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Summaries of case studies
Click on the links below for short summaries of each case and links
to full case study
Can the
poor influence policy? Lessons from the Cashewnut revitalization
campaign in Kenya coast - Elphas Ojiambo
Cashew is among the oldest cash crops in Kenya; introduced
into East Africa by the Portuguese during the Sixteenth Century.
Although cashew contributes with only 1% of Kenya's total agricultural
production, it is an important crop because it is grown in an area
with few other alternatives. During the peak period of the cashew
industry (1980s), it was a major export earner contributing with
4% of GDP. However, mismanagement and privatization of the Kenya
Cashewnut Limited in 1993 and its eventual closure in 1998 had a
devastating effect on farmers whose livelihood had depended on it
for years. The cashew campaign sought to draw farmers and policymaker's
interest in the cashew trees, hitherto neglected.
The objective was to work with farmers in order to influence both
the agenda setting and formulation of the Cashewnut Policy and Act.
Whereas the campaign managed to draw farmers' interest in proper
tree husbandry thus increasing production, little change was evident
at the policy level. Neither a cashewnut policy nor Act is in place
despite the efforts since 2001. More...
The
influence of Kenya Association of Manufacturers on Environmental
Law and Energy and Environmental Policies in Kenya - Peter Orawo
This case study explains the way in which a civil
society organization (CSO) can influence policy formulation processes.
It examines the process through which the Kenya Association of Manufacturers
(KAM) influenced policies on energy, the industrialization process
and environmental law in Kenya. KAM was a partner in the policies
and legislation formulation in conjunction with the Government of
Kenya and other CSOs such as the Federation of Kenya Employers,
international and local non-governmental organisations such as Energy
for Sustainable Development, the African Centre for Technology Studies,
and others.
As of 1990 Kenya had a weak Energy Policy and no policy at all
in the fields of industrialisation processes and environmental protection.
Nonetheless, Kenya became one of the first African countries to
implement the outcome of the Rio Conference of 1992. It was also
one of the first African countries to sign the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). More...
From
"Detention and Repatriation" to "Salvation and Administration":
A Policy Change towards the urban vagrants and mendicants in China
- Xufeng Zhu
This case describes a transition of Chinese policies
and practices on urban vagrants and mendicants. In 1982, China's
State Council enacted the Provisions for Detaining and Repatriating
Urban Vagrants and Mendicants, in which the major administrative
measures can be generalised as 'detention and repatriation'. This
policy had been in effect for 21 years by 2003. Such policy change
was triggered by an incident in which Sun Zhigang, a college graduate
who worked in Guangzhou (Guangdong Province), was mistaken as an
urban vagrant or mendicant and sent to the local detaining and repatriating
post because he was found having no means of identification in the
street. Three days later, he was beaten to death by the detaining
and repatriating staff during the law enforcement process.
Media coverage on Sun Zhigang's death and the active advocacy efforts
of think tank experts drew the attention of top government officials.
And even though the review of constitutionality of NPC finally failed
to be launched, the State Council did initiate an agenda to abolish
the previous provisions. Nearly two months after the story broke
the 12th executive meeting of the State Council adopted new Administrative
Provisions for the Salvation of Urban Helpless Vagrants and Mendicants
and they came to effect soon after.
The new policy stipulates that the government shall set up rescue
units for urban vagrants and mendicants, and also specifies the
responsibilities of the unit's administrators. According to the
new policy, staff members of public security organs and other government
offices involved shall instruct any urban vagabonds or beggars found
to seek help from the rescue units where the government will provide
accommodation and medical care services. More...
Interventions
of CSOs towards the First youth Policy of Pakistan - Zahid Shahab
Ahmed
This case study highlights the process and interventions
by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to motivate the Government
of Pakistan to develop the country's first ever youth policy. The
history of the National Youth Policy (NYP) is one of steps forward
and backwards. So far, four drafts of the NYP have been prepared:
in 1989, 1993, 2002 and 2004. The NYP draft prepared in 1989 wasn't
presented to the Cabinet, and was only issued to the press on 21
June 1989. The second draft of the NYP (1993) was prepared by a
foreign consultant, but not presented to the Cabinet. The third
draft was prepared in 2002, and was successfully presented to the
Cabinet for its approval. It was considered by the Cabinet which
suggested some changes. The current NYP draft was prepared in December
2004, and has yet to be presented to the Cabinet.
The key policy change came in 2001 when the government started
consulting with civil society on the NYP. Between May 2001 and January
2002, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs organised
consultative provincial and national workshops for the first time.
In the light of these consultations, the Pakistani Ministry of Youth
Affairs with the active participation of Provincial Youth Departments,
CSOs and students were able to prepare a comprehensive NYP (2002).
It is through this process that the final 2004 draft has been prepared.
More...
Grassroots
Organisation Engaging Conservation Agency in Nepal: A case of indigenous
fishing communities' struggle for right to fishing in South-Central
Nepal - Anil Bhattarai and Sudeep Jana
This case examines the struggle of the Bote, Majhi
and Musahar communities for their right to fish in a river and have
access to local forest resources in South-Central Nepal. From the
later part of the 1960s, the Nepali government, with assistance
from international agencies (such as the United Nations) began to
implement conservation policies. The Royal Chitwan National Park
(RCNP) was set up particularly for the protection of one-horned
rhinos whose population had significantly declined by the 1950s.
These policies were based on the assumption that people were the
main culprits in the destruction of wildlife and, therefore, they
needed to be excluded from the conservation areas. After the introduction
of these policies, their entry to the forest was severely restricted
and fishing in the river made illegal. By the mid-1980s, ferrying
was banned across the river.
By the late 1980s, however, conservation agencies were becoming
aware of conflicts between local fishing communities and the RCNP.
Slowly, they began to implement the concept of partnership between
conservation agencies and local people through some developmental
programmes. But exclusionary practices continued. In fact, in December
1992, armed guards of the RCNP raided several villages lying along
the river and seized all the boats, nets and other fishing utensils
from all the houses in the villages. It was in response to this
crisis that a local people's organisation named Majhi, Mushahar,
Bote Kalyan Sewa Samiti (MMBKSS) was set up in 1993 by the fishing
communities.
Fishing communities now have access to the Buffer Zone Management
Council as a Buffer Zone User's Committee member. This committee
controls two major sources of resources: the community forest lying
within the buffer zone and a share of the revenue generated from
the RCNP for the purpose of local community development activities.
More...
Local
struggle towards grassroot democracy: A case of Terai dalit movement
for right to community forestry in Eastern Nepal - Arjun Thapaliya,
Sudeep Jana and Somat Ghimire
This case examines the grassroots struggle of a socially
excluded low caste group in eastern Nepal to establish their right
to the management and use of community forests. The Government brought
in the concept of community forestry with the realisation that conservation
of forest resource is not possible without popular participation
and it should be linked to the livelihoods of poor and marginalised
groups. Community Forest Users Groups (CFUGs) thrived as institutions
with empowering potentials entrusted with the rights of local management
and use of forest. However, due to the unjust social structure and
power relations that permeate Nepali society, marginalised social
groups were excluded from CFUGs.
The Saptari district located in the eastern Terai region has the
highest number of dalits -low caste population in Nepal. When in
1997 139 hectares of the Bhaluwahi forest, located in the Hardiya
Village Development Committee (VDC), Saptari, were handed over to
the local CFUG, the dalits' livelihood became at risk. The CFUG
of the Bhaluwahi community forest consists of 182 households, the
majority of which are tharus, a locally powerful indigenous group.
The chamars and musahars (dalit communities) are the economically,
socially and politically backward minorities - over 75% of them
are landless. Hence, the leadership of the CFUG was dominated by
tharus.
15 chamar households had been residing on the periphery of the
forest since 1990, prior to the formation of the community forest.
Since 1996, there had been several attempts to inflict violence
and evict chamars by the local tharus and the District Forest Office
(DFO). But the chamars kept resisting threats and acts of eviction.
On October 2002 the high caste tharus of Bhaluwahi CFUG, with the
moral support of the local police, Chief District Office and DFO
destroyed chamar houses. This was possible in a time when there
was a state of emergency in Nepal and non-violent resistance or
movements were not possible. Hence local chamars were displaced
for three months.
Eventually, Dalit Chetana Sangam (DCS), a people's organisation
of dalits, organised local chamars and launched a struggle for about
a year against tharus. DCS' work involved thorough research into
the situation of the dalits and training chamars in non-violent
negotiation skills and practices. This non-violent struggle changed
the leadership of CFUG. Chamar habitation was restored and they
gained unrestrained access to the management and use of community
forest.
The continued organised struggle finally restored the original
habitation of local chamars and prevented future evictions. They
brought changes in the leadership of local CFUG, thereafter obtaining
significant impacts on the local policy and practices: (i) Special
consideration to be given to the existing poor households while
deciding the physical boundary of community forest; (ii) Unrestrained
access of forest to poor and marginalised social groups whose livelihood
is dependant on the forest; (iii) Information of general assembly
to be disseminated one month in advance to all the members of CFUG.
It became an exemplary case and influenced dalits in CFUGs in other
parts of the district to demand participation in community forests.
It also improved the social status and dignity of chamar in the
society. The case brought significant changes in the actual practice
of legal provisions concerning the participation of marginalised
groups in management and use of community forest. More...
Introduction
of Anticorruption Education in the Bulgarian Secondary Schools -
Nataliya Petrova Dimitrova
The Coalition 2000 initiative was launched in 1998
with the aim to counteract corruption in Bulgarian society through
a process of co-operation among NGOs, governmental institutions
and citizens. In 2003, education was identified by the Corruption
Monitoring System of Coalition 2000 as a corruption-susceptible
area. University professors and school teachers were consistently
rated by the general public in the top five most corrupt professions
in Bulgaria.
The policy change that was achieved as a result of the joint efforts
of Coalition 2000 and its partners - governmental institutions,
universities and public schools, and nongovernmental organisations
and media - was the introduction of Anticorruption classes in the
official curricula of the Bulgarian secondary schools in the fall
of 2004. More...
NGOs,
the extractive industries and community development: the case of
NGO Labor in Peru - James Loveday Laghi and Oswaldo Molina Campodonico
This case study considers the process through which
the civil society of Ilo - a city located in the southern part of
Peru - guided by the developmental NGO Labor, became a real influence
in the environmental attitude and corporate social responsibility
of the Southern Peru Copper Corporation (SPCC), one of the main
copper producers in the world. One of the high points of this case
study is from 1992, when Labor and Ilo's Municipal government won
a suit against SPCC in the Second International Water Tribunal in
Amsterdam. This event, having exposed SPCC's negative environmental
impact to an international forum, was a turning point in its social
responsibility behaviour. Afterwards, the mining company started
a coordinated plan lead by the Peruvian Government to accomplish
a set of environmental standards to reduce its air and water pollution.
The Second International Water Tribunal allowed the international
community to be informed about the polluting effects produced by
the mining activities of world-renowned SPCC in the city of Ilo,
and its apparent apathy regarding environmental responsibility in
the development of this city. As a consequence, the policy changes
adopted by the mining company and the government (both central and
local) since then have allowed the continuous reduction of the extractive
industries' pollution at the city of Ilo. More...
From
local action to national water policies: The experience of elaboration
of the water law in Costa Rica - Jorge Mora Portuguez
This case study describes the process of participation
and incidence of a civil society organisation, Foundation for Urban
Development (FUDEU) and other social actors in the elaboration of
a new water law in Costa Rica, based on their own local experiences
in the 'Grande de Tarcoles River Basin Commission'. In 2000, FUDEU's
research suggested that the existing framework prevented the Commission
from assuming necessary competences and legal responsibilities to
be a real river basin agency. Hence FUDEU decided to promote the
elaboration of a new water law in Costa Rica by creating the 'Technical
Group of Water' (GTA) with other social organisations, governmental
institutions and international organisms. The GTA developed the
widest process of dialogue and discussion ever made around a law
in Costa Rica.
After three years of consultation and multi stakeholder dialogues,
the GTA and the Congress of Costa Rica finished a new water law
project. This project was published in January 2004 and approved
to be sent to the Plenary of the Congress in April 2005 by the Environment
Commission. This legal instrument is expected to radically change
the existing system of water management in the country, making way
for the creation of River Basin Agencies. More...
From
educational intensive care towards an educational city - the case
of Araçuaí, Brazil - Mônica Mazzer Barroso
Through an innovative popular education project,
the Popular Centre for Culture and Development (CPCD) - a Brazilian
non-governmental organisation based in one of the country's poorest
areas, the Jequitinhonha valley, has offered the municipality of
Araçuaí, in the south-eastern State of Minas Gerais,
the possibility of an educational revolution, in an attempt to combat
the alarming statistics of the local educational standard. The 'Araçuaí:
From educational intensive care towards an educational city' project
was designed by an unconventional collaboration arrangement between
the NGO, the local Secretary of Education and the Municipal Council
of Children's Rights, where CPCD is responsible for designing and
implementing local educational policies.
For the first time in Brazil, a local government appointed a non-governmental
organisation to run its Department of Education, which entails the
full design and implementation of local educational policies. Since
August 2003 CPCD has been responsible for Araçuaí's
Secretary of Education - even though there is not legislation that
allows a governmental body to be run by an organisation. More...
Contending
paradigms for contested public spaces: role of CSOs in shaping Delhi's
transport policy - B. Mahesh Sarma
From the late 1980s, due to industrialisation, and
burgeoning vehicle population, air pollution in Delhi reached alarming
proportions. The rising air pollution led to a protracted legal
case, M.C. Metha vs. Union of India, filed by M.C. Mehta, an environmental
activist lawyer. The case initially demanded the stoppage of stone
crushing in the vicinity of Delhi. Even when interim judgments in
the trial were made from 1986 onwards, by way of phasing out vehicles
more than fifteen years old and the provision of hybrid fuels and
bio-fuels, the state (both executive and legislature) did very little
by way of policy or execution. It was only due to a sustained campaign
by CSOs and threat of imprisonment for contempt of court by the
judges that changes were eventually achieved. This case attempts
to examine the way in which the Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE) was able to generate, sustain, and coordinate public opinion
with respect to vehicular air pollution as the main cause of public
health problems, as well as playing an important role in convincing
the public and judiciary that CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) constituted
an ideal solution to the problem, especially in the face of strong
opposing forces.
In the state of Delhi over a period of a little under two years
from 2001 to 2003 the Government of Delhi (GoD), in collaboration
with the Government of India (GoI), undertook the complete conversion
of Delhi's public transport fleet into CNG mode; emission norms
announced by GoI were advanced by four years for the state of Delhi;
the GoI announced a national fuel policy, formulated by an expert
committee; and urban planning in Delhi's master plan came to acknowledge
vehicular pollution and measures to reduce it. More...
Advocating
for pro-poor land laws: Uganda Land Alliance and the land reform
process in Uganda - Emmanuel Nkurunziza
Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) is an example of a CSO
that has recorded considerable success in its advocacy for pro-poor
land policies, in no small measure due to its ability to use research
both to empower the poor and to engage policymakers. Aided by research-based
arguments and information, ULA played a successful intermediary
role, between the citizenry and the state elite, to arrive at a
land law (Land Act, 1998) that is not just driven by economic imperatives
but also addresses issues of equity.
The policy change discussed in this cases study is the enactment
of the Land Act in 1998, which includes considerations that protect
children, women rights and the poor in general. More...
Domestic
Violence in Uzbekistan: An Innovative Approach to Decrease Violence
against Women - Sukhrobjon Ismoilov
This case study analyses the innovative approach
taken by Youth Centre 'Ikbol', in collaboration with the Ministry
of Defence of Uzbekistan between 2000 and 2005, with the aim of
decreasing domestic violence and gender inequalities towards women
in Uzbekistan by using the military system to raise the awareness
of men on women's rights and gender issues.
This case study focuses on the changes in the policy documents
and practice on domestic violence which took place during 2000-2004
and continues to date. The Ministry of Defence acknowledged domestic
violence as a major problem for society and agreed to follow a series
of projects to tackle its source rather than its symptoms; working
on public awareness, education and introducing CSO participation
into the policy process. More...
A
Policy for the Management of National Parks and Protected Areas
in Jamaica - Michelle Harris
In 1987 the National Resource Conservation Division,
the main environmental management agency in Jamaica, published a
report on the state of the environment. One of the issues highlighted
in the report was the urgent need to implement new legislation and
strengthen existing ones for more effective management of Jamaica's
National Parks and Protected areas. After a long period during which
a series of consultations, pilots and papers were developed, in
November 1997, upon approval by Parliament and Cabinet, a policy
for Jamaica's System of Protected Areas was defined. Based on the
new policy two National Parks were established: the Blue and John
Crow Mountains National Park and the Montego Bay Marine Park. Management
of these two parks was delegated to two NGOs.
The National Policy on Parks and Protected Areas was the first
environmental policy in Jamaica which involved collaboration between
government and non-government organisations in policy formulation
and implementation. It reflected a change in policy practice and
legislation regarding the approach to environmental protection and
management in Jamaica. For the first time in the history of environmental
policy in the country, management of the environment had been delegated
to civil society. More...
Changing
anti-crime policy through community policing in Albania - Ermal
Hasimja
This case study presents the results of a two year-long
process of policy change in the field of security in Albania. The
project aimed at creating a solid and legal basis for community
policing in ten Albanian regions. In 2001, the Institute for Democracy
and Mediation (IDM) initiated a long process of policy change which
aimed to pave the road to concrete and efficient community policing,
re-orienting the anti-crime oppression policy towards a crime prevention
approach.
The role of local communities was considered crucial because of
the relative strength of the communitarian relations at this level.
The project transformed the current security policy and new local
participatory structures (Consulting Groups of Police and Community
- CGPCs) were institutionalised.
In order to create a solid basis for the policy change, IDM acted
at two levels: (i) The legal basis of the policy change; and (ii)
The structuring and functioning of the cooperation in the field.
More...
The
Power of Knowledge. CSOs and Environmental Policy Making in South
Africa - Anne Roemer-Mahler
This case study explores how two South African civil
society organisations (CSOs) have used scientific evidence to influence
air pollution management in one of the country's pollution hot-spots,
the South Durban industrial basin. In 2000, the South Durban Community
Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) in collaboration with a national
environmental CSO, groundWork, launched an air monitoring project
for South Durban. Their findings, which revealed high levels of
benzene and 18 other pollutants in the air, triggered the establishment
of South Africa's first local air quality management programme,
the South Durban Multi-Point Plan (MMP).
Until 2005, the legislative framework governing air quality management
in South Africa was the Atmospheric Air Pollution and Prevention
Act (APPA) of 1965. This legislation was based on a top-down regulatory
approach in which emission permits were granted without the requirement
of ambient air quality assessments considering local meteorological
and topographical conditions. Local authorities did not have any
jurisdiction over air quality management. This changed when, in
2005, the South African government passed the Air Quality Act which,
in line with the Constitution, places strong emphasis on the subsidiarity
principle and encourages public participation in policy making through
consultative processes. More...
Kasambahay
(domestic worker) program: working together towards a Magna Carta
for Filipino domestic workers - Richard G. Valenzuela
Only a decade ago was the issue of domestic workers
made public by the Visayan Forum Foundation's (VF) Kasambahay (domestic
worker) Program, which pioneered the work on child domestic labour
and domestic workers as a sector in the Philippines. In September
2004, with the program's continuous engagement with local government
units, the local government of Quezon City, the largest of Metro
Manila's cities (in population and land area), committed to facilitate
the passing of a kasambahay ordinance. And, in the first ever Domestic
Workers Summit in September 2005, Filipino domestic workers were
recognised as the 'invisible engine' of the Philippine economy (maximising
private households' productivity by freeing additional manpower
into the labour market at a time when women have increasingly joined
the workforce).
At the local level, the Quezon City government has trail-blazed
the ordinance on mandatory registration of domestic workers under
which they could avail of basic social services such as education,
formal training, vocational training, counselling, Philippine Health
insurance coverage, and arts and recreational activities. At the
national level, the Philippines has enacted the Trafficking in Persons
Act of 2003, the Anti-Child Labor Law (R.A. 9231), and the Anti-Violence
against Women and their Children Act of 2004. More...
The
World Commission on Dams: shaping global policy through multi-stakeholder
dialogue and evidence-based research - Fabien
Lefrançois
This case study will tell the story of the World
Commissions on Dams, an ambitious multi-stakeholder process using
evidence-based research to build a solid consensus despite the diversity
of the constituencies represented. Considered good practice by many
as a dialogue process aiming to shape global policy-making, the
WCD produced positive results and important lessons both in terms
of policy, and CSO networking and strategising for influencing policy.
However due to mixed response and lack of uptake by some national
governments and international institutions such as the World Bank,
the jury is still out on the ultimate usefulness and replicability
of the process.
Various influential actors in dam-building welcomed the non-binding
recommendations in the final report of the WCD, incorporating them
into their own standards. A Dams and Development Unit under the
auspices of UNEP is in charge of disseminating the findings. However
major actors such as the World Bank and governments have rejected
or only paid lip service to the report. CSOs have used it to sharpen
their advocacy strategies on dam-related issues. More...
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