The present study was designed to contribute to the application of human security principles in vulnerable populations, using the Bateyes (sugar mill camps) from the Dominican Republic (DR) as a case study. Following the Robin Hood principle of using resources allocated for the identification and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a base from which to build infrastructure for other health and human security needs, this project sought to reduce inequalities and promote equal rights in a vulnerable population living in isolated rural areas of the DR. The impact of a human security model versus non-intervention (standard of care) was examined longitudinally in relationship to the outcomes (prevention of morbid events such as HIV, tuberculosis, diarrhea, dengue, malaria, and model impact on breastfeeding and vaccines rates). The project was implemented in three phases: baseline assessments, implementation of a human security model over a six month period, and evaluation of the interventions at six and twelve months after the initiation of the intervention. Qualitative evaluation methods were used to complement quantitative assessments. An economic analysis was also conducted to evaluate the costs of the intervention and potential sources of economic benefits. Overall, at baseline, the owners of the houses from Batey A (Case) were more likely to respond incorrectly than the residents of Batey B (Control) questions about knowledge, attitudes and practices, for the most prevalent infectious diseases of the southwestern area of the Dominican Republic. To control for baseline differences between the study groups, a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) score system was created. The KAP score system showed that the people living in Batey A had a higher percentage of right answers than residents of Batey B, six months after the intervention. These findings, however, were not observed at the 12 month follow-up visit, suggesting that future studies using the human security intervention model may need to be maintained for more than 6 months, to promote sustainability. Economic analysis revealed that the total cost-savings of the Program to the Ministry of Health and society overall to be 252,399USD. In addition, at the follow-up visits, morbidity and mortality rates of the study population were lower than the rates reported in a recent Demographic Health Survey conducted in the Southwestern Bateyes of the DR. The qualitative interviews allowed for the identification of community perceptions of the model, as well as the necessity for an interdisciplinary approach, including structural interventions (i.e. water pump, construction of latrines, etc) and monitoring community security-related issues through household monthly visits. The use of HIV resources demonstrated that the money allocated for HIV prevention could be utilized, not only to reduce the burden of disease, but also to invest in health systems and services. Applied to other settings, the design and outcomes of this study could have a beneficial impact on refugee and undocumented populations in other countries under the impact of the structural violence observed in the Bateyes of the DR.

Poverty reduction and conservation can seem contradictory as integrated goals. Despite mixed results over the past several decades, both goals are increasingly being sought out together in practice. Using a case study of an integrated conservation and development project in the Azua province of the Dominican Republic, this thesis examines the definitions and measurement of poverty and wellbeing within integrated conservation and development initiatives. It asks whether the inclusion of subjective ideas and participatory approaches may present new opportunities to better integrate poverty measurements within natural resource initiatives. Four focus groups and 250 questionnaires formed the core methods for data collection. The study reveals wellbeing as a concept was better able to capture the multi-faceted nature of capabilities poverty. Wellbeing often engages with the themes of vulnerability and inequity and includes politically-sensitive considerations instead of concepts that are about assets or consumption, ideas based in the outdated income-poverty perspective. Locally developed indicators were best able to reveal nuances related to context that universal poverty indicators would miss or misrepresent. The results also found that the way poverty, wellbeing, problems and solutions are conceptually framed and defined can be highly relevant. Using asset-based concepts and metrics would lead to economic development goals whereas rights-based ideas would promote very different objectives and methods. The comprehensive identification and targeting of stakeholders was found to be a necessary focus in determining the priorities. Participatory processes, especially with a commitment to power devolution, can help ensure that an array of local ideas are accounted for, and contribute to, a nuanced understanding of complex phenomena. Overall, subscribing to a rights-based approach that targets the means (opportunities) of development and not the ends (assets) can facilitate the needed shift towards the new poverty paradigm, in both concept and practice. A more successful integration between poverty reduction and conservation will require such a shift.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Florida, 2004. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 92 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Tourism development has been advocated for as a means by which to stimulate regional economic development in developing countries by international development agencies and governments seeking to transition from agricultural to industrial economies. First viewed as a purely private sector activity, tourism development planning was ad hoc or reactive to the demands of a quickly growing and highly dynamic industry. The externalities and negative impacts of rapid development and poor planning were quickly recognizable in small economies; high economic leakages, cultural encroachment, environmental degradation. When planning processes were undertaken, methodologies were derived from those of developed countries, proving not to be the most appropriate approaches to tourism development in lesser developed economies where administrative and structural capacities are weak or non-existent. Planning objectives also were heavily focused on physical requirements and financial outputs, all derived from identified market segments. Sustainable tourism development evolved from the recognition that the industry is dependant upon natural and cultural resources which must be preserved. Planning processes focus more on the capacity of these underlying resources, as opposed to simply meeting market demands for products and services. The integration of these resources as tourism amenities is furthermore thought to be crucial to sustaining the value of the tourism product. Nonetheless, sustainable tourism development planning is no better defined than its traditional counterpart. Implementation of planning processes, both traditional and sustainable, are challenging, especially in developing countries. This report seeks to identify fundamental differences in traditional versus sustaining planning processes for tourism in regards to vision, goals, objectives, strategies and performance indicators. The goals and objectives of sustainable tourism development are evaluated against national developmental indicators for socio-cultural, environmental and economic outcomes. A case study example is undertaken of the mass tourism destination La Romana-Bayahibe, Dominican Republic where, through the local private sector hotel association, the Interamerican Development Bank is funding the development of a “Sustainable Tourism Development Model”. An evaluation of the established goals and objectives is undertaken with the aim of identifying rational performance indicators for evaluation of the project’s impact. / text

The purpose of this report is to help fisheries officials better understand the cultures of small - scale fishing communities. By doing so they will be better prepared to develop more successful management policies and practices, and to help people in such communities to have more decent lives. The paper discusses cultural characteristics of small-scale fishing communities that are particularly important for fisheries officials to understand. Methods which might help fisheries managers to obtain trustworthy and reliable information about fishing cultures in an ethical manner are also suggested, including methods for rapidly acquiring important information while working within tight budgetary and time constraints. Recommendations appearing near the end of the paper provide guidance concerning how the foregoing objectives can be achieved, underscoring the importance of sustaining small –scale fishers' rights of access to fisheries resources while making their cultures integral considerations in fisheries- management policies and practices. Buen Hombre is one of six case studies of contemporary small -scale fishing communities from distinct world -culture regions are annexed at the end, richly exemplifying many of the issues discussed in this report The essay written by Richard Stoffle is about the people of Buen Hombre, a small coastal fishing and farming village of about a thousand people located on the north coast of the Dominican Republic near the Haitian border. It is found on pages 219 – 245. The people of this village deal with the normal and abnormal problems of change. These changes are sometimes global and sometimes local. Changes occur in their climate, economy, and their environment. The people of this village prepare for and accommodate to these changes by (1) promoting a conservation ethic and (2) limiting access to their marine resources. When they are successful, fish -based food security issues are ameliorated. This essay discusses food security issues as these were faced by the people of the village of Buen Hombre from 1985 to 1995. While this is a very small segment of time, many changes did occur and these illustrate key temporal and spatial processes. Short-term changes in the economy and climate are common for coastal peoples who must constantly adjust their adaptive strategies to survive. The full reference for the entire report is: McGoodwin, James, R. (2001). Understanding the Cultures of Fishing Communities: A Key to Fisheries Management and Food Security. Rome, Italy: Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations; FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 401.

These three talks present a summary of key findings from socio-ecological research conducted in Buen Hombre, the Dominican Republic.

This is an assessment of the social and cultural factors that potentially will influence the transfer of Caribbean King Crab or Mithrax mariculture as it has been developed in two West Indian project sites. The projects are located in Nonsuch Bay, Antigua, and Buen Hombre,Dominican Republic. The projects derive from an original proposal entitled "A New Mariculture Project for the Lesser Antilles," which was submitted by the Smithsonian Institution, Marine Systems Laboratory (MSL), to the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID). That project was funded as AID Project No. 598 -065. This anthropological and sociological assessment was contracted by the Smithsonian Institution as specified in P.O. No. ST5080090000 on July 10, 1985.

This presentation was created to supplement the Mithrax Crab culture technical report Caribbean Fishermen Farmers and provide images that can further convey an understanding of the analysis and findings presented in the Dominican Republic portion of the report.

BACKGROUND: HIV-related stigmatizing attitudes are persistent concerns in developing countries and have been shown to fuel the spread of the epidemics. The purpose of this study is to provide a comparative analysis between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in regards to the population’s attitude towards People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). METHODS: Cross-sectional data from the Demographic Health Surveys involving 15,715 Haitians and 55,170 Dominicans from 2005 to 2007 were used. A score of attitudes was established from six items such as the willingness to care for infected relatives, the willingness to buy vegetables from an HIV infected vendor, the perception that HIV patients should be ashamed of themselves, the agreement to blame and force them to keep their serostatus secret and finally the agreement to allow infected teachers to continue their jobs. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analyses of selected socio-demographic variables were obtained by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). RESULTS: Logistic regression models showed that female Dominicans and male Haitians, respondents of higher socio-economic status and with more accurate HIV-related beliefs were significantly more tolerant towards PLWHA (p<.001). Furthermore, the Dominican Republic’s data analysis suggested that those aged between 30 and 44 years old, living in urban areas and married expressed more tolerance for the HIV- infected individuals. Overall, the attitudes and beliefs of the Haitians adjusted for socio-demographic variables did not differ markedly from the Dominicans. CONCLUSION: The attitudes towards PLWHA seem to be associated with the nature of the HIV-related beliefs in some vulnerable groups. The findings of this study should guide the design of appropriate programs aimed at the education of targeted populations.

In many developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States (SIDS), coastal tourism impacts local economies and societies in significant ways, and plays an important role in transforming the environment. Rather than simply interpreting the changes that occur around coastal tourist enclaves as impacts, I argue that it is important to recognize the urban nature of spaces proliferating around these enclaves and to understand the role of the actors of coastal tourism in the production of these spaces. Utilizing a case study (Bávaro-Punta Cana, Dominican Republic), my research draws from over one year of fieldwork, including 97 semi-structured interviews with local residents, researchers, and various stakeholders. I examine the power relations between the private sector, local residents, and different levels and sectors of the State in the area’s urban development process. The context of Bávaro-Punta Cana is characterized by the following three issues. First, the newly established local government is generally impotent vis-á-vis other State actors and powerful private sector interests, and is unable to ensure the public good for its citizens. Second, many local residents live in conditions that are worse than traditional urban areas in the country. Third, the private sector has inserted itself as pivotal actor in the development and governance of the newly urbanizing area through practices of corporate social responsibility. Based on my analysis, I refer to the realities of Bávaro-Punta Cana as ‘resort urbanism.’ I utilize this term to illustrate the manifestations of tourism-related urbanization. Drawing from planning concepts, namely splintering urbanism, informality and citizenship, I analyze the physicality and spatiality of urbanization, the processes of urban development, and the rights of citizens and the relations between actors in the production of this new urban space. First, I argue that urban space in Bávaro-Punta Cana is produced as a form of ‘splintered urbanism.’ Second, this space is materially shaped by practices of informality or what is known locally as arrabalización. Last, the area lacks a local governance structure through which residents can adequately make claims to fulfill their basic needs, raising important questions regarding the rights and responsibilities of different actors in urban development.