Suchergebnisse

Bricolage in natural resource governance takes place through the interplay of a variety of actors. This article explores the practices of a group whose agency as bricoleurs has received little attention, namely the government officers who represent the state in the everyday management of water, land, forests and other resources across rural Africa. Specifically we examine how local Environment Officers in Taita Taveta County in Kenya go about implementing the national environmental law on the ground, and how they interact with communities in this process. As representatives of "the local state", the Environment Officers occupy an ambiguous position in which they are expected to implement lofty laws and policies with limited means and in a complex local reality. In response to this they employ three key practices, namely (i) working through personal networks, (ii) tailoring informal agreements, and (iii) delegating public functions and authority to civil society. As a result, the environmental law is to a large extent implemented through a blend of formal and informal rules and governance arrangements, produced through the interplay of the Environment Officers, communities and other local actors.

Bricolage in natural resource governance takes place through the interplay of a variety of actors. This article explores the practices of a group whose agency as bricoleurs has received little attention, namely the government officers who represent the state in the everyday management of water, land, forests and other resources across rural Africa. Specifically we examine how local Environment Officers in Taita Taveta County in Kenya go about implementing the national environmental law on the ground, and how they interact with communities in this process. As representatives of "the local state", the Environment Officers occupy an ambiguous position in which they are expected to implement lofty laws and policies with limited means and in a complex local reality. In response to this they employ three key practices, namely (i) working through personal networks, (ii) tailoring informal agreements, and (iii) delegating public functions and authority to civil society. As a result, the environmental law is to a large extent implemented through a blend of formal and informal rules and governance arrangements, produced through the interplay of the Environment Officers, communities and other local actors.

In the past ten years a significant number of policies and projects have been implemented in African countries in order to address climate change. At the same time, African countries have become more vocal in the global climate change negotiations. And yet there has been little analysis of domestic climate change agendas in African countries. This working paper is a modest first step in understanding the climate change agenda in one particular country, namely Zambia. The paper focuses on three features: It provides an overview of the disaster management and climate change framework at national level, it examines the role and extent of aid to climate change, and it discusses the interests of the central government in climate change. The paper finds that donors have played a central role in nurturing and influencing the climate change agenda in Zambia, and in developing the institutional framework for disaster management and climate change. However, the climate change agenda in Zambia is not only a donor construction: Although the issue is not high on the political agenda, there are de facto government interests related to climate change. This includes securing funding for civil service activities on the ground; addressing sensitive political aspects of disasters and food security; and dealing with possible threats to the national economy and political stability.

A growing number of civil society organisations apply human rights based approaches in their work. But what are the practical experiences with such approaches in climate change adaptation? This new DIIS report examines how NGOs in Cambodia and Kenya are approaching the issue of human rights in their efforts to support climate change adaptation. The report finds that while some NGOs are engaging human rights issues in climate change directly and openly through a "hard advocacy" approach, most choose a different strategy: In a political context where human rights remain highly sensitive, some NGOs avoid the issue of rights altogether, and focus instead on the technical aspects of climate change adaptation. Others apply a "soft advocacy" approach in which they seek to influence rights issues indirectly by collaborating with government agencies. The report discusses the nature and impact of these different approaches to human rights in climate change, and the perceptions and challenges that they reflect.

Recent years have witnessed an increasing focus on water as a source of conflict. So far, much of the focus has been on the risk for transboundary water conflicts. Our current knowledge on local water conflicts is however more limited, and trends to be based on sporadic accounts of local water conflicts rather than on systematic empirical evidence. At the same time, the extent and nature of local water cooperation is often overlooked, just as we know little about the particular role of the poorest in water conflict and cooperation. the lack of such knowledge jeopardizes current initiatives taken in many developing countries to ensure a more efficient and equitable water governance. To fill this gap, the Competing for Water research programme developed a conceptual and methodological framework for developing comprehensive inventories of local water-related conflict and cooperation. This report documents the results of applying this framework in Namwala District, Zambia, and discusses the implications.