Showing posts with label resiliency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resiliency. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Events: Building Livable Cities and Healthy Communities: Policy and Planning Approaches for Resilience and Sustainability organized by the Wilson Center on 2 Oct 2013

Events

Building Livable Cities and Healthy Communities: Policy and Planning Approaches for Resilience and Sustainability

October 02, 2013 // 3:00pm — 5:00pm
Chronic diseases have surpassed communicable diseases as leading causes of death worldwide.   Enviromental and policy conditions that enable unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and high rates of tobacco underly increasing chronic disease rates.  This makes good health in many communities with developing economies, difficult – if not impossible – to achieve.
ChangeLab Solutions is pioneering a new approach to public health advocacy by building collaboration between public health officials and other local government agencies. Often called health in all policies or shared governance, this collaborative governance model is garnering attention at the World Health Organization and other nongovernmental organizations dedicated to addressing the social determinants of health and fostering healthy, resilient and sustainable environments in which the healthy choice is the easy choice.
By creating good laws and policies that link housing, education, jobs, and the built environment to healthy outcomes – and by working with communities to implement them – ChangeLab Solutions is helping to create places where people have easy access to affordable and healthy food, safe and easily accessible places to live and play, plenty of opportunities to bike, walk, or take transit, fresh water, and clean air indoors and out.
ChangeLab Solutions works with neighborhoods, cities, and states to transform communities with laws and policies that create lasting change. Its unique approach, backed by decades of solid research and proven results, helps the public and private sectors make communities more livable, especially for those who are at highest risk because they have the fewest resources.
A panel of experts will discuss innovative law and policy solutions for creating healthier neighborhoods, cities. Speakers will identify environmental change solutions for diseases like diabetes, obesity, asthma, and lung cancer. This seminar will showcase the latest in research and practice on how best to incorporate legal and policy tools into public health strategies.
LOCATION: 
5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
 
Event Speakers List: 
  • Vice President for Strategic Engagement, ChangeLab Solutions
  • Director of Office for Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Senior Advisor, Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative, Bipartisan Policy Center
  • Visiting Professor, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University


For more information: 
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/building-livable-cities-and-healthy-communities-policy-and-planning-approaches-for-resilience

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Events: Building Livable Cities and Healthy Communities: Policy and Planning Approaches for Resilience and Sustainability organized by THE WILSON CENTER on 2 Oct 2013

Events

Building Livable Cities and Healthy Communities: Policy and Planning Approaches for Resilience and Sustainability

October 02, 2013 // 3:00pm — 5:00pm


Chronic diseases have surpassed communicable diseases as leading causes of death worldwide.   Enviromental and policy conditions that enable unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and high rates of tobacco underly increasing chronic disease rates.  This makes good health in many communities with developing economies, difficult – if not impossible – to achieve.
ChangeLab Solutions is pioneering a new approach to public health advocacy by building collaboration between public health officials and other local government agencies. Often called health in all policies or shared governance, this collaborative governance model is garnering attention at the World Health Organization and other nongovernmental organizations dedicated to addressing the social determinants of health and fostering healthy, resilient and sustainable environments in which the healthy choice is the easy choice.
By creating good laws and policies that link housing, education, jobs, and the built environment to healthy outcomes – and by working with communities to implement them – ChangeLab Solutions is helping to create places where people have easy access to affordable and healthy food, safe and easily accessible places to live and play, plenty of opportunities to bike, walk, or take transit, fresh water, and clean air indoors and out.
ChangeLab Solutions works with neighborhoods, cities, and states to transform communities with laws and policies that create lasting change. Its unique approach, backed by decades of solid research and proven results, helps the public and private sectors make communities more livable, especially for those who are at highest risk because they have the fewest resources.
A panel of experts will discuss innovative law and policy solutions for creating healthier neighborhoods, cities. Speakers will identify environmental change solutions for diseases like diabetes, obesity, asthma, and lung cancer. This seminar will showcase the latest in research and practice on how best to incorporate legal and policy tools into public health strategies.
LOCATION: 
5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
 
Event Speakers List: 
  • Vice President for Strategic Engagement, ChangeLab Solutions
  • Director of Office for Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • Senior Advisor, Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative, Bipartisan Policy Center
  • Visiting Professor, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University





For more information: 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

New Books: Climate-Resilient Development Participatory solutions from developing countries Edited by Astrid Carrapatoso, Edith Kürzinger (10 Sep 2013)

Climate-Resilient Development

Participatory solutions from developing countries

Edited by Astrid CarrapatosoEdith Kürzinger

Routledge – 2014 – 300 pages
Descriptions:
The concept of resilience currently infuses policy debates and public discourse, and is promoted as a normative concept in climate policy making by governments, non-governmental organizations, and think-tanks.
This book critically discusses climate-resilient development in the context of current deficiencies of multilateral climate management strategies and processes. It analyses innovative climate policy options at national, (inter-)regional, and local levels from a mainly Southern perspective, thus contributing to the topical debate on alternative climate governance and resilient development models. Case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America give a ground-level view of how ideas from resilience could be used to inform and guide more radical development and particularly how these ideas might help to rethink the notion of 'progress' in the light of environmental, social, economic, and cultural changes at multiple scales, from local to global. It integrates theory and practice with the aim of providing practical solutions to improve, complement, or, where necessary, reasonably bypass the UNFCCC process through a bottom-up approach which can effectively tap unused climate-resilient development potentials at the local, national, and regional levels.
This innovative book gives students and researchers in environmental and development studies as well as policy makers and practitioners a valuable analysis of climate change mitigation and adaptation options in the absence of effective multilateral provisions.

Contents:
Part I: Introduction
Part II: The Contribution of Local, Regional, and National Approaches to Climate-Resilient Development, or What Good Practices Can Be Disseminated or Mainstreamed?
Part III: Climate-Resilient Development, Innovation, and Best Practice – How to Reform and Bypass Inefficiencies in the International Climate Regime
Part IV: The Way Forward to Climate-Resilient Development 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Publications: ICARDA Annual Report Stresses Innovations on Climate Resilience (29 Aug 2013)

ICARDA Annual Report Stresses Innovations on Climate Resilience

ICARDA-Logo29 August 2013: The 2012 Annual Report of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) notes that despite significant challenges due to the on-going conflict in Syria, the Center has made significant achievements in translating research into action and policy impact, highlighting its leadership in the high-level international conference on Food Security in the Dry Lands, as well as enhanced partnerships with Canada and South Asia.

The report underscores work on climate change mitigation in India, improved seed systems in Ethiopia, climate change adaptation in Palestine, conservation agriculture in North Africa, and science for adaptation in Central Asia and China.

It describes results to improve crops to combat drought, develop and distribute new seeds, implement conservation agriculture, and test new approaches to improve efficiency in water use in response to climate change. ICARDA outlines its successes in managing genetic resources, mining agricultural genebanks to speed the pace of innovation and deliver food security, managing soil salinity, and reversing rangeland degradation. The report notes the differing outcomes of its new Research Program on Dryland Systems that relate to minimizing risk and reducing vulnerability in low-potential drylands and seeking to support sustainable intensification in higher potential dryland regions.

On research for development initiatives, the report describes three dry area initiatives on enhancing food security in Arab countries, the Middle East Water and Livelihoods Initiative, and Harmonized Support for Agricultural Development. It also notes the efforts of ICARDA's regional and country programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, South Asia and China, the Arabian Peninsula, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. 

[Publication: ICARDA 2012 Annual Report]

For more information: 
http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/icarda-annual-report-stresses-innovations-on-climate-resilience/212930/

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Publications: Climate Resilience and Food Security: A framework for planning and monitoring by IISD (Aug 2013)

IISD Publications Centre
Climate Resilience and Food Security: A framework for planning and monitoring» Daysi González, Andrea Rivera Sosa, Angie Murillo Gough, José Luis Solórzano, Ceferino Wilson, Xochilt Hernandez, Steve Bushey, Stephen TylerMarius Keller, Darren Swanson, Livia Bizikova,Anne Hammill, Alicia Natalia Zamudio, Marcus Moench, Ajaya Dixit, Ramón Guevara Flores, Carlos Heer, Daysi González, Andrea Rivera Sosa, Angie Murillo Gough, José Luis Solórzano, Ceferino Wilson, Xochilt Hernandez, Steve Bushey, 2013.Paper, 29 pages
This working paper was developed jointly by all partners of the Climate Resilience and Food Security in Central America (CREFSCA) project. It presents approaches to understanding and monitoring food system resilience to climate change. Based on an overview of existing approaches to understanding food systems as well as climate resilience, the paper describes a new framework designed to support the analysis of community-level food security in the context of climate shocks and stresses, as well as of resilience of food systems at larger scales. The document also explores how the framework can be applied in practice by researchers, practitioners and policy-makers.

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Sunday, August 11, 2013

New Books: Searching for Resilience in Sustainable Development Learning Journeys in Conservation By John Blewitt, Daniella Tilbury (6 Aug 2013)

Searching for Resilience in Sustainable Development

Learning Journeys in Conservation

By John BlewittDaniella Tilbury

Descriptions:
Resilience is a term that is gaining currency in conservation and sustainable development, though its meaning and value in this context is yet to be defined. Searching for Resilience in Sustainable Development examines ways in which resilience may be created within the web of ecological, socio-economic and cultural systems that make up the world in. The authors embark upon a learning journey exploring both robust and fragile systems and asking questions of groups and individuals actively involved in building or maintaining resilience.
Through a series of wide ranging interviews the authors give voice to the many different approaches to thinking of and building resilience that may otherwise stay rooted in and confined by specific disciplinary, professional or spatial contexts. The book documents emerging trends, shifting tactics and future pathways for the conservation and sustainable development movement post Rio+20, arriving at a set of diverse but connected conclusions and questions in relation to the resilience of people and planet.
This book is ideal for students and researchers working in the fields of conservation, sustainable development, education, systems thinking and development studies. It will also be of great interest to NGOs and government officers whose interests and responsibilities focus on conserving or reconstructing biodiversity and system resilience.

Contents:
1. Introduction: Learning journeys and resilience in times of change
2. Resilience in Theory and Practice
3. Shifting Tactics?: Testing the resilience of a movement
4. Contesting Market Logics
5. Regenerative and Resilient Eco-cities
6. Risks, Transition and an Ecology of Circumstances
7. Education and Conservation: Building social resilience
8. Resilience, Sustainability and the Utopian Future
9. Destinations: Humpty Dumpty and the Search for Resilience

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Events: International Symposium on Sustainable Cities: Empowering Local Governments through Capacity Building organized by UNOSD on 26-28 Sep 2013


Event


International Symposium on Sustainable Cities: Empowering Local Governments through Capacity Building


The UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) will host this international symposium to strengthen dissemination and sharing of good practices and lessons learned on fostering sustainable cities, in recognition of the role of cities in protecting the environment, improving disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience and reducing poverty. The symposium aims to identify strategies to strengthen local government institutional and technical capacity to address poverty reduction and slum upgrading, urban development, urban economic growth, urban transport and water and sanitation. The symposium also aims to identify areas for further capacity building and knowledge sharing and to identify innovative financing models to support urban infrastructure. The event will bring together representatives of governments, including and local government and planning officials, UN agencies, multilateral and regional development banks, the private sector and civil society in plenary sessions, working group sessions and panel discussions. The symposium is planned to overlap with the ‘Incheon Sister and Friendly Cities Conference,' which will be held in Incheon on 28 September 2013, and include mayors from cities around the world. The two events will have a joint closing session that will discuss advancing and implementing the sustainable urbanization agenda.



dates: 26-28 September 2013   
venue: Convention Center, SongdoDong   
location: Incheon, Republic of Korea   


For more information: 

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Events: Oysters, Octopus, and Resilience organized by the Wilson center on 26 Jul 2013


Oysters, Octopus, and Resilience

July 26, 2013 // 12:00pm — 2:00pm
EVENT CO-SPONSORS: 
Africa Program
Global Sustainability and Resilience Program

This event will showcase two coastal integrated population, health, and environment (PHE) programs that address interconnected marine management and human health issues. Fatou Janha will discuss how TRY Oysters has successfully empowered women oyster harvesters in Gambia by raising their standard of living, encouraging sustainable production methods, and providing health and family planning services. Vik Mohan will discuss how Blue Ventures has successfully engaged women octopi fishers in Madagascar with conservation initiatives while also providing sexual and reproductive health services. He will also touch on the role that the program’s PHE infrastructure played in responding to natural disasters. Finally, Kame Westerman will present research on the ways in which PHE programs optimally foster social-ecological resilience to climate change. Her comments will also highlight the role of women in natural resource management.
LOCATION: 
5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center

Event Speakers List: 
  • Executive Director, TRY Oyster's Women's Association
  • Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health Program; Medical Adviser, Blue Ventures
  • Adviser, Gender and Conservation, Conservation International



For more information: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/oysters-octopus-and-resilience

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Publications: Turn Down the Heat : Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience by World Bank (19 Jun 2013)

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For more information: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/14000

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Publications: Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes (SEPLs) by Nadia Bergamini, Robert Blasiak, Pablo Eyzaguirre, Kaoru Ichikawa, Dunja Mijatovic, Fumiko Nakao and Suneetha M. Subramanian (May 2013)



Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes (SEPLs)
By Nadia Bergamini, Robert Blasiak, Pablo Eyzaguirre, Kaoru Ichikawa, Dunja Mijatovic, Fumiko Nakao and Suneetha M. Subramanian

Over time, close interactions between humans and their surroundings have created resilient socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLs) in many parts of the world. When wisely managed, SEPLs have the potential to sustain rich levels of biodiversity while enhancing human well-being. This policy report provides an in-depth look at the importance of developing a holistic set of indicators for policy-makers and communities to better understand the resilience of SEPLs. In addition, it shares first experiences and lessons learned from application of the indicators in Cuba’s Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve.


ISBN 978-92-808-4547-1
April 2013, 44 pages
Download policy brief as a .pdf file (1.99 MB)

For more information: 
http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=111&ddlID=169#indicators-of-resilience

Monday, April 29, 2013

Publication: Climate resilience and disaster risk management: stories of change from CDKN by M. Dupar (Apr 2013)


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Climate resilience and disaster risk management: stories of change from CDKN by M. Dupar


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This brief presents results from projects supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) to assess vulnerability and mainstream climate resilience into development planning. Case studies from India, Ghana and Colombia illustrate the importance of involving diverse social groups in defining and monitoring vulnerability and delivering adaptation solutions. The paper highlights the use of innovative techniques such as role-playing games to raise people’s awareness of the tough challenges posed by decision-making in a changing climate. Examples include: an initiative to protect residents of Ahmedabad, western India from heatwaves through common sense measures; a programme of witness tours and capacity building for local assembly members in Ghana, to raise awareness of climate-related risks to coastal development; and an ambitious process of vulnerability assessment in Cartagena, Colombia.

For more information: 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Event: Indicators for Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes organized by UNU-IAS on 22 Apr 2013



Indicators for Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes

Monday, 22 April 2013, 14:00 - 16:30

Indicators for Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes (SEPLs)

Nadia Bergamini
Scientific Assistant, Agrobiodiversity and Ecosystem Services Programme, Bioversity International

Diana Salvemini
COMDEKS Project Coordinator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Venue: Meeting Room 1, UNU-IAS
Pacifico-Yokohama, 1-1-1 Minato Mirai
Nishi-ku, Yokohama


Event Description
Growing environmental crises and rapid societal changes have been increasingly causing instability and shocks to many socio-ecological production landscapes (SEPLs), which have been shaped through interactions between humans and nature, and provide a bundle of ecosystem services for human well-being. The concept of resilience is increasingly recognized as important for understanding how to maintain, revitalize and rebuild such landscapes. Furthermore, it is crucial that this concept be transformed into measurable indicators to support local communities to better understand and further strengthen the resilience of their landscapes.

Since 2011, Bioversity International and UNU-IAS have been engaged in a collaborative activity to develop indicators of resilience in SEPLs and further refine these indicators through field-testing. The indicators have also been playing a substantial role in the COMDEKS project, currently being implemented by UNDP, which aims to develop sound biodiversity management and sustainable livelihood activities with local communities.

This seminar will introduce the recent work by Bioversity International and UNDP on indicators and resilience in SEPLs.

Programme
14:00Opening Remarks
14:05
Presentation1 "Indictors for Resilience in SEPLs: Development and Field Testing"
Nadia Bergamini (Scientific Assistant, Agrobiodiversity and Ecosystem Services Programme, Bioversity International)
14:50Q&A
15:00Presentation2 "Investing in Community-based Resilience of Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes: Piloting indicators for resilience in SEPLS in COMDEKS project sites"Diana Salvemini (COMDEKS Project Coordinator, UNDP)
15:45Q&A
15:55Comments from discussantSuneetha M. Subramanian (UNU-IAS)
16:05 - 16:30Discussion

Speakers' Biographies

Nadia Bergamini
Nadia Bergamini is a scientific assistant at Bioversity International (formerly IPGRI) in Rome. A citizen of Italy, Bergamini received her Master’s in Ecology in (1996) from Rome University and since then has been working in International organizations. During her university studies she taught environmental education to school children. She then worked at the Fisheries Department of the FAO preparing and editing technical fact sheets on fisheries and aquaculture. At Bioversity International, Rome she is working with conservation biologists to integrate agricultural biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods in the management of protected areas. Her work is focused on integrating ecological functions across wild and cultivated landscapes. She is the co-editor of the workshop proceedings On-farm conservation of neglected and underutilized species: status, trends and novel approaches to cope with climate change, Bioversity 2011. She is co-author of the manual Improving nutrition with agricultural biodiversity, Bioversity International 2011. Her latest article was published as a case study in the book Diversifying Food and Diets Using Agricultural Biodiversity to Improve Nutrition and Health, Earthscan, 2013. Over the past 10 years she has developed practical skills in organic and biodynamic farming of fruits and vegetables.


Diana Salvemini
Diana Salvemini is the UNDP Global Project Coordinator for the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS) project, a unique global project implemented by UNDP, in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), the United Nations University (UNU-IAS), and funded by the Japan Biodiversity Fund. Prior to this assignment, Diana worked with the UNDP’s Energy and Environment Group (UNDP-GEF) providing technical, policy, capacity development and other support services related to UNDP’s climate change adaptation work. Diana has extensive experience in the formulation and evaluation of results based management systems. Prior to joining UNDP, she worked with the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group, evaluating climate change strategies and identifying best practices and results for biodiversity, land degradation, climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. She also worked in Bolivia with UN FAO Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, supporting FAO’s activities with indigenous communities in the field of participatory territorial development and community-based adaptation. Diana holds a Masters degree in International Economics and International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a degree in Political Science from Luiss Guido Carli University, in Rome.

Registration is free and open to the public. For further information, please contact UNU-IAS at unuias[at]ias.unu.edu or 045-221-2300.

Register For This Event

For more information: http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=8&ddlID=2579