Isabel Fischer

Linkages between poverty and sustainable agricultural and rural development in the uplands of Southeast Asia

Most of the upland areas of Southeast Asia are characterized by insufficient infrastructure, low productivity in smallholder crop and animal production, mounting environmental problems such as soil and forest degradation and loss of biodiversity, increasing population pressure, and widespread poverty, particular in rural areas. While some upland areas in South East Asia have been experiencing considerable progress during the past twenty years, others have stagnated or even declined with respect to economic, social and environmental objectives of development. The purpose of the paper is to describe major trends regarding sustainable development in the upland areas of selected countries in South East Asia, and review explanatory approaches for the observed trends based on case studies from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The conceptual framework for this paper builds on the critical triangle of sustainable rural development. Here, equity or poverty alleviation, economic growth, and the protection of the environment are the three major policy objectives. We further distinguish three explanatory approaches for land use change and agricultural and rural development. Apart from the market approach and the population approach, we suggest that future studies should focus more on governance issues as a major driving force of land use change. The governance approach appears particularly relevant for upland areas which are often politically and institutionally marginalized. The paper begins with a review of definitions of sustainability, and proceeds with a conceptual analysis of the two-way linkages between poverty and the environment, and poverty and economic growth in rural areas. This is followed by empirical findings from research on agriculture and forestry as the major land uses in upland areas of selected South East Asian countries. Based on the results of different case studies from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia, we seek to contrast stories of relative success with those of failure. The paper concludes with implications for rural and agricultural development policies, and suggests future areas of research.

Health and Poverty as Challenges for Human Security: Two Case Studies on Northern Vietnam and Bangladesh

About one fifth of the world population, that is 1.2 billion people, live in extreme income poverty with less than one US

Constraints and potential of livestock insurance schemes: a case study from Vietnam

a day. Another 1.6 billion have less than two US

Media supported communication in agricultural extension and participatory rural development in Northern Thailand

a day (CHS 2003: 73). Most of the poor live in severe livelihood uncertainty and lack access to basic education and health services. The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aim at cutting poverty in half by the year 2015. As health1 is considered crucial for poverty reduction, three MDGs focus directly on health, covering maternal mortality, infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The MDGs 4 – 6 directly concern health issues, while other MDGs such as goal three (“Promote gender equality and empower women”) and seven (“Ensure environmental sustainability”) deal with nutrition, water and sanitation and thus impact on health2 (see box 40.1). The concept of ‘human security’ has emerged slowly but steadily over the 1990’s –influenced by the end of the Cold War, the awareness of previously neglected insecurities and globalization– and the question was raised about the expected implications of this concept for health and human development (Chen/Narasimhan 2003a). There are various definitions3 of ‘human security’, which obviously “means different things to different people”4. This chapter applies the definition of the Commission on Human Security (CHS), that stated as the objective of human security “to protect the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfilment” (CHS 2003: 4). The emergence of the concept of ‘human security’ will be briefly reviewed (40.2), before focusing on human, livelihood and health security (40.2.1) including current debates of human and health security in South and Southeast Asia (40.2.2) as well as the linkages of poverty, health and human security (40.2.3). Empirical evidence will be presented based on two case studies (40.3) on Vietnam (40.3.1) and Bangladesh (40.3.2). Lessons learned (40.3.3) will be summarized, before turning to the conclusions (40.4).