Digital Sequence Information : an Evidence Review: Final Report

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), adopted in 1992, is an international treaty that recognises the sovereignty of states over their natural resources and includes the authority to determine access to genetic resources. One of the CBD's primary objectives is to ensure 'the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits' derived from the utilisation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources. Access to and utilisation of genetic resources is currently covered under the Nagoya Protocol (NP), adopted by the CBD parties in October 2010, and entered into force in 2014. Digital sequence information (DSI) refers to digital representations of certain aspects of genetic resources such as nucleotide or amino acid sequence data, and related information that is downloadable from databases around the world. DSI is regularly used as part of new research without the need for any new access to physical material. Divergent positions on whether DSI should be included in the NP have emerged over the past few years. These issues, including how benefits from DSI may be shared, are being discussed in the context of the CBD. To date, there is no agreement on the most appropriate way forward

Exploring Pedestrian Counting Procedures

DTFH61-13-D-00016Clear and comprehensive information about pedestrian travel patterns is critical to multimodal transportation planning, programming, and management. This report covers existing guidance and best practices to recommend strategies for accurate, timely, and feasible measurement of pedestrian travel. Recommendations include: 1) expand the use of multi-day/multi-week counts to reduce estimation error rates, and rotate counts around the network; 2) validate equipment at installation and regularly thereafter; 3) tailor quality checks appropriate for low volume versus high volume locations; 4) compute bias compensation factors (e.g., occlusion adjustment factors) to account for limitations related to equipment and locations; and 5) conduct both short-duration and continuous counts to fully consider temporal and spatial aspects of pedestrian traffic patterns

Priority setting for health in the context of devolution in Kenya: implications for health equity and community-based primary care

Devolution changes the locus of power within a country from central to sub-national levels. In 2013, Kenya devolved health and other services from central government to 47 new sub-national governments (known as counties). This transition seeks to strengthen democracy and accountability, increase community participation, improve efficiency and reduce inequities. With changing responsibilities and power following devolution reforms, comes the need for priority-setting at the new county level. Priority-setting arises as a consequence of the needs and demand for healthcare resources exceeding the resources available, resulting in the need for some means of choosing between competing demands. We sought to explore the impact of devolution on priority-setting for health equity and community health services. We conducted key informant and in-depth interviews with health policymakers, health providers and politicians from 10 counties (n = 269 individuals) and 14 focus group discussions with community members based in 2 counties (n = 146 individuals). Qualitative data were analysed using the framework approach. We found Kenya’s devolution reforms were driven by the need to demonstrate responsiveness to county contexts, with positive ramifications for health equity in previously neglected counties. The rapidity of the process, however, combined with limited technical capacity and guidance has meant that decision-making and prioritization have been captured and distorted for political and power interests. Less visible community health services that focus on health promotion, disease prevention and referral have been neglected within the prioritization process in favour of more tangible curative health services. The rapid transition in power carries a degree of risk of not meeting stated objectives. As Kenya moves forward, decision-makers need to address the community health gap and lay down institutional structures, processes and norms which promote health equity for all Kenyans

Greenhouse gas emissions from a Western Australian finfish supply chain

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 - eq) from two Western Australian finfish supply chains, from harvest to retail outlet, were measured using streamlined life cycle assessment methodology. The identification of interventions to potentially reduce the GHG emissions was determined from the results obtained. Electricity consumption contributed to the highest GHG emissions within the supply chains measured, followed by refrigeration gas leakage and disposal of unused fish portions. Potential cleaner production strategies (CPS) to reduce these impacts included installing solar panels, recycling the waste, good housekeeping in refrigeration equipment maintenance, and input substitution of refrigeration gas. The results show a combination of these strategies have the potential to reduce up to 35% of the total GHG emissions from fillet harvest, processing and retail

Shaping cash transfer impacts through “soft-conditions”: evidence from Lesotho

Cash transfer programmes have been shown to have positive effects on a variety of outcomes. While much of the literature focuses on the role of conditionality in achieving desired impact, this paper focuses on the role of ‘soft conditionality’ implemented through both ‘labelling’ and ‘messaging’ in evaluating the impact of the Child Grants Program in Lesotho, an unconditional cash transfer programme targeting poor households with orphans and vulnerable children. Beneficiary households received a clear message that the transfer should be spent on the interest and needs of children. Our findings suggest that ‘soft conditionality’ does play a role in increasing expenditure for children, especially on education, clothing and footwear. Results indicate in fact that transfer income is spent differently from general income as it exerts both an income and a substitution effect. This behavioural change is confirmed by comparing the ex-ante expected behaviours with the ex-post actual response to the programme. We find that for expenditure categories linked to the well-being of children the expost response was much higher than the ex-ante expected behaviour