Livestock development and climate change: The benefits of advanced greenhouse gas inventories

Livestock development and climate change outcomes can support each other. More productive and e cient farm systems generally produce food at much lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of product. However, many countries use simple (Tier 1) methods for estimating livestock emissions in their GHG inventories. Tier 1 methods are unable to capture the reductions in emissions intensity that result from improvements to livestock farming. This booklet shows how advanced (Tier 2) inventory methods can support climate change and productivity goals and help broaden countries’ policy options

Large emergency-response exercises: qualitative characteristics - a survey

Exercises, drills, or simulations are widely used, by governments, agencies and commercial organizations, to simulate serious incidents and train staff how to respond to them. International cooperation has led to increasingly large-scale exercises, often involving hundreds or even thousands of participants in many locations. The difference between ‘large’ and ‘small’ exercises is more than one of size: (a) Large exercises are more ‘experiential’ and more likely to undermine any model of reality that single organizations may create; (b) they create a ‘play space’ in which organizations and individuals act out their own needs and identifications, and a ritual with strong social implications; (c) group-analytic psychotherapy suggests that the emotions aroused in a large group may be stronger and more difficult to control. Feelings are an unacknowledged major factor in the success or failure of exercises; (d) successful large exercises help improve the nature of trust between individuals and the organizations they represent, changing it from a situational trust to a personal trust; (e) it is more difficult to learn from large exercises or to apply the lessons identified; (f) however, large exercises can help develop organizations and individuals. Exercises (and simulation in general) need to be approached from a broader multidisciplinary direction if their full potential is to be realized

Can experts judge elections? Testing the validity of expert judgments for measuring election integrity

Expert surveys have been used to measure a wide variety of phenomena in political science, ranging from party positions, to corruption, to the quality of democracy and elections. However, expert judgments raise important validity concerns, both about the object being measured as well as the experts. It is argued in this article that the context of evaluation is also important to consider when assessing the validity of expert surveys. This is even more important for expert surveys with a comprehensive, worldwide scope, such as democracy or corruption indices. This article tests the validity of expert judgments about election integrity – a topic of increasing concern to both the international community and academics. Evaluating expert judgments of election integrity provides an important contribution to the literature evaluating the validity of expert surveys as instruments of measurement as: (1) the object under study is particularly complex to define and multifaceted; and (2) election integrity is measured in widely varying institutional contexts, ranging from electoral autocracies to liberal democracies. Three potential sources of bias are analysed (the object, the experts and the context), using a unique new dataset on election integrity entitled the ‘Perceptions of Electoral Integrity’ dataset. The data include over 800 experts in 66 parliamentary and presidential elections worldwide. It is found that validity of expert judgments about election integrity is increased if experts are asked to provide factual information (rather than evaluative judgments), and if they are asked to evaluate election day (rather than pre-election) integrity. It is also found that ideologically polarised elections and elections of lower integrity increase expert disagreement about election integrity. The article concludes with suggestions for researchers using the expert survey data on election integrity on how to check the validity of their data and adjust their analyses accordingly, and outlines some remaining challenges for future data collection using expert surveys

The role of space in the security and defence policy of Turkey. A change in outlook: Security in space versus security from space

Space and security domains are strongly related with each other. Nowadays, space is an indispensable part of security and defence policy, and it is increasingly becoming a critical infrastructure for strategic Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems. However, space is vulnerable itself to the new space threats. This study reviews the current and near future space role in Turkey's security and defence policy and aims to address the threats against space based capabilities. To provide security from space, space based systems shall themselves need to be secure in space to warrant the security. The concept of security from space starts with space security, in other words the security in space. This paper also highlights the emerging technological opportunities for these space threats to be secure in space in order to provide the security from space. According to the relevant taxonomy, a categorized opportunity proposal for more robust and resilient space/satellite projects' architecture is proposed for Turkey

Responding to the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF)

HLTF Responding to the Global Food Security Crisis at the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis 1-3 June 2009, New York

MRV Tools and Resources

Agriculture contributes around 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, agricultural emissions are significant at national levels; agriculture contributes an average of 35% of emissions in developing countries and 12% in developed countries. Technical mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is high; there are many low and no-cost options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including by improving the efficiency of production. Just over 100 countries include agriculture in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and are working to identify and implement mitigation solutions. However, many countries cannot document emission reductions achieved through productivity gains and more efficient farm management because national greenhouse gas inventory reporting systems and supporting data are insufficiently developed. Countries need more robust MRV systems for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions to accurately reflect their national circumstances and transparently demonstrate mitigation. Tools and resources to help countries tailor MRV to their production systems and policy priorities are critical. The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) are working together to produce a range of resources to help strengthen MRV systems for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation actions

CLIFF-GRADS workshop summary report

The Climate, Food and Farming - Global Research Alliance Development Scholarships (CLIFF-GRADS) is a joint initiative of the CCAFS Low Emissions Development Flagship and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). The CLIFF-GRADS Programme builds capability in early-career PhD scientists from developing countries to conduct applied research in agriculture and food loss and waste emission quantification and mitigation. Since 2011, nearly 100 students have received grants and moved into leadership positions in research institutions and governments all over the world

Summary Report: International Conference on Agricultural GHG Emissions and Food Security – Connecting research to policy and practice

Summary Report From September 11th-13th, 2018, approximately 300 scientists and stakeholders from government, public administrations, industry and farmer organizations from over 50 countries gathered in Berlin for the “International Conference on Agricultural GHG Emissions and Food Security – Connecting research to policy and practice” to discuss the central question: What are the options and longer term visions to mitigate greenhouse gases and enhance carbon sinks in the agricultural sector while ensuring food security? The conference was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and organized jointly with the Ministry, the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI), the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Thünen Institute, the German Federal Research Institute of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. In parallel to the scientific conference, the 8th annual council meeting of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases present took place

El agua importa : crecimiento resiliente, inclusivo y verde por medio de seguridad hídrica en América Latina

Existen desafíos urgentes en el sector del agua que amenazan el desarrollo sostenible de la región. El acceso a servicios de agua y saneamiento es inequitativo, con mayores brechas en comunidades rurales, indígenas y periurbanas. Los extremos relacionados con el agua, como inundaciones y sequías, se están volviendo más frecuentes y severos, teniendo efectos negativos en comunidades de bajos ingresos. Estas brechas son más propensas a ampliarse debido a prácticas insostenibles de gestión del agua, crecientes demandas de usuarios de agua en competencia, aumento de la contaminación e impactos del cambio climático. En América Latina y el Caribe (LAC), la infraestructura inadecuada resulta en una falta de almacenamiento y una inversión limitada reduce la capacidad de las instituciones para lograr una gestión integrada de los recursos hídricos y mejorar la provisión de servicios. Este informe es el resultado de investigaciones, diálogos con múltiples partes interesadas, fortalecimiento institucional y asesoramiento político para los tomadores de decisiones en temas relacionados con el agua. Centrados en mejorar la gobernanza del agua, los autores tienen como objetivo contribuir a sociedades más prósperas e inclusivas

The role of genetics in mainstreaming the production of new and orphan crops to diversify food systems and support human nutrition

Especially in low income nations, new and orphan crops provide important opportunities to improve diet quality and the sustainability of food production, being rich in nutrients, capable of fitting into multiple niches in production systems, and relatively adapted to low input conditions. The evolving space for these crops in production systems presents particular genetic improvement requirements that extensive gene pools are able to accommodate. Particular needs for genetic development identified in part with plant breeders relate to three areas of fundamental importance for addressing food production and human demographic trends and associated challenges, which are: facilitating integration into production systems; improving the processability of crop products; and reducing farm labour requirements. Here, we relate diverse involved target genes and crop development techniques. These techniques include transgressive methods that involve defining exemplar crop models for effective new and orphan crop improvement pathways. Research on new and orphan crops not only supports the genetic improvement of these crops, but they serve as important models for understanding crop evolutionary processes more broadly, guiding further major crop evolution. The bridging position of orphan crops between new and major crops provides unique opportunities for investigating genetic approaches for de novo domestications and major crop ‘rewildings’