Linking food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation: the case of sustainable land management in Malawi

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aims at enhancing the capacity of farming systems to sustainably support food security in the context of climatic changes (CC). Questions arise about the profitability of alternative farming options and their cost-effectiveness in mitigating CC. A large dataset has been built through household surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions conducted in different agro ecological zones of Malawi. Farmers adopt a wide combination of sustainable land management (SLM) practices, earning often higher yields, profits and returns to labor than under conventional farming. Differences are more significant in dry areas indicating potential for CC adaptation. However, this may come at excessive costs in terms of capital and labor. Negative marginal abatement costs for most SLM options show synergies between increased farm incomes and CC mitigation. Cost- effectiveness of agriculture management practices is proposed as policy decision criterion to prioritize CSA interventions on the basis of economic efficiency in greenhouse gases abatement

Indagación de la percepción pública de la ciencia y la tecnología para la participación ciudadana y el desarrollo social en la provincia de Córdoba, Argentina

La investigación realizada pretende caracterizar la percepción social de la ciencia y la tecnología que tienen los agentes de los distintos ámbitos: educativo, empresarial, gubernamental, massmediático, comunidad en general de Córdoba, Argentina. Su consideración y análisis es determinante en el diseño, ejecución y evaluación de las políticas científico-tecnológica, de medios y educativa. El estudio, de tipo descriptivo, incluye la aplicación de una encuesta y, en una segunda etapa, el desarrollo de grupos focales. La propuesta está dirigida al diseño de un modelo de participación ciudadana que fomente el uso de los resultados de la investigación científica en beneficio del desarrollo social. Con este estudio, se pretende avanzar en la determinación de indicadores regionales compartidos, a partir de metodologías ajustadas a las características sociales, políticas y económicas de los involucrados, y trazar desde allí, algunos lineamientos de política local y global.Fil: Ferreyra, Horacio Ademar. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Di Francesco, Adriana Carlota. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Bono, Laura Cecilia. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Blanas de Marengo, Georgia Estela. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Eberle, María Jacinta. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Fontana, Marta Yolanda. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Sandrone, Doly Beatríz. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Vidales, Silvia Noemí. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; Argentin

Cultura tecno-científica, percepción pública y participación ciudadana. Una aproximación a las interacciones entre ciencia, tecnología y sociedad en la ciudad de Córdoba

Fil: Ferreyra, Horacio Ademar. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Di Francesco, Adriana Carlota. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Bono, Laura Cecilia. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Blanas de Marengo, Georgia Estela. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Di Franceso, Adriana Carlota. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Eberle, María Jacinta. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Fontana, Marta Yolanda. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; ArgentinaFil: Sandrone, Doly Beatríz. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Educación; Argentin

IFAD IMPACT ASSESSMENT - Plan VIDA-PEEP to eradicate extreme poverty – Phase I: Bolivia

Over half of the rural population in Bolivia today live below the national poverty line. As agriculture represents the main source of livelihood for more than 75 per cent of this rural population, supporting the livelihoods of rural farming households is key to tackling extreme poverty in the country. In August 2011, implementation began on the project Plan VIDA-PEEP (PPV), an initiative financed jointly between IFAD and the Bolivian Government as part of the country's National Development Plan. It aimed to improve the livelihoods of households residing in vulnerable municipalities in the departments of Potosi and Cochabamba through capacity building, financing of rural development projects, and supporting citizenship and social inclusion. The project lasted five years in total and was completed in December, 2016. Plan VIDA was implemented in 8 municipalities in the southern part of Cochabamba department, and in 14 municipalities in the northern area of the Potosí department. The current impact assessment examines the effectiveness of one component of the Plan VIDA project. Under this component, the project provided financial resources to communities for the implementation of rural development projects and to municipalities for the realization of production infrastructure projects. In particular, the evaluation focuses on a specific category of projects – Community Based Productive Investments (Proyectos Inter Comunales - PICs) – which account for more than 90 per cent of total beneficiary households reached by Plan VIDA The interventions financed are chosen among a set of community-developed proposals and are therefore of a participatory and collective nature. Nonetheless, about 80 per cent of interventions provided involved distribution of new locally adapted (criollo) or improved livestock breeds to individual households. Thus, the project offers a unique research opportunity to assess both its community-based development approach and the effectiveness of its livestock inputs. This impact assessment investigates whether the Plan VIDA project contributes to well-being of beneficiaries measured through key outcome indicators of economic mobility, resilience and nutrition to respond to IFAD's strategic objectives and goals and to Bolivia's National Development Plan. To answer these questions, this ex-post evaluation applies a mixed-methods approach that combines non-experimental statistical methods and qualitative analysis to compare a sample of project beneficiaries to non-participants

Understanding the Climate Change-Migration Nexus through the Lens of Household Surveys : An Empirical Review to Assess Data Gaps

Over the past two decades, the causal relationship between climate change and migration has gained increasing prominence on the international political agenda. Despite recent advances in both conceptual frameworks and applied techniques, the empirical evidence does not provide clear-cut conclusions, mainly due to the intrinsic complexity of the phenomena of interest, the irreducible heterogeneity of the transmission mechanisms, some common misconceptions, and, in particular, the paucity of adequate data. This data-oriented review first summarizes the findings of the most recent empirical literature and identifies the main insights as well as the most important mediating channels and contextual factors. Then, it discusses open issues and assesses the main data gaps that currently prevent more robust quantifications. Finally, the paper highlights opportunities for exploring these research questions, exploiting the potential of the existing multi-topic and multi-purpose household survey data sets, such as those produced by the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study. The paper focuses on the Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture program to discuss potential improvements for integrating standard household surveys with additional modules and data sources

El escenario de compleja oportunidad que plantea la ecuación: Demanda de cualidades por parte de las organizaciones. La oferta de capacidades de los jóvenes profesionales en ciencias económicas de la ciudad de Rosario

El presente trabajo, intenta analizar cómo se articula la relación entre los jóvenes profesionales en Ciencias Económicas y las distintas organizaciones en donde se desempeñarán como profesionales, ante las nuevas realidades: complejidad, competitividad extrema, variaciones de variables de determinación, contexto con mayor grado de implicancia. Cabe entonces preguntarse si existe coincidencia entre lo que las organizaciones solicitan de los profesionales en cuanto al desarrollo de sus actividades laborales, y la capacitación recibida. Conviene entonces desentrañar el concepto de Profesión para dar contenido al concepto de Profesional en Ciencias Económicas.Amigo, Adriana Célide. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Estadística. Rosario, ArgentinaZamorano, Héctor. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Estadística. Rosario, ArgentinaPaolantonio, Luciano. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Estadística. Rosario, Argentin