Development Blogs.com


Chester GREEN: No More Trash on Chester! via It's Getting Hot In Here June 22nd, 2010 at 21:55

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G8 + G20: Only Got 2 Minutes to Save the World via It's Getting Hot In Here June 22nd, 2010 at 18:42

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Publications: Asylum Legal Aid, Climate Change & Migr., Climate Displ./Bangladesh, Roma/Serbia via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog June 11th, 2010 at 13:00

Climate Change, Environment, and Migration (Climate-L.org, June 2010) [text]Climate Refugees in Bangladesh – Answering the Basics: The Where, How, Who and How Many (Displacement Solutions, May 2010) [text]Justice at Risk: quality and value for money in asylum legal aid - Interim Report (ICAR & RMJ, June 2010) [text]No going back: Lesbian and gay people and the asylum system (Stonewall, 2010) [text]Serbia: Stop the forced evictions of Roma settlements (Amnesty International, June 2010) [text]Tagged...

Environmental considerations in Nigerian agricultural policies, strategies and programs via New at IFPRI April 27th, 2010 at 19:27

image Agriculture is the major sector upon which the majority of Nigeria’s rural poor depend on for their livelihood. Over 70 percent of the active labor force is employed in agriculture (World Bank 2007). The federal government of Nigeria (FGN) has identified agriculture as the key development priority in its efforts to halve poverty by 2015 and diversify the economy away from the oil sector. PDF file:  nsspreport4.pdf(631.1KB)...

Security and Safety Concerns for Chemical Plants via It's Getting Hot In Here April 12th, 2010 at 01:27

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Organic Edunet organizes workshops on ICTs and learning in organic agriculture ad ecology via AgInfo News from IAALD April 9th, 2010 at 05:40

In Hungary in September 2010, the Organic.Edunet project organizes a conference on Learning Methodologies in Agriculture, especially Organic Agriculture and Ecology. Methodologies and technological Tools to facilitate knowledge dissemination will be presented by experts from a wide scientific spectrum, including fields such as Agriculture, Pedagogy, Learning & Knowledge Management and ICT. Specific workshops/Autumn schools planned include:"Enhancing Environmental and Ecological Awareness and Education in Schools: Training Teachers on the Use of Web2.0 tools and Open Educational Resources""Preparing the Organic Advisors of Tomorrow: Innovative Agricultural Experts and Extension Officers familiarized with Agro-Ecology Principles, Blended-Learning, and Modern ICT Tools"More information is...

Things to do in April: Conferences, Courses via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog April 1st, 2010 at 20:15

"The Concept of Mixed Migration: Reflecting on Today's Migratory Policies, Movements and Paradigms Shifts," Geneva, 8-9 April 2010 [info]- Conference organized by the Programme for the Study of Global Migration (Graduate Institute, Geneva) and the Institut d'Ethnologie (Université de Neuchâtel), with support from UNHCR."Disabled refugees and asylum seekers: key issues in support," London, 14 April 2010 [info]- Talk by ICAR staff members at City University's Centre for Disability and Social Inclusion.The Humanitarian Studies Course, Boston, 18-28 April 2010 [info]- Course organized by Brigham and Women's Hospital's Division of International Health and Humanitarian Programs."Environmentally Induced Migration and Climate Change," New York, 20 April 2010 [info]- Seminar organized by...

Simpósio de Geotecnologias no Pantanal via AgInfo News from IAALD March 18th, 2010 at 00:30

Estão entre os temas de interesse a avaliação e a aplicação de dados de sistemas sensores e geotecnologias em estudos do bioma Pantanal e sua bacia hidrográfica, como agropecuária, aplicações computacionais, cartografia e bancos de dados geográficos, educação ambiental, recursos hídricos, zoneamento e planejamento ambiental etc.Mais informações...

Philadelphia activists rally & risk arrest to tell the EPA no more MTR via It's Getting Hot In Here March 1st, 2010 at 20:25

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Publications: Child Trafficking, Citizenship/UK, Humanitarian-Military Relations, UNEP Yearbook via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog February 24th, 2010 at 16:50

Citizenship for Refugees in the UK: Key Issues and Research (ICAR, Feb. 2010) [text]In pursuit of good practice in responses to child trafficking: Experiences from Latin America, Southeast Europe and South Asia (Terre des Hommes, Feb. 2010) [text via ReliefWeb]Position Paper on Humanitarian-Military Relations (SCHR, Jan. 2010) [text via ReliefWeb]Taking Prevention Seriously: Developing a Comprehensive Response to Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-03 (Georgia State University College of Law, Jan. 2010) [text via SSRN]UNEP Year Book: New Science and Developments in Our Changing Environment (UNEP, Feb. 2010) [text]- See esp. the fifth chapter on "disasters and conflicts."Tagged...

Help me raise €4,000 for Friends of the Earth to celebrate reaching the dubious milestone of 40 years of age via ask direct February 14th, 2010 at 14:00

image On 14 March, I’m going to be 40. Or, as I like to think of it 39 and 12 months. Much catchier. For those of you who know me (or just like beer) there will of course be an opportunity to commiserate with me over pints of beer, at some yet to be decided venue in or around the date itself. But first, something important. Rather than having a mid-life crisis (I’ll save that ’til next year) I want to mark it in a significant way. So I decided I’m going to - with your help - raise €4,000 for Friends of the Earth. This is why: (…this is, as Jennifer Aniston would say, the science bit. You know it already. Feel free to skip…) Climate change is the most important and urgent issue facing us all today. If strong and fair action isn’t taken soon, global...

World Bank – Tell Them What’s What via It's Getting Hot In Here February 13th, 2010 at 02:24

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More February Deadlines via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog February 3rd, 2010 at 13:20

Here are two calls for papers with rapidly approaching deadlines:- A special journal issue on forced migration and mobilities research seeks papers "analysing environmentally induced migration from a mobilities perspective." The deadline is 5 February 2010.- The deadline for submitting abstracts for the CRS Annual Student Conference, "(Un) Routed Identities: Borders, Boundaries, and Betweens,"...

A Cup of Choice: What is in your drinking water and why you need to know. via It's Getting Hot In Here January 17th, 2010 at 14:26

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THANKS from the Delco Alliance to all of YOU! via It's Getting Hot In Here January 17th, 2010 at 03:04

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Brasil: Software INOVA-Tec avalia impactos de inovações tecnológicas via AgInfo News from IAALD December 15th, 2009 at 00:30

A Embrapa Meio Ambiente disponibilizou em seu site a nova versão do software INOVA-Tec, que permite a avaliação dos impactos de inovações tecnológicas, fornecendo informações organizadas de acordo com critérios e indicadores nas diversas dimensões onde os impactos da tecnologia podem ser percebidos."O software consiste em um sistema que permite a análise do cenário no qual a tecnologia será introduzida e do desempenho da inovação, pela análise dos indicadores de impacto por meio de pesos e índices", explica a pesquisadora.O produtor terá a possibilidade de monitorar quais são os indicadores que podem causar problemas e, consequentemente, agir de maneira adequada para cada caso, sem afetar o meio ambiente e a saúde humana.O software INOVA-Te versão 2.0, está...

Seeking sustainable development in a climate changed world via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 14th, 2009 at 14:39

image The weekend in Copenhagen was characterized by a plunging thermometer outside - forcing demonstrators to wrap up ever warmer on the streets of the city. Inside the Bella Center, a whole new set of people have arrived, just as negotiations enter into in a fragile state. The second week is VIP week, and so we add around 200 limousines to the general melee. But there is good news: huddled in various hotels and echoing "offices" in the delegation portakabins, national actions are being readied irrespective in some ways of the agreement reached. And in the finance discussions, for the first time in a draft the words "private finance" appeared. The challenge of bridging the $10bn per annum (perhaps) that negotiators hope will be pledged as fast-start funding, to...

What is the best way to fail? via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 12th, 2009 at 16:58

image So now the drama really starts ratcheting up inside and out of the Bella Center in Copenhagen. Outside in the kind of biting cold that reminds you of standing (before stadium seating) in a fourth division football match on a Saturday afternoon as a kid, thousands of people are massing to march on the center - they say 50,000 and on the TV screen it looks like it could be. Inside, the entrenched positions see no sign of budging yet and the negotiations are poised for the second week, normally characterized by agreement only at the eleventh hour. (By the way: if you want to know what's going on here, blow by blow, then read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (from the safety of your warm comfortable abode) - an institution of international sustainable development for 20 years, it is as...

Where does big business fit into Copenhagen 15? via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 11th, 2009 at 22:23

image A strange day in Copenhagen today. More and more people arriving and the building and the incredibly generous and helpful Danes straining to cope. The Bella Center beginning to look like a scene from a science fiction movie where the whole of humanity takes off from earth into some kind of space vehicle. The rumor, counter rumor, the side shows, the side events, the spontaneous demonstrations in the corridors, the more planned but no less emotional demonstrations by delegations in the plenary and working groups: is there life outside? There were signs of life at Business Day in downtown Copenhagen. Here gathered the business lobby who believes it is part of the solution and who is straining in an atmosphere where it has no place at the international table,...

IFC and S&P create Emerging Markets Carbon Efficiency Index via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 10th, 2009 at 21:06

image Today IFC and S&P launched the Carbon Efficient Index for Emerging Markets. The index is designed to closely track the Investable Emerging Markets Index begun by IFC, but is now managed by S&P with 24% more carbon efficiency. The methodology for measuring carbon efficiency was developed by Trucost, with the support of the UK's Department for International Development.  We hope that within three years more than $1bn will be following the index. A modest hope, but it's a signal. More than $5 trillion of funds under management by institutional investors are passively invested. If between 1 and 2 percent are invested in emerging markets - then a small portion of that is where we start. As we discuss the need for financing for climate change in developing...

How to govern climate-change funds via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 9th, 2009 at 17:28

image A lot of brouhaha has been brought about by The Guardian’s supposed steal on a leaked non-paper drafted by the Danes. Though the non-paper has been around for a while, the drama put fuel on the fire of the discomfort and sense of injustice felt by many developing country delegations. The other story dominating the headlines is bankers' pay. Let me try to link the two in the context of the financing discussions in Copenhagen. One of the largest gaps in positions coming into the negotiations is the funds ($, number of resources) that will be paid in for climate financing and the governance of these funds. The Devil (or God) is in the details. In each of the texts floating around, the proposals for the institutional design of the management of financing are different, but...

Copenhagen: web 2.0 has come of age, but does it make any difference? via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 8th, 2009 at 21:37

image When one looks at the flurry of web 2.0 activity around the ongoing Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, I would venture that it is no exaggeration to affirm that this conference marks the moment when web 2.0 has reached its maturity for the development sector and citizen engagement: from fundraising to campaigning, from real-time reporting to visualizing impacts of the decisions taken by politicans. . Never before has the full arsenal of web2.0 tools been so prominently in display: from prediction markets to Second Life streaming, from visualisation and YouTube contests to Google Earth layers. UNFCCC’s website itself offers a rather impressive gallery of “virtual participation” options to the conference. From the tours on Google’s Climate Change/COP site, some of my...

Second-day optimism in Copenhagen via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 8th, 2009 at 21:18

image In his recent piece in the MIT innovation journal Whose Rules, Vinod Khosla states that lowering the cost of capital could be the single most important action to mobilize private funds, which are needed to complement the public climate finance in order to achieve 450ppm by 2050. He notes that investors will invest in low-carbon technologies because there is a return, and not because there is a feel good factor, thereby facilitating the projects needed to allow developing countries to grow and meet the global targets for 2050. IFC has made these investment for many years, mainly through GEF funds, but now with many partners including Climate Investment Funds, structuring finance and providing technical assistance. Our investments have...

Climate change: Think global, act local via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 8th, 2009 at 17:04

image While Rachel continues to give us updates on the efforts in Copenhagen to reach a global consensus on fighting climate change, I will take a look at what is happening on a local level. The City of Philadelphia has just approved a measure to give tax incentives for certified sustainable businesses, the first of its kind. Enterprises will be rated based on five criteria, including labor and environmental policies. Eligible businesses receive a $4,000 credit to offset other city taxes. Officials hope that the incentives will allow companies to grow, which will create additional tax revenues, offsetting the initial cost of the tax breaks. For most of us, what happens in Copenhagen is out of our control. Yet, for many, it is easy to support entrepreneurs who conduct their...

Copenhagen: Seeking investment in a low-carbon future via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 7th, 2009 at 21:50

image The masses are gathering for the first day of COP15 of the UNFCCC, but on Friday an important curtain raiser took place with the backing of the Danish government and convened by ATP, the Danish public pension fund. The “Key to Climate Investing" event gathered significant current and potential investors in the economic activities that will be necessary for a path to lower carbon intensive growth - they included funds, commercial banks, public pension funds and privately managed public pension funds from across Europe and the Americas. The meeting was important for three reasons: First, while oftentimes negotiators and the secretariat have indicated that they don't know what the private sector wants, in precise terms (presumably in terms of language), the investor...

And so Copenhagen begins via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group December 7th, 2009 at 15:38

image Editor's note: Rachel Kyte is a Vice President, Business Advisory Services at International Finance Corporation. She is attending this year's UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. You can follow her on Twitter. And so Copenhagen begins. Or as the campaign posters peer out from you everywhere, is it time for “Hopenhagen”. The mix of Christmas lights, the early dark afternoons and a globe or photo display on every square do give the city an extraordinarily festive air as the expected 60,000 participants and hangers on arrive. So, with hope in our hearts and something acutely more diminishing in our minds, we enter into the battle of the squared brackets. The $10bn that is now being talked of as the “quick start” – sounds like a sort of feeding program for...

Please Take the CGD Climate Agreement Survey! via Global Development: Views from the Center November 20th, 2009 at 14:38

image Yesterday I sent this letter to CGD contacts who have expressed an interest in our work on development and climate change. But it really should be of interest to all in the development community. If you share my view that climate and development are inextricably intertwined, please read on, take the survey, and tell your...

Brasil: Geotecnologias estão presentes em pesquisas do Pantanal via AgInfo News from IAALD November 19th, 2009 at 00:30

A aplicação e a difusão das geotecnologias estão cada vez mais presentes nos estudos sobre o ecossistema Pantanal. Cerca de 250 pesquisadores, estudantes e especialistas apresentaram trabalhos científicos durante o 2° Simpósio de Geotecnologias do Pantanal - GeoPantanal realizado em Corumbá, MS, de 7 a 11 de novembro de 2009.Imagens de satélite podem ser adquiridas gratuitamente pela internet e estão disponíveis aos cidadãos facilitando as pesquisas e o ensino. Tecnologias de sensoriamento remoto, sistemas de informações geográficas, banco de dados georreferenciados e GPS (sistema de posicionamento global) vêm se popularizando nas universidades e instituições públicas.Pesquisadores do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe) querem capacitar mais professores,...

Publications: Environment & Migration, Horn of Africa Refugees/Australia, Intl. Law & Detention, Mental Health/UK, UK Media & Marginalized Groups via Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog November 16th, 2009 at 17:30

A Civilised Society: Mental Health Provision for Refugees and Asylum-seekers in England and Wales (Mind, 2009) [text]Improving Mental Health Support for Refugee Communities: An Advocacy Approach (Mind, 2009) [text]Migration and Detention: Mapping the International Legal Terrain (Global Detention Project, Nov. 2009) [text]The Settlement Experiences of Refugees and Migrants from the Horn of Africa...

China stat of the day; plus, a turnaround in Zimbabwe? via PSD Blog - The World Bank Group November 9th, 2009 at 22:37

image While IFC is strengthening its involvement in India, China is deepening its economic ties in Africa. In his opening speech at this week's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Egypt, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao announced Beijing's latest commitment to its African trading partners, which includes $10bn in fresh loans (on top of $5bn already pledged in 2006): We will help Africa build up its financing capabilities...we will provide 10 billion US dollars for Africa in concessional loans... China is ready to deepen practical cooperation in Africa. China will also set up over 100 clean energy programs, and relieve or cancel the debt of 31 countries. Chinese direct investment in Africa has increased from nearly $500m in 2003 to $7.8bn in 2008. Wen claims...