Suchergebnisse

This case study reflects on the experiences of doing a critical policy analysis focused on the implementation of key national social policies in India intended to address poverty and malnutrition. This work was conducted by researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in India. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of large-scale national policies at a local level and to identify areas of convergence as well as gaps between policy goals and implementation. We employed a mixed-method data collection strategy that had two components. The first entailed a systematic, in-depth review of relevant policy documents, including policy drivers, goals, and outcomes as available from government sources, non-governmental policy think tanks, and scholarly literature. The second component entailed qualitative data collection through focus groups with policy implementers and end users in three rural areas of India, comparing their perspectives and experiences with the policy claims of relevant national social policies. Key challenges with doing international, cross-cultural research using a critical policy approach and key learnings gained from this research journey are explored in this case study.

Metadata only record ; In 1996, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Institute for Rural Development at the University of Goettingen began a research project aimed at providing information to improve the efficiency, equity, and environmental sustainability of livestock production and land use in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project focused on semi-arid areas where mobile livestock-production and mixed crop-livestock production are competing land uses. It is estimated that a population of 87 million live in these areas, and these people are among the poorest in the world. Not only are average incomes low, but their livelihoods are also subject to a great deal of risk-environmental, tenurial, social, and political.

In recent years, policy toward rangeland tenure in sub-Saharan Africa has been based on one of two theoretical perspectives: the "openaccess" model and the "common property" model. In this paper, the author offers a new theoretical perspective on rangeland tenure which attempts to address the inadequacies of existing models. He concludes that many range tenure systems in Africa are best defined in terms of "coordination access" and "implicit contracts", in which pastoralists "coordinate mutually beneficial rangeland use without the existence of common property tenure systems". The success of these systems depends upon herders' basing their range use strategies upon information about the behaviour of other herders and enforcing informal social sanctions against indisirable behaviour. (DÜI-Hff)

AbstractProvision of safe water supplies is a priority for the global community and for villages in Kenya. An extended case study from the highlands of Western Kenya shows that local communities can be successful in self‐organisation for improved water supply, but only by mobilising considerable amounts of investment resources and local collective action. Gender relations are crucial to success, with women having primary responsibility for water management, but more or less hidden roles in community groups. There are legitimate concerns that Kenya's new water laws and institutions may make it more difficult for local community groups to self‐organise, with additional biases against women. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.