Checklists and Technical Guidelines to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing

The purpose of this document is to aggregate the coastal, flag and port State responsibilities to combat IUU fishing contained in select international fisheries instruments within a single reference document. The responsibilities are presented as a checklist, in questionnaire format. The document aims to serve both as a reference document for professionals as well as an assessment tool for practitioners, in order to facilitate the identification of legal, policy, institutional and operational weaknesses at the national level when implementing coastal, flag and port State responsibilities to combat IUU fishing. This is the first volume in the series of “Checklists and technical guidelines to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing”

Urban agriculture: a global analysis of the space constraint to meet urban vegetable demand

Urban agriculture (UA) has been drawing a lot of attention recently for several reasons: the majority of the world population has shifted from living in rural to urban areas; the environmental impact of agriculture is a matter of rising concern; and food insecurity, especially the accessibility of food, remains a major challenge. UA has often been proposed as a solution to some of these issues, for example by producing food in places where population density is highest, reducing transportation costs, connecting people directly to food systems and using urban areas efficiently. However, to date no study has examined how much food could actually be produced in urban areas at the global scale. Here we use a simple approach, based on different global-scale datasets, to assess to what extent UA is constrained by the existing amount of urban space. Our results suggest that UA would require roughly one third of the total global urban area to meet the global vegetable consumption of urban dwellers. This estimate does not consider how much urban area may actually be suitable and available for UA, which likely varies substantially around the world and according to the type of UA performed. Further, this global average value masks variations of more than two orders of magnitude among individual countries. The variations in the space required across countries derive mostly from variations in urban population density, and much less from variations in yields or per capita consumption. Overall, the space required is regrettably the highest where UA is most needed, i.e., in more food insecure countries. We also show that smaller urban clusters (i.e., <100 km2 each) together represent about two thirds of the global urban extent; thus UA discourse and policies should not focus on large cities exclusively, but should also target smaller urban areas that offer the greatest potential in terms of physical space

Anomaly or Augury? Global Food Prices Since 2007

This article reviews the dynamics of global food prices since the food crisis of2007–08, the extent to which international prices have influenced national prices and poverty and wellbeing outcomes, and considers whether this exceptional period represents an anomaly or likely signals future episodes of food price volatility. It finds that although some factors that contributed to recent events have eased considerably, some significant drivers remain structural threats to future food security. There is little reason to be confident that recent reductions in food prices and volatilities augur well for the food security or wellbeing of those living on low and precarious incomes in the future

Involving Local Fishing Communities in Policy Making: Addressing Illegal Fishing in Indonesia

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing has been identified by the UN as one of the seven major threats to global maritime security; it causes loss of economic revenue, severe environmental damage, and far-reaching livelihood implications for coastal communities. Indonesia, by far the biggest archipelagic state, faces enormous challenges in all aspects of IUU fishing and addressing those is one of the current Indonesian Government’s top priorities. This article addresses the under-researched dimension of how IUU fishing affects fishing communities. With the use of collage making focus groups with fishermen from different Indonesian fishing communities, the research highlights the interrelated environmental (depletion of resources), socio-economic (unbridled illegal activities at sea), cultural (favouritism) and political (weak marine governance) dimensions of IUU fishing as experienced at the local level. However, the research also indicates a strong will by fishermen to be seen as knowledge agents who can help solve the problem by better dissemination of information and cooperation between the local government(s) and the fishing communities. The article concludes by arguing for the involvement of local fishing communities in national and international policy making that addresses IUU fishing

Women's Empowerment, Development Interventions and the Management of Information Flows

This article takes gender inequalities in the distribution of power as its point of departure. Given the widespread evidence of the extent to which women, particularly poor women, have been marginalised in processes by which development policies are designed and implemented, it suggests that explicit attention needs to be given to strengthening women's capacity for voice and action at different stages of the planning cycle. In particular, there are certain ‘critical moments’ in the life of any intervention when the ideas, values and knowledge of key decision?making actors have a profound impact on how the intervention plays out in practice. The article sets out to develop a theory of change that addresses the issue of women's empowerment. It applies this theory to the critical moments framework. Finally, it draws on case studies of interventions funded by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation to illustrate key lessons for their transformative potential for women's empowerment

Water quality and its interlinkages with the Sustainable Development Goals

Interlinkages among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lead to important trade-offs and synergies among the goals and their underlying targets. The aim of this paper is to review the role of water quality as an agent of interlinkages among the SDGs. It was found that there are a small number of explicit interconnections, but many more inferred interlinkages between water quality and various targets. A review of case studies showed that interlinkages operate from the municipal to near global scales, that their importance is likely to increase in developing countries, and that new SDG indicators are needed to monitor them. The analysis identifies many different SDG target areas where a combined effort between the water quality community and other sectors would bring mutual benefits in achieving the water quality and other targets

International Targets for Poverty Reduction and Food Security: A Mildly Sceptical But Resolutely Pragmatic View With a Call for Greater Subsidiarity

Summaries International development targets adopted by UN Conferences provide political impetus, focus expenditure and help in monitoring progress. However, simple targets can misrepresent complex realities and distort policy. Monitoring targets can have a high opportunity cost. Political impetus can be lost if targets are over?ambitious. Food security illustrates the uses of targets and the risks involved. Simple hunger or nutrition targets have been attractive to policymakers but have been problematic conceptually, and routinely overambitious in practice. Greater subsidiarity may be the answer, with simple international targets being used as a platform for local action. Subsidiarity means more than developing national action plans to implement international targets: it is potentially more open, participatory subversive and deviant