Showing papers by "Christophe Béné published in 2014"

Review article: resilience, poverty and development

Abstract: Resilience has become prominent in academia where it is used as a central framework in disciplines such as ecology, climate change adaptation or urban planning. Policy makers and international development agencies also increasingly refer to it. The objective of this paper is to assess the advantages and limits of resilience in the context of development. Although the review highlights some positive elements—for example, the ability to foster an integrated approach—it also shows that resilience has important limitations. In particular, it is not a pro-poor concept, in the sense that it does not exclusively apply to, or benefit, the poor. As such, resilience building cannot replace poverty reduction. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Small-scale fisheries through the wellbeing lens

Abstract: Despite longstanding recognition that small-scale fisheries make multiple contributions to economies, societies and cultures, assessing these contributions and incorporating them into policy and decision-making has suffered from a lack of a comprehensive integrating ‘lens’. This paper focuses on the concept of ‘wellbeing’ as a means to accomplish this integration, thereby unravelling and better assessing complex social and economic issues within the context of fisheries governance. We emphasize the relevance of the three key components of wellbeing ‐ the material, relational and subjective dimensions, each of which is relevant to wellbeing at scales ranging from individual, household, community, fishery to human-ecological systems as a whole. We review nine major approaches influential in shaping current thinking and practice on wellbeing: the economics of happiness, poverty, capabilities, gender, human rights, sustainable livelihoods, vulnerability, social capital, and social wellbeing. The concept of identity is a thread that runs through the relational and subjective components of social wellbeing, as well as several other approaches and thus emerges as a critical element of small-scale fisheries that requires explicit recognition in governance analysis. A social wellbeing lens is applied to critically review a global body of literature discussing the social, economic and political dimensions of small-scale fishing communities, seeking to understand the relevance and value addition of applying wellbeing concepts in small-scale fisheries.

Resilience, poverty and development

Abstract: Resilience has become prominent in academia where it is used as a central framework in disciplines such as ecology, climate change adaptation or urban planning. Policy makers and international development agencies also increasingly refer to it. The objective of this paper is to assess the advantages and limits of resilience in the context of development. Although the review highlights some positive elements—for example, the ability to foster an integrated approach—it also shows that resilience has important limitations. In particular, it is not a pro-poor concept, in the sense that it does not exclusively apply to, or benefit, the poor. As such, resilience building cannot replace poverty reduction. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exploring the Potential and Limits of the Resilience Agenda in Rapidly Urbanising Contexts

Abstract: More than half the world’s population now live in urban areas. In developing countries, these areas will become home to almost all of the projected 50 per cent population growth that will occur between now and 2030, swelling urban populations by a further 1.3 billion by 2030 and 2.5 billion by 2050 (GMR 2013). As a result, by the middle of the century, urban dwellers will account for more than 85 per cent of the population in the more developed countries and more than 65 per cent in the less developed regions. Overall, it is expected that seven out of ten people will be living in urban areas by 2050 (UN-Habitat 2011). In this rapidly changing environment, megacities, urban corridors and city regions have attracted the largest attention of both academics and policymakers. In comparison, far less is known about smaller and emergent urban areas (Ferre, Ferreira and Lanjouw 2011), even if most of the current urban population in the world live in small and medium towns (WUP 2012) and the major part of population growth is projected to take place in those towns under one million people (using 2005 UN population estimates). As part of the Tomorrow-Today Horizon Scanning Initiative supported by IDS, the project ‘Exploring the Potential and Limits of the Resilience Agenda in Rapidly Urbanising Contexts’ aims to analyse the emergence of the concept of ‘urban resilience’ in the literature and to assess the potential and limitations of this concept as an element of policy narrative, especially in the context of rapid urbanisation processes. In order to give a more empirical dimension to this analysis, we also included two case studies (one large city – Mumbai in India, and one smaller city – Khulna in Bangladesh) with the aim of relying on these case studies to better understand some of the crucial processes characterising urbanisation, to scrutinise the dynamic and evolving linkages and processes that connect the rural and the urban in the peri-urban interface and the ways in which resources are differently defined, appropriated and used by various interest groups.

African Inland Fisheries: Experiences with Co-Management and Policies of Decentralization

Abstract: Most countries in Africa have promoted some form of decentralized fisheries management either as discrete co-management projects or as a component of broader decentralization processes that cut across other sectors. These initiatives were shaped by an international policy narrative that emphasises participation in decision making and development. A review of fisheries decentralization experiences in Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Malawi reveals marked differences in purpose, strategy, and performance. In general, co-management projects are limited by their ability to scale up new practice and to maintain viable and representative management institutions. In other cases, the decentralization process is not well supported politically or locally or does not articulate with fisheries policy. Experiences of decentralization in other sectors provide useful lessons. Acknowledging the informal institutional environment or realpolitikof fisheries and the rural economy could provide opportunities to better manage an...

The Potential and Limits of the ‘Resilience Agenda’ in Peri-urban Contexts

Abstract: More than half the world’s population now live in urban areas. In developing countries, these areas will become home to almost all of the projected population growth in the next three decades, swelling urban populations by a further 1.3 billion by 2030 and 2.5 billion by 2050. Increasing urban expansion – which creates peri-urban areas at the margins of cities – means that a simple distinction between urban and rural areas obscures a number of key issues. In the peri-urban interface, rural and urban dynamics overlap and land use changes tend to be particularly rapid, with wetlands and agricultural land often being converted to sites for industries, information technology (IT) hubs, infrastructure, and housing estates for affluent as well as poor residents, including migrants. Imprecise jurisdictional areas mean that both rural and urban authorities often fail to address the needs of peri-urban communities, who tend to be politically marginalised. As a consequence, land speculation is often widespread, with pockets of expensive new property developments surrounded by informal settlements.