Complex Problems, Negotiated Solutions: Tools to Reduce Conflict in Community Developemtn - Softcover

Warner, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853395323 ISBN 13: 9781853395321

Verlag: Practical Action Publishing, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

The pace of change for many rural communities across the developing world is exponential. New technology, economic globalization, finite natural resources, political realities and cultural erosion can together represent change of such magnitude and 'shock' that it overwhelms the capacity of civil society, government and business to adapt, leading to dysfunctional institutions, disputes and interpersonal conflict.

This book suggests strategies, principles and tools to reduce development-induced disputes and interpersonal conflict as obstacles to achieving sustainable rural livelihoods. Consensual 'win-win' negotiation is promoted as the preferred strategy, but set firmly within the context of the alternatives. The importance of conflict management processes that 'fit' with local customary and legal approaches is stressed.

The book provides a way to systematize the complexity of conflict situations in rural environments, offering a guide to designing practicable conflict mitigation and prevention strategies. The key principles and tools of consensual negotiation are described, illustrated with examples from around the developing world. To enhance its utility for practitioners, over 20 group and individual exercises have been included, enabling the book to be used for training purposes.

This book should attract anyone from civil society, government, business or the donor community interested in learning something of the art of brokering negotiated solutions to the conflicts and complexities of rural environments.

Case studies used in the book include a South Pacific project (coastal zone management planning, and coral farming); a conflict management consultancy in Bolivia (disputes between two NGOs, involving a road block); recent FAO Community Forestry Unit case-studies on natural resource conflict (Latin America, India); conflict analysis work in rural Zambia (wildlife vs community conflicts); Natural resources conflict management and community forestry in India.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Michael Warner has worked as a Research Fellow with the Overseas Development Institute, developing concensus-building tools and managing a programme of natural resource-based conflect resolution in Papua New Guinea and the Fiji Islands. He is currently co-ordinator of the secretariat for the Natural Resouces Cluster of Business Partners for Development.

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Complex Problems, Negotiated Solutions

Tools to Reduce Conflict in Community Development

By Michael Warner

Practical Action Publishing Ltd

Copyright © 2001 Overseas Development Institute
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85339-532-1

Contents

List of figures, vi, 
List of tables, vii, 
List of boxes, viii, 
List of training exercises, ix, 
Acknowledgements, x, 
1 Introduction, 1, 
2 Conflict management, 14, 
3 What is consensus building?, 32, 
4 Principles of consensus building, 37, 
5 Process of consensus building, 52, 
6 Office-based conflict analysis, 54, 
7 Provisional conflict-management plan, 68, 
8 Participatory conflict analysis, 73, 
9 The conflict analysis framework, 85, 
10 Capacity building, 93, 
11 Consensual negotiation, 95, 
12 Facilitation, 101, 
13 Workshop design and methods, 104, 
14 Managing difficult people, 108, 
15 Consensual negotiation tools, 111, 
Appendices, 
1 Briefing notes for Training Exercise 4.6 (Orange negotiations), 125, 
2 Briefing notes for Training Exercise 4.7 (Mining and wildlife reserve), 128, 
3 Briefing notes for Training Exercise 11.1 (Coralbay Coastal Resource Management Project), 130, 
4 Briefing notes for Training Exercise 11.1 (Tukubu Conservation Area), 139, 
References, 147, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for people who have to deal with, and find solutions to, conflicts in rural areas of developing countries. It will be especially useful for staff of international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advisers in donor agencies working on rural livelihoods, government departments and private companies.

The book is designed to be relevant to most types of rural livelihood projects and interventions. These include:

* Projects managed by community groups, for example in participatory forestry, community-based coastal resource management, integrated conservation and development, community water supply and sanitation infrastructure, and community-based revolving credit.

* Interventions where community-owned resources and capital are managed by outside organizations, such as logging firms, medium-scale mining companies, commercial agriculture enterprises, water and electricity utilities, tourism operators, microfinance NGOs and commercial community-based organizations.

Participation and sustainable livelihoods

This book promotes public involvement in sustainable development. It offers practical guidance on how conflict management and consensus building can help achieve sustainable rural livelihoods.

The past 15 years have seen increasing interest in community participation as a way to make development projects more sustainable. Negotiation is an important mechanism for such participation. This book provides guidance on how to establish and manage a process of negotiation that involves the various stakeholders in rural development.

The methods described in this book fit well within the 'sustainable rural livelihoods' framework espoused by DFID and other donor agencies. The livelihoods framework involves five main elements (Figure 1.1):

* Livelihood assets The different forms of capital – financial, social, human, natural and physical – that rural people may (or may not) have, and their ability to put these to use.

* Vulnerability context The impact of external events and trends (economic, natural environment, population growth, technological change, violence) and seasonality on livelihoods.

* Transforming structures and processes The institutions and organizations (government, private sector, etc.) and processes (policies, institutions, law, etc.) that affect the way people use the livelihood assets.

* Livelihood strategies The various ways that rural people make a living: farming, fishing, trade, wage labour, migration, etc.

* Livelihood outcomes The results of these strategies: income, well-being, security, sustainable resource use, etc.

Conflict management and consensus building can affect these elements by exploiting the opportunities and reducing the constraints they embody. They can exploit opportunities by:

* protecting and building all five types of capital assets – particularly social and human

* renegotiating the role of government and private organizations, so enabling the livelihood assets to be transformed into benefits.

They can reduce the constraints in the livelihood framework elements by:

* managing disputes within civil society, and between civil society and external actors

* helping to prevent violent conflict, and enabling people to cope with and recover from violence.

These approaches are discussed below in the context of managing conflicts.

Building and protecting capital assets

In themselves, conflict-management and consensus-building skills are a form of human capital. Skills that enable local leaders to negotiate with public water authorities or private logging companies, for example, are empowering in their own right. But conflict-management and consensus-building skills provide far more than this. They offer a rapid and cost-effective means of protecting and enhancing social capital – aspects of social organization such as the networks, norms and trust that allow society to function (Putman, 1993). It is human and social capital that together provide the capacity for protecting and enhancing physical, financial and natural assets.

For example, productive common property resources (forests, rivers, etc.) require robust social organizations, and people need skills for such organizations to emerge. People need also to negotiate with the formal or informal authorities, develop rules to govern competition over resources and manage those resources, and ensure access to alternative income sources for those excluded. Roads (physical capital) and credit (financial capital) will remain inaccessible if people lack the capacity to negotiate access to transportation services or to affordable repayment terms.

Consensus building can play a particular role in protecting and enhancing social and human capital. Jealousies, tensions, disputes and violence can undermine co-ordination and co-operation both among local people and between local groups and outsiders. Conflict-management skills can help prevent this.

Table 1.1 shows some of the ways consensus building can contribute to building different types of social and human capital.

Renegotiating the role of external actors

Not all rural people are farmers, and many farmers earn a large part of their livelihood from activities other than agriculture. The livelihood framework recognizes this. It separates the link between 'rural' and 'agriculture', and widens the scope for rural development to other sectors – health, education, training, infrastructure, financial services, etc. This calls for new associations between external structures (ministries, local authorities, firms, other stakeholders) and processes (policies, laws, cultures) on one hand, and the intended project beneficiaries on the other.

Such 'vertical' associations may be a prerequisite to strong local, 'horizontal' associations, in that they facilitate effective local representation, participation and institutional accountability (Harriss and de Renzio, 1997). However, emerging evidence (e.g. McIntosh et al., 2000)...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Practical Action Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1853395323
• ISBN 13: 9781853395321
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 160
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar