Capacity building in the use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan: Inception report BNWPP project

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) has been contracted by the World Bank Group to conduct a program on capacity development in use of geospatial tools for natural resource management in Tajikistan. The program aimed to help improving natural resource management by fostering the use of geospatial tools among governmental and non-governmental institutions in Tajikistan. For this purpose a database including a Geographic Information System (GIS) has been prepared, which combines spatial data on various sectors for case study analysis related to the Community Agriculture and Watershed Management Project (CAWMP). The inception report is based on the findings resulting from the Swiss Consultant Trust Fund (CTF) financed project, specifically on the experiences from the awareness creation and training workshop conducted in Dushanbe in November 2007 and the analysis of historical land degradation trends carried out for the four CAWMP watersheds. Furthermore, also recommendations from the inception mission of CDE to Tajikistan (5-20 August 2007) and the inception report for the Swiss CTF support were considered. The inception report for the BNWPP project (The Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership Program) discusses the following project relevant issues: (1) Preliminary list of additional data layers, types of data analysis, and audiences to be covered by BNWPP grant (2) Assessing skills and equipment already available within Tajikistan, and implications for training program and specific equipment procurement plans (3) Updated detailed schedule and plans for all activities to be financed by BNWPP grant, and (4) Proposed list of contents for the final report and web-based presentations.

Innovative capacity development approaches for the ERA-ARD project

The aim of the present paper is: 1. To provide definitions and outline trends in capacity development in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) 2. to summarize the findings and recommendations of recent documents on planning and conducting capacity development activities in ARD 3. to present a summary and a compilation of best practices and innovative capacity development approaches among ERA-ARD consortium members 4. to derive basic principles for capacity development in ARD and to define entry points for joint and/or transnational activities to strengthen capacity development in ARD.

Upper Ewaso Ngiro River Basin Water Management Information Platform: Survey on Development priorities, Information Needs and Conflict Management Efforts

A survey of development priorities and needs for water related information, including information on Water User Associations

Developing a Framework for Stakehoder Consultation in the Umbeluzi River Basin: Project Report

A Framework for a Consultation Process: Transboundary cooperation and sustainable water management is urgently needed in the up-stream/down-stream situation of the Umbeluzi River Basin between the Kingdom of Swaziland and the Republic of Mozambique. Thus, the Joint Water Commission (JWC) of the two riparian countries initiated the Umbeluzi River Basin Initiative (URBI) with the objective to develop a joint management plan of the river basin. In response to the request by SADC as well as SDC, a collaboration within CDE’s Eastern and Southern Africa Partnership Programme ESAPP was agreed upon. The project’s general objective is to provide conceptual and methodological support in the design of a consultative process with the aim to assure the participation of all water users within the river basin.

Land system science and sustainable development of the earth system: A global land project perspective

Land systems are the result of human interactions with the natural environment. Understanding the drivers, state, trends and impacts of different land systems on social and natural processes helps to reveal how changes in the land system affect the functioning of the socio-ecological system as a whole and the tradeoff these changes may represent. The Global Land Project has led advances by synthesizing land systems research across different scales and providing concepts to further understand the feedbacks between social-and environmental systems, between urban and rural environments and between distant world regions. Land system science has moved from a focus on observation of change and understanding the drivers of these changes to a focus on using this understanding to design sustainable transformations through stakeholder engagement and through the concept of land governance. As land use can be seen as the largest geo-engineering project in which mankind has engaged, land system science can act as a platform for integration of insights from different disciplines and for translation of knowledge into action.

Developing an Agriculture-Related Digital Project

With the increasing expectation of information searchers for all information to be available online, digital projects are growing in number and importance. These projects allow libraries to become producers, if not of content, then of new accessibility options for their patrons. One librarian’s experience in the development and coordination of a digital project in an academic setting is presented, in order to demonstrate potential best practices for similar projects. Selection, coordination, standards, outsourcing, and funding of projects are all discussed. It is possible relatively quickly and inexpensively to produce a useful, quality digital project.

The Skip To Breakfast project: Development, implementation, and feasibility evaluation of an intervention to increase healthful breakfast consumption among fifth grade students and their families

Children and adults frequently skip breakfast and rates are currently increasing. In addition, the food choices made for breakfast are not always healthy ones. Breakfast skipping, in conjunction with unhealthy breakfast choices, leads to impaired cognitive functioning, poor nutrient intake, and overweight. In response to these public health issues, Skip To Breakfast, a behaviorally based school and family program, was created to increase consistent and healthful breakfast consumption among ethnically diverse fifth grade students and their families, using Intervention Mapping™. Four classroom lessons and four parent newsletters were used to deliver the intervention. For this project, a healthy, "3 Star Breakfast" was promoted, and included a serving each of dairy product, whole grain, and fruit, each with an emphasis on being low in fat and sugar. The goal of this project was to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. A pilot-test of the intervention was conducted in one classroom, in a school in Houston, during the Fall 2007 semester. A qualitative evaluation of the intervention was conducted, which included focus groups with students, phone interviews of parents, process evaluation data from the classroom teacher, and direct observation. Sixteen students and six parents participated in the study. Data were recorded and themes were identified. Initial results showed there is a need for such programs. Based on the initial feedback, edits were made to the intervention and program. Results showed high acceptability among the teacher, students, and parents. It became apparent that students were not reliably getting the parent newsletters to their parents to read, so a change to the protocol was made, in which students will receive incentives for having parents read newsletters and return signed forms, to increase parent participation. Other changes included small modifications to the curriculum, such as, clarifying instructions, changing in-class assignments to homework assignments, and including background reading materials for the teacher. The main trial is planned to be carried out in Spring 2008, in two elementary schools, utilizing four, fifth grade classes from each, with one school acting as the control and one as the intervention school. Results from this study can be used as an adjunct to the Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) program. ^

Compilation of scientific results of the OASIS project

Seamounts are of great interest to science, industry and conservation because of their potential role as 'stirring rods' of the oceans, their enhanced productivity, their high local biodiversity, and the growing exploitation of their natural resources. This is accompanied by rising concern about the threats to seamount ecosystems, e.g. through over-fishing and the impact of trawling. OASIS described the functioning characteristics of seamount ecosystems. OASIS' integrated hydrographic, biogeochemical and biological information. Based on two case studies. The scientific results, condensed in conceptual and mass balanced ecosystem models, were applied to outline a model management plan as well as site-specific management plans for the seamounts investigated. OASIS addressed five main objectives: Objective 1: To identify and describe the physical forcing mechanisms effecting seamount systems Objective 2: To assess the origin, quality and dynamics of particulate organic material within the water column and surface sediment at seamounts. Objective 3: To describe aspects of the biodiversity and the ecology of seamount biota, to assess their dynamics and the maintenance of their production. Objective 4: Modelling the trophic ecology of seamount ecosystems. Objective 5: Application of scientific knowledge to practical conservation.

Project development for older adults : Orientation's contribution

This paper systematizes the work developed during the first year of the initiation scholarship for the research project entitled 'Orientation within the new Active Aging Model: educational, work-related, personal and social choices (1)'. This project articulates the Active Aging Model and the Theoretical Operative Model in Orientation, in order to learn how new projects are developed by older adults who used to be part of the formal system of labor and by those who were out of it, and to design programmatic proposals for educational, work-related, personal and social Orientation choices for such population. The sample is made up by seventy people between 64 and 74 years of age, residing in La Plata. The first conclusions evidence the importance that older adults place on project development at this stage of their life cycle, giving special importance to educational, personal and social projects; as well as on the identification of economic factors, health state, family needs for care and social support, among other things, as conditioning the fulfillment of such projects. The differences found in terms of the labor system they used to belong to can be especially observed in the type of project developed.

Project development for older adults : Orientation's contribution

This paper systematizes the work developed during the first year of the initiation scholarship for the research project entitled 'Orientation within the new Active Aging Model: educational, work-related, personal and social choices (1)'. This project articulates the Active Aging Model and the Theoretical Operative Model in Orientation, in order to learn how new projects are developed by older adults who used to be part of the formal system of labor and by those who were out of it, and to design programmatic proposals for educational, work-related, personal and social Orientation choices for such population. The sample is made up by seventy people between 64 and 74 years of age, residing in La Plata. The first conclusions evidence the importance that older adults place on project development at this stage of their life cycle, giving special importance to educational, personal and social projects; as well as on the identification of economic factors, health state, family needs for care and social support, among other things, as conditioning the fulfillment of such projects. The differences found in terms of the labor system they used to belong to can be especially observed in the type of project developed.

Project development for older adults : Orientation's contribution

This paper systematizes the work developed during the first year of the initiation scholarship for the research project entitled 'Orientation within the new Active Aging Model: educational, work-related, personal and social choices (1)'. This project articulates the Active Aging Model and the Theoretical Operative Model in Orientation, in order to learn how new projects are developed by older adults who used to be part of the formal system of labor and by those who were out of it, and to design programmatic proposals for educational, work-related, personal and social Orientation choices for such population. The sample is made up by seventy people between 64 and 74 years of age, residing in La Plata. The first conclusions evidence the importance that older adults place on project development at this stage of their life cycle, giving special importance to educational, personal and social projects; as well as on the identification of economic factors, health state, family needs for care and social support, among other things, as conditioning the fulfillment of such projects. The differences found in terms of the labor system they used to belong to can be especially observed in the type of project developed.