scholarly journals Participation of civil society in decisions to mitigate environmental degradation in post-conflict societies: evidence from Somalia

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 1695-1715
Author(s):  
Osman M. Jama ◽  
Guijian Liu ◽  
Abdishakur W. Diriye ◽  
Balal Yousaf ◽  
Ibrahim Basiru ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osman M Jama ◽  
Guijian Liu ◽  
Abdishakur W. Diriye ◽  
Balal Yousaf ◽  
Ibrahim Basiru ◽  
...  

The question of the degree to which participation by civil society contributes to environmental decisions in post-conflict societies has received little attention. This study sheds light on the extent to which degrees of participation contribute to environmental decision-making in the Puntland State of Somalia using questionnaire surveys. We found that active participation has the highest contribution to environmental decisions. Our findings also indicated that the most pressing forms of environmental degradation in Puntland, as perceived by the respondents, are land degradation, drought related to the scarcity of rainfall, and deforestation. This study recommends “environmental cooperation” built into the peace-building process as a clear-cut concept to tackle both environmental degradation and conflicts. At the core of this concept is active participation and collaboration between civil society and the government as a means of mitigating environmental degradation in post-conflict Somalia. This will result in favorable environmental conditions and sustainable peace.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 458-483
Author(s):  
John R. Heilbrunn

AbstractOil is a metonym for terms in books and articles in diverse disciplines in African studies. Some portray oil as a causal agent that thrusts formerly low-income countries into the highly competitive neoliberal global economy. Others present it according to the oil curse/blessing binary. As a curse, petroleum causes dysfunctional and costly behavior. But increased revenues from oil just as certainly result in concrete improvements demonstrating a resource blessing. Heilbrunn uses case materials to explore environmental degradation, oil theft, community-company relations, post-conflict reconstruction, local content in contracts, and corruption. These key concepts form a basis for the keyword/concept essay on oil in Africa.


2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Outi Korhonen

International organisations have recently assumed a more intrusive role in settling conflicts in all continents. At the same time, post-conflict or post-settlement tasks seem to be emerging as an important function, encompassing the conduct of democratic elections, the guarantee of security, development of civil society, etc. In order to operationalise such wide-ranging and deeply intrusive social aims it is not sufficient to have peace-keepers or elections monitoring missions sent into the conflict-torn territories. Concentrated and centrally planned efforts of international governance are needed. In the present day, however, there is no such systematic scheme to which to refer. Yet institutional structures are needed to administer the extensive tasks and functions assigned in certain post-conflict situations. Therefore many questions of legitimacy and fundamental accountability arise.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4.1) ◽  
pp. 500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Drescher ◽  
Eu Gene Chin ◽  
Laura R Johnson ◽  
Julie S Johnson-Pynn

Ugandan youth face a number of threats to their healthy development including poverty, high rates of disease, civil conflict, and environmental degradation. Cultivating developmental competencies is critical, not only for youth, but also for the future of Ugandan communities and civil society. In this article, we highlight contextual challenges facing Ugandan youth, report exploratory results on “standard” measures of developmental assets, and discuss the utility of a positive youth development (PYD) framework in Uganda. Despite difficult circumstances, our results indicated high levels of internal and external assets as assessed with the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP). The DAP demonstrated acceptable internal consistencies and was correlated with two other measures of youth assets, self-efficacy, and civic action. Although researchers should proceed with caution when using psychometric measures in new cultural contexts, our results provide preliminary support for the use of the DAP and a PYD framework for advancing adolescent research and programming in Uganda.


Author(s):  
Elena B. Stavrevska ◽  
Sumona DasGupta ◽  
Birte Vogel ◽  
Navnita Chadha Behera

Chapter 4 looks into ways in which agency is exercised within civil society with particular focus on manifestations of compliance and resistance. The authors claim that despite the power imbalances, the agency still manages to find its way in both active and post-conflict zones. They identify different ways in which this agency is manifested in the three settings that they discuss: Jammu and Kashmir, Cyprus and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Jammu and Kashmir they give examples of youth protesting against the police, and parents’ associations which use constitutional rights to introduce the change. In Cyprus, they discuss non-compliance to the EU trade regulations which were meant to foster interdependence on a divided island. In case of Bosnia, they examine acts of everyday resistance to ethnic segregation which was imposed by the peace accord. The authors stress the important role that power politics play in such settings and conclude that it is necessary to analyze how power is shaped and perceived through interactions of various actors in the setting.


Author(s):  
Raquel Campos Franco ◽  
Lili Wang ◽  
Pauric O’Rourke ◽  
Beth Breeze ◽  
Jan Künzl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qasim Ali Shah ◽  
Bahadar Nawab ◽  
Tahir Mehmood

Peacebuilding is a continuous process to transform conflicts into development opportunities for and by the stakeholders. This article explores the role of stakeholders in post-conflict peacebuilding in Swat. Applying Constructivist paradigm and Discourse Analysis, 80 semi-structured interviews were conducted by incorporating local community, civil society and the government. Study finds out that cultural, political, social and economic tiers of peacebuilding measures in Swat hardly achieved its purpose. The lack of institutional coordination and gaps in peacebuilding measures are important hurdles, which needs to be minimized for sustainable development processes in Swat.


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora-Ismene Gizelis ◽  
Jonathan Joseph

Civil society organizations and grassroots groups are often unable to play an active role in post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding. A possible explanation for the observed challenges in peacebuilding is the gap or decoupling between international expectations and norms from practical action, local norms and capacities. External actors are often overly instrumental and operate according to a general template that fails to start from what the local capacities might actually be. This often leads to the decoupling of general values from practical action, which helps account for the observed barriers of engaging local civil and community organizations in reconstruction. We examine the different types of decoupling and the challenges these present. We evaluate our general theoretical argument using evidence based on the experiences of Liberian women’s civil society organizations. Given the compliance of the Liberian government with international norms, we should expect external actors to have an easier task in incorporating civil society and women’s organizations in the post-conflict reconstruction process; yet, the record appears to be the opposite. While we present the ‘tragic’ aspect of this relationship between international norms and local practice, we also suggest opportunities for ‘hybrid’ alternatives.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document