Funding boost for local African think tanks

AfricaFiles

Title:  US$30 million local think tanks
Author:  IRIN, Dakar
Category:  Ecology
Date:  7/2/2009
Source:  IRIN News
Source Website:  www.irinnews.org <http://www.africafiles.org/database/www.irinnews.org>

African Charter Article# 17: Every individual shall have the right to education, cultural life, and the promotion and protection of values.

Summary & Comment:  International donors are backing Africa-based policy research to improve local decision-making on food security and climate change. Africa cannot wait for the North to understand and respond to its needs. African think tanks must look decades into the future and be independent, endowed institutes with a core staff that provides quality research and flexibility to respond to complex issues. DN

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85101

Under a new initiative international donors are backing Africa-based policy research to improve local decision-making on complex global issues with potentially enormous humanitarian consequences like food security and climate change. Led by Canada‚s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and funded by IDRC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation, the Think Tank Initiative will provide core funding for 24 African think tanks over 10 years. US$30 million has been made available for the initial five years.

„African think tanks are essential to development and to disaster preparedness and to [climate] adaptation,‰ said Cheikh Ba, senior researcher at the Senegal-based agricultural institute IPAR, a grant recipient. „We can look ahead and anticipate the most urgent crises that our country will face and gather experts and community members and government to find solutions.‰ Ba and other observers say too often African institutions must depend on piecemeal donor funding, which can hinder independent, long-term research driven by realities on the ground.

European DesertNet

European DesertNet is a scientific network working on desertification assessment, risk evaluation, mitigation, restoration and sustainable development.

www.european-desertnet.eu/

AIMS

As a network, we

• provide a platform for scientific discussions and exchange of ideas, foster cutting edge science, identify topics and research areas,
• identify and document scientific state of the art of the main topics in desertification assessment, risk evaluation, mitigation and restoration,
• identify and articulate the economic drivers and the socio-economic consequences of desertification,
• integrate scientific findings across disciplines, translate into common language and communicate scientific findings, and
• work in and on affected areas inside and outside Europe.

As a think tank, we communicate with stakeholders and policy-makers. We

• identify minimum consensus on consolidated knowledge,
• evaluate scientific knowledge for stakeholders and policy makers,
• disseminate knowledge,
• respond to demands for assessment and information needs address knowledge gaps,
• translate knowledge to improve governance,
• and identify issues and priorities for stakeholders and public policies.

<http://www.desurvey.net>

Second users workshop

A workshop with users and stakeholders of DeSurvey Main Products and Additional Research Products (ARPs) will be held in February 2010, in ENEA’s Headquarters, in Rome. The workshop will be organised in collaboration by RIKS, ENEA with the participation of developers of MPs and ARPs.

The Ninth session of the Conference of the Parties of UNCCD the 1st CST Scientific Conference

The Ninth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification will be held at the Hotel Hilton in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 21 September to 2 October 2009 (http://www.unccd.int)

The fifth DeSurvey General Assembly

A message forwarded by Patrick HOLLEBOSCH

Patrick HOLLEBOSCH
In charge of Program
FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation
D4.3 International Environmental Affairs
Egmont I – Room H306

Karmelietenstraat 15
B1000 BRUSSELS
Belgium

=============================

From: DeSurvey Project [mailto:desurvey@enea.it]
Sent: Thursday 25 June 2009 16:02
To: desurvey@enea.it
Subject: Newsletter Desurvey – June 2009

<http://www.desurvey.net>

A Surveillance System for
Assessing and Monitoring Desertification
www.desurvey.net <http://www.desurvey.net>

European Commission 6th Framework Programme:
Global Change & Ecosystems. Integrated Project Contract No.003950

Newsletter Desurvey n°6

June 2009

Summary

news from the partners
Video on DeSurvey research activity in Inner Mongolia <#1.1>
Naiman County, Inner Mongolia: MP1 demonstration site <#1.2>
Training courses in Zaragoza <#1.3>
Meta-database <#1.4>
Data base to collect information on dissemination activity <#1.5>

other news

News from Dryland Science for Development Consortium <#2.1>

events

The Ninth session of the Conference of the Parties of UNCCD the 1st CST Scientific Conference  <#3.1>

future DeSurvey initiatives

Second users workshop <#4.1>
Demonstration conference <#4.2>

The fifth General Assembly of DeSurvey Project has been held in Barcelona, from June 1 to 3rd 2009 <http://desurvey.enea.it/newsletter/june-2009/pdf/AGM5-agenda.pdf>  and organised at coordination level by EEZA-CSIC, leader organisation of DeSurvey Consortium. It has been the first General Assembly of the project after the two months reviewers suspension of last March. The assembly has worked around the main objectives <http://desurvey.enea.it/newsletter/june-2009/pdf/objectives.pdf>  clearly identified by the project coordinator, Prof. Juan Puigdefabregas. The Consortium has found a new cooperation spirit towards the achievements of the objectives and has approved the Implementation Plan for the next year. The Assembly has been attended by most of the representatives <http://desurvey.enea.it/newsletter/june-2009/pdf/List-of-participants_AGM51.pdf>  of the consortium and in particular by almost all the representatives of third countries (Algeria, Chile, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia). This is also a token of the scientific integration among different partners, from different geographic areas, including China (see also activity in Inner Mongolia hereunder).

Third call for paper 3rd EARSeL Workshop on Land Use and Land Cover

From: Mariam Akhtar Schuster
Subject: DesertNet Forwards 3rd call for papers EARSeL Workshop on Land Use and Land Cover

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to kindly remind you of the 3rd EARSeL workshop on Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover in Bonn from 25-27 November 2009.  The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended due to the numerous responses and several requests.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is extended until July 8, 2009

We wellcome papers for oral and poster presentations to a variety of topics related to land use and land cover.

You can find more details to the event on the workshop homepage http://www.zfl.uni-bonn.de/earsel/earsel.html or on the attached announcement.

Looking forward to welcoming you in Bonn
On behalf of the scientific committee and organizing team

Matthias Braun
_________________________________________________
Dr. Matthias Braun
Zentrum für Fernerkundung der Landoberfläche (ZFL)
Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn
Walter-Flex-Str. 3, D-53113 Bonn, Germany
http://www.zfl.uni-bonn.de
<http://www.zfl.uni-bonn.de> —
Ellen Götz
Zentrum für Fernerkundung der Landoberfläche (ZFL)
Center for Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces
Universität Bonn
Walter-Flex-Str. 3
D-53113 Bonn
www.zfl.uni-bonn.de

A message from Tobias DIERKS (ICRISAT) :

I am writing to you in my function as Regional Information Officer of ICRISAT (International Crops Research Center for the Semi-arid Tropics) for West and Central Africa. Our headquarter for the sub region is in Niamey, Niger while the global headquarter is in Hyderabad, South India (www.icrisat.org <http://www.icrisat.org/>  ).

Your blog is very interesting and attracted my attention. You might have heard about ICRISAT and its research so I won’t get into detail but could still provide you with further details (in a digestible manner of course) if you wished so. We are one of the leading institutions of the Desert Margins program and besides that do a lot of agricultural research dealing with challenges of Climate Change and desertification.

Why I am contacting you now is because I would like to present to you our recent press release on Bioreclamation of Degraded Land and how women in the Sahel benefit from this project. Also, I attached a scientific publication published by our scientists responsible for this project. Maybe, you are interested in this subject. Please, feel free to publish them on your blog if you wished so.

However, it is always interesting for us to stay in contact and exchange with experts.

Thank you for your attention.

Best regards,

Tobias Dierks

=================

Please enjoy reading :

Empowering Women farmers using degraded land

Empowering Wome…s – ICRISAT

Bioreclamation of Degraded African Lands with Women Empowerment

Pasternak et al…a Hort- BDL

Science & Development Network

News, views and information about science, technology and the developing world

Articles published on the SciDev.Net website over the last week: 22 – 28 June 2009

Climate science before politics

The media has helped turn public opinion and influence global negotiations in favour of action on climate change, says IPCC chair, R. K. Pachauri. But reporters must focus on the scientific rationale for action rather than the messy politics.

Editorials

Beware scientific fundamentalism
Science journalists should aim to be “informed critics” of science, supporting its values but wary of backing everything said in its name.
EN

MORE EDITORIALS

News

Livestock may do better than crops, African farmers told
Researchers have found that keeping livestock as well as growing crops will reduce African farmers’ vulnerability to climate change.
EN

Deadlock broken on international seed sharing
Poor countries may become more open to sharing seeds now that a fund to support their crop protection efforts has been agreed.
EN | íÜï∂

Field trials offer hope of conquering food toxin
Studies in maize show that benign strains of the fungus Aspergillus can outcompete toxic forms that contaminate African crops.
EN

Tsetse flies lured by lizard scent
Chemicals in lizard and pig odour could be used to create traps for a tsetse fly responsible for sleeping sickness, say scientists.
EN

……………………

Malawi to boost investment in science
Malawi’s newly re-elected president has plans for science and technology, including a new commission to coordinate research.
EN

Small farmers could cash in on carbon monitoring
Small farmers across the developing world could benefit from a project to measure the amount of carbon locked in soils.
EN | íÜï∂

Sudan sets its sights on biofuels
Biofuels from both food and non-food crops will be produced as a result of a research collaboration involving Brazil, Egypt and Sudan.
EN | ES

………………………

Opinions
How the media is creating a climate for change
IPCC chair R. K. Pachauri calls on journalists to maintain focus on the scientific rationale for action in their coverage of climate change.
EN | ES | íÜï∂

………………..
Features
Ethiopia’s sorghum superhero
An agricultural scientist whose work in sorghum improvement has benefited African farmers has won the World Food Prize.
Source: World Food Prize
EN

(continued)

Read at : EMWIS

EMWIS Flash – June 2009

Euro-Mediterranean Information System on the know-how in the Water Sector

EMWIS is a program of the Union for the Mediterranean.
For further information: http://www.emwis.net
Monthly Flash produced by the EMWIS Technical Unit- OIEAU, CEDEX, SOGESID-
It is available in English, French & Arabic.
(French & Arabic versions are available few days later)

========================
In this issue N°71 (http://www.emwis.net/thematicdirs/eflash/flash71)
========================

HEADLINE
1- Conclusions of the 9th EMWIS NFP Coordination Seminar, Nice (France) 2009-06-08/10

IN BRIEF
2- Union for the Mediterranean: 1st Ministerial meeting on sustainable development projects in Paris, 25 June 2009
3- The 11th Cannes Water Symposium: 30 June – 3 July 2009, Cannes (France)
4- World Water Forum 2012 will take place in Marseille, France
5- Meeting of the European River Basin District Authorities: « EURO-INBO 2009 », 2009-08-19/21
6- Europe: Report warns of ‘poor and inadequate’ river basin management plans for WFD
7- France: Water versus political concerns
8- France: The application of the European Water Framework Directive
9- Turkey: No change in basic parameters of water policy
10- Jordan: Spared a water crisis this year, but the future?
11- Jordan: Batrawi reservoir to raise per capita water availability in Zarqa
12- Israel: Drought declared as five dry winters take their toll & water crisis
13- Palestine: More than 16,000 people around Bethlehem get access to clean and safe water
14- Environmental problems in Israel and the Palestinian territories can’t wait for the resumption of peace talks
15- Tunisia: Water demand will reach 600 million m3 by 2030
16- Egypt: Innovations in irrigation in the Nile Delta
17- Danish IT technology helps to secure stability in the Nile region
18- USAID and RAED Partnership on Climate Change and Water Issues
19- FP7 stimulates support for sustainable development
20- SCENES scenario development presented at the STRIVER Final Conference
21- Integrated Impact Analysis of the Water Scenarios
22- Google Brings Water Data to Life
NOMINATIONS and VACANCIES
PUBLICATIONS
CALL FOR TENDERS and PROPOSALS
CALL FOR PAPERS
TRAINING
EVENTS
BRIEF EMWIS SITE MAP
CONTACT US / COMMENTS
=================================================
HEADLINE
=================================================
1- EMWIS National Focal Points met from 8 till 10 June Nice for an expert workshop on metadata management & referential data sets (8-9 June) followed by a the 9th NFP Coordination Seminar (9-10 June). Conclusions, presentations and background documents are now available on line. The expert workshop resulted in the launch of a Mediterranean metadata catalogue to reference water information resources based on INSPIRE implementing rules (Spatial Data Infrastructure) and WISE – Water Information System for Europe- metadata profile. Water accounting principles were also presented to the EMWIS NFP and will be used for data harmonisation exercises in pilot countries, the first one starting on 30 June in Tunisia. During the coordination seminar, a special attention was given to publish information on the water tariff structures in the Mediterranean countries, the Joint Process working groups on “water monitoring” (survey ongoing the status of monitoring networks and programmes) and “Availability of Drought and water scarcity indicators”. Further information on EMWIS website.

(continued)

A much-needed consensus on agriculture and rural development for food security

Read at :  Nikhil Chandavarkar <chandavarkar@un.org>

Sustainable Development Announcement List <sd-l@lists.iisd.ca>

For your comments and reactions, I am sharing with you a brief article on the outcomes of CSD-17.

Best,

Nikhil Chandavarkar
Chief, Communication and Outreach Branch
Division for Sustainable Development (COB/DSD)
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Two United Nations Plaza (DC2 — 2250)
United Nations, New York, 10017
web: www.un.org/esa/sustdev

===================

The Seventeenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, reached a successful conclusion on 15 May 2009, with a consensus outcome made up of policy decisions on agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and African development. The consensus outcome on this crucial set of themes essential for food security is a tribute to the ability of member states to find common policy ground among a myriad of particular national and regional interests. The challenge now, according to the CSD-17 Chair, Minister Verburg of the Netherlands, will be for policy-shapers and policy-makers to turn “words into action,” at the global, regional, national and local levels.