Power of partnership conference: Presentation: Pathways out of poverty for reservoir-dependent communities in Burkina Faso

1. Presentation title
Name Surname, Title
Date
Pathways out of Poverty for Reservoir-dependent Communities in Burkina Faso
Marlène Elias, Aurokiatou Tiegue Traoré, Mansour Boundaogo, Sarah Jones
Power of Partnership Conference, 3 December 2018, Delhi

2. Aim, context, and conceptual framework
Aim: To develop approaches that foster the equitable and sustainable
management of common property resources
• In two small water reservoirs, Center-
East Burkina Faso
• Drawing on works on collective
action and management of common
property resources (e.g. Ostrom),
bringing in ‘contact theory’ (Allport
1954, 1958)

3. Research question and methodology
Under which conditions can ‘contact zones ’ foster collective,
sustainable, and inclusive action?
Problem
identification
Identification
& prioritization
of solutions
Action plansImplementation
Monitoring
and adaptive
learning
• Contact zones with different
gender, generational, ethnic and
livelihood groups and institutional
actors
• Externally facilitated dialogues
• Sub-groups discuss together in
plenary

4. Impacts on social relations
Changes in gender and generational relations in water
governance
• Recognition of women’s knowledge and
interests (creation of group of resource
persons)
• Recognition of young people’s leadership
‘The ducklings are in the front and the duck
follows’ (male elder, Lagdwenda)
• Inclusion of fishermen
Environmental
Social/equity:
• Intra-community
• Inter-community
• Between communities
and institutional actors
Economic

5. Impacts on awareness and practices
Local appropriation of process of collective management
• Awareness of local capacities and
collective resources
• Perceived importance of equitable
solutions
• Changing practices among fishermen,
herders, horticulturalists; collection of
funds from community for collective
works

6. Key message
Participatory action research in contact zones can support collective action towards
equitable and sustainable management of common property resources under certain
conditions:
Allport 1954; Dovidio et al. 2003 Additional conditions, from ‘Pathways out
of Poverty’
• Equal group status within the contact
situation (neutral and equitable facilitation)
• Intergroup cooperation
• Shared goal
• Support of authorities, law or customary
norms
• Personal acquaintance among members
• Inter-group friendships
• Interactive, locally owned approach
• Time and recurrence of interactions
• Clear understanding of problems, solutions
• Clear and collective understanding of each
actor’s roles and responsibilities
• Inclusive representation of user groups
• Local leadership

7. Thank you
www.bioversityinternational.org/subscribe
@BioversityInt
Marlène Elias
marlene.elias@cgiar.org