Sustainability Indicators for Natural Resource Management & Policy Uganda and South Africa  Partners          Start date 1998 End date 2001 Commitment (£) N/A   * Development and Project Planning Centre, University of Bradford * Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester * Centre for Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, University of Manchester * Economic Policy Research Centre, Makerere University Campus, Uganda * Agricultural and Rural Development Research Institute, University of Fort Hare, South Africa Contacts * Dr Dan Rigby dan.rigby@man.ac.uk Purpose To develop and test a methodology for using indicators to inform policy on natural resource management in southern and eastern Africa.

	Lessons:
	A Review of Indicators of Agricultural and Rural Livelihood Sustainability, by Dan Rigby, David Howlett and Phil Woodhouse, Working Paper 1 PDF
	A Framework for Research on Sustainability Indicators for Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods by Phil Woodhouse, David Howlett and Dan Rigby. Working Paper 2 PDF
	Natural Resource Management and Policy in Uganda: Overview Paper by EPRC, Uganda, Working Paper 3 PDF
	Natural Resource Management and Policy in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Overview Paper, Edited by P. Lent, P.F. Scogings and W. Van averbeke Working Paper 4 PDF
	Stakeholder Analysis and Local Identification of Indicators of Success and Sustainability of Farming Based Livelihood Systems, by David Howlett, Richard Bond, Phil Woodhouse and Dan Rigby. Working Paper 5 PDF
	Indicators Of Success/Failure and Sustainability of Selected Farming Systems In Uganda, by Godfrey Bahiigwa, Isaac Shinyekwa, Rosetti Nabbumba and Gloria Kempaka, Working Paper 6 PDF
	Sustainability Indicators for Farming Based Livelihoods in Uganda by GodfreyBahiigwa, Isaac Shinyekwa, Dan Rigby, Phil Woodhouse and David Howlett, Working Paper 8 PDF / Annex 5 PDF (fieldwork protocol and questionnaire survey)

Use of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches

The current context of sub-Saharan Africa present a number of specific difficulties in assessing sustainability issues. First, many economies in the region have undergone profound institutional and structural reform including market liberalisation and retrenchment in state service provision in rural areas, whose consequences are still emerging. Second (and interlinked), ‘rural’ livelihoods are increasingly understood in many parts of Africa to involve significant non-farm, and often urban-based, components. Thirdly, recent research challenges previously-held conventions on what constitutes ‘sustainable’ natural resource use, emphasising particularly the need to recognise resource users’ own criteria of long-term success, as well as (or in preference to) those based on scientific opinion.

This research project seeks to develop a methodology to identify an indicator set which can compare agricultural NRM between social groups and locations so as to identify factors critical to policy interventions to improve farming success and eliminate rural poverty. Indicators are being measured and compared for a range of different agro-ecological conditions and scales of farming in Uganda and South Africa (Eastern Cape Province).

Initial steps taken in identifying indicators involved reviewing the existing indicator frameworks (Working Paper 1), and exploring how these may be combined with ‘sustainable rural livelihoods’ (SRL) approach adopted by the UK Department for International Development. This latter is felt to be particularly appropriate because it allows the analysis of the assets, activities, and access which determine the living gained by individuals or households. In particular it allows an analysis of the contributions and linkages between different sources of income that constitute the ‘multiple’ nature of many African rural livelihoods. In a parallel activity, fieldwork in the Ugandan and South African study areas sought to identify local indicators of sustainability, based on criteria of success used by local stakeholders in agricultural systems.

The case studies in Uganda and South Africa examined "the success or sustainability" of small and large scale systems from a range of perspectives including: farmers, communities, scientists, planners and policy makers. This included the identification of criteria used to assess the "success" of these systems, and the adoption or development of verifiable and measurable indicators of this "success". The impacts of different polices on the degree of success of these systems were assessed in terms of their effect on farmers’ management of, and investments in, their natural resources, and in the development of sustainable rural livelihoods.