Study on cash transfers for seed security in humanitarian settings

This study examines the barriers and opportunities for cash transfers to be used to address seed security in humanitarian situations. Cash, while not a new approach, has gained momentum in recent years, especially with the emergence of the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) and humanitarian organizations’ commitments through the Grand Bargain.2 Historically, direct seed distribution (DSD) has dominated agricultural responses in emergencies. While effective in many situations, other modalities of addressing farmers’ needs have also proven to be effective, including seed and voucher fairs and, increasingly, cash transfer responses. The latter response typically provides farmers greater choices to make decisions about their seed needs and preferences. However, as with direct distribution and vouchers, cash can be a viable option but may not always be appropriate in every situation. The quality of seed is of paramount importance in choosing a response and has been an ongoing (and often contentious and political) discussion for decades. The results of this study advocate for a multi- stakeholder perspective on the quality of seed, while offering farmers the most flexible and most appropriate response possible for their given situation. In some cases, this will be cash transfers, but certainly not in all cases. A range of options offers the best chance for a successful, responsive, and appropriate program. The evidence base on outcomes from using cash for seed in humanitarian contexts is limited, however, reviewing a series of examples shows the breadth and range of options that are being explored. The cases from an array of organizations and countries including Iraq, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Madagascar, and Guatemala, show that understanding the context is key to the response analysis and the choice of modality. Organizational approaches and previous experience also played a role in the choice of modality. The evidence to date shows that cash, in addition to complementary programming such as technical or business training, offers promise for seed security interventions. In addition, initiatives to support both the demand and supply side of the market have proven to be effective. Key findings include: 1. Market and needs assessments must include a seed component or SSSA to ensure a response designed to address the right problem, not the assumption. For markets, both informal and formal seed markets need to be included. 2. Good needs assessments, response analysis and program design help ensure participants’ spending cash on what implementers anticipate they will. 3. Program participants’ preferences on modalities are not consistently included in response analysis. 4. Mixed modalities (cash and vouchers, or cash and DSD) can broaden crop choices. 5. Quality screenings for seed are taking place; the quality of seed is important to organizations and project participants. 6. Cash for seed security interventions are limited, but growing in prevalence. 7. Providing cash plus complementary support is a promising practice for fostering seed security. 8. The nexus between relief and development is critical—designing projects with a longer-term development view: cash can prepare the way for farmers to continue true market engagement post-relief, spur business development in subsequent seasons, and offer opportunities for financial inclusion. 9. Supporting supply side to bring quality seed markets ‘closer’ to project participants should be considered along with demand-side interventions (cash, voucher and other). 10. Investment in preparedness provides a better foundation to implement impactful cash for seed security response. The risks, mitigating actions, opportunities and enablers for cash and seed security response are also explored. The study concludes with actionable and practical recommendations for further advancing the evidence base, as well as implementation suggestions. Continuous collaboration of key stakeholders in seed systems is essential to advance the discussions and action on the way forward with cash and seed systems

The recruitment of labour among Samburu herders

This paper describes the recruitment of labor among Samburu pastoralists. Focusing on herding, it shows that families are far from self-sufficient labor units. Herd owners amass much of their needed work force by borrowing related children and by participating in encampment-based cooperative activity. Joint herding is the norm, rather than the exception. The dearth of hired labor within encampments is itself remarkable. While Samburu themselves engage in wage labor, they are reluctant to recruit their own workers in this' manner. Animals, Sambaru wealth, lose value quickly if not properly tended. The herd owner’s need for loyal and reliable workers suggests that his own labor force is better marshalled through his network of closely-tied kin

Using Diversity : enhancing and maintaining genetic resources on-farm; proceedings of a workshop held on 19-21 June 1995, New Delhi, India

Meeting: Using Diversity Workshop, 19-21 June 1995, New Delhi, I

Consumer involvement in the transition to 4th generation district heating

In the transition towards 4th generation district heating (4GDH), supply and demand side measures have to be coordinated better than in previous generations of district heating (DH). Building’s heat demand has to be reduced, and heating installations as well as consumer behaviour have to be adapted so as to be compatible with and support lower network temperatures. It is therefore necessary to investigate and understand how consumers can be meaningfully and strategically included in the transition towards 4GDH. This paper provides a literature review of the consumer levels role in 4GDH in the transition towards 100% renewable energy systems. Current literature of 4GDH have been investigated to identify the connection and involvement of consumers in the transition. Even though consumers within the existing building mass have a large role in the transition in terms of heat savings and instalment of energy efficient technologies in the buildings are almost none of the scientific literature addressing how these actions should be implemented at consumer level. From the results of the analysis it is recommended that further research should investigate how to strengthen the coordination between supply and demand sides in order to secure the right initiatives are implemented in the right order

Hitting bacteria at the heart of the central dogma: sequence-specific inhibition

An important objective in developing new drugs is the achievement of high specificity to maximize curing effect and minimize side-effects, and high specificity is an integral part of the antisense approach. The antisense techniques have been extensively developed from the application of simple long, regular antisense RNA (asRNA) molecules to highly modified versions conferring resistance to nucleases, stability of hybrid formation and other beneficial characteristics, though still preserving the specificity of the original nucleic acids. These new and improved second- and third-generation antisense molecules have shown promising results. The first antisense drug has been approved and more are in clinical trials. However, these antisense drugs are mainly designed for the treatment of different human cancers and other human diseases. Applying antisense gene silencing and exploiting RNA interference (RNAi) are highly developed approaches in many eukaryotic systems. But in bacteria RNAi is absent, and gene silencing by antisense compounds is not nearly as well developed, despite its great potential and the intriguing possibility of applying antisense molecules in the fight against multiresistant bacteria. Recent breakthrough and current status on the development of antisense gene silencing in bacteria including especially phosphorothioate oligonucleotides (PS-ODNs), peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) will be presented in this review