Transcript normative meets narrative in Mbale, 2010

Community based resilience building:
normative meets narrative in Mbale, 2010
Prof David Jenkins, Dr John Kinuthia, Dr Linus Mofor, Prof Hilary Thomas, Marga Quince,
Prof Abid Abu Tair and Richard F Okotel, PONT C2C
PONT C2C
• to build a more substantial base to support the work of PONT and
other initiatives in East Africa;
• to engage more broadly with MDG’s in Sub-Saharan Africa;
• to develop a reputation for distinctive research and practice in
sustainable community transformation;
• to develop humanitarian engagement and advocacy in pursuit of the
University’s corporate social responsibility mission;
• to create an extensive network that accesses research and
humanitarian resources on firm theoretical foundations.
Synopsis
• PONT and Community to
Community Links
• Resilience Building in
Mbale + TACC
• The normative
– Kenya
– Cameroon
• The Bududa Story
• Reflections
PONT Mbale CAP
• PONT- Mbale, a
North-South,
multi-stakeholder
link
• Friendship +
• Partnership
against poverty
• We listen to multiple
voices of community
Forms of listening
Resilience Initiatives
• Seven hundred
community based health
volunteers trained and
deployed
• E&A function at Mbale
Hospital
• Launch of an ambulance
service
• Police and fire
• District mapping
TACC
• The average number
of ‘hot’ days per year
in Uganda has
increased by 74 (an
additional 20.4% of
days) between 1960
and 2003.1
1 UNDP Climate Change Country
Profiles, 2008, Uganda
C. McSweeney, M. New, and G. Lizcano
TACC the main thrusts
• Scaling up efforts to address climate change in 8
pilot regions: Mbale is one of the pilots
• Implementing an Integrated Territorial Climate
Plan (ITCP)
• Quick wins
• Investment plan for adaptation and mitigation
initiatives
Mbale Region
• District Development
Plans
• District Environment
Action Plans
• Sustainable Development
Workshop
• Sustainable Development
Action Plan
• Advocacy role with WAG,
NRG4SD, UNDP
Sironko District
Nam agu m ba
Nakaloke
Nakaloke
Namunsi
Nam anyonyi
Aisa
Namagum ba
Namabasa
Pallisa
Nkom a
Kam a
Bumuluya
Nabweya
Jewa
Masaba
Tsabanyanya Ma luk hu
Bumboi
Mooni
Bukasakya Bum utoto
Kirayi
Bufumbo
Lwass o
Bungokho-Mutoto
Bum ageni
Bulweta
Bukonde
Namatala
Bubyangu
Budwale Bumadanda
W anale
Bubens tye
Bungokho
Busano
Busano
Bubirabi
Bukhum wa
Buyaka
Bum bobi
Bunam butye
Bu m as ik ye
Busoba
Buruk uru
Bu nas h im olo
Bunani mi
Bufukhula
Busiu
Bukyiende
Bunam butye
Bum uts opa
Bum as ikye
Namawanga
Tororo D istrict
Manafwa District
Early Phases
• Preliminary phase – developing the partnership
–
–
–
–
Instigating partnership
Scoping mission
Development and approval of project document
Inception Workshop
• Foundation phase – capacity building
– Capacity needs assessment and capacity building
– Quick-win, small scale projects using existing grant schemes
– Legal, financial, environmental training for leaders and focal persons
• Preparation of the Integrated Territorial Climate Plan
–
–
–
–
–
Data collection to provide an environmental profile
Regional development priorities and carbon budgeting
Data analysis to discover vulnerabilities and potential impacts of climate change
Consideration of appropriate mitigation and adaptation options
Development of action plan with associated implementation, investment and M
and E plans
Low impact, high frequency, localised disasters
Community based responses
NORMATIVE APPROACHES
Sub Hyogo
The development of normative
approaches to the problems
identified in Kenya, Cameroon and
Uganda appears as both ethical
and rational
Trickle down...
The promise of the normative
Cameroon and Kenya
“The establishment of
a bottom up focussed
hierarchy for dealing
with disasters should
make the work of
international
response more
effective, faster and
better targeted at
community
objectives.”
Critique of a normative view?
• The idea that the
normative alters practice
is an hypothesis, not an
axiom. (Flyvbjerg)
• The normative is
vulnerable to
manipulation by power.
• Beware rationality-asrationalization (after
Foucauld)
• Normative models can be
overwhelming and lead to
paralysis. They conjure
up the notion that only the
sophisticated (westerner,
professional, expert,
official) can do this.
• Whose values inform the
normative?
• Needs analysis... A
deficit model versus
ABCD
The point of a narrative view?
Inter alia
• Reveal departures from
the normative
• Disclose inadequacies
within the normative
• Identify the
Realrationalität
• Not arbitrators but
facilitators
• [a] man (sic) who neglects
what is actually done for
what should be done
learns the way to selfdestruction
Landslides at Bududa
Bududa, St David’s Day 2010
Bududa
This event killed over 300 people
and led to the temporary
displacement of as many as 8,000
and the permanent displacement of
an undisclosed number.
Meteorologist s suggest that
extreme weather conditions in
southern Europe weakened the
high pressure systems in north
Africa, which in turn pushed the rain
belt down to Uganda.
The area is densely populated: 6
times the national average.
Deforestation has occurred at an
alarming rate: every square metre
is farmed.
Source: Advanced Land Imager
NASA’s (EO-1) Sat
Relief Operation
Co-ordinated by URCS for the
Office of the Prime Minister and the
District Disaster Management
Committee
Inadequate latrines; lack of
psychosocial counsellors
Hearing the voice of
survivors
“... many harder
situations await when
relief is gone.”
Whither Resilience?
• Mary Goretti Kitutu, the
environmental information
systems specialist at the
National Environment
Management Authority,
said the Government has
to compel people in the
landslide-prone areas to
plant forests.
• Dr. Festus Bagoora, an
expert on weathering and
land formations at the
Department of
Geography at Makerere
University “recommended
the relocation of people
(living) in areas they
considered to be more
prone to floods and
landslides.”
Dominant narrative
relocation
• To avoid such tragedies in future, especially on the heavily
degraded slopes, the government planned to permanently
relocate and resettle the survivors in a new area.
• The LCV “...scoffed at people who he said wanted to benefit
from the tragedy by sabotaging the resettlement plan. He said
that government should investigate such persons and that
disciplinary action should be taken if any are found culpable of
wrong doing.”
• “People who were initially resisting were first to load their
property on the trucks,” said a Disaster Management Officer
in the Office of the Prime Minister.
BUDUDA LANDSLIDE
SURVIVORS GET NEW HOME
IN KIRYANDONGO
The case for community
• The repeated failure of governments to intervene and
plan
• The ineffectuality of the normative
• The localised nature of the risks etc
• “To empower the local communities and enable them to
have a stake in the management of the environment and
natural resources.”
• But is there a case that goes beyond the pragmatic?
The imperative of community
Shared rationality
“... One cannot think for
oneself if one thinks
entirely by oneself... It is
only by participation in
rational practice-based
community that one
becomes rational...”
Whose justice? Which rationality? 1988
Alasdair MacIntyre
The imperative of community
Dependent Rational
Animals (1999)
 MacIntyre shows how
networks of giving and
receiving provide the
environments in which we
can develop as
independent rational
animals and further
develop rationality in
community
 Virtue ethics
Alasdair MacIntyre
Hypothesis
• Resilience is about
adaptive not allocative
efficiency
• Resilience in
communities requires
virtues of acknowledged
dependence
Questions
•
•
•
•
“To what extent are shared virtues
of acknowledged dependence
practiced?”
“What communities are
demonstrating high/ low
adaptability? What values do they
share/ lack?”
“What are the ethical drivers of
existing paradigms? Where do
they fail?”
“What values underpin extant
power relations? Is this good for
the species? What alternatives are
there?”
Thank you
© david jenkins