A Strategy for the Commons: Business-driven Networks for Collective Action and Policy Dialogue. The Example of Global Compact Local Networks

The current challenges involved with ensuring global sustainability are daunting. Climate change is increasing the incidence of severe weather events, natural resources are undergoing rapid depletion, labor conditions in global supply chains are often inhumane and degrading, and corruption around the globe is undermining competition and destroying wealth. These and other global challenges pose serious problems not only to mankind in general, but also to the sustainability of companies. Indeed, companies rely on enabling environments, local and global alike, for long-term success. Companies depend on a reliable legal framework conducive to investment and competition, a healthy and viable natural environment, and a secure social environment that facilitates the wellbeing of its inhabitants. However, given the overexploitation of shared resources, also known as the “tragedy of the commons,” companies often find it difficult to address global sustainability challenges and invest in enabling environments. All sustainability challenges face this tragedy: Although each societal actor ought to have an interest in creating or ensuring the viability of these common goods, the incentive to “free ride” on the efforts of others and let them bear the costs is exceedingly high. As a result, short-term profit maximization often damages the longterm growth prospects of companies. Since governments lack the capacity to address the complexity and global scope of sustainability challenges alone, a “strategy for the commons” is needed that allows companies, governments and other actors to overcome the free rider dilemma and invest in sustainable development

Unlocking the potential of community composting: Full project report

Community based composting schemes can make valuable contributions to the development of local infrastructure and amenities by improving soils and green spaces in addition to diverting waste from landfill. Furthermore, well managed community activities have potential for providing work and volunteering opportunities, as well as bringing people together and improving skills, knowledge and self-confidence. Considered collectively these factors may contribute to local sustainability more effectively than focusing on meeting particular waste related targets. Although there is some anecdotal and financial evidence for the growth in, and diversity of, community composting, there is very little comprehensive data that draws together the activity of the sector as a whole. This research set out to understand and assess the current and potential role of the community composting sector in achieving Defra’s waste related targets and Government’s other wider environmental and social objectives. Thus this research is timely both in terms of establishing what has been achieved in the community composting sector to-date and in terms of possibilities for future achievements

A practitioner's guide to 'Imagine', the systemic and prospective sustainability analysis

The purpose of the Mediterranean Action Plans Coastal Area Management Programme is to help Mediterranean countries implement a sustainable management process for their coastal areas. This in particular implies thinking collectively about possible futures by taking into account past developments and the present situation of the area in question. To do so and right from the very start, the Blue Plan has assisted teams involved in the CAMPs to use the systemic and prospective approach so as to highlight priorities, forecast negative developments and suggest action to be taken to establish sustainable development in the Mediterranean's coastal areas. What do we mean by sustainable development? The Blue Plan adheres to a definition that is a blend of what you find in the Bruntland Report and at the FAO, 'sustainable development is one that respects the environment, is technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable, making it possible to meet the needs of present generations without jeopardising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. In this framework the 'Imagine' analysis of systemic and prospective sustainability now proposes a set of tools and methods (a methodological corpus) to describe, assess and examine the level of sustainability of an eco-socio system in the past, present and future by means of indicators and a participatory process that considers local actors to be experts at their level

Report on evaluation of the revision of council regulation (EEC) NO 2092/91, import regime in two exporting non-EU countries (TR, CH) and on an international level

This report provides an evaluation of the new EU import regulation for organic products (Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008). To ensure that the evaluation addresses the issues and concerns of the stakeholders affected by the new import regulation and to increase the use of the evaluation results for upcoming decisions, this evaluation was organised as a stakeholder evaluation approach. Based on the results from two national workshops in third countries (Turkey and Switzerland) and from one international workshop, the report concludes in policy recommendations to improve the import system for organic products as well as the organic sector as a whole

A Fuzzy-Logic Approach to Dynamic Bayesian Severity Level Classification of Driver Distraction Using Image Recognition

open access articleDetecting and classifying driver distractions is crucial in the prevention of road accidents. These distractions impact both driver behavior and vehicle dynamics. Knowing the degree of driver distraction can aid in accident prevention techniques, including transitioning of control to a level 4 semi- autonomous vehicle, when a high distraction severity level is reached. Thus, enhancement of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) is a critical component in the safety of vehicle drivers and other road users. In this paper, a new methodology is introduced, using an expert knowledge rule system to predict the severity of distraction in a contiguous set of video frames using the Naturalistic Driving American University of Cairo (AUC) Distraction Dataset. A multi-class distraction system comprises the face orientation, drivers’ activities, hands and previous driver distraction, a severity classification model is developed as a discrete dynamic Bayesian (DDB). Furthermore, a Mamdani-based fuzzy system was implemented to detect multi- class of distractions into a severity level of safe, careless or dangerous driving. Thus, if a high level of severity is reached the semi-autonomous vehicle will take control. The result further shows that some instances of driver’s distraction may quickly transition from a careless to dangerous driving in a multi-class distraction context

Rules of Origin in the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership Agreement and Nigeria’s international trade

This paper examines the key issues and assesses the impact of the rules of origin (RoO) and cumulation on Nigeria’s international trade within the context of Africa-EU partnerships agreements. The review of literatures shows that RoO are an important element in determining the final benefit associated with the bilateral trade relationship under preferential trade agreements. It notes that Africa-EU bilateral trade relations dates back to the Lome Conventions that gave preferential entry into EU of some products, and now to the new Africa-EU partnership which lays less emphasis on RoO. An analysis of available data show that RoO have had limited impact on Nigeria’s exports trade with the EU since her major exports (crude oil) does not benefit from RoO. Instead, there has been an increase in intermediate imports from EU which suggests trade creation in favour of EU while the rising trend in trade within Africa could be the result of bilateral cumulation and intra-Africa FTAs/economic integration. The paper further argues that the increase in trade with USA and others may be the result of trade reorientation as a result of switching from EU to other cheaper partner countries, especially USA in the face of AGOA. Among the challenges which militate against the RoO are: global reduction in tariff by WTO and the changing focus of the objectives of Africa-EU partnership principles from PTA to regional support. In concluding, the paper notes that the new partnership agreements needs to reconsider its position on RoO as it is a potent tool that is mutually beneficial in partnership. As such, the EU must go beyond the WTO GSP and AGOA to give preferential treatment to goods originating from Africa

Culture and disaster risk management - citizens’ reactions and opinions during Citizen Summit in Lisbon, Portugal

The analyses and results in this document are based on the data collected during the fifth Citizen Summit held in Lisbon, Portugal on April 14th 2018. Like the previous four Citizen Summits held in Romania, Malta, Italy and Germany, this Citizen Summit was designed as a one-day event combining public information with feedback gathering through different methods of data collection. In the morning session, the event started with a presentation of the CARISMAND project and its main goals and concepts, and the planned CARISMAND Toolkit functionalities. Then, overall 27 questions with pre-defined answer options were posed to the audience and responses collected via an audience response system. As in the previous Citizen Summits, all questions in this part of the event aimed to explore citizens’ attitudes, perceptions and intended behaviours related to disaster risks. Comparing and contrasting the respective results of all six Citizen Summits in the final synthesised analysis will aim to provide additional insight into cultural factors that may affect disaster-related preparedness and response. Between these questions, additional presentations where held that informed the audience about state-of-the-art disaster preparedness and response topics (e.g., large-scale disaster scenario exercises, use of social media, and mobile phone apps). Furthermore, this last round of Citizen Summits was organised and specifically designed to discuss and collect feedback on recommendations for citizens, which have all been formulated on the basis of Work Packages 2-8 results and in coordination with the Work Package 11 brief. These Toolkit recommendations are envisaged to form one of the core elements of the Work Package 9 CARISMAND Toolkit. Additionally, following the cyclical design of CARISMAND events (and wherever meaningful and possible), they “mirror” the respective recommendations for practitioners, which were discussed in the last (third) CARISMAND Stakeholder Assembly held in Lisbon in February 2018, and they are structured in two, main “sets”: A. Developing a personal “culture of preparedness” B. Taking part in disaster preparedness and response activities. These two sets of recommendations were also presented in detail during the morning session to the participating citizens. In the afternoon session, small moderated group discussions of approximately 2 hours duration were held, which aimed to gather the citizens’ direct feedback on the two sets of Toolkit recommendations presented in the morning, following a detailed discussion guideline. For a detailed overview of all questions asked and topics discussed please see Appendix A. Overall, 102 citizens participated in the Portugal event. The total sample shows a relatively even gender and age distribution, which is unsurprising given the target quotas that were requested from the recruiting local market research agency. The lower number of senior citizens aged 65 and above was expected and reflects mobility issues. Participants were asked about three key aspects of experience of disasters and disaster risk perception that could potentially have an impact on how other questions were answered. More than nine out of ten respondents (92.8%) indicated that they, or a close friend or family member, have experienced a disaster, more than half (56.7%) felt that they are currently living in an area that is specifically prone to disasters, and 57.8% answered that they know other people in the area where they live who they think are particularly vulnerable or exposed to disasters. Slight gender and age-related differences in the responses to these questions were found to be not statistically significant (p>=.05). The rest of this report presents the results of the fifth CARISMAND Citizen Summit and is structured in five main sections. After this introduction, the second section will provide an overview of the different methods applied. The third section, based on the quantitative data collected via the audience response system, presents the results from questions on general disaster risk perceptions, disaster preparedness, and behaviours in disaster situations with a particular focus on the use of mobile phone apps and social media. In the fourth section, based on the qualitative data collected in the ten discussion groups, the analyses will provide detailed insight into the participants’ feedback on the two sets of recommendations for citizens presented in the morning session. The final section compares and contrasts the results from sections 3 and 4, draws conclusions, and presents proposed changes and amendments to the Work Package 9 Toolkit recommendations based on the participating citizens’ suggestions.The project was co-funded by the European Commission within the Horizon2020 Programme (2014-2020).peer-reviewe

Built to Change: Catalytic Capacity-Building in Nonprofit Organizations

Summarizes the results of a broad survey of programs, and business and nonprofit experts, in the field of organizational effectiveness

A Quality Model for Actionable Analytics in Rapid Software Development

Background: Accessing relevant data on the product, process, and usage perspectives of software as well as integrating and analyzing such data is crucial for getting reliable and timely actionable insights aimed at continuously managing software quality in Rapid Software Development (RSD). In this context, several software analytics tools have been developed in recent years. However, there is a lack of explainable software analytics that software practitioners trust. Aims: We aimed at creating a quality model (called Q-Rapids quality model) for actionable analytics in RSD, implementing it, and evaluating its understandability and relevance. Method: We performed workshops at four companies in order to determine relevant metrics as well as product and process factors. We also elicited how these metrics and factors are used and interpreted by practitioners when making decisions in RSD. We specified the Q-Rapids quality model by comparing and integrating the results of the four workshops. Then we implemented the Q-Rapids tool to support the usage of the Q-Rapids quality model as well as the gathering, integration, and analysis of the required data. Afterwards we installed the Q-Rapids tool in the four companies and performed semi-structured interviews with eight product owners to evaluate the understandability and relevance of the Q-Rapids quality model. Results: The participants of the evaluation perceived the metrics as well as the product and process factors of the Q-Rapids quality model as understandable. Also, they considered the Q-Rapids quality model relevant for identifying product and process deficiencies (e.g., blocking code situations). Conclusions: By means of heterogeneous data sources, the Q-Rapids quality model enables detecting problems that take more time to find manually and adds transparency among the perspectives of system, process, and usage.Comment: This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of a paper to be published by IEEE in the 44th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA) 2018. The final authenticated version will be available onlin