Neither “they are fishermen because they are poor” nor “they are poor because they are fishermen”: Lifting fisher people out of poverty or restoring their livelihoods impacted by ‘development’ projects should go beyond what is suggested under the economic and biological paradigm.

Cognitive, social and institutional determinants need to be prudently understood in the design of development interventions. This involves intersectoral processes such as social inclusion, benefit redistribution, capacity building, participation and empowerment.

CKC was engaging with potentially affected communities in eliciting and aggregating their opinions and judgments on the development of a wind farm project in their locality (Nhon Hoi, Binh Dinh). Our approach was both methodologically and socially inclusive. Key informant interviews, focus group discussions and household surveys were being conducted. Voices from diverse livelihood-oriented groups, the elderly, women and economically disadvantaged groups were being pooled, acknowledged and integrated in our assessment.

In several social baseline studies, CKC social researchers and painters have co-worked with local villagers in mapping their natural and social resources. Not only does this exercise help us to understand current socio-economic developments of the village, but it also contributes to impact analysis against IFC Performance Standards, such as stakeholder engagement (PS1), land use (PS5), ecosystem services (PS6), Indigenous Peoples (PS7), and cultural heritage (PS8). And we have found that we love painting our reality so much.

Hereby are the paintings which map the natural and social resources of two villages, mountainous and coastal, who host wind farm developments in Vietnam.