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Uganda's climate is naturally variable and susceptible to flood and drought events which have had negative socio-economic impacts in the past
. Human induced climate change is likely to increase average temperatures in Uganda by up to 1.5 ºC in the next 20 years and by up to 4.3 ºC by the 2080s. Such rates of increase are unprecedented. Changes in rainfall patterns and total annual rainfall amounts are also expected but these are less certain than changes in temperature. The climate of Uganda may become wetter on average and the increase in rainfall may be unevenly distributed and occur as more extreme or more frequent periods of intense rainfall. Regardless of changes in rainfall, changes in temperature are likely to have significant implications for water resources, food security, natural resource management, human health, settlements and infrastructure. In Uganda, as for the rest of the world, there are likely to be changes in the frequency or severity of extreme climate events, such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms.
There is a strong case and demand from donors, government and civil society for DFID Uganda to engage on climate change issues. It is recommended that DFID Uganda respond to the challenges with a programme of support which combines technical assistance, strategic advice and coordination with a watching brief to monitor progress and changing needs in the dynamic institutional environment around climate change. This should be supported with adequate funding to resource the meeting of priority needs as they emerge, to support civil-society’s research and advocacy role and to contribute to the costs of adaptation actions on the ground.
Such a programme fits well with wider DFID and UK-HMG policy and objectives around climate change. DFID should also undertake to screen their country portfolio to assess potential for integrated action on climate change issues and to ensure that it isn’t inadvertently contributing to increased vulnerability. It should also look to galvanise political leadership at a senior level within Uganda, consider the efficacy of donor coordination processes on the issue and support a research prioritisation exercise to focus international research effort to supporting Uganda’s needs. Careful collaboration with donor partners and government will be needed to align DFID engagement with existing initiatives. Based on discussions during the scoping mission, DFID engagement on the issue would be universally welcomed
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Oxfam estime que l’adaptation au changement climatique dans les pays en développement coûtera au moins 50 milliards de dollars par an, et bien plus si les émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre ne sont pas réduites rapidement
. Pourtant, les efforts internationaux de financement ont, jusqu’à ce jour, été médiocres. Depuis l’année où le Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (GIEC) a émis de sérieux avertissements sur les impacts du changement climatique sur les pays en développement vulnérables, les pays riches et pollueurs n’ont augmenté que de 43 millions de dollars leur contribution au Fonds pour les pays les moins avancés (FPMA) afin de faire face à leurs besoins urgents d’adaptation. La somme promise ne s’élève qu’à 163 millions de dollars – soit moins de la moitié de l’investissement britannique dans des systèmes de refroidissement pour le métro londonien. Pire encore, seuls 67 millions de dollars ont été alloués au Fonds – ce qui représente moins de ce que les américains dépensent en lotion bronzante en un mois.
Financing adaptation: Why the UN’s Bali Climate Conference must mandate the search for new funds
Oxfam estimates that adapting to climate change in developing countries is likely to cost at least $50bn each year, and far more if global greenhouse-gas emissions are not cut fast enough. Yet international funding efforts to date have been woeful. In the year that the world's scientists made the science irrefutable, the world's policitians must now deliver the finance needed so that the most vulnerable countries can cope with the new reality that they face
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The world has moved beyond simple recognition that climate change and environmental degradation pose significant risks to humanity and the planet?s ecosystems
. Pledges of tens of billions of dollars in new financial commitments are to be delivered through just a dozen or so new funding mechanisms as virtually all actors in society seek to mitigate these risks and anticipate coming changes in society and the environment.
This quickly changing institutional landscape has taken form over the past year and it has become apparent that, unlike other aspects of sustainable development financial transfers, the new funds are not articulated in an overarching strategic framework. Nor are the funds subject to an agreed set of principles regarding effectiveness and efficiency between the global North and South. For example, there is no uniform call that the disbursed funds must be part of and integrated into an overall development strategy of participating countries. Respect for the Aid Effectiveness Principles requiring country ownership, harmonization of donor activities, mutual accountability of all partners, among others, have not been established as foundational principles of the funds. And methods to reduce transaction costs for recipients, donor dialogue and improve in-country effectiveness have not been articulated.
It is hard to escape the perspective that, in the rush to do good, the governments, and in particular donor governments, have risked overlooking many of the hard learned lessons which have given rise to the best practices that have been adopted for other development and environment areas. This is profoundly troubling. The environment is in dire need of an overarching strategy framework to help guide, prioritize and harmonize the various mechanisms for funding environment and climate change and to ensure coherence with other dimensions of sustainable development. At the very time when the international community needs to bring together the disparate elements, institutions, conventions and agreements in the process of strategy formulation, donor government seem to have opted for disjointed approach that encourages “balkanization” of the global response, much to the detriment of effectiveness and efficiency.
WWF and the Böll Foundation strongly embrace the provision of new financial resources to address the urgent challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. By commissioning this paper, New Finance for Climate Change and Environment in the Developing World, hopes to further extend the benefits and strengthen the positive impact of those new commitments in coming years. It is hoped that the research will broaden public understanding of the more than one dozen new funds and their interplay with existing financial mechanisms. Together, it is also planned to sponsor a number of public seminars and consultations in both northern and southern capitals to encourage active involvement of stakeholders and concerned parties in shaping the final institutional architecture for environment finance
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The recent sharp increase in food prices should have benefited millions of poor people who make their living from agriculture
. However, decades of misguided policies by developing country governments on agriculture, trade, and domestic markets – often promoted by international financial institutions and supported by donor countries – have prevented poor farmers and rural workers from reaping the benefits of higher commodity prices. As a result, the crisis is hurting poor producers and consumers alike, threatening to reverse recent progress on poverty reduction in many countries. To help farmers get out of poverty while protecting poor consumers, developing country governments, with the support of donors, should invest now into smallholder agriculture and social protection
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Grassland ecosystems hold an important part of Europe’s biodiversity
. They offer ideal conditions for a vast diversity of habitats and species, and are especially important for birds and invertebrates, providing vital breeding grounds. Grasslands are also the source of a wide range of public goods and services, ranging from meat and dairy products to recreational and tourism opportunities. In addition, they act as carbon ‘sinks’ and are therefore a vital asset in the effort to reduce levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Except for very limited areas of special natural grassland types, most European grasslands are maintained through grazing or cutting. However, changes in agricultural practices and land use pressures mean that grasslands are disappearing at an alarming rate and are nowadays among Europe’s most threatened ecosystems. As a contracting party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the European Community has taken decisive steps to fulfil its commitments and to meet the target defined by the Heads of State and Government, to halt biodiversity loss by 2010. In May 2006, the European Commission adopted a Communication on Biodiversity and an Action Plan that defines priority actions to meet this target. Many of the objectives, targets and actions are directly relevant to the conservation and wise use of grasslands.
Since its beginning, the Commission’s environment and nature funding programme, LIFE, has been contributing to projects with actions targeting grassland ecosystems within the Natura 2000 network. This brochure presents a selection of grassland projects that have received LIFE co-funding since 1992. The majority of projects focus on the restoration and management of grasslands, while a few also target key grasslands species. Of particular importance is the link between agriculture and grasslands habitats, which is being developed through LIFE and will be strengthened by the Rural Development Programme. EU Rural Development Policy aims to reconcile agriculture with the objectives of EU nature conservation policy. This goal is achieved by financing agri-environmental measures that go beyond the usual good farming practices and that have a direct impact on the conservation of European grasslands, particularly through the maintenance of extensive systems and support for agriculture in Natura 2000 sites.
Looking to the future, it is hoped that Member States will take advantage of new opportunities for the funding of grassland projects under the Commission’s LIFE+ programme
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Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has emerged as an important agenda item in the development community
. This report identifies models and promising practices for disaster risk reduction based on experiences in the three pilot countries: Ethiopia, Guatemala and Indonesia. This report summarises some of the more significant learnings and promising practices, and highlights some key examples that give ideas for moving forward with risk reduction.
Key lessons highlighted in the report include:
- networks are crucial to shaping the future of disaster risk reduction: networks such as the emergency capacicy building project (ECB) play an important role in influencing practice and donors;
- increasing communication and cooperation among agencies develops trust, leading to better performance;
- working together has produced new tools for implementation of DRR in the field and has spurred agencies to think more seriously about where risk reduction fits in their development models;
- for advocacy purposes, it is important to connect with local governments and the various associated agencies that influence disaster risk reduction;
- one of the most effective international agencies can play is to bring various groups together around issues of common concern, by using the ‘power to convene’ that international NGOs often enjoy to facilitate cooperation between stakeholders;
- local knowledge and culture should be centre stage in all DRR efforts: while there are commonalities in terms of frameworks, approaches and tools, the end results need to reflect local needs, capacities and traditions;
- visible impact counts: DRR projects that have tangible outcomes that benefit communities regardless of whether disaster strikes have more likelihood of success.
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This report illustrates how the world’s great river basins are fast dying as a result of over-extraction, dams and infrastructure development, invasive species, climate change, over-fishing, and pollution
. Aiming to encouraging dialogue, the report provokes debate and urges governments and other stakeholders to take action before it is too late.
The top ten rivers selected are either those that are already suffering under enormous stresses; or those that are bracing for the heaviest impacts. Five of the rivers are in Asia alone: the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Ganges and Indus. Europe’s Danube, the Americas’ La Plata and Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, Africa’s Nile-Lake Victoria and Australia’s Murray-Darling complete the list.
Having recognised the most vulnerable river systems and the mian causes for their vulnerability, the report offers the following recommendations for integrated river management:
- over extraction: estabilishing environmental flows, improving water allocations and rights, improving water use efficiency in both agriculture and municipalities, insituting payments for water services, and developing a network of sustainable development partnerships;
- dams and infrastructure: assessment of whether river-based infrastructure is the best means of delivering a required service, and if so, it should be planned to minimise impacts;
- invasive species: implementation of more stringent laws and programmes;
- climate change: international cooperation, technology transfer and awareness are crucial for both mitigation and adaptation efforts;
- over-fishing: clarifying fishing rights, increasing local capacity to manage aquatic resources; and stronger regulations and enforcement;
- pollution: better agricultural managment practices and watershed and wetland protection.
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This is the first in a series of three papers that examines the financing of services in developing countries
. This paper focuses on external assistance in the form of aid and debt cancellation. The other papers in the series will focus on internal revenues; first, receipts from taxation and then receipts from extractive industries.
Without health and education, poor women and men are denied the opportunity and ability to escape poverty. Health and education are basic rights, to which all citizens are entitled. But after decades of under-funding and ill-conceived reforms, these rights remain a distant dream for millions of people in the twenty-first century. Today, eighty million children are out of school. One thousand four hundred women will die in pregnancy or child-birth, with no access to professional care. In particular it is women and girls, poor people in rural areas, people with disabilities, and indigenous communities who are denied access to services, as well as the opportunity to be employed within them. Women and girls also pick up the burden of caring for sick relatives when health services fail.
Health and education systems are built of people. They cannot be fixed with technology alone. Even where there is no classroom, children can still be taught by a teacher. But where there is no teacher, then no amount of classrooms will ensure that children receive an education. Two million trained primary-school teachers are needed this year – and another two million each year until 2015. Today, over four million health professionals and support staff are needed, one-quarter of them in Africa. If things carry on as they are now, these gaps are not going to be filled. Meanwhile, a handful of workers struggle heroically to do their jobs on poverty wages and in appalling conditions. A government school teacher in Cameroon summed it up when talking to Oxfam staff in April 2006: ‘Becoming a teacher’, she said, ‘is like signing a contract with poverty’.
Only public investment has managed to achieve mass recruitment of teachers and health workers in the past, whether in industrial or developing nations. Even countries with low incomes have managed dramatic improvements in training and recruitment, with corresponding dramatic improvements in health and education results. The responsibility for delivering health and education rights through such mass scale-up rests squarely with governments. But in developing nations, international aid is needed to supplement shockingly low national income.
Some suitable support is arriving in the shape of debt cancellation and core funding for national government budgets or health and education sector budgets. Countries receiving highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) debt cancellations more than doubled their expenditure on poverty-reduction plans between 1999 and 2005. But too little aid is supporting national health and education plans in this way. Only 8 cents in the aid dollar goes towards helping governments to pay people to do the work that is needed. And the aid is too short-term to enable governments to make sensible investment plans, training their workers in the knowledge that aid money will be available to pay salaries when they qualify.
Donors should increase budget-support aid to 25 per cent of bilateral aid funding. They should increase core funding to the health and education sectors in countries where budget support is inappropriate. They should make commitments of at least six years and take steps to minimise the risks associated with budget aid. Full debt cancellations are still needed in 20 countries which are burdened with debts so great that they have no hope of achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Poor-country governments have made huge progress in the last decade, increasing investment in health and education and employing thousands more workers. But they have also made promises to their citizens which are not being kept. They must aim for education expenditure of at least 20 per cent of national budgets and health expenditure of at least 15 per cent. More than ever, there is a need to ensure citizen representation and oversight to monitor public services and participate in local and national planning and budget processes.
The difficulty of assessing the progress of donors and governments is compounded by the lack of clear information. The World Health Organization has made good progress in analysing the approximate cost of recruiting and retaining health workers. UNESCO should now complete the same analysis for the teaching profession, so that there can be no doubt and no excuses.
These decisions require courage and commitment and cannot be delayed. Millions of lives are blighted and even extinguished by terrible poverty. World leaders have promised a radical change to the way that aid is used but so far their actions have fallen far short of the promises.
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ICT has become the foundation of every sector of every economy
. At the macro level, various studies have shown significant, positive impacts on GDP from information technology, telecommunications and mobile telecommunications investment in both developed and developing countries. In developing countries, particularly among low income individuals and small enterprises, some factors impact the role of ICTs. In response, large ICT companies have begun to broaden their collaborative strategies to include actors outside the "business ecosystem" as traditionally conceived such as government agencies, non- governmental organisations, microfinance, institutions and social entrepreneurs to increase the value of their technologies and enhance their economic opportunity impacts
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How can policy makers best support people’s livelihoods in the context of migration? What policies can enhance social protection in the context of transnational networks? How can policy makers link migration and development to both reduce push factors as well as support the use of migrant remittances for social development?
This report analyses migration in Ecuador where historically, and due to more recent financial crises, huge waves of migrants have left for other countries
. It is estimated that between 2000 and 2004 alone 1.5 million Ecuadorians migrated to Europe. This is a significant trend in Ecuador which is the second smallest Latin American country, with a population of about 12.1 million. Weakness in the Ecuadorian agricultural sector and limited social development in rural areas are identified as principle push factors in migration.
The paper identifies four key areas of intervention that link sustainable livelihoods, migration and development:
- promotion of rural development and creation of jobs in SMEs;
- protection of migrants’ household members, migrants and immigrants;
- enhance and promote collective utilisation of remittances;
- reinforce the institutional capacity of the government in dealing with migration issues.
The report considers co-development between various stakeholders in the following ways:
- current and potential cooperation with the European Commission in areas such as the support of SMEs, micro-credit schemes and improving the education system in rural areas;
- co-development between Ecuadorian civil society and INGOs; developing programmes that encourage the use of remittances for social purposes, especially the potential of collective remittances;
- developing the role of the church;
- the growing awareness by local authorities of the role of migration for development;
- need for coherent governance between NGOs, local authorities and central government as well as the need to strengthen local ownership of projects;
- current co-development projects between Ecuador and Spain in the context of transnational networks;
- urban co-development projects which provide legal and psychological support to household members left behind, especially youth, and which provide support to migrant’s families for starting micro enterprises.
Popular education radio is presented as case study for best practice for stakeholder co-operation in linking migration and development. The report advocates a human rights approach to integrated co-development; whereby development should not be viewed as an instrument to make migrants return home or as a tool to promote migration. Migration flows must be improved to protect both those that remain and those that are left behind. Co-development should therefore be based on an equal participation of both European and local NGOs and have an integrated approach
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