Swaziland was affected severely by the 2015-16 El Nino drought, which severely affected agriculture and food security. Of special interest to this paper is its impact on irrigated home gardens on the Komati Downstream Development Project. This project was designed to extend irrigated sugar cane onto customary tenured Swazi Nation Land, with a secondary objective to improve food security by enabling farmers to convert some land from rain-fed to irrigated maize and vegetable production. A random questionnaire survey was undertaken on three farmers' associations of the KDDP which have adopted irrigated home gardens, sampling approximately 50 per cent of those eligible. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with committee members of the associations. The paper concludes that unlike previous droughts where the gardens enabled farmers to produce food at a time when rain-fed production had collapsed, in the 2015-16 drought, the impact on water supplies was so great that the irrigated gardens also failed, compromising the food security of the farmers and their neighbours. It also appears that a significant number of farmers are beginning to question the long-term viability of their current farm system in the face of what many perceive as long-term changes in the regional climate.

Since Independence, the contribution of Swazi smallholder farmers to sugar production has grown greatly. This is in part due to a change in the political support that the farmers have received from the Swazi state. Initially viewed with suspicion and as a challenge to royal hegemony, smallholder sugar cane production is now seen as a crucial means of overcoming rural poverty in Swaziland's poorest region, the semi-arid lowveld. Provision of irrigation water is vital for successful sugar cane production on the co-operatively managed farms that are necessary to achieve the economies of scale in irrigated sugar production. Threats to their profitability arising from increasingly volatile markets facing Swaziland's sugar industry since changes to the EU Sugar Protocol in 2005 undermine their capacity for co-operative governance and challenge their long-term viability. EU support to facilitate adjustment to the new sugar market has led to increased sugar cane production by smallholders. The paper argues that the two big dam projects that are at the heart of the new irrigation regions are politically too big to fail', which has committed the Swazi state to the long-term support of smallholders to ensure repayment of loans to build the dams. At the same time, the success of commercial small-scale sugar cane production poses challenges to the Swazi model of customary land tenure. Although emblematic of autocratic royal power, it also - in the processes of land and water development for commercial smallholder sugar cane production - suggests limits to how that power may be deployed in the changing relationships between Swazi elites and their corporate partners and the diverse classes of rural stakeholders.

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses conceptual and theoretical issues of relevance to the types of journeys that feature in Sacred Mobilities. It concerns with 'sacred mobilities' in their broadest sense, with 'journeys of belief and belonging' that is incorporating a spectrum of those movements and travels prompted by religious, more broadly 'spiritual' and secular-sacred practices and priorities. The book discusses the idea of life as pilgrimage features in several contributions. This is achieved through a combination of a survey of visitors and local residents, interviews with state and church representatives, and participant observation, further adding to the list of methods used in this book. Drawing on a wealth of Spanish-language literature, the book discusses the beginnings of the Way and steady decline thereafter until the modern period. Nina Vollenbroker advances the idea of 'dwelling' in motion through a study of Overland Trails of nineteenth-century America.

This chapter analyses spectator accounts of attendance at the Tourist Trophy (TT) races, to ascertain the extent to which the TT is discursively constructed and performatively experienced as a sacred journey, place-as-shrine, community and/or form of ritual practice. It addresses how this relates to motorcycling and, more specifically, spectator experience of the TT races in the Isle of Man. The chapter examines a wider notion of the TT as 'sacred journey', rather than spiritual practices at the TT races per se. Part of this sense of enchantment emanates from co-presence and part of it from the liminal qualities of the 'time-space' or place-temporality of the TT festival, situated as it is on an Island in the middle of the Irish Sea. However, the demographics of TT spectators showed them largely to be made up of middle age, middle class men with disposable income. Self-identification with the TT event is materialised and communicated through the purchase of TT-branded merchandise.

Contents: Uniting national aspirations and local implementation in sustainable development: an introduction, Alan Terry, Jennifer Hill and Wendy Woodland Gathering evidence: the challenge of assessing sustainability after a resettlement programme in Zimbabwe, Jennifer Elliott, Bill Kinsey and Dominik Kwesha Frameworks for community-based rangeland sustainability assessment: lessons from the Kalahari, Botswana, Andrew Dougill and Mark Reed Sustainability indicators and forest wealth in the developing world, Giles Atkinson Sustainable water resource management in South Africa: a decade of progress?, Nevil Quinn and Susan Marriott Environmental education and constructions of sustainable development in Jamaica, Therese Ferguson and Elizabeth Thomas-Hope Children, education and sustainable development in Lesotho, Nicola Ansell Gender responsive approaches to sustainable agricultural extension: the case of Namibia, Julie Newton Sustainable food for sustainable tourism in the Caribbean: integrated pest management and changes in the participation of women, Janet Momsen Factors affecting the sustainability of cotton production: changing rural livelihoods in the North-West region in Zimbabwe, Nick James How compatible is customary tenure with the aims of the Swaziland environmental action plan?, Eric Van Waveren Water management for agriculture in Tunisia: towards environmentally sustainable development, Wendy Woodland and Jennifer Hill Managing Indonesia's marine resources: the role of indigenous communities, Alan Terry and Samantha Shepherd Environmental policies for modern agriculture?, Christian Brannstrom and Anthony M. Filippi Uniting national aspirations and local implementation in sustainable development: lessons learnt and ways forward, Alan Terry, Jennifer Hill and Wendy Woodland Index.

This article outlines issues affecting the functionality of Ugandan water user committees responsible for managing communal water and sanitation (WASH) services. Research undertaken demonstrated that their effectiveness is compromised by poor understanding of their rights and responsibilities by stakeholders within and outside the committees. Following the research, a handbook was produced that explained the rights and responsibilities in a form that is accessible to all community members. Preliminary feedback from committees that have used the handbook suggests that it has the potential to improve the functionality of the water user committees, thereby helping to improve the local management of WASH services in Uganda.

This paper explores the particular assemblage of place, event and individual identity performances that occur each year in the Isle of Man in and through the TT (Tourist Trophy) motorcycle races. These road races are associated with a high degree of risk for the racers and the confluence of over 30,000 visitors and 10,000 motorcycles also presents potential risks for spectators and residents alike. Both motorcycling and risk-taking have been associated with particular forms of masculinity, notably hegemonic, working class and youthful masculinities. Using detailed surveys of spectators we argue that the TT races, while undoubtedly dominated by men and predicated on a cultural privileging of speed and skill, are grounded in varying combinations of determinate and reflexive attitudes to risk, reflecting the performance of a variety of gendered, biker' and wider identity-based positionalities. Findings also highlight a particular inter-relation of mobilities and place identities at the TT races and bring to light the highly significant and under-researched embodied, performative and emotional mobilities of spectators. The conceptual and methodological importance of (a) situated research of both mobilities and gender in specific place-temporalities and (b) wider surveys of motorcyclists to complement ethnographic studies of small cohorts are also stressed.

This paper analyses the impact of the Komati Pilot Project (KPP) upon members and their neighbours. The KPP was a Government of Swaziland (GoS)-financed irrigation scheme that enabled 43 subsistence and semi-subsistence farmers to change from rain-fed maize and cotton to irrigated sugar cane. It provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact of Green Revolution technology upon an African rural community where adopters and non-adopters live close together and where little income differentiation existed prior to the development because the common experience was poverty. A baseline survey of the KPP was carried out in 1997 in advance of the Komati Downstream Development Project. Of concern are the extent and direction of any trickle-down effects from the KPP participants for their neighbours and the consequences of any such impacts 10 years after the project started producing sugar cane. The expectation of the GoS was that sugar cane would benefit KPP participants and neighbours creating a multiplier effect through increased demand for services and increased demand for agricultural labour. Ten years later, these expectations are unrealized.

This chapter is concerned with a critical re-evaluation of a Department of. International Development (DFID) funded project that ran between 1998 and 2001 in India and South Africa. The aim of the project was test whether the process of developing community-led indicators would encourage more effective participatory development. The case study addresses some of the criticisms that have recently been aimed at participatory methods, especially the view that they are apolitical and adopt a technocratic approach. Sobantu has been chosen as the subject of this chapter because the locally based non-govern mental organization (NGO) was a politically astute, well connected institution which understood the political nature of the process of developing the indicators. However, although the project achieved some positive outcomes, the long-term commitment to the indicators has been compromised. Despite the sophistication of the approach, the inability of community members to engage meaningfully with key municipal service providers has diluted the long-term benefits associated with the development of the indicators. However, recent changes to the South African planning regime might provide opportunities for the indicators to become more widely adopted.

This article undertakes a critical re-evaluation of a DFID-funded project in South Africa which ran between 1998 and 2001. The evaluation sought to test whether the development of community-led indicators would improve governance. Since the project ended, a series of papers have been published that are critical of such participatory methods, arguing particularly that they are apolitical and adopt a technocratic approach. In the light of these criticisms, this article re-assesses the DFID project, following on from the initial evaluation carried out by the author in 2001. Sobantu, a black township in Pietermaritzburg, was one of the original project sites. It was chosen as the subject for research because the local implementing agency was a politically astute, well-connected institution that understood the political nature of the process required to develop the indicators. Although the project achieved some positive outcomes, the long-term commitment to the indicators has since been compromised. This was in large part due to the inability of community members to engage meaningfully with key municipal service providers. However, recent changes to the South African planning regime might provide opportunities for the indicators to become more useful again.

ABSTRACTTo overcome widespread rural poverty, raise incomes and improve food security, Swaziland has begun a process of commercialisation of its subsistence farms. This strategy is based upon extending irrigation onto customary tenured land in the semi‐arid lowveld and converting land to sugar cane production. The paper demonstrates that if farmers adopt an irrigated home garden as a supplement to the cash crop, then food security may be improved. However, changes to the EU's Sugar Protocol is undermining the financial viability of the participating farmers’ associations and compromising the ability of the Komati Downstrean Development Project to improve living standards in the area. It argues that EU aid provided to offset changes to the EU Sugar Protocol should be targeted at the most vulnerable to those changes.

The Komati Downstream Development Project (KDDP), based upon the Maguga Dam has enabled 6,000 hectares of semi-arid lowveld, in a region with low and highly variable rainfall to be converted from subsistence to irrigated commercial farming, mainly of sugar cane. This has transformed the Swazi sugar industry from one dominated by a small number of large-scale commercial estates to one where more than 1,500 previously impoverished small-scale Swazi farmers have been able to enter the industry by joining farmers' associations and creating communally managed farms. Recent changes to the EU's Sugar Protocol have undermined the financial viability of the KDDP farms and undermined food security, especially for the poorest, due to the cut in sugar prices. However, some farmers' associations have opted to keep some of their land as irrigated home gardens, rather than convert all their land to sugar cane. This model has improved food security at a time of low sugar prices and points to a more sustainable way of using water from large scale dams than the conventional model. It is argued that the EU should target support to members of the KDDP who have taken out large-scale loans to pay for the in-field infrastructure and encourage all farmers' associations to adopt the food garden model. This would enable them to continue to benefit from the irrigation through improved production of subsistence crops, whilst they diversify their commercial production into novel markets.

Using examples from three parts of Africa this paper aims to critically assess the continued relevance of participation in development. The first example, taken from one village in North West Zimbabwe, analyses the operation of research practice aiming to examine field-level soil fertility and household food security changes. In engaging both the households and community leaders the research process discovers an array of issues and details that directly and tangentially impact upon the agrarian conditions and the changing nature of household food security. The highly politicised Village Committee is able to communicate issues including land being taken away from villagers following the development of Gokwe Community Centre (using funding from a Danish NGO), the issue of piped water, electricity supplies and access to the PAAP (Poverty Alleviation Action Programme). These all inter-link, not only with the characteristic of the participants, but also, considering the very real danger that the village faces in losing its identity (as a residential space), because of its close proximity to the urban developments in Nembudziya. Agreed, the participatory methods alone are inadequate for deeper and further research but they clearly provide openings to several other issues that may otherwise have not become evident. They also provide relevant introductions to householders participating in the research. The second example observes the process of applying Community Sustainable Development Indicators (CSDIs) in Sobantu, a peri-urban residential area on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. The aim of this method is to engage marginalised people in the development processes. The very practical objectives help the local communities to apply development according to their own conceptions. Three interlaced processes are in operation. Firstly, the agency, awareness and confidence to participate is increased and improved. Secondly, the local communities are able to strengthen their ability to gain outside support without over-relying on NGOs. Thirdly, the people involved increase and improve their capacities with new skills and awareness as well as improved interrelationships within the community. The research findings demonstrate how people in Sobantu gained considerably, particularly in confidence and skills. They had begun to engage in advocacy work to counter environmental problems posed by a sewerage works close by. Moreover, the Community Awareness Projects (CAPs) enabled people to link more actively with local government. The third example is a social justice programme among Masaai traditional pastoralists in Tanzania. This highlights ongoing community advocacy work among local communities, aiming to secure land use rights. The interesting point is that their struggle is directed largely against international conservation NGOs and often ones that are extremely and overtly dedicated to using standardised participatory methods. The account focuses on the political approach adopted by a Tanzanian Community Resource Team (CRT). The thread that links the three cases is that of relative agency and people's capacity to engage directly in political action to improve their livelihoods. This perspective therefore revitalises the notion of a complex context from which political action might stem. It is therefore important to fully engage with, and acknowledge the complexities found in all the place contexts. This is about enabling people at the local level to engage with the given political structures and systems that they live with. Whilst the earlier 'campaign' to enable the widest acceptance and use of participation in development practice has succeeded, this has also arguably become a victim of its own success. Participation is now embedded into most mainstream development, and instead of allowing for the abuse and misuse of these methods these cases demonstrate a politicisation that takes place in particular place settings. Arguably, the time has come to establish a new approach, one that continues to enable participation in development. However, it is a participation that is both more relevant and workable, and also more radical and political. However, there are dangers in pursuing such a 'populist' (or alternative) 'agency'