Promoting Local Innovations: A tool for adaptation to climate change and sustainable development in Mountains

Throughout their history mountain communities have had to adapt to changing environmental and socio-economic conditions. They have developed strategies and specialized knowledge to sustain their livelihoods in a context of adverse climatic events and constant change. As negotiations and discussions on climate change emphasize the critical need for locally relevant and community owned adaptation strategies, there is a need for new tools to capitalize on this local knowledge and endogenous potential for innovation. The toolkit Promoting Local Innovation (PLI) was designed by the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern, Switzerland, to facilitate a participatory social learning process which identifies locally available innovations that can be implemented for community development. It is based on interactive pedagogy and joint learning among different stakeholders in the local context. The tried-and-tested tool was developed in the Andean region in 2004, and then used in International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) climate change adaptation projects in Thailand, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Chile. These experiences showed that PLI can be used to involve all relevant stakeholders in establishing strategies and actions needed for rural communities to adapt to climate change impacts, while building on local innovation potential and promoting local ownership

Development strategy in Bihar through revitalizing the agricultural sector : a preliminary analysis

Based mainly on secondary data and partly on primary information obtained through field surveys in selected rural areas in Bihar in 2011, this paper firstly argues the critical importance of agricultural growth for overall economic development, and then reviews the sluggish growth of agriculture in Bihar in the past and examines the major reasons for this. The long-term negligence of agricultural research (especially development and diffusion endeavors for improved rice varieties suitable to the local conditions of Bihar) by the state government and some sort of ‘backwardness’ in tube-well irrigation technology can be pointed out as important constraints. There is, in particular, the ‘paradox’ in Bihar agriculture of why rice and wheat yields have remained so low in spite of the relatively well-developed irrigation by tube-wells. Finally, by showing the process of a rapid increase in autumn and winter rice yields during the 1990s in West Bengal, it is suggested that Bihar farmers and policy-makers should learn from the experience of West Bengal in order to get some hints for the development of the rice sector in Bihar.

The role of the national laboratories in local economic development [microform] : hearing before the Subcommittee on Economic Resources and Competitiveness of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States, One Hundredth Congress, second session, April 9, 1988.

CIS Microfiche Accession Numbers: CIS 89 J841-5

Colonia Water and Sewage Service Act [microform] : hearing before the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, and Rural Development of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, second session, on H.R.3524, September 22, 1988.

"Serial no. 100-114."

Jobs and community improvements : working manual for enhanced work projects /

Mode of access: Internet.

The aging in a central Illinois community /

Includes bibliographical references.

Affordable community housing /

Mode of access: Internet.

Annual report to Congress on the Urban Development Action Grant Program, FY 1989.

"March 1990."

Alleged misappropriation by New York City's Department of Housing, Preservation, and Development : field hearing before the Subcommittee on General Oversight, Investigations, and the Resolution of Failed Financial Institutions of the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, first session, February 10, 1993.

Mode of access: Internet.

The state's role in urban economic development : an urban government perspective /

"September 1980."

Helping people : a report on the community service-domestic action program of the United States Army Reserve.

Mode of access: Internet.

A village development project in Jordan; final report to the Ford Foundation.

Mode of access: Internet.

Report on village improvement and rural economic development in Trinidad and Tobago.

Bibliography: p. [41-42]

Consolidated plan performance report : as submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Description based on: Program year 1995.

Draft state action plan : as submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Program year 1996 covers April 1, 1996-May 31, 1997.