International Institute for Environment and Development

Abstract Current climate change adaptation assessments are limited in their scope, accuracy, and relevance to local contexts. Here, we present an improved assessment approach using coproduction, applied to locally led adaptation (LLA) to flood risk in Tamale, Ghana. Through a multi-year process, including participatory ranking, focus groups, and household surveys, 11 solutions were assessed. Assessments considered multiple risk-reduction mechanisms, equity, sustainability, and co-impacts. Community-based and behavioural solutions, such as collective action and tree planting, were deemed most effective, whilst structural and technical solutions were ranked lower. By integrating these assessments into a flood risk model, we show that LLA approaches significantly reduced flood risk overall but did not address existing inequalities. Our results showcase the potential of coproduction to increase the scope and robustness of adaptation assessments and highlight practical challenges of delivering on the LLA principles in real-world settings.

Due to a lack of formal planning and resources, piped networks in low-income African urban areas may develop into an unstructured and chaotic configuration. This makes such areas more vulnerable to service disruptions, with infrastructure harder to maintain and inefficiently configured. The delegated management model (DMM), where a utility provider delegates water service delivery responsibilities to micro-operators, is a proposed solution to this issue, implemented in numerous cities, including Kisumu, Kenya. However, it is unclear empirically whether DMM rationalizes the spatial configuration of piped water networks in slums. This study aims to assess how piped network topology and, thereby, efficiency and interruption vulnerability vary in Kisumu and Kigali based on water service management arrangements and for slum versus non-slum areas. We applied the hierarchical Infomap community detection algorithm to a water pipeline network digital map layer for both cities. Infomap iteratively distinguishes communities as areas of the network where dense connections exist, generating a hierarchical classification based on the network topology. Graph-based analysis highlights the structural characteristics of pipeline networks shaped by the cities’ urban planning and development strategies. In both cities, Infomap output differentiates low-income areas from other neighborhoods, so in Kisumu, it further discriminates DMM neighborhoods from other parts of the pipeline network. This suggests that the topology and, therefore, the vulnerability of the pipeline network within DMM neighborhoods demonstrate similarities, and that these are distinct between slum and non-slum areas.

Within discussions of land and resource rights, there is growing attention to women's rights, mostly in terms of household and individual rights to private property. This leaves unanswered questions about whether and how women's land rights can be secured under collective tenure, upon which billions of people worldwide depend. There is an important gap in conceptual tools, empirical understanding, and policy recommendations on this topic. To address this gap and lay the foundations for a sound body of empirical studies and appropriate policies, we develop a conceptual framework to improve understanding of women's land rights under collective tenure. We discuss what secure tenure for women on collective lands would entail, then what factors would affect women's tenure security. We give attention to particularities of rangelands, forests, and other types of collective lands as well as commonalities across types. A key theme that emerges is that for women to have secure tenure under collective tenure, the collective (group) itself must have tenure security and the women must have secure rights within this collective. The latter requires us to consider the governance structures, how men and women access and control land, and the extent to which women have voice and power within the collective. More consistent analyses of collective tenure systems using the conceptual framework presented in this paper can help to identify which action resources are important for groups to secure rights to collective lands, and for women to advocate for their rights within the group. • There is insufficient understanding of women's tenure security on collective lands. • Our framework helps identify factors affecting women's collective tenure security. • Women's collective tenure security depends on group and individual rights. • First, the group that holds the land must itself have tenure security. • Second, women should have secure rights in the group and in collective governance.

Living conditions of the rural population in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have suffered from prolonged violent conflicts, poor governance, declining soil fertility, and lack of infrastructure to support economic development. In parallel, artisanal mining has become a widespread livelihood activity in the area. This study investigates how rural households integrate artisanal mining into their traditional farming livelihoods. It uses empirical data collected in household surveys conducted around Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve in the South Kivu province in a hurdle regression model to show that mining is used as both complementary and substitutory to farming. Results indicate that households that use mining to complement their farming activities tend to experience higher food security compared to non-mining households. As the reliance on mining increases, households tend to cultivate less land. These findings can help to inform actions against the prevalent issue of food insecurity in the region, but also point to dilemmas and trade-offs among environmental and development goals. • Artisanal mining is an important element in livelihood diversification strategies in South Kivu. • The extent to which artisanal miners diversify differs and depends on risk and income differentials compared to other livelihood activities. • Households that have diversified into mining have experienced more food security. • Substitution of farming activities was observed, but only for higher levels of mining involvement. • Addressing food security in the region is closely connected to improving farm livelihoods and can be supported by creating stronger synergies with the artisanal mining sector.

Mismanaged plastic waste undermines environmental quality, aquatic ecosystems and ultimately public health. Mismanaged plastics increasingly originate from urban populations lacking waste collection services. Household expenditure survey analyses have quantified plastic waste generation among these populations, but only for individual products (e.g. bagged or bottled drinking-water), not for the overall packaging profile of households’ basket-of-goods. This study aims to evaluate how far the international NOVA classification of foods/beverages and commodity classifications by residents predict plastic food packaging. Via a cross-sectional market surveillance survey, packaging was observed for 502 and 396 transactions at selected retail outlets serving low-income areas of Greater Accra, Ghana, and Kisumu, Kenya respectively. In both cities, NOVA processed/ultra-processed food and food/beverage classes created by local residents were significantly associated with greater plastic food packaging, with similar predictive performance. Plastic packaging prevalence was also significantly higher in supermarkets. Plastic packaging use was significantly lower in Kisumu, where single-use carrier bags are banned. Thus, given their international availability and national representativeness, household expenditure surveys have potential for monitoring to inform policy by targeting plastic pollution hot-spots. However, survey-based monitoring should incorporate expert knowledge of national context and the retail environment to reflect the realities of packaging use.

Due to complex interactions, changes in any one area of food systems are likely to impact—and possibly depend on—changes in other areas. Here we present the first annual monitoring update of the indicator framework proposed by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative, with new qualitative analysis elucidating interactions across indicators. Since 2000, we find that 20 of 42 indicators with time series have been trending in a desirable direction, indicating modest positive change. Qualitative expert elicitation assessed governance and resilience indicators to be most connected to other indicators across themes, highlighting entry points for action—particularly governance action. Literature review and country case studies add context to the assessed interactions across diets, environment, livelihoods, governance and resilience indicators, helping different actors understand and navigate food systems towards desirable change.

Source Agritrop Cirad (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/611678/)

This paper investigates the multiple ways in which the lives of urban refugees are impacted by the presence of refugee camps. It builds on a growing body of literature on the urban refugee experience that recognizes the agency exercised in the rejection of the camp. But it also demonstrates how, in countries with an encampment policy, the presence of camps can limit urban refugees’ mobility and their ability to take advantage of all that urban life has to offer. It also highlights the consequences of the choice refugees must make between receiving humanitarian aid in a camp and living unassisted in an urban area. The paper draws on qualitative interviews with refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya and Jordan. It presents conclusions on the inadequacy of the international response, which fails to capitalize on the presence of displaced people in cities, to achieve the supposed policy goal of “self-reliance”.

ABSTRACT Social exclusions in India are not solely a result of marginalised, personal identities. They are equally about the failure of the state to recognise those identities. With an expansion of welfare programs, the turf of exclusions is now actively shaped by the state. Drawing upon fieldwork in the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra (India), this paper outlines the pathways of how citizens fail to access government welfare schemes. The resulting typology of exclusions is a layered one, encompassing failures of state outreach, rejections of citizens’ claims, and inclusions in the schemes coinciding with exclusions from the benefits, fully or partially. Importantly, the exclusions are deeply gendered. During their lifetime, women end up going through multiple cycles of identity verification by the state; pre-marriage, post-marriage and once again, in widowhood or if the marriage were to fail. Ironically, even as the state extends its welfare resources to women through specific schemes, the underlying procedural requirements render women invisible.

Abstract This article aims to enrich the emerging, multi-coloured tapestry of ‘international law in context’ through a study of how international economic law operates in complex investment-related disputes. Focusing on the Eco Oro v. Colombia investor-state arbitration, and drawing on both doctrinal analysis and sociolegal research, the study investigates how different actors make sense of the issues, of the dispute, and of the law. Besides shedding light on the neglected multi-actor, multi-layered dimensions of investment disputes, and on tensions between often incommensurable values, juxtaposing arbitral proceedings and underlying social realities highlights how investor-state arbitration involves a socio-political process of re-presenting actors, territory, the environment, and livelihoods through the prism of international arrangements that are primarily designed to protect foreign investment. The findings provide policy pointers on the need for systemic reform of international investment law, moving away from the predominant emphasis on investment protection and investor-state dispute settlement, towards a governance model that effectively considers the social, political, and environmental dimensions of foreign investment projects.