivos, la cría de ganado, la nutrición y el acceso a créditos

Desarrollo de la capacidad de sistemas de innovación agrícola : ¿Instrumentos, principios o políticas?

Uno de los cambios más notables en materia de desarrollo agrícola ha sido la creciente aceptación de las teorías de sistemas innovadores, en lugar de limitarse a la investigación. Persiste el antiguo problema de la escasez de forraje: ganado en Nigeria septentrional. Una persistente crítica de la investigación agrícola, expresada por una generación de profesionales del desarrollo rural y teóricos de sistemas, ha sido que la investigación no ha respondido a las cambiantes necesidades de los agricultores; y también que, si bien la investigación es eficaz para desarrollar tecnologías, la adopción de éstas ha sido débil. Al centrarse en la innovación y no en la investigación, el énfasis pasa a la aplicación de conocimientos y tecnologías, en lugar de limitarse a su producción. Aunque, al parecer, esta lógica es cada vez más aceptable entre los investigadores del desarrollo, hay menos claridad sobre cómo la idea de un sistema de innovación puede traducirse en la práctica. La dificultad reside en la naturaleza de las capacidades a desarrollar, que son específicas para cada contexto. Actualmente, los investigadores están considerando varias maneras de promover el desarrollo de tales capacidades

Agricultural innovation system capacity development: Tools, principles or policies?

One of the most notable changes in the field of agricultural development has been the growing popularity of thinking in terms of innovation systems rather than just focusing on research. Addressing the scarcity of fodder: livestock in northern Nigeria. A persistent criticism of agricultural research, voiced by a whole generation of rural development practitioners and system thinkers, has been the unresponsiveness of research to the changing needs of clients. It has also been observed that while research is good at developing new technologies, the adoption of these technologies has been weak. Focusing on innovation rather than research shifts the emphasis to the application of knowledge and technology rather than just their production. Although there seems to be growing acceptance of this logic in the development research community, what seems to be less clear is how the idea of an innovation system can be translated into practice. The challenge in this is the highly context-specific nature of capacities that need to be developed. Researchers are now exploring a number of ways to nurture the development of these context-specific capacities