Identifying user needs for weather and climate services to enhance resilience to climate shocks in sub-Saharan Africa

The vulnerability of social-ecological systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to climate variability and change means that there is an urgent need to better integrate weather and climate information into societal decision-making processes. Long-term climate adaptation in these regions has received increasing attention, with recent initiatives aiming to increase resilience to climate change at timescales of years to decades. Less focus has been given to weather and short-term climate information. However, users are principally interested in shorter timescales (hours to seasons) where actions can immediately reduce the impacts of severe weather events. Focusing on the priority sectors of agriculture and food security, water and disaster management, this paper uses a systematic literature review approach to analyse 61 empirical case studies drawn from academic literature and projects across SSA. We identify the main users of climate services and outline current practices and reported benefits. Barriers that impede the delivery and uptake of climate services are identified and potential strategies for overcoming them outlined based on the reporting of successful practices. Our findings show that greater capacity building of personnel working for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and Agricultural Extension staff and reinforcing and sustaining collaboration between different stakeholders (climate scientists, hydrologists, extension workers, farmers and other user groups), are essential factors for improving the uptake and utility of weather and climate services to enhance resilience to climate shocks in SSA

The anthropology of extraction: critical perspectives on the resource curse

Attempts to address the resource curse remain focussed on revenue management, seeking technical solutions to political problems over examinations of relations of power. In this paper, we provide a review of the contribution anthropological research has made over the past decade to understanding the dynamic interplay of social relations, economic interests and struggles over power at stake in the political economy of extraction. In doing so, we show how the constellation of subaltern and elite agency at work within processes of resource extraction is vital in order to confront the complexities, incompatibilities, and inequities in the exploitation of mineral resources

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Summary baseline for AMMA-2050

The report forms a summary baseline for AMMA-2050, supporting the monitoring of impacts over the course of the four-year project. The contents are structured around the programme's logframe, outlining baselines for the project in terms of impacts, outcomes and outputs. Data to inform the baseline are drawn from a range of sources including: a summary of current scientific knowledge about future climate in West Africa; a range of project activities, including stakeholder engagement meetings and a series of key informant interviews; and a number of complementary initiatives

Territorialidades históricas e imaginarios amazónicos en la cordillera del Cóndor

More than a decade ago, tensions arose between civil society, the Ecuadorian government and a transnational company regarding the first large-scale mining project in the Cordillera del Condor. These tensions formed the base for an anti-mining movement that has been accompanied by a series of conflicts, state repression, deaths and forced displacement. The Sourthern Amazon of Ecuador contains a telling history of a territorial mosaic full of tensions and conflicts related to the use, control and access to natural resources, that form the dynamic layers on which successive transformations are built. This chapter takes you to the social, political and spatial processes that took place in the Cordillera del Condor during the last century and which we consider most significant for the unfolding of the mining conflict nowadays. We argue for the use of a territorial and historical focus to analyze the disputes about natural resources and their impacts on civil society and the environment, as it can contribute to the comprehension of current and future transformations

Pluralismo territorial e identidades en el conflicto minero en la cordillera del Cóndor

The Mirador mining project does not expand on ‘empty lands’, but develops in a complex context of actors and social groups that have forged diverse territorialities over time. The arrival of the Mirador project introduced abrupt transformations and resulted in an upsurge of territorial conflicts. In order to analyse the multiplicity of territorialities and identities that are entangled in these conflicts, this chapter takes territorial pluralism and identity politics as theoretical vantage points. We show that this conflictivity emerges due to the very distinct ways of relating to non-human nature and different valuation, appropriation, and legitimization logics and practices of the involved actors. We furthermore show how identities are closely linked to the different territorialities at stake, and how identity politics have an important role in framing demands and creating subjects within territorial conflicts. We argue that both territorialities and identities are not fixed, but are constantly produced in the interactions between the state, the company and the civil society. We moreover maintain that it is crucial to take a historial approach to the power relations, the inequalities and the diversity of subjectivities that are part of the conflict. We conclude by stating that the recognition of the differences in territorial ontologies and the structural inequalities that shape the interactions between the actors is the very first step towards a better understanding of the territorial conflicts around the Mirador project

Which patients are not suitable for a subcutaneous ICD: incidence and predictors of failed QRS-T-wave morphology screening

The subcutaneous cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) relies on a pre-implantation QRS-T morphology screening (TMS) of the ECG to assure that it reliably detects the QRS complexes and T waves. The prevalence and clinical characteristics of the patients who fail this TMS is unknown. QRS-TMS was done in 230 consecutive ICD outpatients (75% male, age 57 ± 15 years) without an indication for cardiac pacing, using an ECG simulating the 3 sensing vectors of the S-ICD (TMS-ECG). Patients were defined suitable when at least 1 sensing vector was considered appropriate in both supine and standing position. In total, 7.4% of patients, who were all male, were considered not suitable for a S-ICD according to the TMS-ECG. Independent predictors for TMS failure were hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM; odds ratio [OR] 12.6), a heavy weight (OR 1.5), a prolonged QRS duration (OR 1.5) and a R:T ratio <3 in the lead with the largest T wave on a standard 12-lead surface ECG (OR 14.6). In patients without an indication for pacing, 7.4% would have been not suitable for a S-ICD according to the TMS. HCM, a heavy weight, a prolonged QRS duration and a R:T ratio <3 in the ECG lead with the largest T wave were independently associated with TMS failure. These data might alert physicians that selection of patients for a S-ICD should be considered with special caution in certain patient groups, because they may not satisfy ECG criteria for adequate sensin