Digital Identity is Under Attack: FIDO Paris Seminar.pptx
Dr Douglas Brown: foundations for resilient livelihoods #BeatingFamine
1. Foundations for Resilient Livelihoods:
Soils, Savings and Trees
Douglas R. Brown
Director, Agriculture and Food Security
11 April 2012
Presentation at the international conference:
Beating famine: Sustainable food security through land
regeneration in a changing climate , Nairobi, Kenya
2. Some thoughts on hunger and food
“but hunger is not a natural disaster. It is a legacy of
choices made in the past. It stems from a series of
decisions that, in retrospect, appear short-sighted, and
were based on a wrong diagnosis of the causes of hunger,
leading to incorrect prescriptions to remedy it. The single
most important proximate cause of hunger today is that
… countries have either not invested sufficiently in
agriculture or have invested in the wrong kind of
agriculture, with little impact on the reduction in rural
poverty.”
Source:
de Schutter and Cordes. 2011. Accounting for Hunger. Page 2.
3. Some thoughts on hunger and food
“Food is indispensible for humanity. If there is
enough to eat and the food supply is sure, then
we’ll develop. But if we haven’t enough to eat,
then we cannot develop. We must sort out the
food problem before we do anything else.”
Source:
Yacouba Sawadogo in “The Man who Stopped the
Desert”, http://www.1080films.co.uk/Yacoubamovie/
4. Some thoughts on worldview and food
production
Religion, cultural values and norms
“those worldview beliefs that determine
cultural values and individual motivation and
behaviour ”
Source:
Gary W. Fick. 2008. Food, Farming and Faith
A study of the linkage between Judeo-Christian
foundations or principles found in the Bible and
agricultural sustainability.
5. The heart of the matter
Agriculture has two essential parts:
Working the land
Taking care of the land
Source: Genesis 2:15
What do we most often emphasize?
What do we neglect?
6. Investing in the Asset
Base for Resilient
Livelihoods
Natural Capital
Soil, water, land
Human Capital
Knowledge and skills
Social Capital
Institutions
Cultural values and
norms
Physical Capital
Financial Capital
Finances
Market institutions
7. But something is missing too
HORN OF AFRICA: Greater food insecurity forecast
Source: IRIN, 5 April 2012,
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95247/HORN-OF-AFRICA-Greater-food
Support to resilience is said to be essential – but what is
that? Is it?:
Long term investment in education, water and early warning
Provision of drought-resistant seeds, water, education, weather
forecasting and scaling up nutrition
The question we have been asking:
What will build or restore resilience?
10. Ecosystem resilience and food security
Increase dryland agricultural productivity (profitability), sustainability
and resilience through
Capturing higher percentage of rainfall
Mulch vs bare soil
Contour bunds
Ridge tillage
Other S&WC practices
Increasing soil organic matter content
Improves soil’s capacity to absorb rainfall and retain soil
moisture
Increases capacity of soil to retain plant nutrients
Improves fertilizer use efficiency
Incorporate trees into the agropastoral landscape
Increase resiliency to climatic and market shocks through more
diversified production systems
11. State: State:
CWBO1: CWBO2:
Resilient Food
Parents Nourishe
Livelihoo Securit
Provide d
d y
Agricultural
Production Household
Land Knowledge
Resources Food
& Skills
Consumption
(quantity,
quality,
intrahoushol
Income Cultural
d allocation,
Values,
etc.)
Labour Norms &
Resources Priorities
Other Uses
of Income
Non-Agr. (+ve, -ve)
Use of
Labour Savings
Understanding the system in order to effect change
12. Foundations for Resilient Livelihoods
Soils, Savings, Trees (SST)
Soils
Protect, restore soils through good S&WC practices
Savings
Savings groups for all households
Tress
Regeneration of woody vegetation in the landscape
These are the foundations for resilience
Accessible to all
Even the poorest and most vulnerable
Other things are good, but these are foundational
13.
14. Development is …
People
Wanting things to be better – hopes and aspirations
May feel trapped – need the space and the possibility to change
Change
People need to be free to change
People need to want to change
People need to be able to change
Helping people to bring about change through
Local participation
Local perceptions
Local knowledge
Local empowerment
Local institutions, cultural values and norms
15.
16. Source:
Sahel Working Group. 2011. Escaping
the Hunger Cycle - Pathways-to-
Resilience-in-the-Sahel.
http://www.groundswellinternational.org/sust
http://www.odi.org.uk/events/details.asp?id=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTIVdNK
Notas del editor
“ but hunger is not a natural disaster. It is a legacy of choices made in the past. It stems from a series of decisions that, in retrospect, appear short-sighted, and were based on a wrong diagnosis of the causes of hunger, leading to incorrect prescriptions to remedy it. The single most important proximate cause of hunger today is that developing countries have either not invested sufficiently in agriculture or have invested in the wrong kind of agriculture, with little impact on the reduction in rural poverty.” But what is the “right kind of agriculture”? What should we invest in? What is of most relevance to the smallholder farmer -- to the urban or rural poor?
Important to understand the cultural values and norms of ourselves and what shape them. Equally important to understand those of the people we seek to work with and to help on the road to improved food security – to speak in their language and perhaps open their minds to aspects of their stated world view that are perhaps overlooked or ignored. At the heart of the matter are the choices people make – when raising children, when growing food, earning a livelihood.
“ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15
But the language we hear used is not at all encouraging. It doesn’t give me the impression that people get it. Two quotes: “ We have mobilized funds [US$340 million] to support resilience programmes , and while the problems cannot be solved overnight, it is important to appreciate the need for long-term investments in such areas as education, water, and the need to identify problems early and deal with them in good time. People need to be helped to recover quickly from disasters,” Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner the UK’s development minister, Stephen O’Brien, said: “ Resilience programme support is an important part of humanitarian support and response and provides a more sustainable way to deal with disasters.” Among things to be prioritized will be the provision of drought-resistant seeds, water, education, investing in weather forecasting technology, and scaling up nutrition programmes. I don’t know whether what we are reading here is reflects the actual views of the people being quoted (that is, as to what is needed to improve resilience) or the misconceptions of the journalist writing the report. While these areas for investment are certainly important and need attention, I would suggest that they are not the most important ones for addressing the underlying issues of vulnerability and to increase resilience.
The above is a simplified representation of the elements to be considered when examining resilience. Context ‘ Resilience of what? ’ Resilience can be identified and strengthened in a social group, socio-economic or political system, environmental context or institution. Each of these systems will display greater or lesser resilience to natural or man-made disasters. Disturbance ‘ Resilience to what? ’ These disturbances usually take two forms: Shocks are sudden events that impact on the vulnerability of the system and its components. Stresses are long-term trends that undermine the potential of a given system or process and increase the vulnerability of actors within it. These can include natural resource degradation, loss of agricultural production, urbanisation, demographic changes, climate change, political instability and economic decline. Capacity to deal with disturbance The ability of the system or process to deal with the shock or stress is based on the levels of exposure , the levels of sensitivity and adaptive capacities. The other side of resilience is vulnerability - the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, the adverse effects of shocks and stresses. Reaction to disturbance In the best case, the reaction to a shock or stress might be a ‘bounce back better’ for the system or process concerned.
Rainfall Run-off Bare Mulched Ghana 49.80% 1.40% Cote d’Ivoire 36.40% 0.33% 29.00% 0.10% Nigeria 42.10% 2.40% 69.00% 2.00% Source: Aina, P.O., Dept of Soil Science, Obafemi Awolowi University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in Soil Tillage in Africa: Needs and Challenges, FAO Retaining Plant Nutrients in the Weathered Soils Soil texture CEC (meq/100g soil) Sands (light-colored) 3-5 Sands (dark-colored) 10-20 Loams 10-15 Silt loams 15-25 Clay and clay loams 20-50 Organic soils 50-100
Tony realized in Niger, when he discovered the FMNR approach, that: -- they were not fighting against the desert -- they were fighting for the hearts and minds of the people (not just the local people, but also those in power)
The above is a simplified representation of the elements to be considered when examining resilience. Context ‘ Resilience of what? ’ Resilience can be identified and strengthened in a social group, socio-economic or political system, environmental context or institution. Each of these systems will display greater or lesser resilience to natural or man-made disasters. Disturbance ‘ Resilience to what? ’ These disturbances usually take two forms: Shocks are sudden events that impact on the vulnerability of the system and its components. Stresses are long-term trends that undermine the potential of a given system or process and increase the vulnerability of actors within it. These can include natural resource degradation, loss of agricultural production, urbanisation, demographic changes, climate change, political instability and economic decline. Capacity to deal with disturbance The ability of the system or process to deal with the shock or stress is based on the levels of exposure , the levels of sensitivity and adaptive capacities. The other side of resilience is vulnerability - the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, the adverse effects of shocks and stresses. Reaction to disturbance In the best case, the reaction to a shock or stress might be a ‘bounce back better’ for the system or process concerned.