161
9 Poverty in Lake Victorian Fisheries – Understanding Governability
The persistence of poverty in small-scale fi sheries calls attention to the fact that this
is a composite and a multi-level problem that presents an enormous challenge to governance. Perceptions of poverty in a given instance can have multi-, including non-local,
loci. Poverty might not be perceived at a local level, and thus have no solution, but if the
problem is extended, say regionally, then poverty exists and has a solution. Given the
complexity of the poverty issues, governors struggle to uncover ways of alleviating it.
As Rittel and Webber ( 1973 ) , we argue that poverty alleviation governors are
presented with problems that are best understood as ‘wicked’. Wicked refers to an
issue that is tricky or thorny, dif fi cult to de fi ne and delineate from other and bigger
problems; its meaning is complex, elusive and problematic. Poverty is problematic
to de fi ne, identify and, subsequently, resolve. In fact, preconceived solutions have a
tendency to precede and de fi ne the problem.
We fi nd this to be the case in the Lake Victoria fi sheries, where it has been dif fi cult
to locate the poverty problem and even address it. This is largely because poverty is not
an issue of income here; fi shers on average earn about USD 4 a day (Odongkara et al.
2009 ) (a fi gure well above the World Bank USD 1 or 2 a day to qualify one to be
extremely poor). Children in fi shing communities at least have access to basic or primary education due to government efforts that have opened primary schools at the
village level and even secondary schools at division level (a division comprises for
instance two to fi ve villages). Moreover, fi shers do not believe that they are poor despite
the reality that they are still void of adequate clean and safe water. They still have limited access to health facilities and poor infrastructure, among other factors. Poverty in
the Lake cannot be explained either by income or expenditure. Nor can we identify one
single explanation to de fi ne or trace what poverty really is in this area. It is this abstraction that challenges the efforts of poverty alleviation governors, and hence requires reconceptualization using the governability approach.
In order to understand poverty as a wicked problem with severe governability
challenges, we examine its nature in this chapter, using the interactive governance
framework outlined in earlier chapters as guideline. We thus trace poverty, its causes
and potential remedies within the three governance sub-systems: the systems-to-begoverned, the governing systems and the governing interactions. The fi rst sub-system is the target of the governing system, while governing interactions refers to the
ways in which the two systems actually communicate with each other.
System-to-Be-Governed
Natural System
The fi shers have been affected by the changing aquatic system, which is comprised
of the fi sh species and their habitats. Although very little is known about fi sh
species composition at the time of the Lake’s formation, it is observed that the
Lake has witnessed an unusually rapid speciation since approximately 14,000 years
ago. In a biologist’s words, this speciation has been described as ‘spectacular’
9 Poverty in Lake Victorian Fisheries – Understanding Governability
The persistence of poverty in small-scale fi sheries calls attention to the fact that this
is a composite and a multi-level problem that presents an enormous challenge to governance. Perceptions of poverty in a given instance can have multi-, including non-local,
loci. Poverty might not be perceived at a local level, and thus have no solution, but if the
problem is extended, say regionally, then poverty exists and has a solution. Given the
complexity of the poverty issues, governors struggle to uncover ways of alleviating it.
As Rittel and Webber ( 1973 ) , we argue that poverty alleviation governors are
presented with problems that are best understood as ‘wicked’. Wicked refers to an
issue that is tricky or thorny, dif fi cult to de fi ne and delineate from other and bigger
problems; its meaning is complex, elusive and problematic. Poverty is problematic
to de fi ne, identify and, subsequently, resolve. In fact, preconceived solutions have a
tendency to precede and de fi ne the problem.
We fi nd this to be the case in the Lake Victoria fi sheries, where it has been dif fi cult
to locate the poverty problem and even address it. This is largely because poverty is not
an issue of income here; fi shers on average earn about USD 4 a day (Odongkara et al.
2009 ) (a fi gure well above the World Bank USD 1 or 2 a day to qualify one to be
extremely poor). Children in fi shing communities at least have access to basic or primary education due to government efforts that have opened primary schools at the
village level and even secondary schools at division level (a division comprises for
instance two to fi ve villages). Moreover, fi shers do not believe that they are poor despite
the reality that they are still void of adequate clean and safe water. They still have limited access to health facilities and poor infrastructure, among other factors. Poverty in
the Lake cannot be explained either by income or expenditure. Nor can we identify one
single explanation to de fi ne or trace what poverty really is in this area. It is this abstraction that challenges the efforts of poverty alleviation governors, and hence requires reconceptualization using the governability approach.
In order to understand poverty as a wicked problem with severe governability
challenges, we examine its nature in this chapter, using the interactive governance
framework outlined in earlier chapters as guideline. We thus trace poverty, its causes
and potential remedies within the three governance sub-systems: the systems-to-begoverned, the governing systems and the governing interactions. The fi rst sub-system is the target of the governing system, while governing interactions refers to the
ways in which the two systems actually communicate with each other.
System-to-Be-Governed
Natural System
The fi shers have been affected by the changing aquatic system, which is comprised
of the fi sh species and their habitats. Although very little is known about fi sh
species composition at the time of the Lake’s formation, it is observed that the
Lake has witnessed an unusually rapid speciation since approximately 14,000 years
ago. In a biologist’s words, this speciation has been described as ‘spectacular’