Programmes & projects

Climate Change and Rural Institutions
This four-year collaborative research programme addresses the knowledge gap that currently exists about the role of district level institutions (local government, agricultural advisory services, natural resource management agencies and farmer organisations) in providing an enabling environment for climate change adaptation. These meso-level institutions play a key role at the interface between national policies and individual/community level adaptation efforts, and the research programme explores (i) the nature and extent of their engagements and interactions in climate change adaptation, and (ii) the factors and processes that stimulate, constrain or block innovation in relation to climate change adaptation. The programme is coordinated by DIIS in collaboration with partners in Nepal, Vietnam, Uganda and Zambia. The programme is funded by Danida. Additional support is provided by the Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The project is coordinated by Ian Christoplos. Other DIIS staff members working on the project include Esbern Friis Hansen, Mikkel Funder, Adam Pain and Ida Peters. You can read more about the programme here.

Governance of natural resources – inequality, institutional practices and transformative potentials
This project examines why in some rural district governments succeed in establishing democratic governance of the access to and use of natural resources while others don’t. More specifically, research is conducted to test the hypothesis that the more unequal the distribution of economic resources, the higher the risk of discretional governance of the access to and use of natural resources in favour of local elites.  Political decentralisation which has taken place in many countries during the past decades constitutes an opportunity for breaking with the structural inequality traps that in many places deprive the majority of the population of political voice and economic opportunities. They do so by providing new institutional arenas where social actors may exert their influence and priorities. In some places there are signs that this opportunity is being seized, while in others not.
   To test this hypothesis comparative research is being conducted the three contrasting sets of rural districts in terms of degrees of inequality in the distribution of economic resources in three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The project is carried out as part of the Rural Territorial Dynamics research and capacity development programme. The project is coordinated by Helle Munk Ravnborg and carried out in collaboration with researchers from Prisma, El Salvador; Universidad Rafael Landívar, Guatemala; and Nitlapan, Nicaragua. For more information, please see project description (in Spanish) (pdf 160 KB).

Addressing Climate Change and Conflict in Development Assistance – experiences from natural resource management 
Late 2010, Danida asked DIIS to undertake a policy study on how experience from natural resource management interventions could be made useful in future climate interventions in order to reduce or avoid the conflict multiplier effect which climate change may cause. Geographically, the study focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and thematically, it focuses on water resources, including transboundary water governance, and on drylands, including land, water and pasture governance.
The study team consists of Mikkel Funder (coordinator), Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde, Ida Peters and Helle Munk Ravnborg. The study is expected to be concluded early 2012.

ReCOM studies on Land Administration & Gender Equality and on Environment & Climate
Late 2010, Danida launched a research and communication (ReCOM) programme with the objective to examine and communicate “What works and what is achieved in development assistance.” The programme is planned as a 3-year programme (2011-2013). DIIS participates in this programme and the Natural Resources and Poverty research unit is currently involved in two studies as part of this programme, namely a study on “Land administration, gender equality and development assistance” (pdf 25 KB) and a study on “Environment and climate” (pdf 29 KB).

The importance of land and property rights to economic behaviour in Uganda
A study commissioned to DIIS and Makerere University by the Royal Danish Embassy, Kampala (2011 – 2012)
   The Royal Danish Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, has asked researchers from DIIS and Makerere University, Kampala, to examine the importance of land and property rights to economic behaviour in Uganda as part of the preparations for Denmark’s next support phase of the Growth Programme in Uganda, intended to start in 2013. 
   Land and property rights are widely held to stimulate and sustain economic activity of individuals and businesses through one or more of the following mechanisms: 
•  by bringing land onto the market so that market forces will work towards gradually allocating land to the most efficient users (seen from an economic point of view);
• by enabling that land be used as collateral for obtaining formal credit and thereby enabling investments, both land and non-land related investments; and
• by providing tenure security to the land right holder and thereby encouraging the land right holder – with or without accessing formal credit – to undertake long-term investments in land improvements.
  The commissioned study will examine the extent to which the above mechanisms apply equally to different types of economic actors and in different parts of Uganda.
   The study team consists of Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen, Helle Munk Ravnborg, and Rachel Spichiger from DIIS and Sarah Alobo, Bernard Bashaasha and Michael Kidoido from Makerere University.   

Low Carbon Development and poverty reduction in developing countries