Open Working Group proposal for Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development - August 13, 2015

Post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals Proposal

The outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, entitled “The future we want”, inter alia, set out a mandate to establish an open working group to develop a set of sustainable development goals for consideration and appropriate action by the General Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. It also provided the basis for their conceptualization. The document gave the mandate that the sustainable development goals should be coherent with and integrated into the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015.

Water resource management and climate change in South Africa

Water Resources Assessment - August 6, 2015

Water_resource_management in Southern Africa

The Sustainable Development and Climate Change Project is an initiative of 12 institutes from developing and developed countries. It explores the idea that a less polarised way of meeting the challenges of sustainable development and climate change is to build environmental and climate policy upon development priorities that are vitally important to developing countries. South Africa is one of the six countries involved in exploring these linkages. This document outlines possible water resource futures for South Africa. It should be read together with a companion report with describes different futures for the energy sector. This paper takes the first steps to identifying promising policy options for a transition to long-term sustainable development in South Africa. It sets the context for further analysis (in Phase 2) of water resource management policies and strategies that meet both the development priorities of South Africa and address climate change.

Water Resources Assessment

Water Resources Assessment - August 6, 2015

FAO WaterResources assessment

Water resources, their management and any degradation are important to land resource components in most dryland assessment sites. Water resources degradation and effects of land degradation on water quantity and quality should be assessed in more depth in areas where this is reported to be a critical issue.

Research for Development

Research for Development - August 4, 2015

Research for Development – World Vision Paper

Every now and then, developmental NGOs are confronted with requests and suggestions to fund research projects. Since NGOs are not academic institutions, the question arises: why should they support or engage in research, and if so: which kind of research should be supported and which should not. Furthermore: if research is considered useful and in tune with the NGOs principles and mandate, then which standards should guide the research?

The research–policy nexus: Mapping the terrain of the literature

Research for Development - August 4, 2015

Bailey – The researchâ€policy nexus FINAL1

As a field of inquiry, the relationship between research and policy formulation, implementation and evaluation is well established, particularly in the USA and other developed countries. There is a wide-ranging literature available which documents the findings of empirical studies in a variety of disciplinary contexts, and which attempts to theorise and explain the complex interaction of factors that have a bearing on how and the extent to which research influences or impacts on the policy-making process. The focus on these issues within developing country contexts – particularly the African context – is only recently gaining attention.

Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty

Policy Briefs - August 4, 2015

IFPRI Brief – Public Spending, Growth and Poverty Reduction

During the past several decades, developing countries have had mixed results in reducing poverty. While East Asia (particularly China) has achieved astonishing progress in eradicating severe poverty through strong agricultural and overall economic growth, many African countries have experienced an increase in the number of poor. Today, more than 1 billion people still live on less than US$1 per day, and the recent surge in food prices has caused another 100 million people in developing countries to fall into poverty. It is obvious, therefore, that a “business as usual” approach is wholly inadequate.

Price Volatility in Agricultural Markets

Policy Briefs - August 4, 2015

FAO Policy Brief – Food Price Volatility

Recent bouts of extreme price volatility in global agricultural markets portend rising and more frequent threats to world food security. To reduce countries’ vulnerability, policies should improve market functioning and equip countries to better cope with the adverse effects of extreme volatility.

Theory of Change

Food Security Policy Centre - August 4, 2015

Unicef and Better Evaluation Theory of Change

A ‘theory of change’ explains how activities are understood to produce a series of results that contribute to achieving the final intended impacts. It can be developed for any level of intervention – an event, a project, a programme, a policy, a strategy or an organization. A theory of change can be developed for an intervention: • where objectives and activities can be identified and tightly planned beforehand, or • that changes and adapts in response to emerging issues and to decisions made by partners and other stakeholders.

Silent Hunger

Food Security Policy Centre - August 4, 2015

FANRPAN_Silent_Hunger_2007

Policy options for effective responses to the impact of HIV and AIDS on Agriculture and Food Security in the SADC Region Arguably, the most critical challenge facing Southern Africa today is how to arrest poverty and food insecurity. There is widespread agreement that agricultural growth is the main strategy for tackling poverty and food insecurity in Southern Africa. Yet, agricultural growth requires the development of a more diversified and commercialised structure for income generation among smallholder and subsistence farmers. However, agricultural growth and food security in the region are directly affected by the impact of the HIV epidemic. Any successful agricultural growth and diversification programmes have to adopt comprehensive and holistic approaches that integrate initiatives to address the impact of HIV and AIDS.

Governing Biotechnology in Africa: Toward Consensus on Key Issues in Biosafety

Sustainable Development - August 4, 2015

biosafetypaper – Governing Biotechnology in Africa

The last decade has been a defining moment for policy makers in Africa, especially for those charged with policy for the agricultural sector. Despite the highest level of agricultural technological advancement in the world over the decade gone by 75 percent of the population in Africa still wallows in abject poverty, threatened by hunger and food insecurity. Most of the food insecure are smallholder farmers who wake up every morning to till the soil.

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