Context?specific and Project?induced Risk: Designing Projects for Promoting Resilient Livelihoods

Agriculture?based projects can rarely operate without having a significant impact on their participants' exposure to risk. If participant risk is not adequately considered and addressed in a project's design, there can be negative implications for the project's outcome. To avoid this, identifying and establishing mechanisms that will minimise project?induced risk is essential during the design process. In this article we examine the importance of risk within agriculture. We explore the context of risk in which the projects locate themselves, and the relationship between farmer?specific risk and sustainability of project outcomes. Drawing on a range of project documents and project immersions, we evaluate the extent to which agricultural interventions are cognisant of risks facing farm households and how the intervention itself changes the risk portfolio of farm households. We argue that understanding the ways in which projects interact and shape context?specific risk is critical for future strategising about how to build risk into monitoring and evaluation strategies

New Technologies in Cash Transfer Programming and Humanitarian Assistance

This study was commissioned by the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) to review the current use of new technology in humanitarian cash and voucher programming and the broader implications for humanitarian practice. The research was undertaken to explore (i) preconditions for the use of technological mechanisms identified; (ii) user-friendliness of the technology for the recipient and for the agency; (iii) issues concerning accountability; and (iv) potential for wider impacts.The research discusses in detail three types of technology currently being used in aid programming: electronic payment systems, the use of mobile phones for text and voice communication, and digital data gathering tools. For each, the study outlines current use, examines benefits experienced and issues faced by the recipient and the agency and highlights key lessons learned. The study also looks briefly at new emerging uses of technology in aid programming including recipient management and crisis mapping. The report then looks at the potential benefits and risks of using new technologies in the cross-cutting areas of cost-effectiveness and accountability

New Synthetic Seven-Membered 1-Azasugars Displaying potent inhibition towards glycosidases and glucosylceramide transferase

Several members of a new family of seven-membered azasugars, which can be seen as 1-azasugar ring homologues, have been obtained by simple chemical transformations starting from a sugar-derived azidolactol. Unlike their piperidine counterparts, these molecules are chemically stable when they possess a hydroxy group at the pseudo-C-2 position. Biological assays with a range of carbohydrate-processing enzymes have revealed interesting potential for these compounds. A trihydroxymethyl-substituted azepane displayed strong competitive inhibition on almond beta-glucosidase (K(i)=2.5 microM) while a trihydroxylated carboxylic acid derivative proved to be a potent and selective L-fucosidase inhibitor (K(i)=41 nM). N-Butylation of these seven-membered 1-azasugars generated derivatives with some activity towards the Gaucher's disease-related glucosylceramide transferase (IC(50) 75 microM) that did not interact significantly with digestive glucosidases