Mobility as Access Governance Under Prolonged Drought: Practical Guidance for Nexus-Aligned Planning in Arid and Semi-Arid Contexts
Policy Guidance and Capacity-Building Resource
Supporting Uptake of the IPBES Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments
Author: Stephanie Zabriskie
ORCID: 0009-0000-9273-1529
Affiliation: Humanculture (Indigenous-led nonprofit organization)
Capacity: Founder and Executive Director
Purpose
This practical guidance note supports uptake and implementation of the IPBES Nexus and Transformative Change assessments in arid and semi-arid contexts where continuity of water–food–health access depends on mobility-linked access pathways under prolonged drought.
In these settings, mobility functions as access governance—not discretionary behavior—maintaining viable pathways, coordination, and risk dispersion under climatic constraint. The implementation challenge addressed here is not optimization through high-resolution monitoring, but recognition of governance logic and continuity thresholds, including situations of administrative constraint (“adaptive stasis”) where mobility logic persists even when movement is blocked.
Abstract
This guidance provides a rapid diagnostic for identifying when mobility should be treated as governance, not behavior, and defines continuity thresholds that determine whether water–food–health continuity can be maintained without forced congestion or brittle dependence. It includes recognition tests, an adaptive stasis signal set, and a decision table of common implementation failures with safer alternatives that preserve legitimacy continuity and avoid parallel authority substitution.
The note is FPIC-safe by design and uses a minimal-information posture: it does not require route-level detail, household lists, movement schedules, or disclosure of operational access points. Nexus alignment is framed as threshold protection and continuity performance rather than high-resolution optimization.
Status and Availability
Format: Online practical guidance note
Status: Ongoing and publicly accessible
Initial publication: January 2026
Updates: Periodic, as additional UN-facing work is released
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