Environmental Systems and Local Actors: Decentralizing Environmental Policy in Uganda
In: Environmental management: an international journal for decision makers, scientists, and environmental auditors, Band 45, Heft 2, S. 284-295
ISSN: 1432-1009
In: Environmental management: an international journal for decision makers, scientists, and environmental auditors, Band 45, Heft 2, S. 284-295
ISSN: 1432-1009
Since Ghana's oil discovery in 2007, the question of how the resource will benet aected communities and who holds the responsibly is still a subject of debate. Will the benets be negotiated by local actors or will benets ow automatically from the state and oil companies? Guided by the actor-oriented theoretical foundation, the paper qualitatively examines how dierent actors have emerged in the Western Region of Ghana to negotiate for benets from the oil nd. Two qualitative case studies were conducted on sher folks and youth groups to examine the processes, dynamics and outcomes of their negotiations. The results show that disenfranchised youth and sher folks, who feel dispossessed of their livelihood, have resorted to social mobilisation and contentious political bargaining strategies to negotiate for their benefits and to channel their grievances. Alternative livelihoods, jobs for locals and improvement in social infrastructural development are the primary requests of the local actors. The paper concludes that local actors' interests are varied and negotiations are largely unregulated. Local actors constantly accuse oil companies for not prioritising their needs. State coherent policies and structures to mediate the negotiation processes between local actors, companies and the state are therefore recommended to avoid violent conicts.Keywords: Local Actors, Negotiation, Local Benets, Oil and Gas, Ghana
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In the Alpine context, civil society organisations, with help of committed local actors (inhabitants, local representatives, researchers, managers of protected areas, and ecological associations) organised in networks, are bridging national boundaries to deal with environmental issues (Debarbieux & Rudaz, 2008). But, despite the willingness to focus on more horizontal relations, the administrative, political and ideological structures of the networks and their members do not completely detach themselves from the national level, as this paper shows.
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International audience ; In the Alpine context, civil society organisations, with help of committed local actors (inhabitants, local representatives, researchers, managers of protected areas, and ecological associations) organised in networks, are bridging national boundaries to deal with environmental issues (Debarbieux & Rudaz, 2008). But, despite the willingness to focus on more horizontal relations, the administrative, political and ideological structures of the networks and their members do not completely detach themselves from the national level, as this paper shows.
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Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors. In this new report focusing on agribusiness, forestry, and renewable energy projects ("land investments"), CCSI grounds transparency in the needs of project-affected communities and other local actors. Transparency efforts that seek to inform and empower communities can also help governments, companies, and other actors to more effectively manage operational risk linked to social conflict. Troublingly, the report finds that: Disclosures around land investments continue to fall short Communities struggle to access disclosed information More action is needed to enable communities to understand available information; and Communities face barriers to using information and to participating in open decision-making processes. Taking a politically informed approach that considers the incentives of powerful actors, the report proposes seven strategies to advance land investment transparency: Driving agendas with community-led processes, such as protocols, bylaws, and development plans Increasing technical support for communities Empowering good faith regulators Implementing multi-stakeholder and participatory processes, when appropriate Factoring community-generated information into investment-related decisions Initiating domestic mechanisms to increase public access to information Extending community participation beyond individual projects to the policy level.
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Like other countries of the world, Costa Rica faced the challenge of dealing with a variety of trade-offs when implementing sustainability goals in agriculture. Very often, economic promotion is in conflict with goals regarding human and environmental health protection. Organic farming practices could provide strategies to overcome some of these trade-offs. However, in Costa Rica, the majority of farmers still relies on conventional farm practices. In this paper, I investigate the potential for a sustainable transformation in Costa Rica's agriculture by focusing on organic farming policies. I shed light on the role local actors and organizations play in this process compared to other actor types. I argue that local actors are "the agents of change" in these processes, as these are the target groups of organic farming policies and are the ones who are asked to change their farm practices. Based on survey data and network analysis, I was able to illustrate how differently integrated local actors are compared to other actor types in Costa Rica's implementation of organic farming policies. Local actors show interest and willingness to further participate in land-use implementation processes when institutional barriers are alleviated, and further promotion instruments are available.
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In: https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-jyay-7009
Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors. In a new report focusing on agribusiness, forestry, and renewable energy projects ("land investments"), CCSI grounds transparency in the needs of project-affected communities and other local actors. Transparency efforts that seek to inform and empower communities can also help governments, companies, and other actors to more effectively manage operational risk linked to social conflict. Troublingly, the report finds that: - Disclosures around land investments continue to fall short - Communities struggle to access disclosed information - More action is needed to enable communities to understand available information; and - Communities face barriers to using information and to participating in open decision-making processes. Taking a politically informed approach that considers the incentives of powerful actors, the report proposes seven strategies to advance land investment transparency: 1. Driving agendas with community-led processes, such as protocols, bylaws, and development plans 2. Increasing technical support for communities 3. Empowering good faith regulators 4. Implementing multi-stakeholder and participatory processes, when appropriate 5. Factoring community-generated information into investment-related decisions 6. Initiating domestic mechanisms to increase public access to information 7. Extending community participation beyond individual projects to the policy level.
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In: Historical Social Research, Band 42, Heft 2, S. 243-266
The article examines the potential of the scale approach in the analysis of the former socialist dictatorships in Middle- and Middle-East-Europe based on the case of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Obviously, the communist claim to power always relied on highly centralised chains of command. Nevertheless, regional state functionaries were occasionally able to realize their specific interests by scalar strategies like forming horizontal alliances or 'jumping' over the official channels through vertical personal networks. Focussing on processes with different patterns of top-down- and bottom-up-interactions, the scale approach reveals the fragile construction of the GDR's 'Democratic Centralism': By taking responsibility for regional or local interests and trying to streamline them with central politics, state functionaries at the same time stabilized and undermined the political system. Despite gaining temporary leeway for acting in their own interests, regional and local authorities remained bound to the directives from the central leadership till the end of the GDR in 1989/90.
In: Dandashly , A & Kourtelis , C 2020 , ' Classifying the Implementation of the EU's Normative Power in its Southern Neighbourhood : The Role of Local Actors ' , Journal of Common Market Studies , vol. 58 , no. 6 , pp. 1523-1539 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13051
This article examines the role of local actors in the implementation of the European Union (EU) norms in the Arab Mediterranean countries (AMCs) after 2011. It argues that their role is determined by two parameters: their degree of involvement in policy formulation and the position of other external actors towards the EU norms. Based on this categorization, the article generates a typology of the application of the EU norms, and claims that their implementation in the AMCs takes a thin or a thick form. The findings of this typology suggest that holistic and Eurocentric narratives of the EU's normative power should be revisited. The implementation of EU norms must be contextualized and is conditional upon the differentiated role of local sectoral actors. For explaining the articulation of the EU's norms, this study considers two key sectors of the revised European Neighbourhood Policy: (1) democracy promotion and (2) sustainable development.
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In: Routledge studies in Middle Eastern economies
In: Harvard international review, Band 21, Heft 2, S. 38-41
ISSN: 0739-1854
In: African Safety Promotion: A Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, Band 4, Heft 1
ISSN: 1728-774X
Enduring colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary politics and policies in Africa. As former and new actors seek to expand economic and political influence in the continent, new forms of domination arise to accommodate neo- and post-colonial agendas. Development, an all-encompassing word that foresees linear pathways towards socially and politically engineered goals, has been used as normative justification for such endeavours (see Escobar, 2011; Ferguson, 1994). The underlying message being that those in the Global South need to modernize and come closer to the development standards of those in the Global North (Alemazung, 2010; Easterly, 2007; Ferguson, 2006; Rist, 2007). ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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In: Sustainability ; Volume 6 ; Issue 6 ; Pages 3145-3170
Many local government or regional plans have "a sustainable future for our community" as a goal. However, few local or regional governments have a sustainability reporting tool in place that enables them to understand how far along the pathway to sustainability their community is. There are a range of reasons for this, including current sustainability indicators and indices not matching the needs or capacity of local actors. This paper argues that a collaborative approach to developing sustainability reporting tools, that involves sustainability experts and local actors working together, will be more successful at developing a tool that has a theoretical basis with locally relevant indicators, which is practical for informed decision making. This process will also build the sustainability reporting capacity of local actors. This collaborative approach was tested in South West Victoria, Australia, resulting in a locally relevant, practical and theoretically sound sustainability reporting tool that met the needs of local actors. This outcome shows that a collaborative approach can overcome some of the barriers to sustainability reporting for local actors ; however, further testing is required.
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In: Routledge studies in Middle Eastern economies
This book examines the political and institutional processes that have led to the strengthening of the Israeli central bank within the context of the now predominant neoliberal regime.