Rodgers Cory
Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Pastoralism. 2021;11(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s13570-021-00192-7. Epub 2021 Nov 24.
Large-scale development interventions have long failed to accommodate the needs and preferences of pastoralists or the systems of resource governance and land tenure upon which they rely. However, advocates of rights-based approaches to development emphasise the importance of community participation in planning and agenda-setting, and in Kenya, public participation is a formal constitutional requirement for government decision-making processes. In 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees concluded negotiations with local stakeholders about the use of 15 km of communal rangelands to build a new refugee settlement in Turkana County, Kenya. Negotiations entailed a community dialogue process involving local people living in the vicinity of the proposed settlement. This paper retrospectively examines the inclusivity of the dialogue process, with particular attention to the involvement of pastoralists and the representation of their interests. Interviews and focus groups conducted with a range of key informants and community stakeholders highlighted two key problems. First, negotiations relied upon a simplistic approach to communal land tenure that overlooked the complexity of overlapping and often contested access rights. Second, there was an over-reliance on urban professionals and politicians as intermediaries between rural communities and development actors. Even where elite intermediaries act in good faith, they may introduce an 'oppidan bias' into development policies, thereby marginalising the viewpoints of non-urban, non-sedentary demographics, such as pastoralists. I conclude with recommendations for the UNHCR to develop a more explicit strategy for direct engagement with host community stakeholders in Turkana and with increased attention to the interests of livestock producers and the nuances of pastoralist land use.
长期以来，大规模的发展干预措施一直未能满足牧民的需求和偏好，也未能顾及他们所依赖的资源治理和土地保有权制度。然而，基于权利的发展方法的倡导者强调社区参与规划和议程设定的重要性，在肯尼亚，公众参与是政府决策过程的一项正式宪法要求。2015年，联合国难民事务高级专员与当地利益相关者就使用15公里公共牧场在肯尼亚图尔卡纳县建造一个新的难民营一事达成谈判。谈判涉及一个社区对话过程，该过程让居住在拟建难民营附近的当地人参与其中。本文回顾性地审视了对话过程的包容性，特别关注牧民的参与情况及其利益的代表性。与一系列关键信息提供者和社区利益相关者进行的访谈和焦点小组讨论突出了两个关键问题。第一，谈判依赖于一种简单化的公共土地保有权方法，忽视了重叠且往往存在争议的使用权的复杂性。第二，请城市专业人员和政治家作为农村社区与发展行为体之间的中间人存在过度依赖情况。即使精英中间人是善意行事，他们也可能在发展政策中引入“城里人偏见”，从而使非城市、非定居人口（如牧民）的观点边缘化。我最后为联合国难民署提出建议，即制定一项更明确的战略，以便在图尔卡纳与东道社区利益相关者直接接触，并更多地关注畜牧生产者的利益以及牧民土地使用的细微差别。
