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1.2.2.Socio-economics and demographic systems of fishers
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Macro level
The rapid population growth has an impact on socio-economic development and population increase among fishers. This underscores the interrelationships between and among population and development variables (i.e. demographic processes affecting socio-economic outcomes and socio-economic processes affecting demographic outcomes). Population processes lead to development outcomes and vice-versa; development processes eventually affect population outcomes and vice-versa.
The demographic processes of fertility, mortality and migration lead to the outcomes of population size, age-sex structure and the spatial distribution of the population. These demographic outcomes impact on development processes such as the consumption of goods and services, savings and investment behaviour, the utilization of human, physical and natural resources, etc. These development processes, in turn, lead to development outcomes, which can be expressed in terms of income or its distribution, levels of employment, educational status, health and nutritional status, environmental quality and which might be affected by extensive and overexploitation of natural resources. These socio-economic outcomes, in turn, also alter the population processes of fertility, mortality and migration.
There are three major elements in the demographic process:
(a) the household decision-making model
The household decision-making model outlines the different decisions a household makes, and how such decisions are shaped by and dependent on household characteristics, the community environment and other external factors.
(b) the community environment
The community environment includes the physical, social and economic factors that are usually outside the household’s control, but which affect the household as factors and objects of production. An important element is the social structure and organization of the community, i.e. whether members of the community work together for the common good or for themselves alone. This is especially critical in community-based coastal resource management programmes, as the success of such programmes is premised on community participation, responsibility and accountability.
(c) other sources of change
Other sources of change are external factors that indirectly affect the household by directly affecting other factors in the community.
Indicators can also be categorized according to the type of information they provide. Demographic indicators provide information on demographic processes and their outcomes. Socio-economic indicators track economic progress and social change, and generally portray a people’s state of well-being and quality of life. Indicators may be expressed as a proportion in relation to a given characteristic, rate of incidence, rate of change, mean, mode, median, percentage distribution or frequency distribution.
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Participants