Options for Economic Growth in Mali through the Application of Science and Technology to Agriculture

Prepared For The United States Agency for International Development Initiative To End Hunger In Africafood security, food policy, Mali science and technology research, research and extension, International Development, Q18,

Options pour la croissance économique du Mali à travers l’application des sciences et technologies à l’agriculture

Recognizing that science and technology research (S&T) is one of many inputs into the broader development process, USAID/Mali, via its Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, requested an assessment of the current S&T situation in Mali. USAID asked the assessment team to produce a comprehensive strategic options plan for a Malian S&T agenda that would identify priority short-term actions to stimulate uptake of S&T results likely to make significant contributions to the attainment of Mali’s broad development goals, while simultaneously developing a coherent longer-term action plan to maintain and improve the human, physical, and financial capital needed to generate future streams of S&T results. The scope of work for the assessment team included six points: • Review the current status of agricultural and natural resource programs of Mali’s research institutions, with particular attention to IER, IPR/IFRA, LCV; • Review and assess the programs of International Agriculture Research Centers (IARCs) and other international foundations supporting research in Mali; • Annotate the range of USAID-supported S&T programs in Mali; • Identify available production technology packages and needed support services to achieve rapid (medium-term) impact and identify gaps in S&T programs that hinder attainment of GRM development goals; • Develop a strategic options plan to build needed S&T capabilities, including those for research and supporting institutional development; • Make recommendations for potential USAID/Mali actions, including building partnerships with public and private organizations that would enhance the effective use of S&T for achieving USAID programmatic goalsMali, growth, technology, food security, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Security and Poverty, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, q16, q18,

Resources for sports engineering education

This paper serves as a resource guide for Sports Engineering educators. The paper covers key topics in Sports Engineering, including ball impact, friction, safety and materials. A variety of resource types are presented to reflect modern methods of learning and searching for information, including textbooks, research and review papers, websites and videos. The field could benefit from more resources specifically designated for teaching Sports Engineering, particularly textbooks

Global Warming: Frequently Asked Questions

This global warming site contains questions commonly addressed to climate scientists and brief replies (based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and other research). The questions concern the greenhouse effect and its impact on our climate, whether greenhouse gases are increasing and the climate warming, the relation of El Nino to global warming, change in the hydrological cycle (evaporation and precipitation) and atmospheric/oceanic circulation, climate becoming more variable and extreme, the importance of these changes in a longer-term context, the rise of sea levels, whether the observed changes can be explained by natural variability, and the future of global warming. Educational levels: General public, High school, Undergraduate lower division

Options pour la croissance économique du Mali à travers l’application des sciences et technologies à l’agriculture

Recognizing that science and technology research (S&T) is one of many inputs into the broader development process, USAID/Mali, via its Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, requested an assessment of the current S&T situation in Mali. USAID asked the assessment team to produce a comprehensive strategic options plan for a Malian S&T agenda that would identify priority short-term actions to stimulate uptake of S&T results likely to make significant contributions to the attainment of Mali’s broad development goals, while simultaneously developing a coherent longer-term action plan to maintain and improve the human, physical, and financial capital needed to generate future streams of S&T results. The scope of work for the assessment team included six points: • Review the current status of agricultural and natural resource programs of Mali’s research institutions, with particular attention to IER, IPR/IFRA, LCV; • Review and assess the programs of International Agriculture Research Centers (IARCs) and other international foundations supporting research in Mali; • Annotate the range of USAID-supported S&T programs in Mali; • Identify available production technology packages and needed support services to achieve rapid (medium-term) impact and identify gaps in S&T programs that hinder attainment of GRM development goals; • Develop a strategic options plan to build needed S&T capabilities, including those for research and supporting institutional development; • Make recommendations for potential USAID/Mali actions, including building partnerships with public and private organizations that would enhance the effective use of S&T for achieving USAID programmatic goal

Options for Economic Growth in Mali through the Application of Science and Technology to Agriculture

This report represents a synthesis of individual reports and notes prepared by each team member. The first three points in the terms of reference (TOR), provide an overview of current S&T research institutions and programs in Mali. Promising S&T products and needed support services are identified to encourage rapid uptake (4th item on the TOR). This discussion is divided into two sub-sections: one presents the key findings concerning crops and the other deals with livestock. These sections include the team’s recommendations for product- or subsector-based activities to be pursued in Mali by researchers, extension services, and public and private sector actors involved in different levels of the value-chain. Cross-cutting issues that affect technology development and uptake across multiple products and subsectors (5th item on the TOR) are analyzed. Key issues discussed are research and extension capacity; the role of natural resource and water management in stimulating agricultural productivity growth and reducing production risk; and downstream institutional constraints such as regulatory issues that limit uptake and dissemination of S&T products. Resolutions are discussed

The Relevance of Procedural Utility for Economics

This paper aims at showing the relevance of procedural utility for economics: people do not only care about outcomes, as usually assumed in economics, they also value the processes and conditions leading to outcomes. The psychological foundations of procedural utility are outlined and it is discussed how the concept differs from other related approaches in economics, like outcome utility, outcome fairness or intentions. Institutions at the level of society and fair procedures are shown to be sources of procedural utility, and novel empirical evidence on the role of procedural utility in important areas of the economy, polity and society is presented