Pro-poor adaptation to climate variability in semi-arid regions of Zimbabwe: the role of Ziziphus Mauritiana and network interventions in Muzarabani district

• Main Author: Katanha, Anyway
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10539/26485

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty Of Science, at the University Of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Of Philosophy in Geography and Environmental Studies === The study seeks to interrogate the role that Ziziphus mauritiana plays, as a non- human actor, in building the adaptive and resilience capacity of poor people in Muzarabani of Zimbabwe through the lens of the Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Commodity Chain Analysis (CCA). The qualitative approach was largely used. Empirical evidence, which is largely the role that Zm plays in the adaptive capacity and resilience discourses on semi-arid space of Muzarabania as established by observations, interviews with diverse actors that included household heads, traditional leadership, civil society organisation (CSOs)and government department is presented in this thesis. The study revealed that there is a myriad of actors that form a complex web of adaptive and resilience capacity in Zm production, processing and marketing in Muzarabani. The analysis and discussion of the results places Zm into perspective, illustrating how Zm could enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience in Muzarabani if it were given the attention it deserves. Furthermore, the study revealed that local communities are not passive, as often portrayed, when they experience adverse weather conditions. Excluding them from processes that directly influence their day to day experience, for example the use of Zm, defeats all efforts to address environmental challenges. The case of Zm is argued with the lens of ANT. The study goes further “to unpack the black box” using ANT. Ultimately the research proposes the Actor Networked Eco-based Resilience Logic Model (ANELRM) as the framework that can catapult Zm to the right position in the adaptive capacity and resilience discourse in Muzarabani. The study further demonstrated another contribution to ANT that is it considers the natural resource Ziziphus mauritiana (Zm) as a non-linear commodity that needs to be followed closely to fully understand its contribution, contrary to the idea of taking natural resources as linear and static. ANT views power relations, not in terms of the physical power, but in terms of connections, offering a base to suggest it can, to some extent, address social inequality, exclusion and power dynamics which characterise local natural resource use. This is important to policy makers as they would understand better actors and the natural resources influencing community resilience after drought or floods. In context this will help government actors, like the Muzarabani Rural District Council, to come up with contextual policy measures and implementation efforts to address resilience challenges in semi-arid spaces of SSA, specifically in Zimbabwe. === XL2019