Proceedings of the Workshop on Organic Public Catering at the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, 19th June 2008 in Modena, Italy

This proceedings shows the papers and/or power point slides of presentations held during a workshop included in the OWC about how to include organic food in school meals in various countries in Europe and Asia. the workshop was arranged by the iPOPY project (more at www.ipopy.coreportal.org)

GLOBE climate legislation study

The Climate Legislation Study covers over 850 national laws and policies directly related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Launched in 2010 covering only 16 countries, the study currently covers 99 jurisdictions, which, taken together, produce 93 per cent of global emissions and are home to 90 per cent of the world’s forests. The database includes 46 of the world’s top 50 emitters

Influences of policy learning, transfer, and post transfer learning in the development of China’s wind power policies

China’s renewable energy (RE) sector is developing rapidly, driven by growing energy needs, increased awareness of climate change, and heightened concerns for environmental degradation caused by the country’s industrialisation process over the past decades. The Chinese government has been dedicated to the development of its RE industry and has engaged extensively in drawing lessons from abroad and applying these lessons to its own experiences in the post transfer learning process to develop policies that have contributed to the development of the largest wind power sector in the world. This thesis provides a perspective of how China, a ‘socialist market economy’, has applied primarily market mechanisms from liberalised market systems found in Western Europe and the United States to develop its domestic wind power sector. Having similar economic, political and cultural value systems is not necessarily a prerequisite to policy learning; rather policy objective compatibility is a more important criterion when drawing and transferring lessons. The objective of this thesis is to analyse how the policy learning from abroad, policy transfer and the post transfer process has influenced the development of wind power policies in China through the application of a framework to analyse the policies. The framework was specifically developed for this thesis and was largely based on policy learning and policy transfer concepts as well as general learning literature. Using the wind power policies in China as a case study, this thesis identifies elements of policy learning from abroad and examines how transferred policies have been applied in first level policies that are top-level coordinating policies (e.g. mid- to long-term strategies and frameworks) as well as second level policies, with specific objectives focusing on diffusion and adoption (e.g. renewable energy policy instruments). Overall, studying policy learning from abroad, policy transfer and the post transfer process contributes to understanding how learning across political boarders contributes to the domestic policy formation and implementation process

Coordinating Development in Conflict States: Donor Networks in Somalia

Aid coordination is part of the governance of public policy, affecting the accountability and effectiveness of aid as well as power relationships. Using the case of Somalia, this article analyses the coordination of aid in conflict settings. Somalia is marked by multidimensional involvement, ‘remote control’ from Nairobi, and a general unease about impact and accountability across all involved (donors, UN and Somali actors). ‘Comprehensive’ aid strategies that straddle various logics of engagement need to be given shape in situ , i.e. by relatively autonomous donor country offices. Here networks of relationships and coordination mechanisms shape decision?making and problem?framing. Often the size of one's development budget provides limited leverage. Despite much distrust, UN agencies provide a gatekeeper function vis?à?vis Somalia counterparts. Trilateral dialogue about aid remains largely symbolic and at the diplomatic level. While effective solutions to problems can be found, a lack of joint engagement based on publicly traceable ‘technical’ principles undermines both accountability and joint learning over time, in turn impacting trust

Urban food strategies in Central and Eastern Europe: what's specific and what's at stake?

Integrating a larger set of instruments into Rural Development Programmes implied an increasing focus on monitoring and evaluation. Against the highly diversified experience with regard to implementation of policy instruments the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been set up by the EU Commission as a strategic and streamlined method of evaluating programmes’ impacts. Its indicator-based approach mainly reflects the concept of a linear, measure-based intervention logic that falls short of the true nature of RDP operation and impact capacity on rural changes. Besides the different phases of the policy process, i.e. policy design, delivery and evaluation, the regional context with its specific set of challenges and opportunities seems critical to the understanding and improvement of programme performance. In particular the role of local actors can hardly be grasped by quantitative indicators alone, but has to be addressed by assessing processes of social innovation. This shift in the evaluation focus underpins the need to take account of regional implementation specificities and processes of social innovation as decisive elements for programme performance.

Standby and Off-Mode Energy Losses In New Appliances Measured in Shops

Selina project website at http://selina-project.eu PDF available online at http://selina-project.eu/files/SELINA_book.pdfInternational audienceThis document provides an overview of the most important results of the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) Project SELINA - Standby and Off-Mode Energy Losses In New Appliances Measured in Shops. Standby power is a general term commonly used to describe the low power modes in which many electrical and electronic products are, when not performing their main function. For more than a decade, it has been recognized that the energy consumption in low power modes for electrical and electronic products is an important issue because it represent permanent loads (sometimes up to 24 hours per day) of a huge number of products. With the 1 W standby initiative of the International Energy Agency (IEA), several low power mode measurement campaigns have been led on a regular basis in a number of countries outside and inside Europe Union (EU). Based on these results and on the Energy-using Products Study Lot 6, the EU has prepared new regulation to limit the standby and off-mode power consumption of non-networked household electronic and electrical equipment, which is being applied since January 2010. The IEE project SELINA carried out a large scale monitoring campaign in shops in order to characterise the low power modes of new appliances being sold in the EU market. In order to ensure consistency of the collected data, a common measurement methodology was developed and the same high resolution measurement equipment was used by all partners. This document analyzes the results of more than 6000 different equipments measured in the 12 EU countries involved in the project. Standby and off-mode values by product categories were analysed and compared with data from other regions of the World. The measurements were also benchmarked against the new 2010/2013 EU standby and off mode regulation thresholds and the impact of the EU regulation is discussed. It was found that 18.5% of the equipments, whose off-mode power was measured, do not respect the EU regulation threshold of 1 W. When the measurements are compared to the 2013 threshold of 0.5 W, this percentage raises up to 41.5%. Regarding standby mode input power, 31% of the measured products did not comply with EU regulation limit for the 2010 threshold. When the standby measured values are compared to the 2013 limit, the number of products over the EU regulation target increases to 66.4%. When comparing the 2009 and 2010 measurements, only a slight decrease of the share of appliances exceeding the EU regulation limits was observed. In parallel with the measurement campaign, an awareness study of the retailers was carried out. This survey helps to understand the customers' buying motivations and the influence of retailers' advice in their choices. The results of the survey show that, despite of retailer's consciousness about the energy consumption and energy labels of the products, other types of sales arguments like the appliance price or functionalities are more frequently used to sell a product. This could be due to lack of visible information in shops related to the equipment energy consumption. Furthermore, the results show that retailers try to adapt their advice to the customers' needs (price and product functionalities). The retailers admitted that publishing more information regarding the energy consumption of products and some kind of cost saving calculator/reference would make the clients to opt for more efficient equipments. Based on the survey results and on the analysis of different existing policies targeting electrical and electronic products in Europe, examples of policies to improve the low power modes situation of the EU market are reviewed. The survey on measures enhancing the market transformation towards more energy-efficient electrical appliances showed a wide range of actions and policy tools in the SELINA partner countries. In national workshops, which mainly took place in the late summer/early autumn 2010, these measures were presented and discussed with all relevant national stakeholders. In most countries, information campaigns (esp. brochures, leaflets, websites, and national labels) are the dominating measure type. In some countries, however, financial subsidies for very energy-efficient appliances, often paid by an energy utility and not by the government, play an important role, too (e.g. in the Czech Republic or Switzerland). In general, the impact of a financial programme is easier to quantify than the single impact of an information campaign, which often serves as an accompanying measure for regulations (labels, minimum efficiency standards) or fiscal and financial measures. International cooperation with key institutions outside the EU, involved in similar efforts, such as the IEA Implementing Agreement 4E (Efficient Electrical End-use Equipment) with an Annex on Standby, the Energy Star/EPA in USA, the Australia Standby Initiative and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, were used to promote synergies in the definition of common approaches to characterize the market and to define realistic and cost-effective performance targets which can be achieved in a short time frame. Special care is required when promoting low standby consumption products (without consideration of other attributes) to ensure that there are no perverse effects such as the inadvertent promotion of products with low active mode efficiency and high energy consumption. It is desirable to follow a vertical approach to standby, where low power modes are combined with active modes to give total energy consumption. This approach is particularly preferable for products where the total energy consumption is significant. The definition of usage patterns under such a vertical approach is necessarily product specific and this could vary by region or country. The new technologies offer many opportunities for energy savings potential but there are also some threats which need to be recognized and understood. There is a strong need to ensure that energy saving paradigms and strategies become a core consideration in future product designs. It is recognized that equipments connected to networks are of growing importance. It is recommended that increased efforts to compile data and measurements, of networked products, from a variety of sources in order to obtain better information on networked product characteristics, needs to be made. An online database was created so that everyone can access the input power values, in the different equipment low power modes, of the more than 6000 equipments measured. A Standby Calculator Tool was also developed and can be accessed through the project website. It can be used to calculate the consumed energy, the annual cost and the equivalent CO2 emissions. In order to compare the results in an easy way, a diagram that shows the energy consumption of the different models is presented. Furthermore, the values for the most efficient device are also showed, in order to have an additional comparison. One of the main objectives of this project was to identify effective market transformation policies initiatives targeted at all the key stakeholders involved in the manufacture, distribution, sales, purchasing and operation of appliances with standby and off-mode losses. As a result of the future policy actions that may appear after the end of the project, considering loads in networked mode, it is expected to achieve very large cost-effective savings of electricity (80 TWh projected by 2020) and carbon emissions (30 MTons of CO2 by 2020)

Research data management in public universities in Malawi

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThe emergence and subsequent uptake of Information and Communication Technologies has transformed the research processes in universities and research institutions across the globe. One indelible impact of Information and Communication Technologies on the research process is the increased generation of research data in digital format. This study investigated how research data has been generated, organised, shared, stored, preserved, accessed and re-used in Malawian public universities with a view to proposing a framework for research data management in universities in Malawi. The objectives of the study were: to determine research data creation, sharing and re-use practices in public universities in Malawi; to investigate research data preservation practices in public universities in Malawi; to investigate the competencies that librarians and researchers need to effectively manage research data; and to find out the challenges that affect the management of research data in public universities in Malawi. Apart from being guided by the Community Capability Model Framework (Lyon, Ball, Duke & Day, 2011) and Data Curation Centre Lifecycle Model (Higgins, 2008), the study was inspired by the pragmatic school of thought which is the basis for a mixed methods research enabling the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from two purposively selected universities. A census was used to identify researchers and librarians while purposive sampling was used to identify directors of research. Questionnaires were used to collect mostly quantitative and some qualitative data from 36 librarians and 187 researchers while interviews were conducted with directors of research. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to analyse the quantitative data by producing percentages, means, independent samples ttest and one-way analysis of variance. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data

Characterisation framework of key policy, regulatory and governance dynamics and impacts upon European food value chains: Fairer trading practices, food integrity, and sustainability collaborations. : VALUMICS project “Understanding Food Value Chains and Network Dynamics” funded by EU Horizon 2020 G.A. No 727243. Deliverable D3.3

The report provides a framework that categorises the different European Union (EU) policies, laws and governance actions identified as impacting upon food value chains in the defined areas of: fairer trading practices, food integrity (food safety and authenticity), and sustainability collaborations along food value chains. A four-stage framework is presented and illustrated with examples. The evidence shows that European Union policy activity impacting upon food value chain dynamics is increasing, both in terms of the impacts of policies upon the chains, and, in terms of addressing some of the more contentious outcomes of these dynamics. A number of policy priorities are at play in addressing the outcomes of food value chain dynamics. unevenness of the distribution of profit within food value chains, notably to farmers. Regulation of food safety and aspects of authenticity has been a key focus for two decades to ensure a functioning single market while ensuring consumer health and wellbeing. A food chain length perspective has been attempted, notably through regulations such as the General Food Law, and the rationalisation of the Official Controls on food and feed safety. However, there are still gaps in the effective monitoring and transparency of food safety and of food integrity along value chains, as exemplified by misleading claims and criminal fraud. This has led to renewed policy actions over food fraud, in particular. EU regulations, policies and related governance initiatives provide an important framework for national-level actions for EU member states and for EEA members. The more tightly EU-regulated areas, such as food safety, see fewer extra initiatives, but where there is a more general strategic policy and governance push, such as food waste reduction or food fraud, there is greater independent state-level activity. Likewise, there is much more variation in the application of both national and European (Competition) law to govern unfair trading practices impacting upon food value chains. This report presents the findings of a survey of members from the VALUMICS stakeholder platform, that were policy facing food value chain stakeholders across selected European countries, including both EU and EEA Member States. The survey was conducted to check the significance of the main policies identified in the mapping exercise at EU and national levels and so to incorporate the views of stakeholders in the research. The responses suggest the policy concerns identified in EU and national-level research resonate with food value chain stakeholders in participating nations. The report concludes by exploring in more detail how the themes of fairness and of transparency are being handled in the policy activities presented. Highlighted are the ways that both fairness and transparency can be extended within the existing frameworks of EU policy activity. The findings in this report provide an important context for further and detailed research analysis of the workings and dynamics of European food value chains under the VALUMICS project