Safe Haven for Salvadorans in the Context of Contemporary International Law--A Case Study in Equivocation

This Article analyzes the basis for safe-haven programs for refugees fleeing war and civil strife under contemporary principles of international law. The authors trace the development of safe-haven programs in the United States and offer an analysis and critique of the Temporary Protected Status program created by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990. Focusing on the struggle to gain safe haven for refugees from El Salvador, the authors review the United States government\u27s historical use of safe haven programs as a political tool. Finally, the Article looks at how other countries have responded to refugee crises and suggests a policy for the United States that is consistent with international refugee law

Climate-Smart Agriculture Prioritization Framework

The CSA Prioritization Framework, developed by CCAFS-CIAT, provides a process for targeting investment towards best-bet CSA options in a given context. The Framework does this by identifying existing and promising CSA practices, assessing the tradeoffs between practices using indicators of CSA and analyzing the costs and benefits of these practices, and identifying possible barriers to adoption. This process aims to contribute to optimized national and sub-national planning, promoting a participatory process for the development of CSA investment portfolios

Démarche de Priorisation de l’Agriculture Intelligente face au Climat

La Démarche de Priorisation de l’AIC, développée par le CCAFS-AIC, est un processus flexible et piloté par les acteurs pour cibler l’investissement vers des options (pratiques et services) optimales d’établissement de l’AIC dans un contexte donné. Cette démarche s'effectue en guidant les parties prenantes à travers l’identification des options AIC existantes et prometteuses, l'évaluation des options en relation avec les indicateurs de l'AIC, l’analyse des coûts et bénéfices de ces options, et l’identification des obstacles éventuels á l’adoption. Ce processus vise à contribuer à un planning national et sous-régional optimisé, se basant sur un processus participatif pour le développement des portefeuilles d’investissement de l’AIC

Towards a scalable framework for evaluating and prioritizing climate-smart agriculture practices and programs. [P42]

Governments, donors, and non-governmental organizations are recognizing the need to integrate climate change and agriculture development goals in planning. Incorporating the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept can strengthen integration by explicitly emphasizing tradeoffs between investment options. Given the complex relationships between the food security, adaption, and mitigation goals of CSA, decision-support frameworks are needed that integrate stakeholder priorities, draw on the best scientific evidence available, and present complex results simply. Here we present a four phase stakeholder-driven framework for prioritizing CSA investment, designed to be globally applicable, for various users, for use from regional to sub-national levels, and adjustable given data and resource constraints. In the first phase, the scope and next-users of CSA portfolios are clarified, relevant practices are identified, and roughly ten indicators are selected/adapted from a suggested set of 29, based on scientific literature, to evaluate practices against CSA outcomes. A participatory workshop is used in phase 2 to short-list practices based on the results of the indicator evaluation and additional stakeholder criteria. A cost-benefit analysis is then conducted (phase 3) on these priority practices. In phase 4, stakeholders are reconvened to develop CSA investment portfolios that minimize trade-offs, maximize benefits and synergies, and address end user priorities. Barriers to adoption of practices and pathways to overcome these are used to adjust priorities or implementation plans. We present lessons learned from Guatemala and Mali, which demonstrate the scalability of the process, modifications based on institutional contexts, and strategies for refining the framework for use in Africa and Asia in 2015 with users including national agriculture ministries, agriculture development alliances, and bilateral and multilateral donors. (Résumé d'auteur