What would a city free from poverty really look like for urban youth in Tanzania? Dr Nicola Banks, ESRC Future Research Leader, in this video presented information from local research on young people’s vision for a poverty-free city in Tanzania. The video reports evidence from participatory discussion with youth. Urban youth make up a huge proportion of city populations- and the video highlights the economic and social opportunities Tanzanian youth raised in their discussions.
Poverty and health
Picture a Poverty Free City, Tanzania
Mtwapa Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme, 2015
Psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with perpetration of gender-based violence in a community sample of men in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Mngoma N; Fergus S; Jeeves A; Jolly R: South African Medical Journal 106(12) 2016
Rates of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa (SA) are among the highest in the world. In societies where social ideals of masculinity encourage male dominance and control over women, gender power imbalances contribute to male perpetration and women’s vulnerability. The drivers that cause men to perpetrate GBV and those that lead to HIV overlap and interact in multiple and complex ways. Multiple risk and protective factors for GBV perpetration by males operate interdependently at a number of levels; at the individual level, these include chronic anxiety and depression, which have been shown to lead to risky sexual behaviours. This study examined psychosocial risk factors (symptoms of anxiety and depression) as well as protective factors (social support and self-esteem) as self-reported by a cohort of males in rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, SA; and to determine whether there are differences in anxiety, depression, social support and self-esteem between perpetrators and non-perpetrators. The participants were relatively young (median age 22 years); over half were school goers, and 91% had never married. Over 43% of the sample reported clinical levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Rates of GBV perpetration were 61%, 24% and 10% for psychological abuse, non-sexual physical violence and sexual violence, respectively. GBV perpetration was associated with higher depression, higher anxiety, lower self-esteem and lower social support. Interventions to address GBV need to take modifiable individual-level factors into account.
Towards the Human City
Collaborative Media Advocacy Platform: Port Harcourt, Nigeria
The Human City Project is a community-driven media, architecture, urban planning and human rights movement in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It is a collaboration between local and international community organisers, filmmakers, broadcasters, urban planners, architects, designers, university researchers and ordinary people from across Port Harcourt’s informal settlements. Those involved share skills and technologies for communities to record their experiences, tell their stories and change their lives. They are moved by the conviction that democratic design principles can make cities more creative and just. Based on community mapping of needs and priorities, a community radio station was started – Chicoco Radio – formally owned by Chicoco Community Media Initiative, an incorporated board of trustees drawn from communities across the city. With a campaign of 'the people live here' communities in the informal settlements in Port Harcourt have resisted eviction, and are carrying out activities to map and make visible their conditions and needs, develop their voice and capacity to participate meaningfully in the shaping of their city, including to change the way the city is imagined and inhabited on principles of social justice and equity. With the means to tell their stories on film, on air and in court, charting their reality on maps and describing their visions in urban action plans, these communities are changing their lives and shaping their city.
“Like we don’t have enough on our hands already!”: the story of the Kenyan slum youth federation
Makau J: Environment & Urbanization 23(1) 203–206, 2011
Slum dweller federations, like many other social movements, cater for the youth in their constituencies. This is critical to their relevance as agents of change and contributes to the sustainability of the movements. This story is a case study of the youth federation that is aligned to Kenya’s slum dwellers federation. At the slum level, the youth had organized themselves into junior councils that discussed various issues, like how to gain access to football pitches in neighbouring schools. When the annual Youth Council elections came around that year, for the first time slum youth showed up in great numbers and elected their own for all the posts, including junior mayor. From its beginnings in a couple of slums, the movement spread to slums in four of the city’s eight divisions, and the youth called it “Mwamko wa Vijana” (“Youth Awakening”). Three years after it was initiated, a range of activities are underway: a football team, acrobatic and dance troupes, a study group, and a waste collection business. They note: “We share issues in common that we can federate around – education, recreation, income generation and mentoring.” The prospect of renewing the youth federation every year is a daunting task but each year new youth come in that are charged up and compelling in their aspirations, so that there is little choice but to do it again.
Indigenous Sengwer minority in Kenya oppose EU-funded project
Sengwer Community Leaders: Pambuzuka News, November 2016
This article outlines the Sengwer Community Leaders position that a water towers project in their area is being implemented without free, prior and informed consent of the community. As a forest community, who have been subject to part evictions, there is fear of more violations under the current project. For instance, during Natural Resources Management Project, a World Bank funded project (2007-2013), Sengwer peoples living in Kapolet and Embobut forests had some community members arrested and taken to police custody and accused of trespass while they were within their ancestral, community land. They report further than a woman was shot by KFS guards in the same Kapolet Forest. In Embobut Forest, the Sengwer write that there have been arrests and evictions (burning of houses and destruction of property). Today, they say that the Sengwer are forced to live in caves, thick inside the forest...as aliens in their own ancestral lands and territory, despite the stipulation of Art. 63 (2) (d) ii of the Constitution of Kenya. This forced some members of the community to file a complaint with the World Bank Inspection Panel which went into full investigation. The authors call on the European Union to suspend the Water Towers Protection and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Programme with immediate effect, carry out adequate, effective and efficient free prior and informed consent (FPIC) with members of Sengwer and let the community make decision after proper understanding of the Water Towers programme. The Singer fully support conservation programmes and projects that recognise, respect, protect and promote their rights as traditional forest indigenous peoples (hunters and gatherers) to live in and own their ancestral lands and territories their community land in forest/protected area sustainably on conservation conditions working closely with state agencies.
Integrated agriculture programs to address malnutrition in northern Malawi
Kerr R; Chilanga E; Nyantakyi-Frimpong H; Luginaah I; Lupafya E: BMC Public Health 16(1197), 2016
In countries where the majority of undernourished people are smallholder farmers, there has been interest in agricultural interventions to improve nutritional outcomes. Addressing gender inequality, however, is a key mechanism by which agriculture can improve nutrition, since women often play a crucial role in farming, food processing and child care, but have limited decision-making and control over agricultural resources. This study examines the approaches by which gender equity in agrarian, resource-poor settings can be improved using a case study in Malawi. A quasi-experimental design with qualitative methods was used to examine the effects of a participatory intervention on gender relations. Thirty married couple households in 19 villages with children under the age of 5 years were interviewed before and then after the intervention. An additional 7 interviews were conducted with key informants, and participant observation was carried out before, during the intervention and afterwards in the communities. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and analysed qualitatively for key themes, concepts and contradictions. Several barriers were identified that undermine the quality of child care practices, many linked to gender constructions and norms. The dominant concepts of masculinity created shame and embarrassment if men deviated from these norms, by cooking or caring for their children. The study provided evidence that participatory education supported new masculinities through public performances that encouraged men to take on these new roles. Invoking men’s family responsibilities, encouraging new social norms alongside providing new information about different healthy recipes were all pathways by which men developed new ‘emergent’ masculinities in which they were more involved in cooking and child care. The transformational approach, intergenerational and intra-gendered events, a focus on agriculture and food security, alongside involving male leaders were some of the reasons that respondents named for changed gender norms. Participatory education that explicitly addresses hegemonic masculinities related to child nutrition, such as women’s roles in child care, can begin to change dominant gender norms. Involving male leaders, participatory methods and integrating agriculture and food security concerns with nutrition appear to be key components in the context of agrarian communities.
Beyond Addis: Financing Social Protection in the 2030 Agenda
Kaltenborn M: Social Protection and Human Rights, September 2016
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) expressly identifies establishing universal social protection systems as in several of the international community’s new goals. The SDGs, unlike the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), explicitly state the need for social protection. Target 1.3 calls on states to “implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including social protection floors (SPFs)1, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable”. SPFs are not only an essential tool in combating poverty, but also form the basis for food security and housing, especially for vulnerable groups; they have the power to promote social cohesion, make an important contribution to helping people into decent employment and enable parents to send their children to school even during economic crises; all goals which are outlined in the Agenda 2030. By securing household incomes, social protection leads to an increase in private consumption and boosts domestic demand. Finally, well-implemented social protection programmes that give households a predictable source of income may also be able to reduce pressures for migration: there is a broad consensus that besides economic growth and investment in human development (in particular in education and health), social protection is one of the core requirements of any poverty reduction strategy, and is an important precondition for an inclusive and cohesive society, and for stabilising fragile states. Consequently, it is also an indispensable instrument in combating the root causes of migration. Establishing SPFs on sound financial footing is primarily a task for the national governments. The ILO Social Protection Floor Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202) urges governments to consider using a variety of methods to mobilise the necessary resources for their nationally-defined social protection floors. Such methods may include effective enforcement of tax and contribution obligations, but also setting new priorities in their spending behaviour. To solve the problem of funding for SPFs, a Global Fund for Social Protection is proposed, with resources from both the high- and low-income countries to close the funding shortfall between what poorer countries can reasonably afford and address funding for emergencies. The author argues also that developed countries have an obligation to support partner countries in their efforts to strengthen their social security systems, while simultaneously ensuring that the partner countries will be able to sustain these systems themselves in the long run.
The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty Statement for World Food Day 2016
The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty: Pambuzuka News, October 2016
The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty unites with the farmers, agricultural workers, small-scale food producers, indigenous peoples and the peoples of the world in commemorating World Food Day 2016. To call attention to the hunger being experienced by the majority of the world’s population, the coalition has called it World Hunger Day with the theme “Fight Food Injustice and Repression!” This calls attention to repression of farmers and activists for food justice. In 2015, the Pesticides Action Network – Asia-Pacific claimed that almost six farmers, indigenous people and/or land activists were being killed every month in relation to land struggles and conflicts, and many cases remain unreported. In 2016 they argue that there has been intensifying repression of farmers, indigenous peoples, agricultural workers, and other small-scale food producers. People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty condemn this repression and point to the need to change the structural causes of widespread hunger and intensifying monopoly control over the world’s agriculture and food systems.
Can Habitat III mark a watershed for women informal workers?
Chatterjee P: Cityscape, October 2016
Informal employment makes up more than half of non-agricultural employment in most developing regions, according to Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (WIEGO). In three major regions (South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean) plus urban China, informal employment is a greater source of non-agricultural employment for women than for men. Elsewhere in East and Southeast Asia, these shares are roughly the same. WEIGO advocates made this case at Habitat III, urging national and local governments to support the urban informal economy. The group released a paper listing the sector-specific needs of urban informal workers from local and national governments, noting that despite their contributions, informal workers’ lives and livelihoods continue to be vulnerable in many cities. Many myths persist about the informal economy in the minds of policymakers and the general public, such as the conflation of the informal economy with illegal activities. Sally Roever, urban policies programme director for WIEGO, pointed to ‘micro-innovations’, which can make a huge difference....Like a municipality issuing identity cards to waste pickers. Residents view a waste picker with an ID card as legitimate entity and are more likely to be cooperative. This enhances the productivity of waste pickers.” She gave the example of Bogota, where recyclers are formally recognised stakeholders in the city's waste-management system. WIEGOs efforts also have prompted the creation of two labour groups — the Association of Recyclers of Bogotá organisation that represents the city’s 3,000 informal recyclers, while the National Association of Recyclers in Colombia represents 12,000 members. These are argued to serve as precedent and inspiration for other informal workers globally.
Problem or Promise? Harnessing Youth Potential in Uganda
Banks N; Sulaiman M: Building Resources Across Communities, 2012
This report from Building Resources Across Communities’s (BRAC) Youth Watch team in Uganda. It shares lessons from the Research and Evaluation Unit's mixed-methods research, including a nationally representative survey of youth, focus groups, and in-depth case studies. Chapter 1 introduces the conceptual framework used in this report and describes the research methodology. Chapter 2 presents the asset portfolio of Ugandan youth. Chapter 3 outlines the position of youth in the family, community and political participation. Chapter 4 discusses the perceived opportunities of Ugandan youth, versus their aspirations. Chapters 5 to 7 outline the health outcomes for Ugandan youth, focusing on risky sexual behaviour, examples of success stories among youth and policy recommendations. The report points out the need for a comprehensive approach that emphasises employment and institutional support to avoid conditions that lead to early pregnancy in young women and sexually transmitted infections and HIV. "Improved support from communities and local governments along with increased access to financial services and vocational training are key to facilitate healthy transition of youth into adulthood.....The combination of the multiple barriers facing youth - including limited assets and support, difficult economic, political and social environments, and limited perceived opportunities for the future - negatively influences the self-esteem, motivations, and aspirations of youth."