You are cordially invited to a public lecture by the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy on:
Adaptation, Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Development in the Lower Mekong Basins (LMB)
Dr. Serey Sok, PhD (HKBU, Hong Kong)
CEU/HESP Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at Royal University of Phnom Penh
Host and moderator: László Pintér, Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy and Senior Fellow, International Institute for Sustainable Development
May 4 (Wednesday), 2016 at 5:30 p.m., Budapest, Nádor utca 9, Popper Room
Abstract: The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) covers 78% of the Mekong River and is significant for the riparian countries in terms of the rural dwellers’ livelihoods. In the Mekong region, approximately 75% of the population lives in the rural areas adjacent to lakes and wetlands within a 15 km corridor on both sides of the Mekong mainstream. All types of occupations are influenced by the dynamic hydrology of Tonle Sap Lake and by an exceptional flood pulse system. In these recent years, livelihoods in the LMB have proven unsustainable, with high rates of poverty and food insecurity due to heterogeneous growth; lack of rural diversification; and the impacts of environmental and socio-economic change. Moreover, their access to the five assets for sustainable livelihoods (i.e., human, natural, physical, financial, and social) is limited; their capacity to adapt to shock and stress is low due to floods, drought and high food prices; and their resilience to declines in natural resources is weak. Improvement in their capacity to adapt and in their resilience will be influenced by the degree to which they can access human, physical and social assets.
Serey Sok is a CEU/HESP Visiting Fellow and a lecturer at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In 2014, he was a Visiting Scholar at Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He earned his PhD from Hong Kong Baptist University (Hong Kong) in 2013 and MSC from Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) in 2005. Since 1999, Serey has worked with various national and international organizations including Women Development Association (Cambodia), UN Refugee Agency, UN-ESCAP Building (Bangkok) and National AIDS Authority under UNIADS Project (Cambodia). Serey’s papers have been published by various International peer-reviewed including: Journal of Water Resources Development, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Forum for Development Studies, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Journal or Development and Migration, Advances in Global Change Research, Journal of AIDS and HIV Research, Nova Science Publishers, SEPHIS e-magazine and LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG Dudweiler.
Contact: Krisztina Szabados ( szabados@ceu.edu )