Global Dialogue Report - Sustainability and Growth: Sao Paulo

The Global Dialogue on Sustainability, Climate Change and Economic Growth was held in São Paulo in October 2011. It was co-organised by the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The idea was to bring together practitioners and thinkers to explore through dialogue the key issues relating to sustainability, climate change and economic growth both now and over the next 20 or 30 years. It was a diverse and broad-based gathering that not only included entrepreneurs, directors of philanthropic organisations and researchers but also made a particular effort to include spokespeople from marginalised communities -- indigenous and riverine small-holder representatives from the Amazon and Atlantic rainforest regions and a pastoralist representative from Ethiopia -- who have often been excluded from conventional debates about sustainability, climate change and economic growth. These conventional debates focus on the biological and scientific aspects of environmental resilience, climate change and conservation, and often overlook indigenous people whose knowledge is key to meeting these challenges but whose livelihoods and wellbeing are threatened by unrestrained economic growth and technological expansion. The key issues for philanthropists identified during the Dialogue were: Recognising diversity and respecting plural perspectives on challenges and opportunities;Facilitating autonomy through hands-on engagement with grassroots initiatives, going beyond short-term project cycles and allowing for local-level learning;Supporting relationships, helping to build networks and broker connections between different levels, sectors and interests; andAddressing power and politics in both forms of knowledge (integrating the social and the biological) and governance and decision-making processes, recognising that democratisation plays a critical role in relation to sustainability, climate change and economic growth

Beyond ‘family farming versus agribusiness’ dualism: unpacking the complexity of Brazil’s agricultural model

Agriculture has played a hugely important role in the recent history of Brazil’s economy. The country had a food production deficit until as late as the 1970s, but since the early twenty-first century has been one of the world’s principal exporters and a leader in production technologies adapted to tropical climates. Many researchers – and diplomats – have concluded that this is where Brazil can make its principal contribution to the African continent: supporting agrarian transition and helping to find ways of using local natural resources to build an agriculture with high productivity and improved commercial value. Brazil’s image of success always appears associated with the experience of programmes such as Prodecer and Proálcool, which led to its excellence in the production of soybeans and sugarcane bioethanol respectively. What underlies this image? The official discourse seeks to present the country as a simple case of complementary coexistence between a modern large-scale corporate agriculture segment and another segment based on small family producers. At another extreme of the debate is an alternative view: the discourse of the social movements, with a different reading but based on a similar dualism. The so-called Brazilian model, this discourse argues, is underpinned by an incurable conflict between these two segments, agribusiness being the antithesis of family farming. This paper seeks to show that a much more complex reality exists behind this binary interpretation. On the one hand, where the usual polarised view sets up the figure of agribusiness there are in reality at least three segments of the economy (one, indeed, made up of family producers, and another of companies that can hardly be described as agribusinesses). And where that view, on the other hand, posits ‘family agriculture’ as a single category, there are also three distinct narratives within that notion – each one articulated by a group of interests and organisations with different concepts about the role of agriculture in today’s world, the uses of technology and nature, and relations with the state and the market.ESRCDFI

Aspectos linguísticos e retóricos no plenário jurídico

O presente trabalho visa a uma análise dos articuladores textuais, enquanto recursos retóricos e persuasivos presentes no discurso jurídico, sendo que, o corpus abarca recortes de discursos judiciários colhidos durante a sessao de júri na cidade de PE-Sao Paulo. Os dados evidenciaram que, a presença dos articuladores argumentativos influenciou na decisao final do referido julgament

O zoneamento ecológico-econômico na Amazônia Legal à luz da literatura sobre implementação de políticas públicas e arranjos institucionais

This article aims to analyze aspects related to the trajectory and milestones that guide the elaboration of the Ecological-Economic Zoning (ZEE) in the Legal Amazon. The hypothesis that we intend to demonstrate is that two characteristics of the institutional arrangement that involves the elaboration of ZEEs influence their results. First, it is an instrument with limited enforcement power. The effective application of the guidelines produced depends on the effective commitment and interest of public and private actors. As a result, political disputes end up determining whether or not a dynamic of data and guidelines production is maintained and whether they are turned into laws and other public management mechanisms. Second, the ZEE is also characterized by coordination problems that condition its applicability – there are problems of vertical coordination, as processes conducted on a state scale have a good deal of autonomy in relation to what is defined and conducted at the federal scale; and there are problems of horizontal coordination, since a good part of the guidelines produced in the ZEEs involve the competencies of other areas of government in addition to the environmental one, and it does not foresee mechanisms for harmonizing these conflicts. Even with these reservations and in addition to the heterogeneity mentioned here regarding the results achieved, over the years an impressive mass of data and maps has been produced and a significant technical and institutional capacity has been formed for the treatment of this type of information. This constitutes an expressive institutional heritage, dispersed in a set of organizations, but which can be reactivated in order to qualify the public debate and decision-making processes, provided there is a favorable environment for its use.Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar aspectos relativos à trajetória e aos marcos que orientam a elaboração do Zoneamento Ecológico-Econômico na Amazônia Legal. A hipótese que se pretende demonstrar é que duas características do arranjo institucional que envolve a elaboração dos ZEEs influenciam seus resultados. Primeiro, trata-se de um instrumento com limitado poder de enforcement. A aplicação efetiva das indicações produzidas depende do efetivo compromisso e interesse dos atores públicos e privados. Com isso, disputas políticas acabam determinando a manutenção ou não de uma dinâmica de produção de dados e diretrizes e de sua transformação em leis e outros mecanismos de gestão pública. Segundo, o ZEE é caracterizado também por problemas de coordenação que condicionam sua aplicabilidade – há problemas de coordenação vertical, à medida que os processos conduzidos em escala estadual têm boa dose de autonomia em relação ao que é definido e conduzido na escala federal; e há problemas de coordenação horizontal, pois boa parte das indicações produzidas nos ZEEs envolvem as competências de outras áreas de governo para além da ambiental e ele não prevê mecanismos de harmonização entre estes conflitos. Mesmo com as ressalvas e para além da heterogeneidade aqui apontada quanto aos resultados alcançados, ao longo destes anos se produziu uma massa impressionante de dados e mapas e se formou uma capacidade técnica e institucional significativa para o tratamento deste tipo de informações. Isso constitui um patrimônio institucional expressivo, disperso em um conjunto de organizações, mas que pode ser reativado, de forma a qualificar o debate público e os processos de tomada de decisões, havendo um ambiente favorável a seu uso

Artificial Intelligence to fight COVID-19 outbreak impact: an overview

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is showing its strength worldwide in the healthcare sector. Today, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the help of technology appears to be relevant to keep the increase in new infections stable and help medical staff in treatment. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate how AI can be employed against COVID-19 outbreak. Using a multiple case study approach, researchers find out the following insights. First, AI could be used for drugs discovery and knowledge sharing, tracking and prediction, clinical decision making and diagnosis, social distancing and medical chatbots. Second, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of international best practice for tracking contacts and social distance applications. Third, AI technologies could have a transversal impact, also focusing on prevention strategies as a new corporate social responsibility vein. In the end, this paper has theoretical and managerial implications, too. On the theoretical side, we contribute to the extensive discussion about AI and healthcare considering COVID-19 outbreak. On the practical side, we provide medical personnel and policymakers with a tool to understand artificial intelligence and focus investment choices in the practical applications analysed

Sustainability and growth: São Paulo

The Global Dialogue on Sustainability, Climate Change and Economic Growth was held in São Paulo in October 2011. It was co-organised by the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The idea was to bring together practitioners and thinkers to explore through dialogue the key issues relating to sustainability, climate change and economic growth both now and over the next 20 or 30 years. It was a diverse and broad-based gathering that not only included entrepreneurs, directors of philanthropic organisations and researchers but also made a particular effort to include spokespeople from marginalised communities – indigenous and riverine smallholder representatives from the Amazon and Atlantic rainforest regions and a pastoralist representative from Ethiopia – who have often been excluded from conventional debates about sustainability, climate change and economic growth. These conventional debates focus on the biological and scientific aspects of environmental resilience, climate change and conservation, and often overlook indigenous people whose knowledge is key to meeting these challenges but whose livelihoods and wellbeing are threatened by unrestrained economic growth and technological expansion. The key issues for philanthropists identified during the Dialogue were: Recognising diversity and respecting plural perspectives on challenges and opportunities; Facilitating autonomy through hands-on engagement with grassroots initiatives, going beyond short-term project cycles and allowing for local-level learning; Supporting relationships, helping to build networks and broker connections between different levels, sectors and interests; and Addressing power and politics in both forms of knowledge (integrating the social and the biological) and governance and decision-making processes, recognising that democratisation plays a critical role in relation to sustainability, climate change and economic growth.The Rockerfeller Foundatio

Brazil’s Agricultural Politics in Africa: More Food International and the Disputed Meanings of “Family Farming”

SummaryBrazil’s influence in agricultural development in Africa has become noticeable in recent years. South–South cooperation is one of the instruments for engagement, and affinities between Brazil and African countries are invoked to justify the transfer of technology and public policies. In this article, we take the case of one of Brazil’s development cooperation programs, More Food International (MFI), to illustrate why policy concepts and ideas that emerge in particular settings, such as family farming in Brazil, do not travel easily across space and socio-political realities. Taking a discourse-analytical perspective, we consider actors’ narratives of family farming and the MFI program, and how these narratives navigate between Brazil and three African countries – Ghana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. We find that in Brazil, family farming has multiple meanings that expose contrasting visions of agricultural development as determined by history, geography and class-based power struggles. These multiple meanings are reflected in the disparate ways MFI is portrayed and practiced by Brazilian actors who emphasize commercial opportunity, political advocacy, or technological modernization. We also find that African countries adopt their own interpretations of family farming and MFI, and that these are more attuned with mercantilist and modernization perspectives, and less mindful of Brazil’s domestic political struggles. This has prompted a reaction from those on the Brazilian side fighting for an alternative agricultural development trajectory. The significance of this reaction is yet to be determined