Earth Observation Open Science and Innovation

geospatial analytics; social observatory; big earth data; open data; citizen science; open innovation; earth system science; crowdsourced geospatial data; citizen science; science in society; data scienc

Evaluating South-South cooperation in six Latin American and Caribbean countries: Shared challenges for implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

In an increasingly uncertain world, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a point of reference and a road map, and South-South and triangular cooperation have become ever more important for mobilizing additional resources for implementation of the Agenda, for increasing cooperation capacities and for providing flexible solutions to development challenges. The outcome of the second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation invited interested developing countries to engage in consultations within the framework of the regional commissions, relevant intergovernmental forums on South-South and triangular cooperation or regional organizations, on non-binding voluntary methodologies for measuring and evaluating cooperation, building on existing experiences, taking into account the specificities and different modalities of South-South cooperation and respecting the diversity within South-South cooperation and within national approaches. This publication offers keys to understanding the value of South-South and triangular cooperation in the region, while providing data on the experiences of Latin American and Caribbean countries, as necessary inputs for advancing in the process of sharing and standardizing methodologies for measuring cooperation at the regional level.Foreword .-- Introduction .-- Chapter I. Experience with South-South cooperation: the case of Barbados .-- Chapter II. Experience with South-South cooperation: the case of Colombia .-- Chapter III. Experience with South-South cooperation: the case of Cuba .-- Chapter IV. South-South cooperation: the case of Jamaica .-- Chapter V. Evaluating South-South cooperation: the case of Paraguay .-- Chapter VI. Evaluating South-South cooperation: the case of Uruguay

Pursuing Competition and Regulatory Reforms for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

This volume has been prepared under the auspices of the project entitled, ‘Competition Reforms in Key Markets for Enhancing Social & Economic Welfare in Developing Countries’ (CREW Project). This project was implemented by CUTS in four countries: Ghana, India, Philippines and Zambia, and across two common sectors: Staple Food and Bus Transport with the support from DFID (UK) and BMZ (Germany) facilitated by GIZ (Germany). The aim of the project was to highlight the relevance of competition reforms for social and economic welfare in developing countries, and motivate other countries, governments and development partners to accord greater attention to the subject of competition reforms. In view of this overall aim of the project, with inputs from the project advisers CUTS designed the final conference of the CREW project on a broader theme to talk about ‘Relevance of Competition & Regulatory Reforms in Pursuing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Developing Countries’. The theme was thought to be both contemporary and relevant in view of the adoption of the SDGs a couple of months before this final conference. In addition to the support it received from DFID (UK), BMZ (Germany) and GIZ (Germany), the conference also received support from the World Bank, G-77 Secretariat and the OECD. CUTS is grateful to all the above organisations for supporting the conference, and indeed also the production of this volume. We acknowledge the support from the members of the Project Advisory Committee of the CREW project, who contributed to make this conference a grand success. Special thanks to Clement Onyango and colleagues at CUTS Nairobi for their support and tireless efforts in the run-up and during the conference. We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and patience of all the paper authors for contributing extremely interesting individual chapters to this volume. We are also thankful to those friends of CUTS who reviewed the draft papers – Eleanor Fox, Tania Begazo/Martha Licetti (World Bank), Rafaelita Aldaba, R S Khemani, Frederic Jenny, Payal Malik, Allan Fels, David Ong’olo, Ashwini Swain, Peter Holmes and John Davies/Lynn Robertson (OECD). We are indebted to Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General, UNCTAD for writing an encouraging Foreword – and we hope to continue to receive his and UNCTAD’s support. We greatly appreciate the diligence of Madhuri Vasnani and Garima Shrivastava for editing and Mukesh Tyagi for preparing the layout of this report. Special thanks are due to Ashutosh Soni for his excellent coordination of communication with authors and reviewers of papers of this volume. We acknowledge the efforts of all the members of the CREW team, especially Cornelius Dube, Shreya Kaushik and Neha Tomar. Last but not the least, this report would not have seen the light of the day without the skillful direction, and overall guidance of Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS. He took special interest in this volume and went through each and every paper carefully himself. Words alone cannot convey our sincere gratitude to each and every individual who have contributed in every small way towards bringing out this volume. But it is only words that this world thrives on. We express our sincere gratefulness to all such individuals, without whom the publication of this volume would not have been possible.CUTS Internationa

Pursuing Competition and Regulatory Reforms for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

This volume has been prepared under the auspices of the project entitled, ‘Competition Reforms in Key Markets for Enhancing Social & Economic Welfare in Developing Countries’ (CREW Project). This project was implemented by CUTS in four countries: Ghana, India, Philippines and Zambia, and across two common sectors: Staple Food and Bus Transport with the support from DFID (UK) and BMZ (Germany) facilitated by GIZ (Germany). The aim of the project was to highlight the relevance of competition reforms for social and economic welfare in developing countries, and motivate other countries, governments and development partners to accord greater attention to the subject of competition reforms. In view of this overall aim of the project, with inputs from the project advisers CUTS designed the final conference of the CREW project on a broader theme to talk about ‘Relevance of Competition & Regulatory Reforms in Pursuing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Developing Countries’. The theme was thought to be both contemporary and relevant in view of the adoption of the SDGs a couple of months before this final conference. In addition to the support it received from DFID (UK), BMZ (Germany) and GIZ (Germany), the conference also received support from the World Bank, G-77 Secretariat and the OECD. CUTS is grateful to all the above organisations for supporting the conference, and indeed also the production of this volume. We acknowledge the support from the members of the Project Advisory Committee of the CREW project, who contributed to make this conference a grand success. Special thanks to Clement Onyango and colleagues at CUTS Nairobi for their support and tireless efforts in the run-up and during the conference. We gratefully acknowledge the hard work and patience of all the paper authors for contributing extremely interesting individual chapters to this volume. We are also thankful to those friends of CUTS who reviewed the draft papers – Eleanor Fox, Tania Begazo/Martha Licetti (World Bank), Rafaelita Aldaba, R S Khemani, Frederic Jenny, Payal Malik, Allan Fels, David Ong’olo, Ashwini Swain, Peter Holmes and John Davies/Lynn Robertson (OECD). We are indebted to Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary General, UNCTAD for writing an encouraging Foreword – and we hope to continue to receive his and UNCTAD’s support. We greatly appreciate the diligence of Madhuri Vasnani and Garima Shrivastava for editing and Mukesh Tyagi for preparing the layout of this report. Special thanks are due to Ashutosh Soni for his excellent coordination of communication with authors and reviewers of papers of this volume. We acknowledge the efforts of all the members of the CREW team, especially Cornelius Dube, Shreya Kaushik and Neha Tomar. Last but not the least, this report would not have seen the light of the day without the skillful direction, and overall guidance of Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS. He took special interest in this volume and went through each and every paper carefully himself. Words alone cannot convey our sincere gratitude to each and every individual who have contributed in every small way towards bringing out this volume. But it is only words that this world thrives on. We express our sincere gratefulness to all such individuals, without whom the publication of this volume would not have been possible.CUTS Internationa

Evaluación final del Marco de Asociación entre Etiopía y España: 2011-2015

Sumario: El propósito de esta evaluación era proporcionar una valoración general del MAP entre Etiopía y España para analizar los cambios producidos y los principales resultados obtenidos. También permitía destacar las fortalezas y debilidades del mismo para desarrollar el siguiente MAP.Full report (V, 153 p.).-- Resumen ejecutivo (13 p.).-- Executive summary (13 p.).-- Resumen sintético (48 p.).-- Synthetic report (48 p.).-- Puntos clave (4 p.).-- Annexes (176 p.).-- Annex 10: Compiled list intervention

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity

Urban Informatics

This open access book is the first to systematically introduce the principles of urban informatics and its application to every aspect of the city that involves its functioning, control, management, and future planning. It introduces new models and tools being developed to understand and implement these technologies that enable cities to function more efficiently – to become ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. The smart city has quickly emerged as computers have become ever smaller to the point where they can be embedded into the very fabric of the city, as well as being central to new ways in which the population can communicate and act. When cities are wired in this way, they have the potential to become sentient and responsive, generating massive streams of ‘big’ data in real time as well as providing immense opportunities for extracting new forms of urban data through crowdsourcing. This book offers a comprehensive review of the methods that form the core of urban informatics from various kinds of urban remote sensing to new approaches to machine learning and statistical modelling. It provides a detailed technical introduction to the wide array of tools information scientists need to develop the key urban analytics that are fundamental to learning about the smart city, and it outlines ways in which these tools can be used to inform design and policy so that cities can become more efficient with a greater concern for environment and equity