Socio-economic Performance Research Articles

Impact of adoption of better management practices and nutrition-sensitive training on the productivity, livelihoods and food security of small-scale aquaculture producers in Myanmar

Small-scale aquaculture is a major source of food in Myanmar. Beyond its importance for food security and nutrition, small-scale aquaculture contributes to the livelihoods of many rural households and is a potentially valuable strategy for rural development. However, small-scale aquaculture producers have limited access to improved production technologies and information, which hampers the productivity and socioeconomic performance of small-scale aquaculture systems. In this study we assessed the impact of the adoption of better management practices and exposure to nutrition-sensitive training by 379 small-scale aquaculture producers in the Sagaing and Shan regions of Myanmar. We focused on whether and how the exposure to these interventions affected household food security through improvements in productivity and livelihoods. We used Propensity Score Matching to compare the performance of groups that were exposed to the intervention for one or two years, for seven impact variables. Exposure to the intervention had a positive effect for most impact variables, with differentiated effects among variables, group comparisons and regions. In terms of food security, beneficiaries had significantly higher dietary diversity (measured as the Food Consumption Score, FCS), but there were no significant differences for fish self-consumption (measured in kg/week). Longer exposure to the interventions produced significantly higher positive effects across most impact variables for the 2-year beneficiaries compared to 1-year beneficiaries and control groups. Our study suggests that the length of exposure to such interventions can be important in mediating the actual impact of small-scale aquaculture systems on household food security and livelihoods. Sustained help to small-scale producers should be considered in initiatives and development projects seeking to enhance the food security and rural development of small-scale aquaculture systems in Myanmar, and beyond.

Energy efficiency, financial inclusion, and socio-economic outcomes: Evidence across advanced, emerging, and developing countries

This study analyzes the effects of financial inclusion and energy efficiency on socio-economic performance across advanced, emerging, and developing economies. We view financial inclusion from the lens of access to and usage of financial services, while energy intensity represents energy efficiency. The panel quantile regression model is employed to capture the nonlinear impacts of financial inclusion and energy efficiency across the conditional distributions of the socio-economic indicators. We find that financial inclusion broadly improves the socio-economic markers, except employment in developing economies. Comparatively, the effect of access to financial services is stronger than the effect of the usage of financial services. On the other hand, the impact of energy efficiency is quite heterogeneous across the country groups and the socio-economic indicators, being sensitive to the level of economic development of the countries. Overall, energy efficiency has the strongest influence in advanced economies, but a moderate influence in the emerging and developing economies. Our results provide imperative policy reflections for the policymakers in the underlying countries, particularly on properly channeling financial resources and enhancing energy efficiency to benefit the various components of their economies.

Charging autonomous electric vehicle fleet for mobility-on-demand services: Plug in or swap out?

This paper compares two prevalent charging strategies for electric vehicles, plug-in charging and battery swapping, to investigate which charging strategy is superior for electric autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) systems. To this end, we use a queueing-theoretic model to characterize the vehicle waiting time at charging stations and battery swapping stations, respectively. The model is integrated into an economic analysis of the electric AMoD system operated by a transportation network company (TNC), where the incentives of passengers, the charging/operating shift of TNC vehicles, the operational decisions of the platform, and the planning decisions of the government are captured. Overall, a bi-level optimization framework is proposed for charging infrastructure planning of the electric AMoD system. Based on the proposed framework, we compare the socio-economic performance of plug-in charging and battery swapping, and investigate how this comparison depends on the evolving charging technologies (such as charging speed, battery capacity, and infrastructure cost). At the planning level, we find that when choosing plug-in charging, increased charging speed leads to a transformation of infrastructure from sparsely distributed large stations to densely distributed small stations, while enlarged battery capacity transforms the infrastructure from densely distributed small stations to sparsely distributed large stations. On the other hand, when choosing battery swapping, both increased charging speed and enlarged battery capacity will lead to a smaller number of battery swapping stations. At the operational level, we find that improved charging speed leads to increased TNC profit when choosing plug-in charging, whereas improved charging speed may lead to smaller TNC profit under battery swapping. The above insights are validated through realistic numerical studies.

Sustainability and resilience against climate change provided by a territorial crop-livestock system

The development of territorial crop-livestock systems where exchanges between crops and livestock farms are managed in a synergistic way is seen as an opportunity to increase the sustainability and resilience of specialized agricultural systems against climatic disturbances. This study presents an innovative integrated assessment and modelling approach, based on the MAELIA platform, to assess the socio-economic and environmental sustainability and resilience of a territorial crop-livestock system. It is applied to a case study in the Vendée region (west France) where arable farms grow pulses to provide livestock farms with rich-protein feeds to achieve protein self-sufficiency, under two contrasting future climate pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) until 2050. Sustainability and resilience of this new organization are evaluated through 12 performances levels, including ecosystem services, and 3 criteria of dynamics for these 12 performances: variability, trend and resistance. Results show that the synergetic organization between farms can be sufficient to achieve protein self-sufficiency and to increase sustainability through the socio-economic performances of farmers and climate mitigation. Conversely, the degradation of some of the environmental performances points for a need to identify improved management practices. Regarding resilience, the new organization showed an overall increase in variability and degraded trends, while demonstrating greater resistance to shocks. We further discuss routes for the improvement of the MAELIA platform to help stakeholder identify the potential impacts and trade-offs of different scenarios in order to make informed decisions, minimize unintended consequences and increase resilience of agricultural systems.

Energy justice – the triumvirate of tenets revisited and revised

It has been over a decade since the article that kickstarted energy justice research was published in 2012. It focused on the ‘triumvirate of tenets’ of justice, which were distributive, procedural and recognition justice. Today in 2023, and with significant developments of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there needs to be a revision. Over time, the three tenets have become five as scholars began to advance thinking on energy justice into policymaking. Energy justice now is creating an impact, and policymakers and governments are beginning to recognise its value for meeting energy and climate targets. Energy justice can be a vehicle for investment and also for improving the socio-economic performance of an economy. Adopting the now five principles (tenets) of energy justice reduces the inherent risks in the energy sector and more broadly in society. The now five principles (moving beyond tenets) of energy justice are: distributive, procedural, restorative, recognition and cosmopolitan justice. These have been integrated into significant law and policy documents in the United States and Colombia, in 2022 and 2023. It is just a matter of time before many other countries begin to utilise them to achieve transformative change in their societies.

Impact of industry 4.0 technologies on sustainable supply chain performance: The mediating role of green supply chain management practices and circular economy

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainable supply chain practices gained momentum in building a modern and sustainable supply chain. The pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war presented challenges to emerging economies, emphasizing the need for advanced technologies to ensure continuity and improve performance. While previous studies have examined the direct impact of advanced technologies on performance, the integrated effects of these technologies and sustainable practices, as well as their mediating role between Industry 4.0 and sustainable supply chain performance, remain unexplored. To address this gap, a second-order hierarchical component model was developed and tested using partial least square-based structural equation modeling. Construct dimensions and measurement items were determined through literature review and expert input from Bangladesh's readymade garment industries. A survey collected data from experts and supply chain professionals in various readymade garment industries in Bangladesh. The findings indicate that the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies significantly and positively impacts sustainability performance. Additionally, green supply chain management and circular economy practices mediate the influence of Industry 4.0 technologies, contributing to sustainable supply chain performance. This study stands out as one of the few attempts to examine the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on sustainable supply chain performance, specifically in the context of Bangladeshi readymade garment industries with the application of green supply chain management and circular economy practices. The valuable insights from this study will guide industrial managers and regulatory authorities in implementing advanced technologies and aligning manufacturing practices with sustainable approaches, thus promoting environmental and socio-economic performance.

Nigeria’s Human Capital Migration and the Socio-economic Implications

This research presents the implications of human emigration from Nigeria and the socio-economic development implications for the Nigerian Economy. Migration, which is a form of geographic mobility involving a permanent or semi-permanent change of usual residence within 10 years, is rapidly on the increase worldwide. This research intends to undertake further exposition of all the activities of the incessant migration and brain drain, which impacts adversely on needed man-power for economic development in Nigeria. The work is anchored on push-pull theories of migration. Push-pull theory is an important theoretical approach that is often used to understand human capital migration. The theory proposes that there are factors responsible for the decisions of migrants to move from their places of origin to new destinations. In Nigeria, there are environmental, social, political, demographic, and economic factors that influence people to move from one geographical location to the other. Since the post-colonial era, Nigeria has been experiencing missed opportunities, low development, and frustrated hope. The research thus concluded that the failure of governance is seen in poor socio-economic performance, causing suffering and unfulfilled expectations leading to political instability, conflict, insurgency, etc. These conditions have led to massive migration of trained professionals like doctors, nurses, engineers, and academics to developed countries. To this extent, the following recommendations were made: 
 
 Creation of job opportunities, 
 Provision of quality educational opportunities, 
 Provision of local incentives, 
 Provision of conducive environment for workers, 
 Funding of tertiary institutions, 
 Accountability in governance, amongst others.

Integrated Framework for Measuring the Impact of Corporate Sustainability Performance on Financial Performance via Customer Attraction

The study aims to develop an integrated framework for measuring the impact of corporate sustainability performance on financial performance via customer attraction. The study explores and communicates by literature the linkages and factors affecting corporate sustainability performance (i.e. socio-economic and environmental activities): how do proper socio-economic and environmental management translate to corporate socio-economic and environmental performances; how can factors of socio-economic performance (e.g. socio-economic development and human rights) and environmental performance (e.g. environmental process and product focus) translate via customer attraction to different measures of profit. The results prove that socio-economic development, human rights, environmental process, and product focus translate to corporate socio-economic environmental performance, and then – via customer attraction – positively influence financial performance. The study assists management to know how to achieve competitive advantage and increase their triple bottom lines by attracting and retaining customers, thus, how it ultimately influences environmental, social, and economic success. The value of the study is that it delivers an integrated framework for measuring the impact of corporate sustainability performance on financial performance via customer attraction.

SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES: IBN KHALDUN’S DEVELOPMENT MODEL-BASED APPROACH

This study constructs a measure of socioeconomic development in Muslim countries based on Ibn Khaldun’s model of development. It proposes a composite index of development based on three dimensions, namely human empowerment, government and institution, and economic growth, and terms it as Ibn Khaldun-based socioeconomic development index (I-SDI). A total of 13 indicators are selected to represent each dimension and are employed for construction of the index using an equal weighted method and additive aggregation approach. In generally, we note that many Muslim countries are underperformed., as indicated by the low value of I-SDI. We further find that Muslim countries that perform well in government and institution dimensions tend to experience better socioeconomic development. We believe that the proposed I-SDI is non-redundant and robust and hence can be utilized as an alternative way of measuring the development in Muslim countries. In other words, the Ibn Khaldun’s model of development is exceptionally meaningful in explaining the socio-economic performance of Muslim countries.

Personality traits, democratic support, and authoritarian nostalgia

AbstractObjectiveWhy do democratic voters feel nostalgia for an authoritarian past? This article introduces a dispositional framework for authoritarian nostalgia, showing that in addition to situational factors, an enduring source of sentimental longing for the authoritarian past may very well be rooted in a person's core psychological structure.MethodsI use mixed‐methods approach with data collection from South Korea and Taiwan. Using linear regression models with interaction terms, I analyze the contingent effects of personality traits on authoritarian nostalgia.ResultsI find that people high in emotional stability are likely to be nostalgic and that the trait's effects are greater than those from other traits traditionally associated with authoritarian ideology. Results from the interaction model show that these impacts are more pronounced with weak and moderate democrats but not with strong democrats.ConclusionPeople high in emotional stability are nostalgic due to their longing for the proven socioeconomic performance of the past. In addition, the democratic values of individual citizens can constrict how personality shapes voters’ view of former dictatorships.

Evaluating the technical, managerial, socio-economic and environmental performance of Kenya’s Ahero irrigation scheme using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) model

A majority of public irrigation schemes worldwide have continuously performed below their potential, and there is a need to investigate key components of irrigation scheme performance and provide study-based recommendations to enhance their optimal productivity. The Ahero Irrigation Scheme in Kenya is one such scheme, and this study is meant to evaluate the scheme’s technical, management, environmental, and socio-economic performance, which are crucial to the overall performance of an irrigation scheme. The technical factor considers the system hydraulics; management considers the maintenance of infrastructure and the organizational set-ups in the scheme to ensure effective service delivery; the environmental factor evaluates scheme operations against adverse environmental impacts; and the socioeconomic factor evaluates income by farmers from the sale of rice and credit access to enhance their farm operations. Models have been applied to evaluate the most significant parameters affecting the performance of schemes and to help plan out which factor is to be addressed first. This study aimed to evaluate the technical, managerial, socioeconomic, and environmental performance of the Ahero Irrigation Scheme in Kenya using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model. The indicators used under the technical parameter include adequacy, equity, efficiency, and dependability. Questionnaires were used to obtain information on farmer satisfaction with irrigation water delivery amounts and timing and any extra feedback to improve the technical performance of the scheme. For the managerial parameter, the indicators include the effectiveness of infrastructure, land renovation ratio, and training. The number of functional structures was counted, and a ratio of functional to total structures was calculated to determine the effectiveness of infrastructure. The land renovation was calculated as a ratio of the area under irrigation to the total gazetted land of the irrigation scheme. Questionnaires were used to gather feedback on extension services, if any, advanced to farmers. Random sampling was used to select farmers distributed across the scheme, with a confidence level of 95%. For the environmental parameter, the indicators used include the drainage ratio, the river water ratio, and the groundwater ratio. On the technical parameter, the canal’s conveyance efficiency was found to be 60% (fair); adequacy in the upper, mid, and lower streams of the scheme was 0.99 (very good), 0.82 (good), and 0.74 (poor), respectively; equity was 0.57 (poor); the coefficient of variance for dependability for the April-July season was 5.3 (good), while for the reference year 2020, it was 16.23 (poor). The findings for the scheme’s hydraulic performance generally indicated that water distribution and utilization in the scheme were inefficient. Farmers also complained about inconsistencies in water delivery owing to the scheme’s reliance on pumping irrigation water, which is affected whenever there are power outages. On the managerial parameter, the effectiveness of infrastructure was found to be 89%, while the irrigation ratio was established at 62%. It was also noted that training farmers was not done regularly. On the socio-economic parameter, it was noted that credit was given to farmers based on their capacity to pay it back. Notable also was the fact that the income of farmers was poor, which was the result of an unavailable market for harvested rice. On the environmental parameter, the river water ratio was found to be 1, since the irrigation scheme had no other source of water other than river water. Based on the overall AHP analysis, the technical parameter (51%) should be given more priority, followed by the socio-economic parameter (32%), the management parameter (11%), and the environmental parameter (6%).

Towards an integrated decision‐making support framework for the sustainable production and use of biomass

The decision-making landscape to maximize the use of sustainable biomass resources, and achieve long-term environmental and socioeconomic benefits, is complex with a high level of uncertainty in biomass supply and logistics, technical and economic performance of the biorefinery routes, lifecycle performance of the finished products, and other sustainability criteria. Numerous decision-making support models have been developed but these models usually assess only a few specific aspects of technology, regulations, economic, environment, and society. Decision-making support models with a limited capability to capture environmental and socioeconomic performance of the biorefining pathways are not able to identify the best available biorefining routes. This study reviews and discusses recent progress on the harmonization, standardization, and integration of the existing decision-making support models that aim to improve the comparability of the results of these models when different pathways are being assessed and align the decisions made at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. With the growing number of climate-change policies and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, national and international efforts to harmonize the input databases, the model assumptions and system boundaries, and the integration of the existing models have been increasing. However, the deployment of the integrated frameworks among the bioeconomy stakeholders that are capable of evaluating and identifying the promising biorefining routes with significant economic, social and environmental benefits is still not a common practice. This study proposes an integrated decision-making support framework to identify cost-competitive, low-carbon fuel production pathways that are technically viable and can potentially provide maximum GHG emission reduction.

The role of special economic zones (SEZs) in achieving sustainable development in Nigeria

The development and implementation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has become one of the main directions of investment policies to many economies. The creation of SEZs is aimed at attracting foreign investment and boosting the entry of their manufacturers into the world market. This paper assesses the impact of SEZ programs on the sustainable development in Nigeria and define how SEZs contribute to employment and exports in selected sub-Saharan African countries. Furthermore, the effectiveness of certain types of financing in the main sectors and the level of their impact on sustainable development in Nigeria was analyzed. It was revealed that the mining sector financing methods do not seem to support or deliver on Nigeria's development goals, making it completely ineffective given the issues identified as well as the sector's contribution to improving the country's socio-economic performance. In other words, Nigeria should create various mechanisms and models for financing its manufacturing and agro-industrial complex through the creation of SEZs, as well as create the necessary preferential regimes in these sectors that can attract and direct huge investments in the manufacturing agricultural industries of these sectors. The authors developed a model for the relationship of investment with these indicators in African countries. A model was used to determine the degree to which job growth (p) and exports (e) are dependent on investment in special economic zones (SEZs). They conclude that the investment in SEZs is positively associated with job growth and exports.

Persistent Norovirus infection in a young patient with renal transplant: The challenging cost of immunosuppression and the negative impact on patient’s quality of life

Norovirus (NoV) is one of the most common causes of acute infectious gastroenteritis in the United States (US). The infection is typically short-lasting and self-limiting in immunocompetent hosts. Renal transplant recipients on immunosuppressive therapy are more prone to infectious gastroenteritis that can be caused by various common and opportunistic organisms. NoV infection in renal transplant patients presents as an acute diarrheal illness that may progress to a chronic infection with frequent relapses leading to adverse short-term complications (acute renal injury (AKI) and acute graft rejection from the reduction of the dose of immunosuppressive medications) and possibly long-term morbidities (malabsorption syndrome, and a decline in graft survival). The management of chronic NoV infections in renal transplant patients may be quite challenging, as no specific antiviral treatment is presently approved, and frequent adjustments of immunosuppressive therapy may be required in the setting of reduced renal clearance and the attempts to decrease immunosuppressive effects to enhance the viral clearance.Herein, the authors present a case of persistent NoV in a young female patient with a renal transplant that was associated with recurrent admissions with AKI, gross electrolyte disturbances, and significant weight loss. The relapsing NoV infection has negatively impacted the patient's quality of life and socioeconomic performance.

Transport logistics and its role in the balanced territorial development

Transport logistics as a complex system combining many organisational, technological, technical, and other elements is now becoming one of the fundamental factors in the development of any spatial socioeconomic system, since the criteria of success in modern activities are the quality, speed, reliability, continuity of the provision of production-technological, social, research and development and other processes with all the necessary resources, which can be ensured due to the presence of well-established transport infrastructure and logistics of its maintenance, which directly affects the socio-economic performance and the balance of territorial development. Remote territories feel the lack of transport infrastructure and logistics of their service which directly affects the socio-economic performance and violation of the territorial development balance. All of the above determines the relevance of the study of transport logistics in the context of its role in the balanced development of the territory. The purpose of the study is to analyse the role and place of transport logistics in the balanced development of the territory. The objectives of the study include generalisation of the terminological bases of the study of transport logistics of the territory; analysis of official statistics data on the state of the transport system of the region; study of the state of transport logistics and spatial location of priority projects to modernise the transport infrastructure of the region; identification of the role of transport logistics in the balanced development of territories. The methodological basis of the study is a set of general and private scientific methods, the use of which allows to achieve the goal of the study (methods of scientific knowledge, analytical, statistical).

Effects of municipal boundaries measured by combining urban scaling and spatial interaction.

Urban scaling, the superlinear increase of socio-economic measures with increasing population, is a well-researched phenomenon. This article is focused on socio-economic performance scaling, which could possibly be driven by increasing returns of the size and density of interaction networks. If this is indeed the case, we should also find that spatial barriers to interaction affect scaling and cause local performance deviations. Possible barring effects of municipal boundaries are important from the perspective of urban and regional governance. We test the hypothesis of barring effects by correlating municipal boundaries with the structure of commuter networks within a large densely urbanized region, the Randstad in The Netherlands. The measured impacts of these boundaries are correlated with local employment-scaling deviations. Applying spatially weighted modelling techniques, we find that municipal borders have significant effects on inter-municipal commuting and indicate these effects on the map. The results show particularly significant correlations along dividing lines between large urban agglomerations and rural communities. The southern part of the Randstad is more fragmented by such dividing lines than the northern part, which could partly explain the diverging economic development between the two parts.

How sustainable is happiness? An enquiry about the sustainability and wellbeing performance of societies

ABSTRACT Questioning both sustainability and universality of development led to a movement of developing alternative indicator sets to provide a more reliable picture about quality of life than conventional economic indicators do. Some of these sets correlate, to a certain extent, with formal (market) economic development while some do not. In this study, I choose one of them, the Happy Planet Index (HPI) and its sub-indicators, to prove empirically the lack of unanimity concerning the correlation between formal socio-economic performance, wellbeing, and sustainability. For this objective, I apply cross-sectional regression analysis for the multitude of 152 countries, using 2019 data, the latest pre-pandemic year where country data are completely available. The results of the analysis support the hypothesis that correlation between most of the variables is not ubiquitous. However, by splitting the whole multitude into sub-multitudes of countries according to their geographic and cultural belonging, certain significant relationships (sometimes opposite ones) are found, underpinning the importance of geographic and cultural diversity. On the other hand, life expectancy and subjective wellbeing prove to correlate only on a global scale while they are uncorrelated on smaller scales.

Knocking on Hell’s door: dismantling hate with cultural consumption

How local cultural activities influence development and human behaviour is gaining popularity. Experimental evidence shows that cultural consumption is effective in countering hate. This is crucial, as hate, in turn, has a negative influence on the socioeconomic performance of places. Still, little is known on this, outside few more qualitative case studies. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the impact of cultural consumption on hate events in the Italian NUTS3 regions. IV estimation using a unique longitudinal database, with georeferenced hate manifestations and a population-based measure for cultural consumption, shows that cultural consumption determines a reduction in hate events. Our findings support the idea that cultural change acts as key enabling factor for people open-mindedness and place inclusiveness. Our results hold after various robustness checks, suggesting the need for policy interventions promoting cultural consumption also to accomplish more tolerant communities.

The Impact of Microfinance Services on Malaysian B40 Households’ Socioeconomic Performance: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

This research examines the influence of microfinance services on the socioeconomic performance of Malaysian B40 households, which are considered vulnerable communities in Malaysia. Mainly, it explores the mediating role of entrepreneurial competencies and financial management practices in the relationship of microfinance services with households’ economic well-being, entrepreneurial success, and social wellbeing. Likewise, this research also examines the moderating role of microfinance institutions’ service efficiency in the success of microfinance services to improve households’ socioeconomic outcomes. The responses were collected from the participants of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia, the largest microfinance institution serving the low-income population of Malaysia. Employing the structural equation modelling approach, results show that microfinance financial services and non-financial services positively influence households’ socioeconomic performance through entrepreneurial competencies and financial management practices. On the other hand, microfinance financial services are also found to have significant direct influence on households’ socioeconomic performance. Further, results also indicate that microfinance institutions’ service efficiency positively moderates the influence of financial services to improve households’ socioeconomic performance. This is novel research that introduces human capital development as an underlying mechanism in the household economic portfolio model, suggesting that microfinance interventions develop human capabilities among their participants, which further assist them in the efficient management of financial and business affairs, thus, improving socioeconomic outcomes.

Adoption of sustainable low-impact fishing practices is not enough to secure sustainable livelihoods and social wellbeing in small-scale fishing communities

Improving small-scale fishers’ wellbeing is a core policy objective in efforts to achieve just, equitable and sustainable futures. Nonetheless, fishers’ wellbeing is rarely assessed or monitored over time using quantitative indicators. We evaluated the socio-economic performance and evolution of two small-scale fishing communities of northern Peru using the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Quantitative indicators were used to characterize fishers financial, human, natural, physical, and social capitals. We also developed a simple, yet novel, composite index to quantify fishers’ Unsatisfied Basic Needs. This approach allowed us to grasp changes in the material and relational dimensions of fishers’ wellbeing over time. Fishers in these communities had: (i) low human and financial capital assets, (ii) strong social capital assets, and (iii) experienced improvements in their physical capital assets whilst reporting declines in their natural capital assets. Although fishers mainly use highly selective, low-impact fishing methods, their target stocks and incomes are declining. People’s wellbeing in these communities was highly vulnerable to external environmental (e.g., El Niño) and economic (e.g., access to markets) drivers as well as poor governance (e.g., weak rule of law, low institutional fit, corruption). Our results suggest that small-scale fishers of these two sites are currently in a social-ecological trap, with many points of entry and few ways out. We discuss potential avenues for escaping the trap and improving their wellbeing based on commonly suggested livelihoods strategies found in the literature.