Conflicts, Confrontations and Conduits in Rural Environments: Is Resilience at Work in Gokwe South Rural District?

This article explores conflicts, confrontations and conduits for sustainable development in rural environments. Fragility and degradation with a slight resilience manifest heavily in Gokwe South Rural District (GSRD), Zimbabwe. The article notes rural development as a double-edged sword, bringing tremendous opportunities for innovation but also causing increased ecological degradation. As such, it often results in conflicts and confrontations among stakeholders. Like many Zimbabwean rural settlements, GSRD is experiencing serious land disputes. conflicts arise from the proposed changes, like extension of infrastructure, perceived by some stakeholders as contrary to their interests and wishes. Using focus group discussions and thematic analysis, a trend of how conflicts and confrontations emerged was established in GSRD. The findings show that land transition from rural to urban status without consultations instigates conflict between different development agencies and communities.

The Impact of Joint Liability Group Lending on Lowering the Risk of Farmer and Agriculture Crowdfunding in Indonesia

Research on agriculture crowdfunding in developing countries is still limited. The crowdfunding platform offers uncollateralised loans to farmers. Therefore, they apply joint liability group lending to lower the default risk. However, from farmer’s point of view, joint liability causes higher risk since every group member bears his/her own risk and that of all other group members. Thus, the purpose of this article is to analyse how joint liability may lower the risk of both farmer and agriculture crowdfunding in Indonesia. A deductive qualitative research design with case study approach is used in this article. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with one agriculture crowdfunding platform and two farmer groups. Data analysis was conducted by using pattern matching technique. The findings of this article are as follows: joint liability may lower the default risk of crowdfunding platform because the farmer groups are self-selected. The leader of the farmer group plays an important role in monitoring the members, and he may apply social sanction to the defaulting member. By implementing joint liability group lending, crowdfunding platform can provide extension services such as price certainty through contract farming, field agent monitoring and non-cash credit disbursement. These extension services help to lower the farmer’s risk.

Factors Contribute to Project Governance Practices: Case Studies in Malaysian Rural Poverty Housing Projects

Poverty alleviation projects are implemented as part of the national development and prosperity agenda. This study aimed to gain an understanding of the factors that contribute to the project governance practices in poverty alleviation efforts for the rural poor in Malaysia, which will lead to better project delivery and the successful outcome of the projects. Multiple case studies were conducted on two public initiative housing assistance projects in rural areas of peninsular Malaysia. It explored how dealing with the rural poor influences public officials in conducting projects through stewardship-governance notion. A qualitative approach through multiple case studies was utilised in this study where multiple sources of evidence were used such as semi-structured interviews with 12 public officials, document analysis and observation. The study discovered five factors that contribute to project governance practices, namely altruistic empathy, intrinsic motivation, effective leadership, learning environment and shared vision where these factors interplay with each other towards the achievement of project outcome. Hence, this article contributes to the dynamic understanding of how public officials embraced motivational factors in conducting their works related to the rural poverty alleviation projects. Appropriate utilisation of project governance practices drives for better project delivery to the target groups.

Inter-state Disparities of Efficiency in Foreshortening Under-five Mortality Rate in Rural India

The present study aims to assess the efficiency of the rural health system to foreshorten the under-five (U5) mortality rates across Indian states. The study further attempts to pinpoint the factors responsible for state-level inefficiency of the rural health system performance. The empirical results reveal that among the Indian states, Kerala is the most-efficient in foreshortening the U5 mortality rate. The results convey that the states with better health indicators may not have efficient health systems. The study concludes that along with investment in the health sector, efficient management of the investment is intrinsic to better health outcomes.

Collaborative Partnership and New Farm Management for Solving Drought According to Different Geo-Social Environment in the Northeast of Thailand

This article studied the collaborative partnership among governmental organisations, local farmer scholar leaders and farmers at the local level. Their collaborative partnership aimed to promote and strengthen grassroots participation through new farm management. The farmer families tried to cope with drought situation by learning and practising new skills at local farmer scholar leaders’ learning centres. They were supported by related external and internal organisations in order to manage their agricultural areas when confronted with drought and infertile soil. The physical aspect, rolling landscape and mostly sandy soil, combined with excessive water in the rainy season became conditions that heavily affected crops in the northeast of Thailand. This was regarded as a major agricultural problem within the region considered as the most poverty-stricken area of the country. Through learning and exchanging views among the farmers, from various geo-social environments, regarding their drought experiences and new farm management techniques, it was found that they had attained considerable success in improving their appropriate, self-reliant and environmentally friendly agricultural practices, guided by, and complied with, the principles and philosophy of sufficiency economy.

Multidimensional Rural Livelihoods in Indian Sub-Himalaya: Regional Analysis, Households Well-Being and Its Determinants

A cursory review of literatures shows a void in regional patterns analysis of rural livelihood in the sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India. Therefore, this study has attempted to examine the regional pattern of multidimensional rural livelihoods (assets, accessibility, health and education) in the study area. The study has attempted to look at the various determinants that make a region different from others in the same geographical space in terms of livelihood practices and household well-being. The study has applied a mixed research method, that is, Principal component analysis (PCA), household well-being indicator approach, multiple regressions, and focus group discussions (FGDs). The community blocks of the study area are found to be differently endowed in terms of different assets. The results show that marginalised castes and non-Hindu households have a relatively lower well-being score than the other households. The results suggest that daily work opportunities and an increase in the number of casual labourers positively impact the generation of decent and sustainable livelihood. It also shows an increase in the household well-being score to occupation groups such as businesses and salaried jobs. However, collection of sandstone and other construction materials from the river bed is emerging as a new source of livelihood.

Spatial Distribution of SDGs Accomplished Under MGNREGA Beyond SDG1

Nations across the world share common responsibility towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To monitor the progress of individual goals and their global-level comparisons, a set of targets and indicators are developed by the experts. However, systematic methods for assessing spatio-temporal progress towards achieving the SDGs are lacking. This study demonstrates the use of geographically referenced information (GIS) analysis in mapping the SDGs as achieved under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) programme in India, taking Uttarakhand state as a case study. Geotagged data of assets representing various work categories permissible under MGNREGA are linked to the targets and indicators of various SDGs. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) function is used to derive spatially explicit maps. Sub-national-level composite analysis of overall contribution of the MGNREGA to SDGs is carried out district wise for better understanding. Results obtained show significant spatial variation in the distribution of works across the districts, reflecting their varying priorities as MGNREGA is a demand-driven scheme. The future implication of the study is a vastly improved ability to derive latent information based on geographical indicators for targeting interventions and developing informed strategies towards SDGs.

Banking or Under-banking: Spatial Role of Financial Inclusion and Exclusion

Access to bank account is only a part of the problem when we talk of financial inclusion because several people with a bank account are not necessarily using them to deposit their savings or carry out transactions. This article makes an attempt to examine the reasons for low utilisation of banking facilities. It employs financial inclusion insights (FII) data for Indian population to find out an outcome of financial inclusion (and thus social inclusion as well) based on the usage of banking services with covariates like financial literacy, the probability that any financial service is accessible to the respondent in terms distance, type of mobile phone and spatial density. We use truncated probit model to measure the incidence of under-banking. Our findings show that there is a negative association between supply-side constraints and usage of banking services, implying that low access to financial services in time and space stands as a hindrance to financial inclusion. Further, we find from the financial inclusion and exclusion map at the district level that even though economic agents intend to participate in the space in which he/she is living is not much inclusive.

Analysis of Causes and Coping Strategies of Food Insecurity: The Case of Central and North Gondar Zone, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, food insecurity is a major problem, which affects the livelihood of rural communities. Hence, this study was conducted in Central and North Gondar Zones with the main aim of analysing causes and coping strategies of food insecurity. Primary data were collected through an interview schedule, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. A total of 500 sample respondents were selected through a systematic sampling technique. Data were analysed through simple descriptive statistics and a chi-square test. Frequently used coping strategies by sample respondents were planting early maturing crop (82.4%), turning to low-quality and cheaper foodstuff (81.2%), changing cropping pattern (78.6%), sale of livestock (75.6%) and purchasing food on cash 75.0%. Sex, educational status, fertiliser utilisation, livelihood diversification and off-farm activities had an association and significant with a food security status of sample respondents at p ≤ 0.01. Furthermore, farmland and on-farm were significantly associated with food security status at 0.01 < p ≤ 0.05 and 0.05 < p ≤ 0.10, respectively. To ensure food security, different organisations that support rural households should be aware of peak food insecurity seasons. Moreover, due attention should be paid to practical-oriented education and training to diversify the household’s livelihood.