A democratic licence to operate

Preface Britain is an open, democratic and increasingly digital society. Technological innovation and the growth in global communication networks have enabled commerce, trade and the transfer of knowledge. British citizens, companies and the government have embraced the benefits of these ever-expanding national and international networks. The availability of digital technology is having a profound effect on society. Computers guide our everyday activities and regulate our communications. Big data is reshaping the way we live, work and think. Digital information is helping us to identify social trends, tackle crime and prevent disease. More information and data is being shared: between citizens themselves; between citizens and government; consumers and companies; and exchanged by the public and private sectors. Often this information is shared across national borders. Protecting privacy and ensuring data security is necessary but is thus becoming more difficult as information volumes increase and are moved and stored around the world. The strain of technological evolution on society is particularly acute in the realms of crime, national security and public safety. Technological developments have enhanced the capacity of governments, companies and citizens to know more about individuals and to undertake surveillance, interception and data collection. The Internet has become the front line in contemporary debates about privacy and security. Privacy is an essential prerequisite to the exercise of individual freedom, and its erosion weakens the constitutional foundations on which democracy and good governance have traditionally been based in this country. Successive governments have faced a perpetual dilemma: democratic societies demand openness about what is being done in their name but key aspects of the way that police, security and intelligence agencies operate must remain secret in order for their work to be effective. These agencies are dependent on the public’s consent, and in an open society there is therefore an important understanding between citizens and the state that the agencies must operate within a strict legal framework, that their intrusions into private life must be necessary and proportionate, and that they must be overseen and scrutinised by independent bodies. In Britain how these principles apply in practice in the digital age has been the subject of considerable controversy, with recent reviews concluding that the state of the law has not matched the pace of technological change

Chain empowerment: Supporting African farmers to develop markets

Using easy-to-understand language and richly illustrated with drawings and case studies, this book demonstrates how smallholder farmers can earn more by taking control of value chains. Providing numerous insights, the text shows the need to invest in improving the quality of existing products, developing new products, establishing market linkages and building farmer organisation and capacity

Report on the scoping study for the project on ‘Impact Evaluation Approaches for Collaborative Agricultural Research and Development’

In response to calls for new approaches for evaluating the impact of agricultural research and development programmes, and to the need to improve the impact of these programmes to meet the global demand for greater food security, a scoping study was conducted to provide a basis for a project on ‘Impact Evaluation Approaches for Collaborative Agricultural Research and Development’. Coordinated by the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative, an Inter-Centre Initiative hosted by Bioversity International, in collaboration with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), an Australian university, and Research Into Use (RIU), a programme funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the study sought to follow up on the findings of an international workshop on ‘Rethinking Impact: Understanding the Complexity of Poverty and Change’, held in Colombia in March 2008. Research Into Use provided two small grants totalling $76,000 to support the scoping study and other collaborators provided in-kind contributions for staff time, as well as an additional estimated amount of$10,500 from the ILAC budget (provided through a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; DGIS) for consultancy fees and travel. High on the list of findings was the need to develop ways of evaluating the impact of complicated programmes that involve a range of institutions, disciplines, situations, methodologies and goals, and complex programmes which are emergent and responsive to changing needs and opportunities. Such programmes are becoming the norm in the field of agricultural research and development, but the approaches used to evaluate their impact tend to be based on those used for the simple programmes predominant in the 1960s and 1970s which usually focused on crop improvement. Within the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), crop improvement programmes now account for only about 25% of the CGIAR research centres’ work, and the need for methodologies suited to evaluating the impact of complex programmes has become imperative. The scoping study for the proposed impact evaluation project lasted from September 2008 to May 2009 and involved conducting a series of activities. These included: • reviewing existing methodologies and other resources • documenting the current status of impact evaluation in the CGIAR system • conducting interviews with key informants • identifying potential donors • identifying and assessing possible case studies • developing a design for the project • preparing a funding proposal to submit to donor agencies A proposal for funding the project, specifically for researching impact evaluation and developing methodologies over a 4-year period, was submitted to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in April 2009. The interest of other donors will continue to be investigated in order to scale up the project activities

Collaborative yet independent: Information practices in the physical sciences

In many ways, the physical sciences are at the forefront of using digital tools and methods to work with information and data. However, the fields and disciplines that make up the physical sciences are by no means uniform, and physical scientists find, use, and disseminate information in a variety of ways. This report examines information practices in the physical sciences across seven cases, and demonstrates the richly varied ways in which physical scientists work, collaborate, and share information and data. This report details seven case studies in the physical sciences. For each case, qualitative interviews and focus groups were used to understand the domain. Quantitative data gathered from a survey of participants highlights different information strategies employed across the cases, and identifies important software used for research. Finally, conclusions from across the cases are drawn, and recommendations are made. This report is the third in a series commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN), each looking at information practices in a specific domain (life sciences, humanities, and physical sciences). The aim is to understand how researchers within a range of disciplines find and use information, and in particular how that has changed with the introduction of new technologies

Design value at neighbourhood scale

Report summarising the findings of an interdisciplinary systematic review of literature on design value at neighbourhood scale prepared for and with the UK Collaborative Housing Evidence Centre (CACHE) and through extensive consultation with industry. It offers a working definition of design value as a basis of future research work in this area. The report is novel and original in that it is interdisciplinary and that it combines a systematic methodology with consultation

Value chain finance: Beyond microfinance for rural entrepreneurs

The authors of this book – the book’s ‘heroes’ – are the practitioners themselves, people and financial institutions who are developing tools to provide small enterprises with the capital they need. Here they tell their stories, exploring the novel ways they have found to provide financial services. Clearly explained with the use of diagrams, tables and figures, readers can find out all they need to know to increase profits throughout the value chain and so improve the lives of the rural poor

Challenging chains to change: Gender equity in agricultural value chain development

Often efforts to improve value chains miss out half of the population – the female half. How can this be changed? Drawing on dozens of cases, and covering a wide range of crops and livestock products, this book explains how development organisations and private entrepreneurs have found ways to improve the position of women in value chains. In bringing together the fields of gender and value chains, the title offers compelling arguments to improve value chain performance – with both women and men able to enjoy the benefits

A national cross sectional survey of heads of midwifery services of uptake, benefits and barriers to use of obstetric early warning systems (EWS) by midwives

Objective to identify the extent to which Early Warning Systems (EWS) are used by midwives in the United Kingdom (UK), the maternity settings they are used in, physiological parameters used to ‘trigger’ referral, training provision, barriers to implementation and role in preventing maternal morbidity. Design cross-sectional survey of heads of midwifery services. An email questionnaire was sent in September 2012. Setting UK NHS secondary care organisations providing maternity care. Findings heads of midwifery from 107 (68%) of 157 NHS organisations responded, with 108 questionnaires returned as two organisations had recently merged. All organisations, apart from one which only had a free-standing midwifery unit, had introduced EWS. Nearly all respondents (99%) reported EWS were used by midwives antenatally, 76% in labour and 100% on the postnatal ward. All EWS charts included body temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure and oxygen saturation although parameters for escalation varied widely. Barriers to use of EWS by midwives included overlap with the partogram in labour, and staff shortages and delays obtaining clinical review when referral was triggered. Two-thirds considered EWS prevented maternal morbidity although few could provide supporting evidence, for example, audit findings. Training for midwives in use of EWS was available in 83% of organisations. Conclusion most UK midwives are using EWS, with the highest use in obstetric units. The heterogeneity of EWS currently used potentially limits collation of evidence to inform appropriate system level responses. Research is needed to evaluate the role of EWS to prevent maternal morbidity during and after pregnancy in different maternity settings