Engaging local communities in aquatic resources research and activities: a technical manual

This document is part of a series of 5 technical manuals produced by the Challenge Program Project CP34 “Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs”. The objective of this technical manual is to relay the field experience of a group of scientists who have worked extensively in small fisheries in sub-Sahara Africa and Asia and lay out a series of simple and pragmatic pointers on how to establish and run initiatives for community catch assessment. The manual relies in particular on practical experience gained implementing Project 34 of the Challenge Programme on Water and Food: Improved Fisheries Productivity and Management in Tropical Reservoirs. (PDF contains 26 pages

Evaluating Outside the Box: An Alternative Framework for Analysing Social Protection Programmes

The evidence base on social protection programmes is expanding rapidly, largely pointing towards their positive impacts. Most evaluations rely heavily on quantitative techniques and experimental methods to allow for attribution of impacts. In this paper, we argue that new ways of investigation and analysis are needed to expand and deepen the evidence base in support of improved design and implementation of social protection. Greater emphasis on qualitative research, mixed methods and participatory evaluation is crucial, given current evidence gaps about programme dynamics and impacts. This paper proposes a new evaluation framework that goes beyond conventional approaches, by highlighting relatively neglected aspects related to programme processes, social dynamics and feedback loops in programme evaluations

Participatory diagnosis and adaptive management of small-scale fisheries in the Niger River Basin

In a broad sense, analysis of ‘resilience’ is about the capacity of systems to adapt to shocks, recognizing that disturbance and change are integral component of complex systems. More formally, resilience analysis proposes to focus on mechanisms and processes that help systems absorbing perturbations and shocks, and coping with uncertainty and risks. Defined in such a way, the concept of resilience thus appears particularly useful for the management of small-scale fisheries. However, while the resilience concept is appealing, particularly in the face of the failure of current management approaches, the danger is that it remains largely academic and theoretical, and not of a great help in effectively improving the way natural resources are managed on the ground. The challenge, therefore, lies in a pragmatic approach to operationalizing the concept of resilience and making its implementation on the ground practical and meaningful. In this project we propose a framework aimed at this objective and we test it in the specific context of small-scale fisheries in the Niger River Basin

Changing diets and the transformation of the global food system

An aspirational global food system is one that delivers across a suite of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including universal access to healthy diets, which can also codeliver on climate and environment SDGs. The literature has downplayed the relative contribution of dietary change to sustainable food systems. In this perspective article, we argue that the potential for positive transformational change in diets should not be underestimated, for two sets of reasons. First, the dynamism of diets over long‐term and, especially, recent history shows the potential for rapid and widespread change, including toward more diverse and healthier diets. Second, contemporary behavioral research demonstrates promising tactics to influence consumers’ dietary choices. Since the entire food system creates the circumstances of those choices, the most effective strategies to shift diets will involve multiple approaches that deliberately aim not just to influence consumers themselves but also to incentivize all actors in the food systems, taking into account multiple agendas and values. The effectiveness of actions will depend on the political economy at local, national, and global levels. Overall, there are reasons to be hopeful about the potential for accelerated global dietary change, given both historic trends and the growing suite of tools and approaches available

Experimental demonstration of quantum correlations over more than 10 km

Energy and time entangled photons at a wavelength of 1310 nm are produced by parametric downconversion in a KNbO3 crystal and are sent into all-fiber interferometers using a telecom fiber network. The two interferometers of this Franson-type test of the Bell-inequality are located 10.9 km apart from one another. Two-photon fringe visibilities of up to 81.6 % are obtained. These strong nonlocal correlations support the nonlocal predictions of quantum mechanics and provide evidence that entanglement between photons can be maintained over long distances.Comment: 5 pages, REVTeX, 3 postscript figures include

Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs

“Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs” The objective of the project was to contribute to the current research on reservoirs enhancement fisheries in tropical countries through the implementation of a series of action-research activities implemented in two small reservoirs in the Indo-Gangetic basin in India, and two very large reservoirs in Africa, the Lake Nasser (Egypt), and the Volta Lake (Ghana). Socio-institutional analyses were also conducted in these reservoirs to improve our knowledge regarding some of the main social processes that influence reservoir productivity. Overall the results of the project stress that while the natural biophysical constraints of the reservoirs are important in defining the ecological production processes, it is the socio-economic settings characterizing the community/societies around the reservoirs that eventually shape the human production enhancement possibilities

Is resilience socially constructed? Empirical evidence from Fiji, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam

The objective of this paper is to better understand the various individual and household factors that influence resilience, that is, people⬢s ability to respond adequately to shocks and stressors. One of our hypotheses is that resilience does not simply reflect the expected effects of quantifiable factors such as level of assets, or even less quantifiable social processes such as people⬢s experience, but is also determined by more subjective dimensions related to people⬢s perceptions of their ability to cope, adapt or transform in the face of adverse events. Data collected over two years in Fiji, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Vietnam confirms the importance of wealth in the recovery process of households affected by shocks and stressors. However our results challenge the idea that within communities, assets are a systematic differentiator in people⬢s response to adverse events. The findings regarding social capital are mixed and call for more research: social capital had a strong positive influence on resilience at the community level, yet our analysis failed to demonstrate any tangible positive correlation at the household level. Finally, the data confirm that, like vulnerability, resilience is at least in part socially constructed, endogenous to individual and groups, and hence contingent on knowledge, attitudes to risk, culture and subjectivity

Adaptation to flooding in low‐income urban settlements in the least developed countries: A systems approach

This study aims to use a whole systems approach (1) to understand the processes of adaptation to flooding of the urban poor; (2) to identify new knowledge of how low‐income settlements might better adapt to climatic risks; and (3) to begin to develop appropriate guidance on this. Low‐income urban settlements in the least developed countries (LDCs) present an extreme case where catastrophic natural hazards and chronic social hazards overlap. These low‐income urban populations face the greatest adaptation challenges as they often occupy informal settlements that are particularly exposed to hazards, and have multiple vulnerabilities arising from their lack of basic services. There is a dynamic complexity of issues arising from the many levels of actor involved and multiple social and physical factors. Analysing such a complex phenomenon calls for a specific conceptual framing, and a systems theory approach is suggested to provide a holistic perspective. The case study for this research is located in Dhaka East, where there is both high vulnerability to flooding, and a significant low‐income population. The research has adopted a mixed methods approach involving different data collection methods governed by the different scales and actors being investigated. The research develops new systems understandings of perceptions and experiences of the local population about adaptation processes in low‐income urban settlements, and how these processes may be positively influenced by integrating bottom‐up and top‐down approaches