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How to better assess, communicate and respond to risks from climate change at the community level have emerged as key questions within climate risk management
. Recent research to address these questions centres largely on psychological factors, exploring how cognition and emotion lead to biases in risk assessment. Yet, making sense of climate change and its responses at the community level demands attention to the cultural and political processes that shape how risk is conceived, prioritized and managed. I review the emergent literature on risk perceptions and responses to climate change using a cultural-political lens. This lens highlights how knowledge, meaning and power are produced and negotiated across multiple stakeholders at the community level. It draws attention to the different ways of constructing climate change risks and suggests an array of responses at the community level. It further illustrates how different constructions of risk intersect with agency and power to shape the capacity for response and collective action. What matters are whose constructions of risk, and whose responses, count in decision-making. I argue for greater engagement with the interpretive social sciences in research, practice and policy. The interpretive social sciences offer theories and tools for capturing and problematising the ways of knowing, sense-making and mobilising around risks from climate change. I also highlight the importance of participatory approaches in incorporating the multiplicity of interests at the community level into climate risk management in fair, transparent and culturally appropriate ways
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Unmetered electricity supply to agriculture has given rise to a unique and invidious water?energy?food nexus in India
. Metering of agricultural consumers has been suggested as a way to break the nexus, but most states have not been able to meter farmers due to their opposition . The only exception is the state of West Bengal. Using primary data from a household survey conducted in 2010 when the metering process was still underway, this paper argues that farmers? support for metering in West Bengal can be explained in terms of the economics of groundwater use and politics surrounding agriculture and groundwater in the state
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Aid plays a role in saving millions of lives, and yet despite its achievements poverty continues to cast a shadow over the lives of some 1
.4 billion people worldwide. This has opened up questions over the effectiveness of aid and lately, unleashed a barrage of criticism, with critics using individual examples of failed aid to argue that all aid is bad and should be reduced or phased out altogether. This is both incorrect and irresponsible.
Aid that does not work to alleviate poverty and inequality - aid that is driven by geopolitical interests, which is too often squandered on expensive consultants or which spawns parallel government structures accountable to donors and not citizens - is unlikely to succeed.
This report examines the evidence, and finds that whilst there is much room for improvement, good quality 21st century aid not only saves lives, but is indispensable in unlocking poor countries' and people's ability to work their own way out of poverty.
Aid alone - even 21st century aid - is not enough to ensure that all people living in poverty can lead full and decent lives. But together with the right systemic reforms, aid can and will extricate millions of people from poverty and deprivation.
Key recommendations
- Ensure aid is channelled to help support active citizens, build effective states as a pathway to reducing poverty and inequality, and support diverse forms of financing to contribute to development.
- Deliver aid through a mix of models, including increasing budget support wherever possible, and ensure that a percentage of aid flows are channelled to civil society organisations, to enable people to better hold their governments to account.
- Dramatically improve the predictability of aid, by increasing the proportion of aid that is general budget support where possible and by sector support where general budget support is not an option, and limit conditions attached to aid to mutually agreed poverty indicators.
- Give at least 0.7 per cent of their national income in aid, and set out how this target will be reached, with legally binding timetables.
- Reject a culture of corruption, uphold human rights standards, and act in ways which are transparent and open to scrutiny.
- Provide legal environments in which civil society organisations monitoring government activities can flourish and respect the independence of non-government bodies like audit offices and the judiciary.
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This paper deems that beside the unprecedented natural disaster of floods, Pakistan confronts the twin challenges of stabilising a fragile democratic transition and countering violent extremism
. The author notes that in light of the urgency for relief and rehabilitation, donors may opt to collaborate with the ruling military regime. However, the international community must not allow it to dictate the humanitarian agenda or the reconstruction process; otherwise, current efforts will fail to meet the needs of affected communities, just like some prior experiences.
The report emphasises that the pace and success of the post-flood recovery will depend on a well-planned and well-executed rehabilitation and reconstruction policy. Thus, community-based civil society groups, national NGOs and professional organisations as well as elected representatives should lead the process of devising this policy. In this respect, the paper recommends the following:
- donors should give these organisations and representatives key roles – from planning to implementation to monitoring expenditures and ensuring transparency
- the political leadership, in particular, must lead the reconstruction phase, ensuring that local communities help identify priorities and strategies, and that projects are cost-effective and appropriate
- the national and provincial parliaments should oversee these efforts, including maintaining accountability over donor and government funds through their public accounts committees
- the tribal belt should be incorporated into the constitutional and legal mainstream
- domestic agencies and institutions have yet to acquire and donors have yet to provide sufficient resources even for immediate relief, and far more vital tasks lie ahead.
The author concludes that the international community must send unambiguous signals that the current situation is no longer acceptable. Alternatively, if flood-affected communities believe the government and humanitarian community are indifferent to their needs, they may look to others to fill the gap, including armed organisations
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This research paper captures the current reflections and concerns in Afghanistan about the strategy and expectations for the reintegration and reconciliation processes in the country
. The paper also covers the challenges facing these processes.
The author believes that the current Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Programme (APRP) is based on flawed assumptions. Indeed, a campaign to disarm soldiers is not necessarily conducive to the building of trust required to engage the political leadership at the negotiating-table. Furthermore, political negotiations alone are likely to not be sufficient to achieve soldiers disarming in large numbers, given the complexity of the conflict. Additionally, the paper underlines the significant degree of scepticism about the capacity, mobilising power and political commitment of the Afghan Administration to implement such a comprehensive and complex operation.
Coupled with the above deficiencies, the document sheds light on some urgent needs for the reconciliation processes in Afghanistan:
- adequate support for the reintegrating combatants
- addressing the transformation of highly antagonistic relations into confidence and trust among the new generation
- paying sufficient attention to the multidimensional aspects of justice, which the Afghan people demand for a “true” process of reconciliation
The paper introduces the following recommendations:
- a concerted effort must be made to make the processes around the strategy transparent and to develop a more coordinated approach between different stakeholders
- stringent standards for the Afghan Government to implement the APRP must be established
- local realities must be recognised and expectations have to be managed
- a strong inclusive negotiation strategy should be developed, the negotiating capacity of the government should be strengthened, and a role for an effective mediator should be considered
- demands of conflict victims ought to be considered
- the regional strategy should be articulated and the role of external actors should be addressed.
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Poverty has many dimensions and each has its own causes and determinants that vary over time
. At the conceptional level, there is now a much deeper understanding of the nature and causes of poverty, but in practice, the negative and positive factors that may tend to increase or decrease poverty often operate simultaneously. It is therefore difficult to predict whether a given package of interventions will actually lead to poverty reduction.
The most common indicator of poverty is a pre-determined income level below which a family cannot survive. One dollar per day is widely accepted as the cut-off point to categorise those who are living in extreme poverty. There is also the related concept of consumption based poverty, or the basic needs perspective (minimum food per capita, access to clean drinking water, basic health facilities or primary education).
These supplementary indicators of poverty are dependent on family income, but not entirely. In some countries a given level of per capita income may not be accompanied by corresponding level of food security or access to basic needs. These relationships vary enormously from one country to another. A careful analysis of this relationship and the variation from one country to the other can provide a very good starting point for evolving a national strategy for poverty reduction. The causes of poverty are often structural and inherent. The root of these structural causes lies in the basic social structure of a rural society, with its inequitable distribution of land and a feudal ethnic or tribal system which often perpetuates this inequality Continuing population growth further reduces the per capita land holding or other assets of the family. The poor in any society are not a homogenous group, but an amalgam of different groups each with its own social or ethnic handicaps and political alignments. Women in general are more disadvantaged than men
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Political and policy decisions in the next ten months on the recession and on climate change will define whether our planet and its people are heading for a brighter future of prosperity and climate security, or a future of inequality, poverty, conflict, and destructive climate change
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If governments round the world respond appropriately, the twin economic and climate crises could prove a profound and catalysing turning point in moving to a more just, equal and sustainable world. A just and global green new deal could be both an economic and a political turning point that will mark the start of a new era
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This book looks at transboundary initiatives in nature conservation
. There are many locally relevant initiatives, following different agendas. There are four main arguments used to argue for the need for transboundary protected areas: three are ecological and one political. This book is rich in detail and case study material, but sympathetic too, to theory
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Nepal's performance on the economic development front since turn of the century has lagged behind that of the other South Asian economies
. In per capita terms, growth was even less favorable; as a result, Nepal's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) remains the lowest in the region. In 2007, the per capita GDP in 2000 prices was estimated at $243 compared with $439 for Bangladesh, $660 for Pakistan, $686 for India, $1,144 for Sri Lanka, $1,277 for Bhutan, and $3,668 for Maldives. In terms of per capita GDP, Nepal is now where Sri Lanka was in 1960, Pakistan was in 1970, and India and Bhutan were in 1980. This lackluster economic performance has occurred despite some very important reforms during the 1990s and 2000s.
On the poverty front, remittance flows and investments in rural infrastructure have helped reduce poverty incidence from 42% in 1995/96 to about 31% in 2003/04. However, poverty incidence remain high and may climb further if the global recession reduces remittance flows. An emerging concern is the sharp rise in inequality-in terms of the Gini coefficient, inequality increased from 0.34 in 1995/96 to 0.41 in 2003/04. Given that inequality is considered to be one of the most significant drivers of the recent conflict, it is important that a new growth strategy opens up economic opportunities for hitherto excluded groups, i.e., that future growth is inclusive.
Although GDP registered an impressive 5.6% growth in 2007/08 compared with 3.0% in 2006/07, the surge was largely due to timely rains leading to a good harvest of main agricultural crops and to a rise in tourist arrivals, and not due to major improvements in economic fundamentals. Although the total investment rate is reportedly high, this may be misleading as part of the rate is estimated as the residual value to balance the income and expenditure account and is prone to estimation errors and statistical discrepancies. The fixed investment rate (gross fixed capital formation), estimated using the materials/inputs approach backed by surveys, is arguably a better indicator to gauge investment levels. This approach suggests that Nepal's investment levels may be the lowest in South Asia. Moreover, growth in total investment and fixed investment rate has also been the slowest in South Asia. Time series data are not readily available, but the break up of private sector investments in 2006/07 suggests that the investments remain low particularly in infrastructure development and agriculture.
This raises the problem of how the country can improve its pace of growth and poverty reduction. The challenges Nepal faces in achieving its growth potential are compounded by the slow transition from a kingdom to a republic and the related political processes, which aim to promise political and policy stability over next few years. Moreover, the global recession threatens to drastically reduce the inflows of remittances and tourists. The country diagnostics study, Nepal: Critical Development Constraints, attempts to address these issues by examining the following questions:
- What are the critical factors constraining investments and economic growth?
- What should policymakers do to revive investments?
- How can economic growth be made more inclusive?
Key findings from examining the three questions are presented in these highlights of the main report
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Nepalese society is going through a phase of rapid disintegration, integration and reintegration
. The Constituent Assembly overthrew the 240 years old Hindu Monarchy through its declaration on 28 May, 2008, and established a Democratic Republic. Not only did this break away from history and traditional values and norms, but it also directed the nation towards a new epoch in its history. The Shah monarchy that started with Drabya Shah’s conquest of the throne of Gorkha in a footrace found its end with the reign of Gyanendra Shah. This revealed a massive heap of faults accumulated by the unitary monarchy and it discriminatory and flawed economic policies. It also opened up the challenging avenue of a new, inclusive and proportionally representative state structure. The seed of restructuring that was sowed in remote corners of the country so effectively shook the foundations of the state that it has now become the mainstream of the state’s functions. The Peace Talks, Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Interim Constitution and the elections for the Constituent Assembly have brought to the surface long-neglected issues of caste, indigenous ethnicities, genders, groups and regions. The issue of state restructuring has gained legitimacy from the inclusive CA with its 601 members. Political parties are not in a position to brush aside this issue since the necessity, desire and imperative for change has become firmly established
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