The Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society: an emergent community of practice
- Authors: Biggs, Reinette , Reyers, Belinda , Blanchard, Ryan , Clements, Hayley S , Cockburn, Jessica J , Cumming, Graeme S , Cundill, Georgina , de Vos, Alta , Dziba, Luthando E , Esler, Karen J , Fabricius, Christo , Hamann, Maike , Henriksson, Rebecka , Kotschy, Karen , Lindborg, Regina , Luvuno, Linda , Masterson, Vanessa A , Nel, Jeanne L , O'Farrell, Patrick , Palmer, Carolyn G , Pereira, Laura , Pollard, Sharon , Preiser, Rika , Roux, Dirk J , Scholes, Robert J , Selomane, Odirlwe , Shackleton, Charlie M , Shackleton, Sheona E , Sitas, Nadia , Slingsby, Jasper A , Spierenburg, Marja , Tengö, Maria
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/401330 , vital:69726 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2150317"
- Description: Sustainability-focused research networks and communities of practice have emerged as a key response and strategy to build capacity and knowledge to support transformation towards more sustainable, just and equitable futures. This paper synthesises insights from the development of a community of practice on social-ecological systems (SES) research in southern Africa over the past decade, linked to the international Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS). This community consists of a network of researchers who carry out place-based SES research in the southern African region. They interact through various cross-cutting working groups and also host a variety of public colloquia and student and practitioner training events. Known as the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), its core objectives are to: (1) derive new approaches and empirical insights on SES dynamics in the southern African context; (2) have a tangible impact by mainstreaming knowledge into policy and practice; and (3) grow the community of practice engaged in SES research and governance, including researchers, students and practitioners. This paper reflects on experiences in building the SAPECS community, with the aim of supporting the development of similar networks elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Global South.
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- Date Issued: 2023
Social-ecological change: insights from the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society
- Authors: Biggs, Reinette , Clements, Hayley S , Cumming, Graeme S , Cundill, Georgina , de Vos, Alta , Hamann, Maike , Luvuno, Linda , Roux, Dirk J , Selomane, Odirlwe , Blanchard, Ryan , Cockburn, Jessica J , Dziba, Luthando E , Esler, Karen J , Fabricius, Christo , Henriksson, Rebecka , Kotschy, Karen , Lindborg, Regina , Masterson, Vanessa A , Nel, Jeanne L , O'Farrell, Patrick , Palmer, Carolyn G , Pereira, Laura , Pollard, Sharon , Preiser, Rika , Scholes, Robert J , Shackleton, Charlie M , Shackleton, Sheona E , Sitas, Nadia , Slingsby, Jasper A , Spierenburg, Maria , Tengö, Maria , Reyers, Belinda
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/399817 , vital:69561 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2022.2097478"
- Description: Social-ecological systems (SES) research has emerged as an important area of sustainability science, informing and supporting pressing issues of transformation towards more sustainable, just and equitable futures. To date, much SES research has been done in or from the Global North, where the challenges and contexts for supporting sustainability transformations are substantially different from the Global South. This paper synthesises emerging insights on SES dynamics that can inform actions and advance research to support sustainability transformations specifically in the southern African context. The paper draws on work linked to members of the Southern African Program on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), a leading SES research network in the region, synthesizing key insights with respect to the five core themes of SAPECS: (i) transdisciplinary and engaged research, (ii) ecosystem services and human well-being, (iii) governance institutions and management practices, (iv) spatial relationships and cross-scale connections, and (v) regime shifts, traps and transformations. For each theme, we focus on insights that are particularly novel, interesting or important in the southern African context, and reflect on key research gaps and emerging frontiers for SES research in the region going forward. Such place-based insights are important for understanding the variation in SES dynamics around the world, and are crucial for informing a context-sensitive global agenda to foster sustainability transformations at local to global scales.
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- Date Issued: 2022
Monitoring and evaluation in a changing world: A Southern African perspective on the skills needed for a new approach
- Authors: Rosenberg, Eureta , Kotschy, Karen
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/370711 , vital:66369 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/ 10.4102/aej.v8i1.472"
- Description: Background: As science and modern technology have brought many advances, we have also come to overshoot planetary boundaries, while still falling short of development goals to eradicate poverty and inequality. A growing recognition of the complexity of development problems and contexts calls for new framings, including a new approach to monitoring and evaluation (M and E) as one of the mechanisms by which modern societies aim to steer towards a more sustainable future. New approaches to M and E mean new skills for the M and E practitioner. Objectives: This article proposed a framing for M and E skills, comprising of technical, relational and transformational (T-R-T) competences. Method: Adapted from the literature, this competence framework was tested in a broader learning needs assessment and then applied retrospectively to author’s experience in developmental evaluations in complex social–ecological contexts in southern Africa. Results: The emerging insights were that not only technical competence is needed, but also relational competence that goes beyond interpersonal skills, to enable the production and uptake of evaluation findings. In addition, the limitations of mainstream M and E methods in the face of complexity seemed to create a need for ‘transformational’ competence, which included evaluators’ ability to develop credible M and E alternatives. Conclusion: The T-R-T framework helped to advance the notions of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills and expanded on existing M and E competence frameworks. Recommendations included a call for innovative educational and professional development approaches to develop relational and transformational competencies, in addition to training for technical competence.
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- Date Issued: 2020