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Monitoring The UN > The UN and Sustainable Development

UNDP and Sustainable Development – Exploring the Linkages

Sustainable development is a complex concept that has been debated by scholars, bureaucrats, politicians, and civil society groups since its introduction in 1972 at the Stockholm Conference and later in 1988 with the publication of the Brundtland Report. Some people prefer to use the term “sustainability”, calling the combination of “sustainable” with “development” an oxymoron. New terms have also emerged in specialized fields such as ecological sustainability and sustainable economics, themselves widely debated.

As much criticism as the term “sustainable development” has received, it remains today an important term to engage groups from all fields of interest in discussions and actions towards positive change. Sustainable development is about approaching any project, policy, or initiative with the understanding of the interlinkages between the socio-cultural, economic and environmental systems. While the embeddedness of these three systems is well accepted in theory, centuries of learning by reducing our world into smaller and smaller parts (what has been called reductionism), is making it difficult for us to address global issues in a way that takes into consideration the role of and impacts on the three systems. It remains common today to equate sustainable development solely with concerns for the environment.

UNDP`s Role in Sustainable Development

The UNDP is an active participant within the UN System in efforts towards sustainable development. The main goal of the organization is however the reduction by half of extreme poverty by the year 2015. What then is the role-played by the UNDP in sustainable development? What are the links between poverty reduction, natural forest management, environmental conservation, the reduction of greenhouse gases, the preservation of biological diversity, and the protection of human rights, trade, and disaster and conflict prevention?

In the next pages, we have used the true story of the people of Machakos, Kenya, as a starting point to explore the depth, and complexity of the interlinkages between all the components that make up the world we live in. This example illustrates the issues being tackled by the United Nations and UNDP. The United Nations system is working towards creating a world where the needs and desires of humans beings can be met and shared equitably with a respect for the needs of the environment.

The Story of the Akamba People of Machakos, Kenya

The Machakos District is located southeast of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The terrain combines a sloping plateau starting at 1,700 meters down to 700 meters. Several high hills also characterize the landscape.

It is in this landscape that the Akamba people have been living since the 17th century. The story of the Akamba people is one of success. They have been able to transform a landscape destroyed by erosion, drought, and bad management to create an area that is now capable of feeding the District’s population and offers the community a green landscape for living. Like any real story however, the dynamic nature of the socio-cultural, economic and environmental systems makes this notion of “success” a point of reference in time as opposed to an end. The process of change and adaptation continues for the Akamba. The ecosystem and the people continue to coexist in a state of vulnerability.

When the Akamba first occupied the Machakos District, they roamed the land free to raised cattle, goats and sheep and harvest staple food such as grain, maize and sweet potatoes. Around the early 1900s, two factors changed the lives of the Akamba. First, diseases such as smallpox and cholera decimated the human and animal population by more than half. Second, the British colonial government took hold of the land and limited the movement of the Akamba to “native reserves”. During the 60 some years of British colonialism, the growing Akamba population was surrounded by Crown land and the presence of European farms on the more productive high lands. When a series of droughts plagued the District several growing seasons subsequent, the once mobile tribe were forced to overburden the land. This resulted, over the years in soil depletion. The cattle and the population extended their foraging for food to the hillside, denuding the ground of vegetation and exposing it to erosion during the rainy season. By 1936, the land had been ravaged by drought and erosion, both compounded by a doubling of the population since the turn of the century.

The Colonial government intervened by imposing conservation measures such as cattle reduction, communal work, and a specific system of terracing. There were several protests from the Akamba amidst continued drought, erosion and famine.

Breakthroughs

Several events led to a reversal of the situation in the Machakos District – the “Machakos miracle”. Among them were:

  • The dictatorship of the Maher government ended and this allowed the Akamba people to select land management practices better suited to their needs.
  • The men in the community that had fought in British forces had been exposed to alternative farming practices, which they applied successfully in the Machakos District.
  • The government decided to permit the farming of cash crops such as coffee, which themselves required the use of terraces in sloping areas. These terraces also served to protect the slopes from erosion and increase overall productivity.
  • The government replaced the compulsory working groups with traditional work parties that permitted communities to organize themselves and elect community leaders.
  • Because men in the community mainly worked outside the District, women largely occupied leadership roles. This had for effect, among other things, to promote the education of girls and favor innovative farming practices such as tree planting.
  • Economic expansion in the 1970’s led to the creation of processing factories for coffee and other farm products such as mangos. This created more jobs and sources of income outside of farming. The increased access to financial resources also gave the community the capacity to reinvest in innovative farming practices, increasing yields and ecosystem conservation.

Ongoing Challenges

The population has continued to grow in the district and lands have been divided again and again among heirs. This has required each family to make a living with less farmland. Farmers with land in the high hills have been able to use the profits made from cash crops (and non-farm sources of income) to invest in innovative farming practices. The creation of water storage tanks for example, are costly undertakings that only the most successful and fortunate farmers have been able to apply. Wealthier farmers have acquired more land from the poorest, creating disparity between farmers in the district and the migration of poor farmers to marginal, ecologically sensitive lands.

The lack of capital threatens to undermine the conservation measures undertaken to date like erosion protection though tree planting or the use of water conservation technologies like storage tanks. Simplified in two simple cyclic scenarios, the access to productive lands, itself determined by soil fertility and water, can lead to the generation of income that will permit investment in cash crops. These cash crops will provide farmers access to commercial markets and to the use of more costly innovative farming technologies to continue increasing yield per unit area. The result is the protection of the land, the financial capacity to pay for the education of children, and the generation of non-farming income partially reinvested in the amelioration of the farm.

The alternative scenario is one where less fortunate farmers find themselves unable to subsist from the land and are forced to sell it for their short-term survival. The farmers soon find themselves occupying less productive lands in slope areas for example. The cycle of survival is maintained with resulting land degradation associated with the practice of unsustainable farming techniques and the use of lands more susceptible to erosion. Kids are forced to leave school and remain bound to the land for their own survival.

Beyond the District itself, other global factors affect the fate of the Akamba people. Trade rules, overseas development assistance (ODA), world market prices, demands of consumers, the economic stability of the economic powers such as the US and China, large scale environmental events such as El Nino.

What if?

In order to add hypothetical but no less possible elements to the Machakos story, what if:

  • Climate Change affects the rainfall patterns and reduces the amount of precipitation by half or more in the high hills? What consequences would that have on the complex balance between the various factors that are now determining the success of the District?
  • Conflicts arise between the Akamba people living in the high hills and those in the low hills or again between the few wealthy farmers and the increasing marginalized poor?
  • More and more Akamba people lose their capacity to own a parcel of land. For the Akamba land is viewed as a fundamental cultural identity and value symbol. How would that affect people’s relationship with the land and the land conservation measures the Akamba people have slowly developed. How would this affect the gentle balance that the Akamba have been able to achieve in their fragile ecosystem?

The story of the Akamba exemplifies the complexity of an issue like erosion and land destruction or land rehabilitation. Inevitably, socio-cultural factors come into play (including historical) as well as economic and environmental. The Akamba story is not an exception. A web interlinking all the systems could be constructed with any issue. Try it!