Recent debates in social anthropology on land acquisitions highlight the need to go further back ... more Recent debates in social anthropology on land acquisitions highlight the need to go further back in history in order to analyse their impacts on local livelihoods. The debate over the commons in economic and ecological anthropology helps us understand some of today's dynamics by looking at precolonial common property institutions and the way they were transformed by Western colonization to state property and then, later in the age of neoliberalism, to privatization and open access. This paper focuses on Africa and refers to the work of critical scholars who show that traditional land tenure was misinterpreted as customary tenure without full property rights, while a broader literature on the commons shows that common-pool resources (pasture, fisheries, wildlife, forestry etc.) have been effectively managed by locally-developed common property institutions. This misinterpretation continues to function as a legacy in both juridical and popular senses. Moreover, the transformation of political systems and the notion of customary land tenure produced effects of central importance for today's investment context. During colonial times a policy of indirect rule based on new elites was created to manage customary lands of so-called native groups who could use the land as long as it was of no value to the state. However, this land formally remained in the hands of the state, which also claimed to manage common-pool resources through state institutions. The neoliberal policies that are now demanded by donor agencies have had two consequences for land and land-related common-pool resources. On the one hand, states often lack the financial means to enforce their own natural resource legislation and this has led to de facto open access. On the other hand, land legally fragmented from its common-pool resources has been transformed from state to private property. This has enabled new elites and foreign investors to claim private property on formerly commonly-held land, which also leads to the loss of access to land related common-pool resources for more marginal local actors. Thus, the paper argues that this process does not just lead to land grabbing but to commons grabbing as well. This has furthermore undermined the resilience and adaptive capacity of local populations because access to common-pool resources is vital for the livelihoods of more marginal groups, especially in times of crisis. Comparative studies undertaken on floodplains in Botswana, Cameroon, Mali, Tanzania and Zambia based on a New Institutional Political Ecology (NIPE) approach illustrate this process and its impacts and show how institutional transformations are key to understanding the impacts of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) and investments in Africa.
Measures adopted by indigent mothers in Kilifi County to tackle maternal health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study
PubMed, Dec 1, 2022
Many sub-Saharan African countries have experienced various challenges that threaten the quality ... more Many sub-Saharan African countries have experienced various challenges that threaten the quality of health services offered to the population. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to healthcare services in many countries as they grappled with implementing measures to curb its spread. The consequences of COVID-19 have been catastrophic for maternal and newborn health. There is a dearth of information on expectant mothers' negotiation mechanisms to access maternal health services during COVID-19 in Kenya. This rapid qualitative study draws data from purposefully selected 15 mothers who were either pregnant or had newborn babies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kilifi county in Kenya. Data were analyzed thematically and presented in a textual description. Women used the following alternatives to access maternal health: giving birth at the homes of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), substituting breastfeeding with locally available food supplements, relying on limited resources and neighbours for delivery and local savings and rotating credit associations. This study shows that urgent measures are needed to provide high quality maternal and child health services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. These include but are not limited to developing special interventions for the pregnant women for any emergency and establishing trust between communities and individuals through the TBAs.
Local perspectives on policy implementation of free maternity health services in Kenya: Implications for universal health coverage
PubMed, May 1, 2023
Kenya introduced free maternity services (FMS) in 2013 to enable all pregnant women to give birth... more Kenya introduced free maternity services (FMS) in 2013 to enable all pregnant women to give birth for free in all government public health facilities. Currently, Kenya is rolling out universal health coverage (UHC), which has been acknowledged as a priority goal for every health system and part of the 'Big Four Agenda' for sustainable national development in Kenya. FMS is one of the core services in Kenya, but since its launch, it is not clear whether the decentralized approach chosen to implement FMS is leading to UHC. This nine-month ethnographic study in Kilifi County, Kenya, was conducted between March-July 2016 and February-July 2017. A narrative approach to analysis was applied. In this article, we interrogate local perceptions of participation during the crafting and implementation of FMS. Findings show that FMS was detached from local realities, and this was a major inadequacy of the top to bottom approach. FMS did not consider local power relations and bargaining power which are requisites during policy formulation and implementation. The participants expressed desire for more localized control over resources from the national government. The findings suggest that as UHC is rolled out in Kenya, consultation of local stakeholders at the grassroots by the state departments would likely improve maternal healthcare outcomes. Such consultations must take into consideration differences in bargaining power and local power relations. Borrowing from the basic tenets of the recent anthropological theorization of constitutionality, this article proposes a bottom to top approach that leverages and integrates local views during policy-making process to create trust, a sense of ownership and accountability.
This paper examines changes in formal and informal land access rules for women in the Kafue Flats... more This paper examines changes in formal and informal land access rules for women in the Kafue Flats of southern Zambia and identifies alternatives to land privatization. In rural African communities dependent on subsistence production, access to common pool resources (CPRs) such as fisheries, wildlife or wild fruits made an important contribution to household food and nutritional security. In the pre-colonial period, the use of agricultural land and associated CPRs was governed by local institutions of common property, characterized by more-than-human relationships embedded in the local animistic ontology. To examine how women’s pre-colonial access rights were increasingly disregarded in the wake of new statutory laws, we analyzed qualitative ethnographic data on livelihoods and food security from three time periods between 2002 and 2018. The findings show how customary law land tenure has remained important, despite being complemented by statutory law designed to also protect women’s...
Discussions on the commons have resulted in a very rich and sophisticated literature, originating... more Discussions on the commons have resulted in a very rich and sophisticated literature, originating with the work of Garrett Hardin (1968), through the reactions summarised and synthesised by Elinor Ostrom (1990) 30 years ago. This has ranged from local studies of resource management, broad comparative studies and topics such as collective action and experiments to approaches involving the political ecology of the commons in a 'glocal' world (see, for a newer example, ). These research strands are also refected in the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), as well as in many publications in the International Journal of the Commons and other journals with related interests. The commons are also debated on several levels: from the local regulation of common-pool resources (CPRs) such as fsheries, pasture, forests and wildlife, to state, international and global levels such as those involving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). There is a focus on what can be called global commons, such as biodiversity and climate as issues related to collective ownership and governance on the global scale of a capitalist, neoliberal and sustainability-related state order. While some approaches see commons rather as patterns of 'commoning' (Bollier and Helferich 2015), which are to be understood as a collectively organised alternative to capitalism in practice, there are also views suggesting that 'commoning' hides that we are dealing with an individualised and a mostly challenging endeavour if power structures are not considered (see, for instance, Schläppi and Gruber 2018). So, where is this book to be placed? It is based on the results of the interdisciplinary research project SCALES (Sustainable Commons Adaptations to Landscape Ecosystems in Switzerland), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and looks at the more 'classical' commons as regards continuity and change in the management of CPRs such as pastures and forests in Switzerland. The main focus of the project is the differences and similarities
Commodity dependence is especially high in many least developed countries, with a corresponding i... more Commodity dependence is especially high in many least developed countries, with a corresponding increase in their vulnerability. For agricultural commodity-dependent developing countries, where a large portion of rural producers depend on commodities for their livelihoods, commodities and development are intertwined and inseparable concepts. Volatility and decline in the price of coffee have resulted in diminishing export revenues, undermining the ability of the state to invest in rural development. There have also been negative impacts at the micro level, leading to greater poverty among producers, deteriorating labour standards, and unsustainable land use practices. While the market for undifferentiated coffee has stagnated, the growth of the speciality market has created new opportunities for producers. A key characteristic of speciality markets is that they pay higher and more stable prices and provide additional benefits. For producers, the overall income impact depends on the ...
2) Preambles for SDG-Target Debate 3) The question of the commons debate (SDGs 6, 7, 14, 15) 4) T... more 2) Preambles for SDG-Target Debate 3) The question of the commons debate (SDGs 6, 7, 14, 15) 4) The landgrab/large-scale land aquisition debate (SDGs 7, 8, 9) 5) The climate change debate (SDGs 11, 12, 13) 6) The distributional justice debate (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) 7) The new institutional politics of distribution debate (SDGs 10, 16) 8) The local initiatives and participation debate (SDG 17) 9) Synthesis and final conclusions Bibliography
We would also like to thank Tobias Haller (University of Bern, Switzerland), Jean-Maurice Durand,... more We would also like to thank Tobias Haller (University of Bern, Switzerland), Jean-Maurice Durand, Rudolph Cleveringa, Paxina Chileshe, Ilaria Firmian, and Francesca Carpano (International Fund for Agricultural Development -IFAD), all of our colleagues from the IASS's Global Soil Forum and Anne Boden for their valuable contributions to the project.
Intercultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research interfaces confront researchers ... more Intercultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research interfaces confront researchers with considerable challenges. Towards Shared Research portrays how scholars from different disciplinary and geographical origins and at various academic career stages strive for a more inclusive and better understanding of knowledge about African environments. The book is addressed to researchers, facilitators, and policy-makers to make a case for participatory and integrative approaches resulting in systemic and co-created analyses.
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 2020
A new book draws attention to the twists and turns of participatory and integrative research in A... more A new book draws attention to the twists and turns of participatory and integrative research in African environments. The editors present the highlights of the book and argue for “shared research” which calls for an openness to diverse perspectives and the integration of local knowledge and development contexts.
Recent debates in social anthropology on land acquisitions highlight the need to go further back ... more Recent debates in social anthropology on land acquisitions highlight the need to go further back in history in order to analyse their impacts on local livelihoods. The debate over the commons in economic and ecological anthropology helps us understand some of today's dynamics by looking at precolonial common property institutions and the way they were transformed by Western colonization to state property and then, later in the age of neoliberalism, to privatization and open access. This paper focuses on Africa and refers to the work of critical scholars who show that traditional land tenure was misinterpreted as customary tenure without full property rights, while a broader literature on the commons shows that common-pool resources (pasture, fisheries, wildlife, forestry etc.) have been effectively managed by locally-developed common property institutions. This misinterpretation continues to function as a legacy in both juridical and popular senses. Moreover, the transformation of political systems and the notion of customary land tenure produced effects of central importance for today's investment context. During colonial times a policy of indirect rule based on new elites was created to manage customary lands of so-called native groups who could use the land as long as it was of no value to the state. However, this land formally remained in the hands of the state, which also claimed to manage common-pool resources through state institutions. The neoliberal policies that are now demanded by donor agencies have had two consequences for land and land-related common-pool resources. On the one hand, states often lack the financial means to enforce their own natural resource legislation and this has led to de facto open access. On the other hand, land legally fragmented from its common-pool resources has been transformed from state to private property. This has enabled new elites and foreign investors to claim private property on formerly commonly-held land, which also leads to the loss of access to land related common-pool resources for more marginal local actors. Thus, the paper argues that this process does not just lead to land grabbing but to commons grabbing as well. This has furthermore undermined the resilience and adaptive capacity of local populations because access to common-pool resources is vital for the livelihoods of more marginal groups, especially in times of crisis. Comparative studies undertaken on floodplains in Botswana, Cameroon, Mali, Tanzania and Zambia based on a New Institutional Political Ecology (NIPE) approach illustrate this process and its impacts and show how institutional transformations are key to understanding the impacts of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) and investments in Africa.
Measures adopted by indigent mothers in Kilifi County to tackle maternal health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study
PubMed, Dec 1, 2022
Many sub-Saharan African countries have experienced various challenges that threaten the quality ... more Many sub-Saharan African countries have experienced various challenges that threaten the quality of health services offered to the population. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to healthcare services in many countries as they grappled with implementing measures to curb its spread. The consequences of COVID-19 have been catastrophic for maternal and newborn health. There is a dearth of information on expectant mothers' negotiation mechanisms to access maternal health services during COVID-19 in Kenya. This rapid qualitative study draws data from purposefully selected 15 mothers who were either pregnant or had newborn babies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kilifi county in Kenya. Data were analyzed thematically and presented in a textual description. Women used the following alternatives to access maternal health: giving birth at the homes of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), substituting breastfeeding with locally available food supplements, relying on limited resources and neighbours for delivery and local savings and rotating credit associations. This study shows that urgent measures are needed to provide high quality maternal and child health services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. These include but are not limited to developing special interventions for the pregnant women for any emergency and establishing trust between communities and individuals through the TBAs.
Local perspectives on policy implementation of free maternity health services in Kenya: Implications for universal health coverage
PubMed, May 1, 2023
Kenya introduced free maternity services (FMS) in 2013 to enable all pregnant women to give birth... more Kenya introduced free maternity services (FMS) in 2013 to enable all pregnant women to give birth for free in all government public health facilities. Currently, Kenya is rolling out universal health coverage (UHC), which has been acknowledged as a priority goal for every health system and part of the 'Big Four Agenda' for sustainable national development in Kenya. FMS is one of the core services in Kenya, but since its launch, it is not clear whether the decentralized approach chosen to implement FMS is leading to UHC. This nine-month ethnographic study in Kilifi County, Kenya, was conducted between March-July 2016 and February-July 2017. A narrative approach to analysis was applied. In this article, we interrogate local perceptions of participation during the crafting and implementation of FMS. Findings show that FMS was detached from local realities, and this was a major inadequacy of the top to bottom approach. FMS did not consider local power relations and bargaining power which are requisites during policy formulation and implementation. The participants expressed desire for more localized control over resources from the national government. The findings suggest that as UHC is rolled out in Kenya, consultation of local stakeholders at the grassroots by the state departments would likely improve maternal healthcare outcomes. Such consultations must take into consideration differences in bargaining power and local power relations. Borrowing from the basic tenets of the recent anthropological theorization of constitutionality, this article proposes a bottom to top approach that leverages and integrates local views during policy-making process to create trust, a sense of ownership and accountability.
This paper examines changes in formal and informal land access rules for women in the Kafue Flats... more This paper examines changes in formal and informal land access rules for women in the Kafue Flats of southern Zambia and identifies alternatives to land privatization. In rural African communities dependent on subsistence production, access to common pool resources (CPRs) such as fisheries, wildlife or wild fruits made an important contribution to household food and nutritional security. In the pre-colonial period, the use of agricultural land and associated CPRs was governed by local institutions of common property, characterized by more-than-human relationships embedded in the local animistic ontology. To examine how women’s pre-colonial access rights were increasingly disregarded in the wake of new statutory laws, we analyzed qualitative ethnographic data on livelihoods and food security from three time periods between 2002 and 2018. The findings show how customary law land tenure has remained important, despite being complemented by statutory law designed to also protect women’s...
Discussions on the commons have resulted in a very rich and sophisticated literature, originating... more Discussions on the commons have resulted in a very rich and sophisticated literature, originating with the work of Garrett Hardin (1968), through the reactions summarised and synthesised by Elinor Ostrom (1990) 30 years ago. This has ranged from local studies of resource management, broad comparative studies and topics such as collective action and experiments to approaches involving the political ecology of the commons in a 'glocal' world (see, for a newer example, ). These research strands are also refected in the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC), as well as in many publications in the International Journal of the Commons and other journals with related interests. The commons are also debated on several levels: from the local regulation of common-pool resources (CPRs) such as fsheries, pasture, forests and wildlife, to state, international and global levels such as those involving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). There is a focus on what can be called global commons, such as biodiversity and climate as issues related to collective ownership and governance on the global scale of a capitalist, neoliberal and sustainability-related state order. While some approaches see commons rather as patterns of 'commoning' (Bollier and Helferich 2015), which are to be understood as a collectively organised alternative to capitalism in practice, there are also views suggesting that 'commoning' hides that we are dealing with an individualised and a mostly challenging endeavour if power structures are not considered (see, for instance, Schläppi and Gruber 2018). So, where is this book to be placed? It is based on the results of the interdisciplinary research project SCALES (Sustainable Commons Adaptations to Landscape Ecosystems in Switzerland), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and looks at the more 'classical' commons as regards continuity and change in the management of CPRs such as pastures and forests in Switzerland. The main focus of the project is the differences and similarities
Commodity dependence is especially high in many least developed countries, with a corresponding i... more Commodity dependence is especially high in many least developed countries, with a corresponding increase in their vulnerability. For agricultural commodity-dependent developing countries, where a large portion of rural producers depend on commodities for their livelihoods, commodities and development are intertwined and inseparable concepts. Volatility and decline in the price of coffee have resulted in diminishing export revenues, undermining the ability of the state to invest in rural development. There have also been negative impacts at the micro level, leading to greater poverty among producers, deteriorating labour standards, and unsustainable land use practices. While the market for undifferentiated coffee has stagnated, the growth of the speciality market has created new opportunities for producers. A key characteristic of speciality markets is that they pay higher and more stable prices and provide additional benefits. For producers, the overall income impact depends on the ...
2) Preambles for SDG-Target Debate 3) The question of the commons debate (SDGs 6, 7, 14, 15) 4) T... more 2) Preambles for SDG-Target Debate 3) The question of the commons debate (SDGs 6, 7, 14, 15) 4) The landgrab/large-scale land aquisition debate (SDGs 7, 8, 9) 5) The climate change debate (SDGs 11, 12, 13) 6) The distributional justice debate (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) 7) The new institutional politics of distribution debate (SDGs 10, 16) 8) The local initiatives and participation debate (SDG 17) 9) Synthesis and final conclusions Bibliography
We would also like to thank Tobias Haller (University of Bern, Switzerland), Jean-Maurice Durand,... more We would also like to thank Tobias Haller (University of Bern, Switzerland), Jean-Maurice Durand, Rudolph Cleveringa, Paxina Chileshe, Ilaria Firmian, and Francesca Carpano (International Fund for Agricultural Development -IFAD), all of our colleagues from the IASS's Global Soil Forum and Anne Boden for their valuable contributions to the project.
Intercultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research interfaces confront researchers ... more Intercultural, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research interfaces confront researchers with considerable challenges. Towards Shared Research portrays how scholars from different disciplinary and geographical origins and at various academic career stages strive for a more inclusive and better understanding of knowledge about African environments. The book is addressed to researchers, facilitators, and policy-makers to make a case for participatory and integrative approaches resulting in systemic and co-created analyses.
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 2020
A new book draws attention to the twists and turns of participatory and integrative research in A... more A new book draws attention to the twists and turns of participatory and integrative research in African environments. The editors present the highlights of the book and argue for “shared research” which calls for an openness to diverse perspectives and the integration of local knowledge and development contexts.
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