Barriers or enablers? Chiefs, elite capture, disasters, and resettlement in rural Malawi

Kita, Stern Mwakalimi

doi:10.1111/disa.12295

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…For example, many scientists, politicians, and religious leaders (Kempf, 2012; Field et al, 2014) agree that when high vulnerability to climate change seems to be inevitable because of sea‐level rise and increasingly occurring and intensifying extreme weather events, resettlement may be the only option for survival. However, organisations may use the urgency of climate change to implement resettlement for political or economic motivations (Kita, 2019). Barnett and O'Neill (2012) also contend that without local decision‐making power and the participation of all community members, resettlement can lead to landlessness, homelessness, unemployment, social marginalisation, food insecurity, and reduced access to common property resources.…”

Section: Risk Perceptions and Cultures: Understanding Organisational mentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk perception and culture: implications for vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Rühlemann¹,

Jordan

2020

Disasters

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Perceptions of climate change play a critical role in determining the degree to which people are at risk throughout the world. The significance of culture in understanding why people perceive and respond to climate change in particular ways is largely ignored in mainstream climate change adaptation. This paper applies a critical realist approach to examine the sociocultural structures and causal mechanisms for inaction or (in)effective action between at-risk people and the organisations responsible for dealing with climate change. The findings reveal that there are varying context-specific sub-narratives among heterogeneous groups of people at risk and organisations that lead to inaction or (in)effective action in response to climate change, often independent of risk perceptions and with unforeseen consequences for the vulnerabilities of at-risk people. Specifically, sub-narratives may create parallel and/or conflicting climate-related perceptions and respective responses, legitimise unequal resource distribution, and justify the suppression and/or capitalisation of sub-cultural and/or individual risk perceptions.

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Section: Risk Perceptions and Cultures: Understanding Organisational mentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk perception and culture: implications for vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Rühlemann¹,

Jordan

2020

Disasters

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“…Whilst the establishment of the committees provides a structure for facilitating DRR at local levels, several challenges were identified, namely: (i) the committees being functional only in areas where the NGO projects are active, (ii) the lack of training and the clear division of responsibilities, (iii) the sustainability of committee interventions outside of the project span and (iv) the power relations involved with a selection of committee members, leading to elite-capture. In addition to the local institutions, traditional leaders (i.e., chiefs) are at the forefront of the community development efforts [86], and they present an essential part of local-level governance.…”

Section: Crosscutting Themes: Roles Of Institutions Leaders and Socmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

et al. 2019

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People possess a creative set of strategies based on their local knowledge (LK) that allow them to stay in flood-prone areas. Stakeholders involved with local level flood risk management (FRM) often overlook and underutilise this LK. There is thus an increasing need for its identification, documentation and assessment. Based on qualitative research, this paper critically explores the notion of LK in Malawi. Data was collected through 15 focus group discussions, 36 interviews and field observation, and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that local communities have a complex knowledge system that cuts across different stages of the FRM cycle and forms a component of community resilience. LK is not homogenous within a community, and is highly dependent on the social and political contexts. Access to LK is not equally available to everyone, conditioned by the access to resources and underlying causes of vulnerability that are outside communities’ influence. There are also limits to LK; it is impacted by exogenous processes (e.g., environmental degradation, climate change) that are changing the nature of flooding at local levels, rendering LK, which is based on historical observations, less relevant. It is dynamic and informally triangulated with scientific knowledge brought about by development partners. This paper offers valuable insights for FRM stakeholders as to how to consider LK in their approaches.

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“…Job security for unemployed rural dwellers is dwindling as a result of the scarcity of job opportunities [11]. Furthermore, poor infrastructure (mostly roads) and technology [12] has led to the transport of goods in or outside of rural areas becoming more expensive [12]. Consequently, in the past two decades, a host of recent studies have been conducted on the detrimental effects of drought on different countries' economies and on commercial agricultural production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought Influences on Food Insecurity in Africa: A Systematic Literature Review

Ngcamu

Chari

2020

IJERPH

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African countries continue to be prone to drought, caused mainly by unfavorable weather patterns and climatic variations which have an adverse impact on rural households and agricultural production. This literature review article accounted for the aforesaid drawbacks and attempted to assess the effect of drought on food insecurity in African countries. This article further sought to dissect the resilience and climate change adaptation strategies applied by African countries to mitigate the adverse effects of drought on food insecurity in rural livelihoods. The hermeneutic framework was adopted in this study, where the secondary data sources were searched from credible bibliographic and multidisciplinary databases and organizational websites. Thereafter, it was classified, mapped, and critically assessed using the qualitative data analysis software NVivo to generate patterns and themes. The NVivo program is a qualitative data analysis software package produced by QSR International and which helps qualitative researchers to organize, analyze, and find insights in qualitative data; for example, in journal articles where multilayered analysis on small or large volumes of data are required. This article has the potential to contribute in theory, concept, policy, and practice regarding best practices, resilience, and climate change adaptation strategies that can be harnessed by rural people. Furthermore, this article has the potential to shed light on the role played by traditional leadership and policy improvements in ensuring there is sufficient food during periods of drought.

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Barriers or enablers? Chiefs, elite capture, disasters, and resettlement in rural Malawi

Cited by 19 publications

References 80 publications

Risk perception and culture: implications for vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Risk perception and culture: implications for vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

Drought Influences on Food Insecurity in Africa: A Systematic Literature Review

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