Thursday, February 28, 2013

Adapting on the ground: Are farmers' needs being met? | CGIAR Climate

Adapting on the ground: Are farmers' needs being met? | CGIAR Climate: "When people think of baseline surveys, they most likely think of quantitative, structured interview processes - like the ones carried out for the CCAFS household baseline survey. In that exercise, we randomly selected 140 households in each site to answer questions about their agricultural practices, months of food shortage, sources of weather information and other topics that can serve as a basis for comparison when we revisit them in 5-10 years."

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International Development - Anne Heyman on making development projects sustainable

International Development - Anne Heyman on making development projects sustainable: "Everyone implementing projects in developing countries faces the challenge of ensuring their sustainability. Often these efforts focus on financial sustainability, but this is only part of the equation. Equally important is the question of operational sustainability: how can founders ensure that the project will continue at the expected level of program delivery even after they have left the country?

This question has been a critical component of strategic planning for the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda since the project’s inception in September 2006. Our focus on hiring and increasing the capacity of Rwandan staff has been more expensive, and this approach is more time-consuming at the outset than using already-trained staff from abroad. But it has been essential to making the project sustainable over the long term."

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International Development - How partnerships can empower small-holder farmers

International Development - How partnerships can empower small-holder farmers: "For small-scale farmers, having access to financial services can mean turning subsistence agriculture into business. Providing them with access to financial services, though, involves risks, according to James Mwangi, CEO and managing director of the Equity Bank in Kenya.

These risks emanate from the lack of capacity of these farmers to use financial products, he argued.

“It is like giving someone who doesn’t know how to drive a car,” Mwangi said. “This is why is important to build capacity to the farmers, not just assume they have the intellectual capacity to use modern products when you are bringing them from what you could call subsistence farming and quickly you are pushing them into a modern financial sector.”"

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How agroforestry schemes can improve food security in developing countries | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional

How agroforestry schemes can improve food security in developing countries | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional: ""In recent years we've seen increasing interest in agroforestry as an important component of sustainable land use and development," says Douglas McGuire, team leader on the FAO's Forest Resources Management team. "The many advantages it offers are being better understood."

Much of that new understanding has come from the FAO itself and from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), which has built up a body of research on issues such as the use of particular tree varieties and how they can improve soil quality, complement specific field crops, and generate new income streams for smallholders.

For example, one of the major potential benefits of on-farm trees is their ability to replenish nutrient-depleted soil, and the results of a 12-year study by ICRAF published in September 2012 showed how the planting of a particular tree variety – Gliricidia – as a fertiliser tree alongside maize improved the stability of harvests of this staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa."

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International Development - A development researcher’s best friend

International Development - A development researcher’s best friend: "“Evaluation is a hot topic,” said Louise Broadbent, co-founder and managing director of Surveybe, a data collection and research company. “You can’t implement any sort of development project these days unless you incorporate a baseline, a midline and an endline assessment.”

Collecting the necessary data is often easier said than done. To this day, researchers fan out with pen and paper to conduct surveys – asking rural villagers about their eating habits, urban dwellers about social protections and refugees about their families, for instance. Those who do use computerized survey methods tend to wrestle with software, cumbersome coding and long delays between data collection and analysis.

As a result, even in today’s data-driven world, development projects may be based on information that is incomplete, misleading or outright wrong. The potential impact on a development project can be huge, according to Aidan Coville, who works with the Development Impact Evaluation Initiative, an umbrella organization for the World Bank’s research and evaluation activities."

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African trust fund for food security becomes reality

African trust fund for food security becomes reality: "The Africa Solidarity Trust Fund is intended to complement, not supplant, development assistance from overseas donors. At the onset, it will focus in particular on strengthening the resilience of rural families and communities in the face of recurrent droughts and other crises such as the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, scaling up activities that have already proven successful.

Administered by FAO, the fund will support Africa-led, Africa-owned initiatives such as the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) to boost agricultural productivity in the region."

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Do you think that volunteer tourists do more harm than good? - Business Fights Poverty

Do you think that volunteer tourists do more harm than good? - Business Fights Poverty: "Small projects like ours are increasingly dependant  on tourists to bring in the much needed cash to enable us to continue our work. But are these voluntourists doing more harm than good? What value does voluntourism bring to development?"

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Carrie Hessler-Radelet: Not Your Parents' Peace Corps

Carrie Hessler-Radelet: Not Your Parents' Peace Corps: "Imagine a job that offered opportunities on the edge of innovation -- from installing solar-powered computer labs to helping communities switch to renewable energy; from linking local entrepreneurs to global markets to developing cellphone text messaging services to answer questions about HIV.

Sound like something you might find at MIT or in Silicon Valley? Guess again. This is the Peace Corps."

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Friday, February 22, 2013

United Nations News Centre - FEATURE: Quinoa Year aims to ease food insecurity and transform the global diet

United Nations News Centre - FEATURE: Quinoa Year aims to ease food insecurity and transform the global diet: "The rapid expansion of quinoa farming in the last years has been a double-edged sword. As prices rise, farmers are more likely to sell the quinoa crops they would have consumed, sparking concerns of malnutrition. About one-third of children under the age of five in the Andean countries are already chronically malnourished, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The change in food choices as a result of higher income is also causing some farmers to turn from traditional staples to more caloric, processed foods. The change is particular among youth who would prefer a sugary soda to a home-made drink of boiled water, sugar and quinoa flour."

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Lucrative Prize for Life Scientists | The Scientist Magazine®

Lucrative Prize for Life Scientists | The Scientist Magazine®: "The award—which offers more than twice the cash of a Nobel Prize—is organized by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founder Sergei Brin, and venture capitalist Yuri Milner. The idea was to make a statement that life scientists are important, to raise awareness of their achievements, and to encourage a new generation of molecular biologists and geneticists, Milner told The Guardian. “Young people will hopefully get the message that not only the careers in sports or entertainment can get public recognition,” he said."

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In Norway, TV Program on Firewood Elicits Passions - NYTimes.com

In Norway, TV Program on Firewood Elicits Passions - NYTimes.com: "There is no question that it is a popular topic. “Solid Wood” spent more than a year on the nonfiction best-seller list in Norway. Sales so far have exceeded 150,000 copies — the equivalent, as a percentage of the population, to 9.5 million in the United States — not far below the figures for E. L. James’s Norwegian hit “Fifty Shades Fanget,” proof that thrills come in many forms."

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Institute of Development Studies: IDS ranked top UK-based university-affiliated think tank

Institute of Development Studies: IDS ranked top UK-based university-affiliated think tank: "A recently published survey on global think tanks has ranked IDS as the best university affiliated think tank in the UK and the third best globally. This ranks us above influential institutions such as LSE's IDEAS/Public Policy Group and Kings College's Centre for Defence Studies."

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Monday, February 18, 2013

What is wrong with this picture? Carole Vance « Kafila

What is wrong with this picture? Carole Vance « Kafila: "Elite colleges in the US are filled with undergraduate students, particularly women, who want to ‘change the world’ and especially ‘save women’. A good thing, except for the fact that they tend to believe that their good intentions are sufficient; in-depth knowledge of history, language, politics, and culture is not necessary; US policies and invasions have no bearing on what they do or how they might be perceived; the women in need of saving are not to be found in the US but elsewhere; and there are no activists and scholars in every region with long histories of work on the topics of their concern. It is important for undergraduate education, particularly in gender studies, to puncture this bubble rather than inflate it further, if only to make more effective and collaborative work possible, as well as to permit some self-reflection."

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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Welcome to Access Agriculture | Access Agriculture

Welcome to Access Agriculture | Access Agriculture: "Access Agriculture is an international NGO which showcases agricultural training videos in local languages.  Here you can see examples of videos, download them or order a DVD copy.  The audio tracks can also be downloaded by radio stations.
This is a platform for agricultural R&D staff, service providers, extension agents, communication professionals and representatives of farmer organisations to see what training videos are available and request new language versions.  The videos are all designed to support sustainable agriculture in developing countries.
For maximum impact in improving opportunities for farmers explore Access Agriculture.
Be part of a platform for change."

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Feedback Desk Gives Pakistan Families A Voice In Food Aid | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Feedback Desk Gives Pakistan Families A Voice In Food Aid | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide: "“The feedback desk involves a two-way dialogue. It’s about the right to have a say and the duty to respond,” says WFP Pakistan Country Director Jean-Luc Siblot. “We take beneficiary feedback very seriously and try not only investigate but take appropriate action,” he said.

The hotline is completely confidential and gives people who count on WFP food assistance an easy way to get in touch with the agency if something goes wrong. It also provides vital information about the needs of people caught up in emergencies."

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Urban Green Council report: How New York City could cut emissions by 90 percent by 2050. - Slate Magazine

Urban Green Council report: How New York City could cut emissions by 90 percent by 2050. - Slate Magazine: "The report takes as its starting point this foundational statistic: 75 percent of the readily measured carbon emissions in New York City come from buildings. That makes it very different from the nation as a whole, where agriculture and transportation are among the biggest culprits. At first glance, this looks like an obstacle: Inefficient buildings are much harder to replace than inefficient cars. And New York is already one of the country’s greenest cities per capita, which would seem to make a 90 percent cut more difficult than it would be elsewhere."

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Judge frees Texas man convicted in '81 stabbing death after new DNA tests point to new suspect

Judge frees Texas man convicted in '81 stabbing death after new DNA tests point to new suspect: "Arledge became the 118th person in Texas state courts to have his conviction overturned, according to the University of Michigan's national registry of exonerations."

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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Powerful Solomon Islands earthquake triggers tsunami - Telegraph

Powerful Solomon Islands earthquake triggers tsunami - Telegraph: "The 8.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by at least five aftershocks, struck at a very shallow depth of only three miles about 200 miles east of Kira Kira in the Solomons, prompting reports that several villages had been destroyed.
Shortly later, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, and Wallis and Futuna islands."

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Friday, February 1, 2013

BBC News - Yahya Jammeh gives Gambians an extra day off

BBC News - Yahya Jammeh gives Gambians an extra day off: "The Gambia has started a four-day week for public sector workers, with Fridays now an extra day off.

President Yahya Jammeh has said the shorter week will give The Gambia's mainly Muslim population more time to pray, socialise and tend to fields.

Mr Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, is known for his eccentric behaviour.

Critics say his latest decision will promote laziness and disrupt the poor West African state's economy."

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BBC News - Mali conflict: Timbuktu celebrates end of Islamist rule

BBC News - Mali conflict: Timbuktu celebrates end of Islamist rule: "Yacouba Toure and a couple of his friends have gathered around his crackling radio in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu, soon after French-led troops captured it from militant Islamists."

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BBC News - Hijab for a day: Non-Muslim women who try the headscarf

BBC News - Hijab for a day: Non-Muslim women who try the headscarf: ""It's a good chance to educate people that you can't make an accurate judgement about someone based solely on what they're wearing," says Dale.

The hijab has been a frequent target of criticism from people like Maryam Namazie, a vocal ex-Muslim and campaigner, who sees the garment as a form of oppression."

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