This paper explores the potential for African indigenous systems of thought (Ubuntu and Ujamaa) as the basis for community-based adaptation to climate change and conflict resolution in environmentally vulnerable settings. Based on 18 months of participatory action research in the Kagera region of northwestern Tanzania, our analysis incorporates a mixed-method approach to examine ways in which agro-pastoral communities mobilize values of social solidarity and collective action in response to challenges associated with climate change. Results confirm that practices informed by principles of Ubuntu and Ujamaa were associated with greater perceptions of collective efficacy, more equitable arrangements for sharing natural resources and greater capacity to resolve conflicts over land use and inter-community tensions. These results reflect the interpretations and experiences of participants, rather than represent causal relationships, and illustrate the moral and social bases for understanding processes of adaptation and resilience. Our findings are consistent with theoretical perspectives derived from decolonizing approaches to knowledge production, critical theory of climate justice and African indigenous systems of knowledge. In particular, we extend and elaborate on conventional interpretations of Ujamaa as a state-directed project of socialist development. Instead, we demonstrate how Ujamaa constitutes a component of a broader moral system based on interdependence, reciprocity and collective well-being. Consequently, both Ubuntu and Ujamaa represent living systems of knowledge and practice, and not simply historical forms of political ideology.
As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into agriculture-focused development agendas, its use in rural field settings challenges current thinking about fit, equity, and sustainability. This paper examines the overlooked dimensions of how talent management processes impact the sociotechnical localization of AI in rural agricultural ecosystems in India. Based on multi-sited qualitative case studies in Karnataka, Bihar, and Maharashtra, we explore how talent pipelines, including agri-digital intermediaries, AI translators, and local facilitators, mediate the adoption, translation, and incorporation of AI tools bysmall institutional and professional farmers. Thefindings suggest that human infrastructure is not merely supportive but constitutive of the successful integration of AI, especially in settings characterized by educational asymmetries, caste hierarchies, and gendered exclusions. Informed by sociotechnical systems theory and the concepts of knowledge coproduction and epistemic justice, this research contends that talent management must be reimagined as a fundamental infrastructuraland ethical spine for digital innovation. The analysis conceptualizes AI localization as a negotiated alignment between algorithmic systems and agrarian lifeworlds made possible by contextuallyembedded, culturally literate, and institutionally embedded human agents. This helps push the boundaries of what it means for AI to be technically feasible, socially situated, and democratically transformed in the Global South.
Social Accountability (SA) tools are important to ensure improved governance and development effectiveness, primarily through improved public service delivery. Using the nationally representative National Governance Survey 2017/18, this study empirically examines whether utilization of the SA tools improves citizens' experience with public service delivery. The overall results from the empirical analysis show that direct participation in SA activities improves the citizen's experience with service delivery, thus increasing the probability of reporting satisfaction. The results are consistent with the indirect participation, but the reported coefficients are statistically weaker. Direct participation in SA activities reduces the probability of getting help from someone, while indirect participation reduces the probability of paying other fees and the number of attempts made to receive public service. The study upholds that improved access to actionable information, engagement of civil society organizations in the development process, increased sense of fairness and inclusiveness in participation in state organs, and strong democratic norms have strengthened the causal chain between information, citizen action, and state response. The study recommends increasing awareness among citizens about the SA tools and provisions of physical participation made on an equitable and inclusive basis.
This paper investigates the impact of rainfall shocks on children’s food resource shares in Bangladesh and examines the potential mediating role of women’s empowerment. Using panel data from 2,603 households across the 2011/12, 2015, and 2018/19 survey waves, I estimate a fixed-effects mediation analysis and employ double-lasso regressions for control variable selection, along with bootstrapped standard errors to test the significance of the direct, indirect, and total effects. Results indicate that the detrimental effects of rainfall shocks on children’s food resource shares are concentrated among boys. Rainfall shocks are associated with a reduction in the share of household calories allocated to boys. Boys’ calorie shares fall by 0.173 percentage points for every liter of rainfall above one standard deviation from the mean. Women’s empowerment is positively associated with children’s calorie shares. However, the analysis does not confirm a mediating effect of women’s empowerment. These findings highlight the need for targeted policy interventions to safeguard boys’ nutritional outcomes in the wake of climate-related shocks.
