Governance and Inclusion (Govl)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/110270

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 67
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Principles and legal tools for equitable water resource allocation: prioritization in South Africa
    (Journal Article, 2024-07-01) van Koppen, Barbara; Mukuyu, Patience; Murombo, T.; Jacobs-Mata, Inga; Molwantwa, J.; Dini, J.; Sawunyama, T.; Schreiner, B.; Skosana, S.
    South Africa’s legally binding National Water Resource Strategy specifies a people-oriented prioritization for the equitable allocation of the nation’s public trust of surface and groundwater resources. This article analyses how the Inkomati–Usuthu Catchment Management Agency seeks to operationalize the three highest priorities in the Sabie Sub Catchment: the Basic Human Needs Reserve for domestic and constitutionally based productive water uses; customary water tenure in former homelands prioritized over the upstream commercial forestry and large-scale farming and the downstream Kruger National Park; and priority General Authorizations overcoming administrative injustices of current licensing. These highest priorities imply curtailment of the lowest priority, high-impact economic uses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Power walk activity: a tool adapted for the water sector
    (Brief, 2023-12-20) Khalid, Sidra; Waqar, Kanwal
    The Power Walk is a group role-playing exercise designed to prompt reflection on power dynamics, privilege, and social inequalities, adapted for the water sector context. The activity simulates a society where individuals have an equal starting point but depending on their social identities end up in different positions. The game is meant to convey gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) concepts in the water sector.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Climate resilience building among households in Northwest Ghana: changes and implications
    (Brief, 2023-11-14) Okem, Andrew Emmanuel; Osei-Amponsah, Charity; Quarmine, William
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Slow gender-transformative change in Nepal’s water sector offers lessons for CGIAR initiatives
    (Blog Post, 2023-05-25) Buchy, Marlene
    What can CGIAR’s new initiatives and other research for development projects learn from Nepal’s slow progress toward gender equality, despite its progressive policies? In this blog post, Marlène Buchy, a senior social scientist with International Water Management Institute – Nepal, shares personal reflections on strategies for getting past institutional bottlenecks that stand in the way of true gender-transformative change in food systems.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Personal reflections from GENDER’s leadership and mentoring program
    (News Item, 2023-06-06) Koirala, Sanju; Pradhan, M. S.
    The power of women in senior gender research positions mentoring mid-career women drives not only individual development, but contributes to systemic change. Here, a mentor–mentee pair in the CGIAR Gender Researchers’ Leadership and Mentorship Program share their experiences.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Technology for whom? Solar irrigation pumps, women, and smallholders in Nepal
    (Journal Article, 2023-10-03) Shrestha, Gitta; Uprety, Labisha; Khadka, Manohara; Mukherji, Aditi
    Agricultural technologies are often promoted as a medium for women’s economic empowerment, which can transform unequal gender relations in rural agrarian societies. This paper investigates three solar irrigation pump (SIP) schemes implemented by state and non-state actors and examines their impacts on women and marginal farmers. We utilize a theory of change framework intended to evaluate the effectiveness of livelihood interventions and guide the design of gender transformative interventions. Our analysis relies on 63 qualitative interviews, 9 key informant interviews and 4 telephonic interviews with social mobilisers from the Saptari District in Nepal. The findings shed light on the unequal social and gender relations that have skewed the adoption and benefits of SIP technology. Gender and social inequalities persist, with limited adoption and benefit of SIP among women and smallholders. Women’s involvement in strategic decisions related to SIP adoptions, installations and usages is limited. This study underscores the importance of strategic interventions that foster meaningful women’s empowerment and ensure equitable distribution and benefits from SIP technology. Assessing the effectiveness of SIPs in empowering women, it is crucial to consider whether the resulting access, ownership, or decision-making opportunities challenge, reinforce, or reproduce unequal gender and social relations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Gender and socially inclusive WASH in Nepal: moving beyond “technical fixes”
    (Journal Article, 2023-09-25) Khadka, Manohara; Joshi, Deepa; Uprety, Labisha; Shrestha, Gitta
    The enactment of a new Constitution in 2015 in Nepal marked a shift to a representative system of federal governance. Earlier in 2002, the country’s Tenth Five Year Plan had committed to a core focus on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in national policies and governance. How do these two strategic shifts in policy align in the case of WASH projects in rural Nepal? Applying a feminist political lens, we review the implementation of WASH initiatives in two rural districts to show that deep-rooted intersectional complexities of caste, class, and gender prevent inclusive WASH outcomes. Our findings show that the policy framing for gender equitable and socially inclusive outcomes have not impacted the WASH sector, where interventions continue as essentially technical interventions. While there has been significant increase in the number of women representatives in local governance structures since 2017, systemic, informal power relationship by caste, ethnicity and gender entrenched across institutional structures and cultures persist and continue to shape unequal gender-power dynamics. This is yet another example that shows that transformative change requires more than just affirmative policies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Migration and its two-way relationship with rural change: lessons from China, Ethiopia, Moldova, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Thailand
    (Brief, 2023-09-12) Sugden, F.; Aderghal, M.; Fengbo, C.; Jian, C.; Crivellaro, F.; Dessalegn, Mengistu; Kharel, A.; Gupta, S.; Kuznetsova, I.; Naruchaikusol, S.; Masotti, M.; Amzil, L.; Murzakulova, A.; Mogilevskii, R.; Mollinga, P.; Nigussie, Likimyelesh; Pagogna, R.; Stratan, A.; Vittuari, M.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Internal migration and agricultural labor mobility issues and policies in Ethiopia
    (Brief, 2023-09-05) Dessalegn, Mengistu
    Ethiopia’s economy is dominated by agriculture, contributing 45% to 50% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employing 70% of the active workforce. Most farming remains characterized by smallholder plots, with rainfed systems predominating, yet increasingly vulnerable because of uncertain rainfall and temperature patterns. In addition, due to a complex of factors, farmland frequently suffers from the depletion of soil nutrients. As a result of too few new jobs and the rapidly expanding economically active population, about two million more people are added annually to the labor market. As a result, there is considerable international migration to the Gulf States, South Africa, Europe and North America. Internal rural-to-urban migration is also common, mainly to major cities and towns, especially to Addis Ababa and other major centers in south and southwest Ethiopia.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Migration governance and agrarian and rural development: comparative lessons from China, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal and Thailand
    (Brief, 2023-07-19) Lamba, A.; Sugden, F.; Aderghal, M.; Fengbo, C.; Pagogna, R.; Masotti, M.; Dessalegn, Mengistu; Murzakulova, A.; Kharel, A.; Amzil, L.; Stirba, V.; Kuznetsova, I.; Vittuari, M.; Jian, C.; Crivellaro, F.; Naruchaikusol, S.; Lucasenco, E.; Mogilevskii, R.; Mollinga, P.; Phalkey, N.; Bhattarai, S.
    The purpose of this policy brief is to draw together key comparative lessons on different types of migration governance interventions in the AGRUMIG project research regions and examine how they support positive feedback loops between migration and agrarian and rural development. This exploration offers stories of success and omission. Moving beyond the elusive triple-win situation on the benefits of migration for destination and origin countries, migrants themselves and the highly politicized domain of the migration-development nexus, our point of departure is that there are vital prospects for augmenting the positive impacts of migration for societies globally. This brief focuses on how migration governance interventions are potentially useful in maximizing the gains between migration and agrarian development in the sending communities in China, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal and Thailand.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The place of social transformation analysis in vulnerability assessment for climate adaptation planning in Upper West Region, Ghana: a review synthesis
    (Journal Article, 2023-08) Osei-Amponsah, Charity; Quarmine, William; Wahabu, E.
    Climate vulnerability could be influenced by transforming demographic, technological, cultural, political and economic factors, which cuts across global, regional, national and local scales. Such social transformations result in positive and negative outcomes, with implications for the adaptive capacities of resource-poor households, especially those headed by women. However, these transformations are usually not integrated in climate vulnerability assessments. Based on insights from a stakeholders’ brainstorming workshop and the synthesis of information from traditional literature review, this paper contributes to better understanding of the intersections of social transformation with climate vulnerabilities in the Upper West Region of Ghana. The review indicates that the region is experiencing social transformation triggered by technological, demographic and cultural factors, with implications for climate resilience building. For example, compared to the last decade, there is now an increased use of mobile phones, resulting in improved access to e-extension and climate-smart agriculture services. At the same time, an emerging trend of land commodification is driving poor households to sell or lease farming lands. Within the context of these transformations, climate vulnerability is still assessed through approaches that mainly focus on a ‘static’ view of the extent of exposure to climate hazards and their impacts on rural livelihoods. A social transformation analysis that promotes a systematic investigation of the transforming factors is proposed as an effective approach for vulnerability assessment in climate adaptation planning. This approach provides critical reflections on, and sustainable resilience interventions for addressing both changing biophysical and social vulnerabilities of rural communities.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Gender and social inclusion in community water resource management: lessons from two districts in the Himalayan foothills and the Terai in Nepal
    (Journal Article, 2023-05-19) Raut, Manita; Varady, R. G.; Rajouria, Alok
    Despite decades of concerted efforts to address the problem, Nepal’s rural water supply sector continues to be laced with gender and social exclusion. This study provides insights from community water-user groups in two geographically and socially diverse contexts to better understand, from a gender and social inclusion perspective, and through institutional bricolage, how some water-user groups adapt to local contexts, shaping varied group dynamics that are not always equitable. Findings reveal that policies promoting social inclusion are difficult to implement amid the complex web of social and economic factors associated with community-managed water supply systems.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Assessing the performance of cooperatives in post-apartheid South Africa: evidence from the literature
    (Journal Article, 2023-05-19) Okem, Andrew Emmanuel
    While there is growing interest in the literature and policy circles regarding the performance of cooperatives in South Africa, no study has yet synthesised the body of knowledge on how to assess cooperative performance in the country. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the literature on the performance of cooperatives in post-apartheid South Africa, based on a scoping review of 20 studies published between 1994 and 2021. Most of the reviewed studies adopted a qualitative approach, lacked a clear definition of cooperative performance and standardised metrics/criteria for assessing cooperative performance. The studies often relied on view of study participants to determine the performance of cooperatives. Moreover, the reviewed studies often framed the performance of cooperatives from an economic viewpoint. Clear definition of cooperatives, the development of robust indicators for assessing their performance and greater emphasis on quantitative studies on the performance of cooperatives in South Africa beyond economic and financial indicators is needed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Gender aspects of smallholder private groundwater irrigation in Ghana and Zambia
    (Book Chapter, 2023-05-08) van Koppen, Barbara; Hope, L.; Colenbrander, W.
    This paper explores gender aspects of smallholders’ private technology adoption for groundwater irrigation in Ghana and Zambia. It focuses on two variables of quantitative farm-household surveys: household headship and gendered plot management. The paper compares adoption rates and types of technologies for female- and male-headed households; examines adoption rates when women have their own plots; and compares women’s decision making on irrigated plots and rainfed plots. The findings suggest that there are largely untapped synergies between gender-equality and irrigation-policy goals. Systematic gender differentiation in surveys is recommended.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Digital ethnography? Our experiences in the use of SenseMaker for understanding gendered climate vulnerabilities amongst marginalized agrarian communities
    (Journal Article, 2023-04-26) Joshi, Deepa; Panagiotou, A.; Bisht, Meera; Udalagama, Upandha; Schindler, Alexandra
    Digital innovations and interventions can potentially revolutionize agri-food systems, especially in coping with climate challenges. On a similar note, digital research tools and methods are increasingly popular for the efficient collection and analysis of real-time, large-scale data. It is claimed that these methods can also minimize subjective biases that are prevalent in traditional qualitative research. However, given the digital divide, especially affecting women and marginalized communities, these innovations could potentially introduce further disparities. To assess these contradictions, we piloted SenseMaker, a digital ethnography tool designed to capture individual, embodied experiences, biases, and perceptions to map vulnerabilities and resilience to climate impacts in the Gaya District in Bihar. Our research shows that this digital tool allows for a systematic co-design of the research framework, allows for the collection of large volumes of data in a relatively short time, and a co-analysis of the research data by the researchers and the researched. This process allowed us to map and capture the complexities of intersectional inequalities in relation to climate change vulnerability. However, we also noted that the application of the tool is influenced by the prior exposure to technology (digital devices) of both the enumerators and researched groups and requires significant resources when implemented in contexts where there is a need to translate the data from local dialects and languages to more dominant languages (English). Most importantly, perceptions, positionalities, and biases of researchers can significantly impact the design of the tool’s signification framework, reiterating the fact that researcher bias persists regardless of technological innovations in research methodology.