Pro-poor resource governance under changing climates
It is now widely known that the natural resources and livelihoods of rural poor people are under increasing pressure. Growing demand for natural resources as well as ongoing and projected climatic changes indicate the necessity for developing and discussing adaptation strategies. This context has contributed to locating the topic of resource governance at the forefront of development agendas. A dynamic debate on governance, and more precisely on pro-poor resource governance, has been triggered. From 2012 to 2013 the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) committed to a research initiative entitled ‘Pro-Poor Resource Governance under Changing Climates’. IASS and IFAD collaborated with local civil society organisations (CSOs) in six countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, and India. Seven case studies were jointly elaborated following a transdisciplinary approach, i.e., a problem-related combination of scientific knowledge with practical knowledge, involving partners from science, practice, civil society and policy. The studies document, analyse and communicate cases of pro-poor resource governance. They address how resource governance determines some of the factors that generate livelihood vulnerability and show to what extent changed institutions affect livelihoods, making them vulnerable to external changes originating in climatic and non-climatic processes.