Project description

A number of interesting findings are emerging and have been documented in the field rural development and rural livelihoods. However, the communicative aspect of the research findings is limited due to a number of reasons; (1) Research in rural dynamics is very complex and involves social, economic and environmental dimensions. Often there are limitations to include all these dimensions in a single study. Hence, most researchers in the field tend to be selective in terms of emphases given. (2) Contextualisation of research is a typical characteristic of rural studies and it is common that similar research themes are interpreted differently. Therefore, it is crucial that rural studies are able to communicate their findings in order to quality them and to establish dialogues with other interpretations and perspectives. This research network aims at initiating a framework/platform for communication and reflection on theories, concepts, methods and interpretations related to rural development research with particular emphasis on livelihoods, land and natural resources.  The network will also help to disseminate the findings to reach a wider public, NGOs and as well to inform policy makers.

The research network will address three major themes:
1. Rural poverty is deepening in East and Southern Africa in a context of low levels of agricultural productivity and resource degradation. The average annual growth in GDP in sub-Saharan Africa during the period 1980–2000 was negative 1.1 per cent. Important  responses by rural households are to diversify their economic activities and more intensively utilise available land and natural resources. Today more than half of rural incomes in sub-Saharan Africa are non-farm, but much of this diversification is related to survival rather than investments and accumulation. The network will specifically focus on the relationship between livelihood diversification and land issues, natural resource access and governance in East and Southern Africa. Scarcity induced conflicts over land and natural resources are on the rise. The pressure on these resources as well is on the increase due to rise in commercial investments and exports. E.g. Chinese sourcing for external resources, including timber, is now felt strongly in the region, due to ban on further exploitation in China itself. Hence there is both a subsistence and survival pressure as well as a commercial and export pressure on land and natural resources building up in East and Southern Africa.

2. The research network will as well analyse historical trajectories of different countries in the region, notably Ethiopia, Eastern and Southern Africa and inquire about the colonial legacy on institutions and law and their implications for post-colonial land and natural resource managements. The evolution of the more recent policy and legal processes regarding land and natural resources in most countries will be addressed with a particular view to how they promote poverty reduction, address gender issues and sustainability aspects.

3. Gender issues are central to management of land and natural resources, productivity development and food security. Analysis of indigenous institutions as regards the rights and role of women in agricultural production and natural resource use and management will be important. The implications of more secure property rights arrangements for productivity increase and food security will also be a major focus.

Conditions of participating institutions
The Nordic Africa Institute, the co-ordinating institution, has since the early 1960s been involved with social science research on Africa. The Institute whose role is research on and information about Africa has a number of research programmes that relate to the topic of the proposed research network, e.g. focussing on analysis and resolution of conflicts, including those relating to land and natural resources, gender issues, etc. The institute will now also initiate research on rural livelihood, land and natural resource governance. The Institute has a well equipped Library and co-operates with a number of universities and research institutions in Sweden, the Nordic countries, England, African countries and beyond. The institute has also a considerable publication activity with a major outreach to African institutions and libraries. Key persons at the Nordic Africa Institute will be the co-ordinator of the network, Professor Kjell Havnevik and the research director, Henning Melber, who both have a long experience from land and natural resource based research in East and Southern Africa. The key persons cover disciplines such as political economy, development studies and political science. Relationships will also be developed with the research programmes on gender and conflict and one which is in the process of being established on the role of the state in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Centre for Gender Studies, the University of Stockholm, is involved in research on livelihood diversification and migration in a gender perspective. The Centre runs a number of research projects and contributes to courses related to these activities. The key persons of the research network at the Centre for Gender Studies are Dr. Atakilte Beyene, conducting his research on institutional aspects related to agricultural productivity and resource accumulation patterns among smallholder farmers in northern Ethiopia, and Docent Gunilla Bjerén, head of the Centre, conducting research on livelihood diversification, identity, migration and gender in south/central Ethiopia.

Dalarna University, also participating in the research network, is developing a master programme on African studies with emphasis on history, civil society and governance aspects to start in 2006. The course will also be provided as a distance course. The key person in this development and participating in the research network at Dalarna University is Docent Tekeste Negash. He has long experience from Africa related research on land tenure, rural development in historical perspective and rural education and its role for development. The College has an increasing number of students with an interest in African studies which may benefit from the activities of the network.

The Department of Rural Development Studies and Agro-ecology, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, has a near ten year experience with research and education related to rural development and in particular land issues and natural resource management and food security. A number of Phd students are analysing such issues both in a Swedish, East African and Vietnamese context (some of the students are funded by Sarec).
The key persons at the Department will be Phd student Opira Otto, Phd student Deborah Duveskog, Phd Student Emil Sandström and Docent Lennart Salomonsson. Some of the researchers connected with the research network also take interdisciplinary approaches which can add important aspects to research on land and natural resource management and governance.

Our plan for extending the Swedish network includes research on legal issues in relation to land and natural resources.

The Swedish research network also in important ways extend to Norwegian institutions, the department of economics, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU (ass. Professor Rune Skarstein) and England (Dr. Deborah Bryceson, Africa Centre, University of Oxford).

International contacts of involved institutions
The Swedish network will be closely linked with a network of researcher and institutions in East and Southern Africa, including Mkelle University in Northern Ethiopia, the Agricultural University of Alemaya and Wondogenet Forest College, Dubu University in Central Ethiopia, the Center for Basic Research, University of Makerere, Uganda, the FAO Office, Nairobi, the Forest Faculty, Sokoine University of Agriculture, The regional CIFOR office (Centre for International Forest Research), Harare, the Institute for Environmental Studies and the Centre for Advanced Social Studies, the University of Zimbabwe. Beyond this network the individual involved in the Swedish research network and their institutions have a number of additional international contacts.

Forms of work
The Swedish research network will co-operate closely with the East and Southern Africa research network organised around the research programme, “Livelihood diversification, land and natural resources access and governance in rural Ethiopia, East Africa and Zimbabwe”. The Swedish network will develop a home page to inform about its research and activities so that it can be easily available to researchers linked to the network, other researchers and students in Sweden and the African co-operating research network.

The Swedish research network will organise workshops to present and discuss ongoing research and discuss how the research based in various disciplines can be interlinked to enhance its relevance for livelihood diversification and land and natural resource management issues. A joint workshop will also be organised with members of the co-operating African research network so that research conducted in the south and the north on similar issues can meet and strengthen each other.  Such a meeting of research conducted by researchers in the south and north will also be of particular value for teasing out research issues and topics that are relevant in the global context.

Upcoming events related to the research network is the organisation of a major international seminar on “Tanzania a Critical Analysis – analysis of 40 years of rural development”, Nordic Africa Institute, September 5 and 6 2005 and a workshop at the Africa Days at the Nordic Africa Institute on livelihood strategies and land and natural resource governance where scholars and students from all Nordic countries are invited (to be held from September 30 to October 2 2005).

A number of participants in the research network are also in the process of publishing a book on rural development and natural resources dynamics in the south – implications for livelihoods and governance, as a Sida Study (forthcoming 2005) and a book synthesising and analysing post-colonial rural development in Tanzania (forthcoming). A plan is underway to publish a book on land and natural resource access institutions based on a number of Phd theses, completed and ongoing, from participants in the Swedish and East and Southern African research network.

Funding
The co-operating institutions are of very different character, some are university institutions, some are centres or independent research institutions. The institutions involved are funded through the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture. The co-ordinating institution, the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) is funded by the Swedish Foreign Ministry and Sida and as well by the foreign ministries of other Nordic countries. NAI has a particular mandate to promote African related research in the Nordic countries, establish research networks and co-operate with African research institutions and universities. The co-operating institutions will engage actively with the Swedish network and extend co-operation with the East- and Southern co-operating network as well as Nordic and other institutions. We envisage at this state that we need around SEK 300 000 annually to run the planned activities, including website, seminars, publication of policy briefs, reports and articles as well as funding of joint seminars with the co-operating Africa research network. We envisage to run this network for at least five years, and if funding allow, even further.

Sida's comments to the project (in Swedish) (pdf).