CREATE-ing Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural Senegal: A nexus based strategy for building desertification resilience through capacity building and appropriate technology.
Translated title
CREATE-ing Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural Senegal
Authors
Godoy Recasens, Robert ; Higgs, Matthew Louis
Term
4. Term
Publication year
2018
Abstract
Land degradation and desertification in the Sahel undermine rural livelihoods. This thesis examines how a nexus-based strategy grounded in Appropriate Technology and capacity building can strengthen climate resilience in remote communities. Using a case study of the NGO CREATE! in the Diourbel region of central Senegal, data were collected through interviews, transect walks and field observations at nine project sites. Within a theoretical framework of Appropriate Technology and Action Nets, interventions across land use, energy and water are reviewed, principles of appropriateness are derived, and eight interventions are assessed theoretically for their viability. The analysis indicates that improved cookstoves, conservation agriculture, woody species intercropping, farmer-managed natural regeneration and solar water pumps can work together as a coherent resilience-building system. Practices already present on CREATE! sites—poultry rearing, community savings and loan programs, and formalized tree planting—complement this system. Despite past aid challenges, the case suggests that context-appropriate, bottom-up actions that meet basic needs can help create sustainable livelihoods and empower communities to drive their own development.
Landdegradering og ørkendannelse i Sahel svækker levevilkår i landdistrikter. Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan en nexusbaseret strategi med afsæt i passende teknologi (Appropriate Technology) og kapacitetsopbygning kan styrke klimamodstandskraften i fjerntliggende lokalsamfund. Med udgangspunkt i en casestudie af NGO’en CREATE! i Diourbel-regionen i det centrale Senegal blev data indsamlet gennem interviews, transektvandringer og feltobservationer på ni projektsteder. Med en teoretisk ramme baseret på Appropriate Technology og Action Nets gennemgås indsatser på tværs af jordbrug, energi og vand, principper for “appropriateness” udledes, og otte indsatser vurderes teoretisk for deres levedygtighed. Analysen peger på, at forbedrede brændeovne, bevaringslandbrug, mellemplantning af træarter, landmandsstyret naturlig regenerering og solcelledrevne vandpumper kan arbejde sammen i et sammenhængende system, der bygger modstandskraft. Praksisser, der allerede findes på CREATE!-stederne—fjerkræproduktion, fællesskabsbaserede opsparings- og låneprogrammer samt formaliseret træplantning—komplementerer dette system. Trods tidligere bistandsudfordringer antyder casen, at kontekstsensitive, bottom-up indsatser, der møder basale behov, kan bidrage til bæredygtige leveveje og styrke lokalsamfunds egen udvikling.
[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]
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