UCARE Research Presentation

Madison Whitney Author

07/28/2020 Added

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Video Presentation on the Impact of Environmental Advocacy Between the Daasanach Community and NGOs

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[00:00:02.198]Hello my name is Madison Whitney and I am
[00:00:04.928]a junior studying Environmental Studies
[00:00:06.698]and Global Studies at UNL. This summer I
[00:00:09.960]participated in a UCARE Research Project
[00:00:12.440]to study the impact of environmental
[00:00:14.367]advocacy between the Daasanach community
[00:00:17.140]and NGOs in the region. The Daasanach are
[00:00:21.531]a semi-nomadic community that have become
[00:00:24.320]more sedentary in the past several years.
[00:00:26.850]The area of focus during this project was
[00:00:29.261]the Lake Turkana region of Northern
[00:00:31.323]Kenya, more specifically the area near
[00:00:33.650]Sibiloi National Park. As you can see on
[00:00:36.672]the map, this lake and park are
[00:00:38.570]near the Ethiopian border, which brings
[00:00:40.910]its own political and environmental issues
[00:00:42.850]such as a dam that was built a few years
[00:00:45.211]ago. During my research, I used a coding
[00:00:49.790]method called grounded theory. This
[00:00:52.418]approach emphasizes the experiences of the
[00:00:55.130]interviewee rather than the use of
[00:00:57.741]pre-assigned codes. By using an organic
[00:01:00.700]process of creating codes during the
[00:01:02.898]transcription and analysis of interviews,
[00:01:05.790]I was able to gain a
[00:01:06.834]deeper understanding of the perspective
[00:01:09.241]and significance of the Daasanach member’s
[00:01:11.518]way of life. Using grounded theory
[00:01:13.993]is important when working with a culture
[00:01:16.493]or community different from your own
[00:01:18.842]because it decreases the influence of
[00:01:20.831]bias and assumptions in the coding
[00:01:22.586]process. On the right, you can see
[00:01:25.210]a picture of my notes during the
[00:01:26.700]grounded theory process to get a
[00:01:29.070]better understanding of the fluid
[00:01:30.759]and evolving nature of the coding.
[00:01:35.525]Before I started this process, I set out
[00:01:37.721]to learn more about the Daasanach
[00:01:39.347]community’s interaction with NGOs
[00:01:41.961]and how it has influenced their way of
[00:01:44.171]life in the past 5 to 10 years. I also was
[00:01:48.171]interested in investigating how climate
[00:01:50.326]change has impacted that relationship
[00:01:52.841]by making the Daasanach more or less
[00:01:54.761]reliant on the aid of NGOs.
[00:01:57.257]On the technical side, I
[00:01:59.337]wanted to gain the skills of transcribing
[00:02:01.561]interviews and analyzing codes. This would
[00:02:04.565]be primarily done by learning and applying
[00:02:06.865]my use of grounded theory.
[00:02:09.315]During the process, my main role was to
[00:02:13.606]get familiar with coding by
[00:02:15.384]transcribing interviews collected the past
[00:02:17.914]few years in the Turkana Lake Region.
[00:02:20.824]I used grounded theory to gain a deeper
[00:02:22.874]understanding of the role that NGOs and
[00:02:25.762]climate change have on the Daasanach
[00:02:27.521]community through my use of the coding
[00:02:30.258]software QDA Miner Lite. This image shows
[00:02:34.258]the software I used, showing the codes I
[00:02:36.393]created while analyzing the interviews on
[00:02:38.923]the left and the interviews
[00:02:41.123]I transcribed in the center.
[00:02:43.333]I was able to highlight areas of the
[00:02:45.138]interviews that corresponded with
[00:02:46.917]different codes to help me come to my
[00:02:48.722]conclusions. Before I began coding
[00:02:52.722]the interviews, I expected to find a
[00:02:54.869]strong correlation between the Daasanach
[00:02:57.409]community’s relationship with NGOs
[00:02:59.728]and the change in their lifestyle. I also
[00:03:02.841]expected to find a strong correlation
[00:03:04.933]between the change from nomadic to
[00:03:07.018]sedentary with impacts of climate change
[00:03:09.926]in the region. After coding, however, I
[00:03:14.989]found that these
[00:03:16.126]outcomes were more complex
[00:03:17.406]than I previously thought. While NGOs have
[00:03:20.390]had a level of influence in the area, the
[00:03:23.043]interviewees were more concerned with
[00:03:24.873]the significance of water and land.
[00:03:27.949]How the Daasanach migrated, performed
[00:03:30.081]different pastoral activities, and where
[00:03:32.472]they settled all depended
[00:03:33.889]on the impact and frequency of rain.
[00:03:36.549]For example one of the most frequently
[00:03:39.049]talked about objects was the well in the
[00:03:41.419]area and its significance in the
[00:03:43.353]community. The
[00:03:45.793]relationship between government protected
[00:03:48.033]land such as Sibiloi National Park
[00:03:50.355]and the Daasanach was also an unexpected
[00:03:53.054]outcome. The Daasanch viewed grass in the
[00:03:56.094]park as useful for grazing while park
[00:03:59.078]rangers tried to prevent
[00:04:00.252]this for the sake of conservation.
[00:04:03.172]Wildlife in the park has also fluctuated,
[00:04:06.022]while the reason for this change
[00:04:11.156]differs based on who was interviewed.
[00:04:16.724]Members of the Daasanach commented that
[00:04:18.787]wildlife feared humans, causing them to
[00:04:20.867]move, while those outside the community
[00:04:23.081]blame the population decline on livestock
[00:04:25.441]grazing in the park. After I leave this
[00:04:30.638]project, research with the Daasanach will
[00:04:32.914]continue through the Koobi Fora Field
[00:04:34.900]School in Kenya.
[00:04:36.846]My codes will help in the analysis of
[00:04:38.758]the Daasanach community and their
[00:04:40.402]relationships to internal and external
[00:04:42.842]factors. Personally, this
[00:04:46.842]project helped me gain virtual experience
[00:04:49.465]in being an ethnographer that I will
[00:04:52.434]hopefully apply in the future to an in-
[00:04:54.580]person field research program.
[00:04:57.884]The ability to use coding software
[00:04:59.766]and virtually immerse myself into a new
[00:05:01.800]culture and topics that interest me were
[00:05:04.563]aspects of the project that stood out.
[00:05:06.409]A challenge
[00:05:07.851]I experienced was the time it took to
[00:05:10.397]transcribe interviews. Each thirty minute
[00:05:13.386]interview took around 2 hours
[00:05:14.922]to transcribe plus at least one
[00:05:17.105]more look through to correct any initial
[00:05:18.586]mistakes. While this meticulous process
[00:05:21.721]was slower than I
[00:05:22.558]expected, the entire project
[00:05:25.169]expanded my worldview as a student and
[00:05:27.609]researcher on the connections between
[00:05:29.611]human rights and environmental issues
[00:05:31.585]around the world. I would like to thank
[00:05:35.271]Dr. Christine Haney and Dr. Matthew
[00:05:37.361]Douglass for their knowledge, tools,
[00:05:39.235]and guidance during my UCARE
[00:05:40.985]project this summer. The interviews and
[00:05:43.724]experience from the Daasanach community
[00:05:45.848]that were used throughout my project
[00:05:47.815]were essential to my learning
[00:05:49.891]and I would like to thank all of the
[00:05:51.762]participants, professors, and staff
[00:05:54.291]associated with the Koobi Fora Field
[00:05:56.333]School. Finally, I would like to thank
[00:05:58.924]Justina Clark and the UCARE team at UNL
[00:06:01.652]for their advice throughout the summer.

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