This story originally published by the NewSecurityBeat blog and featuring the Collaborating for Resilience initiative tells what structured efforts to create inclusive dialogue can do to contribute to more equitable resource management and more resilient livelihoods in the communities fraught with conflict.
Ask Agnes Namukasa about sustainably managing fisheries in Kachanga, the lakeshore landing site she calls home in Uganda’s Masaka District, and you will soon learn about toilets. From her perspective, community members won’t address conflict between government enforcers and fishers, competition among neighboring villages, or pollution threatening aquatic ecosystems until they can first organize to address their most pressing daily needs. And in Kachanga, where chronic childhood diarrhea and a host of other illnesses stem from poor sanitation, those essentials include public latrines.
It’s become popular to say that the health of the environment and the health of human communities are interlinked. Yet much of the investment aimed at solving environmental crises still fails to make these connections. How can we do better?
One of the simplest and most effective means is to engage those most at risk in open and inclusive dialogue about the roots of current problems and strategies for addressing these. In most poor, rural communities in the developing world, that requires particular attention to strengthening women’s voices.
Read the full story>>>
Collaborating for Resilience is a joint initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems, adelphi, CAPRi, Foundation for Ecological Security, and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
To learn more about Collaborating for Resilience initiative, read this recent post by Blake Ratner on the CAPRi blog>>>
Featured image: Ryder Haske/WorldFish
