Resiliency and livelihoods inquiry in dynamic vulnerability contexts Insights from Northern Zimbabwe A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2012 ADMIRE MUTSA NYAMWANZA Institute for Development Policy and Management School of Environment and Development 1 Psalm 23 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 LIST OF TABLES 8 LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS 9 LIST OF BOXES 10 LIST OF PHOTOS 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 12 GLOSSARY OF TERMS 14 ABSTRACT 17 DECLARATION 18 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 19 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 20 CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 21 1.1. Overview 21 1.2. Defining and justifying a resiliency perspective 22 1.2.1. Main concepts and their linkages 23 1.3. Overall research aim 25 1.4. Specific research questions 25 1.5. Entry points to utilising a resiliency perspective in the thesis 25 1.5.1. The three resiliency indicator and two outcome processes 26 1.5.2. The institutional and temporal scalar focus 29 1.6. Thesis outline 31 CHAPTER TWO. LIVELIHOODS INQUIRY IN RURAL SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN CONTEXTS – WHERE FROM AND WHERE TO? 34 2.1. Introduction 34 2.2. Vulnerability 34 2.2.1. Risk hazard approach 35 2.2.2. Political economy approach 35 2.2.3. The coupled vulnerability approach 36 2.2.4. Poverty perspective 36 2.2.5. Towards an integrated approach to vulnerability analysis 37 3 2.3. Resilience 38 2.3.1. Resilience theory – engineering versus ecological resilience 38 2.4. Adaptive capacity 39 2.5. Resilience and adaptive capacity in livelihoods inquiry 41 2.5.1. Process versus Outcome 41 2.5.2. Adaptive strategies or Coping strategies? 42 2.5.3. Summarising analytical and methodological aspects in the resiliency perspective 43 2.6. Evolving thinking – key strands and switches to understanding livelihoods and vulnerability in rural sub-Saharan Africa 44 2.6.1. Farming systems research 44 2.6.2. Famine and food security analyses 45 2.6.3. Sustainable livelihoods thinking 46 2.6.4. From sustainable livelihoods to resilient livelihoods thinking 50 2.7. Factors for understanding responses to vulnerability in rural SSA communities 52 2.7.1. Household-level factors 52 2.7.2. Community-level factors 57 2.7.3. Taking livelihoods inquiry forward 68 2.8. Conclusion 69 CHAPTER THREE. METHODOLOGY 70 3.1. Introduction 70 3.2. Philosophical underpinnings 71 3.3. The Dande case study 73 3.3.1. Selection of study ward and villages 74 3.4. Data collection techniques 77 3.4.1. Documentary analysis 78 3.4.2. Questionnaire survey 78 3.4.3. Life histories 79 3.4.4. Transect walks and Observations 80 3.4.5. Key informant interviews 81 3.4.6. Focus group discussions and participatory methods 82 3.4.7. Informal conversations 82 3.5. Data analysis 83 4 3.6. Research ethics 84 3.7. Research timing and timeline 86 3.8. Methodological challenges 87 3.9. Conclusion 89 CHAPTER FOUR. THE ZIMBABWE AND DANDE CONTEXTS 90 4.1. Introduction 90 4.2. National context – A brief review of key developments in Zimbabwe 90 4.3. Local context – Dande Communal Area and the Mid-Zambezi Valley 94 4.3.1. A historical overview: the pre-independence period 95 4.3.2. Authority structures in the area 97 4.3.3. Ethnic composition and Natural resources 99 4.3.4. Key development programmes in Dande and the Mid-Zambezi Valley 103 4.3.5. An overview of the Ward 12 context 108 4.4. Conclusion 110 CHAPTER FIVE. LIVELIHOOD AND VULNERABILITY TRENDS IN DANDE 112 5.1. Introduction 112 5.2. Livelihoods structure and dynamics in Dande 112 5.2.1. Agricultural livelihood asset and activity trends 112 5.2.2. Non-agricultural activity trends 120 5.2.3. Summarising livelihood asset and activity trends 122 5.3. Characterising the vulnerability context in Dande 123 5.3.1. Increasing poverty levels 123 5.3.2. Low rainfalls and increasing drought cycles 127 5.3.3. Demographic changes 129 5.3.4. Wildlife and pests 131 5.3.5. Poor markets and infrastructure 135 5.3.6. Macro-economic challenges, policies and governance issues 141 5.3.7. Health constraints 143 5.3.8. Patterns and negative exposures resulting from interconnected vulnerabilities in Dande 146 5.4. Conclusion 149 5 CHAPTER SIX. ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES IN DANDE 150 6.1. Introduction 150 6.2. Adaptive strategies at the household scale 150 6.2.1. Living with change and uncertainty through diversification 150 6.2.2. Nurturing social learning processes and living with change and uncertainty through migration and remittances 153 6.2.3. Living with change and uncertainty through changing crop cultivation practices (extensification of fields and intensification of crop production) 156 6.3. Adaptive strategies from the local community scale 157 6.3.1. Nurturing social learning processes and living with change and uncertainty through the increasing centrality of indigenous knowledge 158 6.3.2. Traditional leadership role in adaptive strategies and ‘self-organising’ for resiliency 165 6.3.3. Christian churches role in adaptive strategies and living with change and uncertainty in the area 167 6.3.4. Other institutionalised local community adaptive strategies 169 6.4. Adaptive strategies from the sub national scale 171 6.4.1. Government institutions 172 6.4.2. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies 179 6.4.3. Cotton companies 183 6.5. Adaptive strategies in Dande: understandings from a multi-institutional focus 186 6.6. Conclusion 190 CHAPTER SEVEN. FACTORS INFLUENCING RESILIENT AND ADAPTIVE RESPONSES TO VULNERABILITY CHANGES IN DANDE 191 7.1. Introduction 191 7.2. Household-level factors 191 7.2.1. Household wealth - factor towards ability to living with change and uncertainty 192 7.2.2. Household demographic structure – enabling living with change and uncertainty 199 7.2.3. Social identity – factor in nurturing social learning processes and living with change and uncertainty 207 7.2.4. Ability to create and expand social networks – enabling the nurturing of social learning processes and living with change and uncertainty 210 7.2.5. Household cognitive well being perceptions and motivation to resiliency 211 7.2.6. Inter-household dynamics and resiliency in Dande 212 7.3. Community-level factors 213 6 7.3.1. The nature of local common property management systems 213 7.3.2. Community social networks formation 221 7.3.3. The evolving nature of formal social support 223 7.3.4. Demographic changes 225 7.3.5. Community well being notions 226 7.3.6. Geographical location 228 7.4. Conclusion 231 CHAPTER EIGHT. TOWARDS A RESILIENCY PERSPECTIVE IN LIVELIHOODS INQUIRY – SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 233 8.1. Introduction 233 8.2. Revisiting research questions, summary of key findings and major conclusions 234 8.3. Resiliency perspective: new wine or old wine in new bottles? 242 8.4. Contributions of study to knowledge 244 8.5. Reflections on the thesis 245 8.5.1. Methodological reflections 245 8.5.2. Areas for future research 247 8.6. Concluding remarks 247 REFERENCES 249 APPENDICES 274 Appendix 1. Summary of key characteristics of the Dande study community 274 Appendix 2. Data collection instruments 275 Appendix 3. Selected research outputs 289 Appendix 4. Key informant and FGD schedules 293 Appendix 5. Inflation rates, and official and parallel exchange rates of the $ZIM to the USD (2000-2008) 294 Appendix 6. Guiding principles for successful communal management of the commons 295 Final word count: 86, 823 7 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Definitions of adaptive capacity 40 Table 2.2 Differences between coping strategies and adaptive strategies 43 Table 2.3 Summarising main aspects on shifts from sustainable to resilient livelihoods thinking 51 Table 2.4 Zimbabwe’s five agro-ecological zones 57 Table 2.5 Sources of social networks in rural SSA and their underlying principles 63 Table 2.6 Aspects of Co-management 65 Table 3.1 Scale of focus, summary of issues covered and techniques used 77 Table 3.2 Summary of techniques used 83 Table 3.3 Examples of code names used during the fieldwork exercise 85 Table 5.1 Timetable of crop-production activities 116 Table 5.2 Total number of livestock and owning households as at 2008 119 Table 5.3 Livestock and cotton yield trends across the three study villages 125 Table 5.4 Identification and characterization of drought years 129 Table 5.5 Population trends (1992-2008) 130 Table 5.6 Comparison of selected input prices at Mushumbi and in Harare 136 Table 5.7 Labour/employment ratings in the area 141 Table 5.8 Exposures and corresponding vulnerability factors 149 Table 6.1 Comparison of average acreage accorded to major crops in upland fields in the 1990s (95/96) and in the 2009/10 season 152 Table 6.2 Cotton producer price trends in Dande 1989/90 season to 2006/07 season 185 Table 6.3 Summary of adaptive strategies from the three scales and their trends 188 Table 7.1 Wealth ranking and overall figures across the three study villages 192 Table 7.2 Livelihood trajectories by wealth ranks 193 Table 7.3 Typical home-task allocation in Dande 200 Table 7.4 Household size and structure figures from life histories 202 Table 7.5 Ethnic figures across the villages of study 207 Table 7.6 Livelihood trajectories by ethnicity over 1995/96 to 2010/11 210 Table 7.7 Percentages of social networks by wealth rank 211 Table 7.8 De facto authorities (and property rights) for different natural resources 215 Table 7.9 Community well being notions 227 Table 8.1 Revisiting the resiliency perspective for livelihoods analysis 243 8 LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS Figure 1.1 Resiliency indicator, pillar and outcome processes in analysis 28 Figure 2.1 Ideas in sustainable livelihoods