Food Security in the South Pacific Island Countries with Special Reference to the Fiji Islands

This paper analyses the status of food security in selected South Pacific Island countries

The Aid paradigm for poverty reduction: Does it make sense?

YesWhilst thinking on economic policy for development has undergone many shifts with the perceived weak results of earlier adjustment reforms a new donor consensus has emerged based around the central themes of economic growth, good governance and social development. This paper examines the logic behind this new Aid paradigm and discusses the empirical evidence to support it. A nuanced story is revealed with country circumstances playing a critical role and particular interventions varying in impact across countries. For example, growth does not always lead to gains for the poor that match the national average; public expenditure needs to be targeted to achieve social development but effective targeting is difficult; governance reform may be critical but there is no simple governance blueprint and the corruption-growth association need not always be negative

Leveraging Environment and Climate Change Initiatives for Corporate Excellence

This paper reviews selected initiatives taken by Asian countries to comply with emerging global sustainability standards, reporting, and management systems, and tracks the response of Asian businesses to global environmental concerns, examines market based innovations including new regulations that augmented corporate excellence, and identifies future directions for business that lead low carbon society. It recommends governments and business to join forces in supporting low carbon initiatives, drawing upon market mechanisms through reconfiguring national environmental policies and strategies

Farmer experiences of Tiyeni’s ‘deep-bed farming’ conservation agriculture system in Malawi

In the context of increasing NGO interest in the capacity of conservation agriculture methods to support sustainable agriculture across sub-Saharan Africa, this paper explores the experiences of farmers (n = 111) adopting the Tiyeni NGO’s deep-bed farming (DBF) system in northern Malawi. The results of a field survey suggest that whilst DBF delivers significant livelihood benefits for farmers relative to traditional techniques (a factor arguably driving its rapid spontaneous adoption throughout the area), some asset-poor farmers are unable to sustain DBF due to its labor demands. We argue that to widen its beneficial impacts in a manner that can be sustained, there is a need for Tiyeni’s DBF to be less prescriptive and more adaptive to specific social-ecological contexts