Micro-level practices to adapt to climate change for African small-scale farmers:

This paper discusses micro-level practices for adapting to climate change that are available to small-scale farmers in Africa. The analysis is based on a review of 17 studies about practices that boost small-scale farmers' resilience or reduce their vulnerability to observed or expected changes in climate; it includes data from more than 16 countries in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The review shows that African smallholders are already using a wide variety of creative practices to deal with climate risks; these can be further adjusted to the challenge of climate change by planned adaptation programs. We found 104 different practices relevant to climate change adaptation and organized them in five categories: farm management and technology; farm financial management; diversification on and beyond the farm; government interventions in infrastructure, health, and risk reduction; and knowledge management, networks, and governance. We conclude that adaptation policies should complement farmers' autonomous response to climate change through the development of new drought-resistant varieties and improved weather forecasts, the provision of financial services, improvement of rural transportation infrastructure, investments in public healthcare and public welfare programs, and policies that improve local governance and coordinate donor activities.Climate change, adaptation practices, content analysis, Small-scale farmers, climate risks, Farm management, diversification, risk reduction, government interventions, public welfare programs

Globalstar for the Military

Globalstar, a new satellite-based mobile voice/data telephone service, is being planned by LQSS for operation in 1998. It will let military personnel, using handheld, ship-board, or vehicular mobile terminals in even the most remote areas of the world, to stay in contact with each other and with personnel who are on established communication networks. A constellation of 48 low-earth orbiting (LEO) satellites and an advanced method of digital signal formatting will provide low-cost and reliable voice, data, fax and position-locating services to military personnel in most areas of the world. Globalstar will interoperate with existing local (domestic or foreign), long-distance, public, private, terrestrial-cellular, DoD, and specialized telecommunications networks. The system will permit the military, for its general purpose communications, to share with commercial MSS (Mobile Satellite Services) at low cost. This paper includes an overview of the Globalstar system and describes possible DoD applications

Regional integrated infrastructure scoping study

The purpose of the study is to consider how the Region should take infrastructure forward in an integrated way at a strategic level and to help scope further work to inform the RSS 2009 Update. It is envisaged that this scoping study is the first part of a major work stream for the Assembly to enable infrastructure to influence future locational decisions and develop a better understanding of the impact of higher levels of growth on the Region’s infrastructure

CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform - Plan of Work and Budget 2020

At the end of 2019, all CGIAR centers had submitted improvement plans based on an EiB template and in close collaboration with EiB staff while – in a parallel process with breeding programs, funders and private sector representatives – a vision for breeding program modernization was developed and presented to CGIAR breeding leadership at the EiB Annual Meeting. This vision represents an evolution of EiB in the context of the Crops to End Hunger Initiative (CtEH) beyond the initial scope of providing tools, services and expert advice, and serves as a guide for Center leadership to drive changes with EiB support. In addition, EiB has taken the role of managing and disbursing funding, made available by Funders via CtEH to modernize breeding and enable CGIAR breeding programs to implement the vision provided by EiB

Joint-rollout of FTTH and smart city fiber networks as a way to reduce rollout cost

Making cities smarter is the future. By bringing more technology into existing city infrastructure, smart city applications can arise. Whether these applications track devices e.g. public lightning, environmental measurements e.g. temperature or air quality, or analyze video streams e.g. for people density, it is expected that these will require a (near-) real time data connection. Upcoming 5G networks will be able to handle large amounts of connections at high speeds and low latencies and will therefor outperform current technologies such as 4G and low-power wide-area networks. In order to do so, these 5G networks fall back to numerous fiber connected small cells for up & downlink to the Internet. In this publication, we are looking into the additional fiber equipment and deployment cost to connect the required smart city network infrastructure, taking into account a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network is already available or will be installed as part of the smart city network rollout. More concretely, we are proposing a methodology comparing an anticipated and incremental planning approach for a number of different extensions upon the FTTH-network: connecting all electrical cabinets, connecting public lightning, and the connection of 5G using small cells. From this, we want to learn how much the total rollout cost can be reduced using a future-oriented smart city approach taking into account all future extensions, compared to an incremental short-time planning only planning additional fiber when required. In the meantime, we want to show the additional cost of creating a smart city network is limited when it is being combined with a FTTH rollout. Results of the proposed methodology and use case will be modeled planning and design software Comsof Fiber and will be published in a future work

Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Africa: Final Evaluation

The overall objective of the Foundation's Disease Surveillance Networks (DSN) Initiative is to strengthen technical capacity at the country level for disease surveillance and to bolster response to outbreaks through the sharing of technical information and expertise. It supports formalizing collaboration, information sharing and best practices among established networks as well as trans-national, interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral efforts, and is experienced in developing and fostering innovative partnerships. In order to more effectively address disease threats, the DSN has four key outcome areas:(1) forming and sustaining trans-boundary DSN;(2) strengthening and applying technical and communication skills by local experts and institutions;(3) increasing access and use of improved tools and methods on information sharing, reporting and monitoring; and(4) emphasizing One Health and transdisciplinary approaches to policy and practice at global, regional and local levels

Strengthening America's Best Idea: An Independent Review of the National Park Service's Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate

NRSS requested that an independent panel of the National Academy conduct a review of its effectiveness in five core functions, its relationships with key internal stakeholders, and its performance measurement system. Among other things, the National Park Service's Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate (NRSS) is responsible for providing usable natural and social science information throughout the National Park Service (NPS). NRSS leadership requested this review of the directorate's performance on five core functions, its relationships with key internal NPS stakeholders, and its performance measurement system.Main FindingsThe panel determined that NRSS is a highly regarded organization that provides independent, credible scientific expertise and technical information. The panel also found that NRSS and NPS have additional opportunities to advance natural resource stewardship throughout the Service. If implemented, the panel's eight major recommendations will: (1) help the Service respond to the parks' environmental challenges while raising public awareness about the condition of these special places; (2) strengthen NRSS as an organization; (3) promote scientifically based decision-making at the national, regional, and park levels; and (4) improve the existing performance measurement system

Disease Surveillance Networks Initiative Global: Final Evaluation

In August 2009, the Rockefeller Foundation commissioned an independent external evaluation of the Disease Surveillance Networks (DSN) Initiative in Asia, Africa, and globally. This report covers the results of the global component of the summative and prospective1 evaluation, which had the following objectives:[1] Assessment of performance of the DSN Initiative, focused on its relevance, effectiveness/impact, and efficiency within the context of the Foundation's initiative support.[2] Assessment of the DSN Initiative's underlying hypothesis: robust trans-boundary, multi-sectoral/cross-disciplinary collaborative networks lead to improved disease surveillance and response.[3] Assessment of the quality of Foundation management (value for money) for the DSN Initiative.[4] Contribute to the field of philanthropy by:a. Demonstrating the use of evaluations in grantmaking, learning and knowledge management; andb. Informing the field of development evaluation about methods and models to measure complex networks