the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

as ideas and technologies on the part of the host countries, to an active situation in
which, it is suggested, local people can solve their own problems and use
opportunities to maximise and benefit from their indigenous skills. This is regarded
as part of empowerment (Blaikie, 1996).
The same concept is also present in postmodernism ideals and occurs within
sustainable development agendas. Participation by, and the empowerment of, local
people was clearly identified in Agenda 21 as a key objective of sustainable
development programmes (Agenda 21 is an action plan for sustainable development
that emerged from the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992). Participation was viewed as the active
involvement of people in decision making, which was extended to include
empowerment, through which individuals, communities, regions and nations shape
their own lives and the kind of society in which they live (Nelson and Wright, 1995;
Slocum and Thomas-Slayter, 1995). As a process of empowerment, participation
aids local people in identifying problems and becoming involved in decision making
and implementation, all of which contribute to sustainable development.
2.13.1 Pro-Poor Tourism
An estimated 43 percent of the population (and more than 70 percent) of the rural
population of sub-Saharan Africa live in poverty, where poverty is defined as having
less than the equivalent of one US dollar per day. Poverty reduction strategies tend
to concentrate on social sectors and public spending. However, it is clear that
ambitious poverty reduction targets cannot be achieved without significant and
steady economic growth (Ashley and Elliott, 2003).
GDP per capita in Africa is lower now than it was 30 years ago, and economic
growth of at least seven percent per annum is required to meet the United Nations
Development Assistance Committee Millennium Development Goals in the
continent. There are, however, a few areas in which sub-Saharan Africa has a
comparative advantage, and it is crucial to identify and exploit these to the full. In
particular, it is important to identify means to 'pro-poor growth', which broadly means
economic growth that increasingly involves the poor and less skilled (Ashley and
Elliott, 2003).
75