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Accountability in Decentralization and the Democratic Context: Theory and Evidence from India
(2007) Chhatre, Ashwini
"New institutions created through decentralization policies around the world, notwithstanding the rhetoric, are often lacking in substantive democratic content. New policies for decentralized natural resource management have transferred powers to a range of local authorities, including private associations, customary authorities, and NGOs. Scholars see such transfers as detrimental to the legitimacy of local democratic institutions, leading to a fragmentation of local authority and dampening prospects for democratic consolidation. In much of this critique, however, there is limited attention to the wider democratic context (or lack thereof) and its effect on local governments. This article develops the concept of political articulation to characterize the relationship between citizens and elected representatives, and argues that accountability in decentralization cannot be conceptualized or analyzed separately from the accountability of higher institutions of representation and governance. The empirical analysis of the paper uses the experience of World Bank-funded Ecodevelopment Project in Himachal Pradesh, India, to generate insights into the role of political articulation in analyzing decentralization reforms."
Accounting for Water Use and Productivity
(1997) Molden, David
"All science depends on its concepts. These are ideas which receive names. They determine the questions one asks, and the answers one gets. They are more fundamental than the theories which are stated in terms of them."
Accounting of Agricultural and Nonagricultural Impacts of Irrigation and Drainage Systems
(2003) International Water Management Institute
"This paper is a collaborative research between the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Agricultural Engineering Research Centre of Taiwan. This study contributes to IWMI's program on the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. The research in 2003 consists of two components. First, research in Taiwan continues on estimating the positive and negative externalities of paddy-rice production. Second, research is being conducted in Sri Lanka to assess more broadly the impact of water resource development. In addition, two extensive literature reviews have been completed."
Accounting of Agricultural and Nonagricultural Impacts of Irrigation and Drainage Systems: A Study of Multifunctionality in Rice
(2002) Matsuno, Yutaka; Ko, H. S.; Tan, C. H.; Baker, R.; Levine, Gilbert
"The 'non-commodity' functions associated with agriculture, especially those with non-market outputs, may have significant impacts, positive or negative, on the sustainability of agricultural activity. For example, irrigation facilities that deliver water to rice fields serve a multitude of other beneficial purposes, including provision of water for domestic use, bathing, livestock, trees and other natural vegetation, groundwater recharge and flood control. This study examines the non-commodity functions of rice irrigation in Taiwan, particularly as they relate to society, human health and the environment, and, to the extent possible, quantifies them for some situations in Taiwan. It concludes that the monetary value of the multiple functions of rice irrigation is very substantial-on the order of its commodity value -and decisions about the future of rice agriculture should factor in both types of outputs."
Accra 2008: The Bumpy Road to Aid Effectiveness in Agriculture
(2008) Cabral, Lidia
"The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness will be reviewed at the Third High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra in September 2008. The Paris Declaration establishes operating principles for donors and recipient governments to improve the effectiveness of aid. These include government leadership of the development process, a focus on policy results, greater alignment by donors with national policies and management systems, harmonisation between donors with division of labour, and mutual accountability for development results. These principles are broadly sound for guiding development cooperation with national governments. However, they do not help in addressing the challenges arising in certain areas of assistance. In agriculture, the overwhelmingly private nature of agricultural activities, the roles of non-governmental service providers, the significance of context and the cross-sectoral dimension of policy challenges are some of the reasons why development cooperation in that sector struggles to comply with the Paris principles. The paper sets out areas requiring focused attention in the run-up to Accra 2008."
Achieving Stable Canal Conditions Following Remodeling: The Case Study of Bareji Distributary, Mirpurkhas
(2000) Lashari, Bakhshal; Rust, Hammond Murray; Talpur, Mashooq
"This study looks into the unsatisfactory indications canal and structure dimensions and levels of water distribution equity. These changes result in conditions that do not permit regime to be established and result in high variation between the head and the tail of the distribution."
The Acid Rain Game as a Resource Allocation Process with an Application to the International Cooperation among Finland, Russia, and Estonia
(1993) Kaitala, Veijo; Mäler, Karl-Göran; Tulkens, Henry
"We consider optimal cooperation in transboundary air pollution abatement among several countries under incomplete information. The countries negotiate on establishing a gradual cooperative emission reduction program to reduce the damages caused by sulphur depositions. Local information available on the marginal emission abatement costs and damage costs allows one to determine directions of emission abatement in each country that converge to an economic optimum. A particular difficulty arising here is how the partners can guarantee that the costs and benefits from cooperation will be shared in such a way that none of them will be tempted to breach the agreement. To overcome this problem we make use of a cost sharing scheme proposed by Chander and Tulkens (1991), that results from appropriately designed international transfers. This scheme guarantees that the individual costs of all parties are nonincreasing along the path towards the optimum, and that no party or group of parties has an interest in proposing another abatement policy. The paper illustrates these methods by applying them to a three-country version of Maler's (1989) 'acid rain game', tailored to numerically simulate the negotiations on sulphur emissions abatement between Finland, Russia and Estonia."
Across the Great Divide: A Case Study of Complementarity and Conflict Between Customary Law and TK Protection Legislation in Peru
(2009) Tobin, Brendan; Taylor, Emily
"Indigenous peoples and local communities have developed an expansive body of traditional knowledge which plays a vital role in securing their cultural, spiritual, social, economic and environmental wellbeing. Protected, enhanced and transmitted over centuries, traditional knowledge forms part of and at the same time regulates and controls indigenous and local community knowledge systems as they serve present needs and respond to new challenges and opportunities."
Actitudes de la Poblacion Ante el Bosque y sus Prestaciones Sociales
(1998) Schmithusen, Franz; Kazemi, Yves; Seeland, Klaus
"Actitudes de la poblacion ante el bosque y sus prestaciones sociales. Analisis de encuestas y articulos escogidos de las principales publicaciones forestales de Alemania, Austria y Suiza durante el periodo 1960 a 1995."
Adaptation Funding and Development Assistance: Some FAQs
(2008) Huq, Saleemul; Ayers, Jessica
"It’s becoming ever clearer that development and climate change are intertwined issues. Unsustainable development drives climate change; sustainable development can reduce vulnerability to it. Development issues can constrain capacity to adapt to climate change; climate impacts can be a barrier to development. So adaptation* to climate impacts is increasingly seen as part of good development practice – and development to improve the lives and resource access of people facing climate challenges is viewed as a prerequisite for successful adaptation. But when it comes to adaptation funding, confusion and contention remain over the role development institutions play."
Adaptation in Africa: The Global Failure to Deliver on Funding
(2008) Anderson, Simon; Chandani, Achala
"Will Africa be steamrollered by climate change? The continent harbours 33 of the Least Developed Countries, is heavily reliant on agriculture and has limited economic resources to finance adaptation. Its geographic position and high sensitivity to climatic variability make it vulnerable. Large swathes of Africa already see more frequent and severe flooding and droughts, shrinking agricultural production, the spread of diseases and the rise of conflict over scarce resources. meanwhile, African governments are poorly equipped to respond. Overcoming these challenges demands concerted international effort – yet a huge gap yawns between the global promises, and timely action on them."
Adaptation to Climate Change: A Vulnerability Assessment for Sudan
(2009) Zakieldeen, Sumaya Ahmed
"Sudan is typical of other least developed countries in Africa in being highly vulnerable to climate change and climate variability. The interaction of multiple stresses--endemic poverty, ecosystem degradation, complex disasters and conflicts, and limited access to capital, markets, infrastructure and technology--have all weakened peoples ability to adapt to changes in climate. This study assesses Sudans vulnerability to climate change. By overlaying maps of population distribution, poverty, rainfall distribution and variability, and incidence of environmental hazards, it has been possible to identify the states which are most vulnerable to climate change. It also outlines some of the actions being taken to help the country to adapt to a changing climate, and makes recommendations for how such actions could become more effective."
Adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Patients with Binge Eating and Bulimia Nervosa Disorders
(2019) Yacoub, Moustafa
"It has been shown that Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an effective treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), suicidal, and self-injuries behaviors. However, it extends to involve treating various disorders. Studies that conducted on patients with binge eating and bulimia nervosa have demonstrated promising findings in adapting DBT to treat patients with binge eating and bulimia nervosa. This article provides an overview for DBT philosophy and applying this therapeutic approach for patients with binge eating and bulimia nervosa, moreover, it introduces some intriguing studies that offered critical results for DBT interventions."
Adapting Water Management to Climate Change
(2009) Wilk, J.; Wittgren, H. B.
"As a background, we present a general overview of observed and projected impacts of climate change on water resources, as summarised by IPCC, 7 and an overview of the key concepts of adaptation and vulnerability to climate change, including specific examples of adaptation strategies now in practice. However, it is not enough to point out ‘good examples’. Good examples all work in local contexts that influence and dictate their success. The sustainability of such examples, including their potential to disperse to other regions, is often hampered by barriers of different kinds. Overcoming barriers may be the most important function of policies, whether they are local or global. But modifying successful adaptation examples to local pre-conditions – whether cultural, institutional or climatic – is also essential. Therefore, some observations regarding barriers to implementation, maintenance and diffusion of adaptation measures are presented."
Adaptive Water Resource Management in the South Indian Lower Bhavani Project Command Area
(2010) Lannerstad, Mats; Molden, David
"This report explores the theory and practice of Adaptive Water Management (AWM) based on a detailed field study in the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. A five-step framework is used to analyze the extent to which AWM is practiced and how it could be improved. The analysis shows that the LBP system has increasingly fulfilled the criteria of a complex adaptive system over the years. The main uncertainty factor, rainfall variability, has been considered in a stepwise way during the system change cycles and has been included in the LBP system design. The study shows that in spite of contending with an imperfect irrigation system design and intense competition for water resources, water resource managers and farmers are able to adapt and continue to reap benefits from a productive agricultural system."
Adaptive, Participatory and Integrated Assessment (APIA) of the Impacts of Irrigation on Fisheries, Evaluation of the Approach in Sri Lanka
(2004) Nguyen-Khoa, Sophie; Smith, Laurence; Lorenzen, Kai
"Irrigated agriculture is the largest user of water globally and its development can have significant impacts on inland fisheries. These impacts can be varied and complex, and range from biodiversity concerns to economic impacts and changes in the livelihood opportunities of rural households. There is a need to improve the knowledge of these impacts and integrate their assessment into project planning and implementation. This paper describes an approach designed to meet this challenge and the results of its pilot-testing in Sri Lanka. The approach derives from a literature review of planning and appraisal methodologies, interaction by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and evaluation of the test case."
Addressing Conflict Through Collective Action in Natural Resource Management
(2013) Ratner, Blake D.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Hellin, Jon; Mapedza, Everisto; Unruh, Jon; Veening, Wouter; Haglund, Eric; May, Candace; Bruch, Carl
"The food security crisis, international 'land grabs,' and new markets for environmental services have drawn renewed attention to the role of natural resource competition in the livelihoods of the rural poor. While significant empirical research has focused on diagnosing the links between natural resource competition and (violent) conflict, much less has focused on the dynamics of whether and how resource competition can be transformed to strengthen social-ecological resilience and mitigate conflict. Focusing on this latter theme, this review synthesizes evidence from a wide range of cases in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Building on an analytical framework designed to enable such comparative analysis; we present several propositions about the dynamics of conflict and collective action in natural resource management, and a series of recommendations for action. These propositions are: that collective action in natural resources management is influenced by the social-ecological and governance context, that natural resource management institutions affect the incentives for conflict or cooperation, and that the outcomes of these interactions influence future conflict risk, livelihoods, and resource sustainability. Action recommendations concern policies addressing resource tenure, conflict resolution mechanisms, and social inequalities, as well as strategies to strengthen collective action institutions in the natural resource sectors and to enable more equitable engagement by marginalized groups in dialogue and negotiation over resource access and use."
Addressing Global Sustainability Challenges from the Bottom Up: The Role of Information Feedback
(2012) Janssen, Marco A.; Hohman, Nicholas
"Global sustainable use of natural resources confronts our society as a collective action problem at an unprecedented scale. Past research has provided insights into the attributes of local social-ecological systems that enable eective self-governance. In this note we discuss possible mechanisms to scale up those community level insights to a larger scale. We do this by combining insights from social-psychology on the role of information feedback with the increasing availability of information technology. By making use of tailored social feedback to individuals in social networks we may be able to scale up the strengths of self-governance at the community level to address global sustainability challenges from the bottom up."
Adjusting to Trade-Policy Changes in Export Markets: Evidence from U.S. Antidumping Duties on Vietnamese Catfish
(2009) Brambilla, Irene; Porto, Guido G.; Tarozzi, Alessandro
"A large literature studies the effects of trade policy changes on developing-country exports on household incomes, and recent contributions have increasingly addressed the effects of administered protection, such as anti-dumping duties. In 2003 the United States imposed anti-dumping tariffs on imports of catfish from Vietnam ranging from 37 to 64 percent. As a result, Vietnamese exports of catfish to the U.S. market declined sharply, thus providing a unique opportunity to study the effects of U.S. trade policy changes on Vietnamese families. Using data on Vietnamese households, the authors study the responses of catfish producers in the Mekong delta of Vietnam between 2002 and 2004. The evidence suggests that the rate of growth of income of households that depended on catfish sales was significantly affected. In addition, the anti-dumping duties triggered significant exit from catfish farming. Households adjusted by moving out of catfish aquaculture and into wage labor markets and agriculture, but not into other aquaculture activities. Finally, the evidence also suggests that households found it difficult to change their catfish production levels, and that performance in aquaculture affects other household economic activities."
Administering Rural Development; Have Goals Outreached Organizational Capacity?
(1985) Wunsch, James S.
"In the Philippines an irrigation project charges fees farmers cannot pay for its water. In Indonesia concrete and steel irrigation gates are unused while farmers dig cut-aways to reach channels. In Sudan 400 million dollars is spent to irrigate land for export cotton while corporation-fixed prices paid tenants are insufficient for them to pay corporation-set cotton production costs. In Senegal rural health posts systematically decapitalize themselves because medicines are incorrectly priced. In Ghana a program in agricultural management requested by the Ministry of Agriculture withers because the Ministry's field personnel refuse to implement its program and demoralize it s alumni. Are these problems random and idiosyncratic to these projects, or are there underlying patterns which explain them? Why do those patterns exist? Can anything be done about them, or have rural development goals come to exceed organizational capacity?"
Adoption and Impacts of Microirrigation Technologies Empirical Results from Selected Localities of Maharashtra and Gujarat States of India
(2005) Namara, Regassa; Upadhyay, Bhawana; Nagar, Rashmi K.
"Microirrigation technologies are aggressively promoted in India by the central government, state governments and many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), both local and international, by providing different kinds of financial, institutional and technical support systems. These technologies are promoted primarily for one or more of the following reasons: (1) as a means to save water in irrigated agriculture, (2) as a strategy to increase income and reduce poverty, and (3) to enhance the food and nutritional security of rural households. Despite the reported significant economic advantages and the concerted support of the government and NGOs, the current microirrigation area in India remains an insignificant proportion of its potential. Based on the data from recent field studies in Maharashtra and Gujarat, this report analyzes: (1) the economics of alternative microirrigation technologies ranging from low-cost drip and sprinkler systems to the capital-intensive systems, (2) the determinants of adoption of microirrigation technology, (3) the poverty outreach of the different microirrigation systems, and (4) the sustainability implications of microirrigation adoption. In line with the findings of numerous other studies, this study indicates that microirrigation technologies result in a significant productivity improvement and, hence, economic gain over the traditional method of surface irrigation. It also shows that the productivity gain of conventional drip systems is significantly higher than that of low-cost drip systems. Thus, low-cost microirrigation systems cannot be regarded as ends in themselves but as stepping stones for adopting the conventional systems, which are technically robust and economically more rewarding. The most important determinants of microirrigation adoption include access to groundwater, the prevailing cropping pattern, level of education, financial resources, the social stratum of the household, and the wealth or poverty status of the farmer. Contrary to expectations, the majority of the current users of low-cost microirrigation systems belong to the richer section of the farming population. The study also indicates that the impact of microirrigation systems on the long-term sustainability of groundwater resources depends on the magnitude of the overall productivity gain following the shift from surface irrigation to microirrigation, the behavior of the adopters following the shift or the pattern of use of the saved water, and the type and potential number of adopters."
Advanced Biofuel Technologies: Status and Barriers
(2010) Cheng, Jay J.; Timilsina, Govinda R.
"Large-scale production of crop based (first generation) biofuels may not be feasible without adversely affecting global food supply or encroaching on other important land uses. Because alternatives to liquid fossil fuels are important to develop in order to address greenhouse gas mitigation and other energy policy objectives, the potential for increased use of advanced (non-crop, second generation) biofuel production technologies has significant policy relevance. This study reviews the current status of several advanced biofuel technologies. Technically, it would be possible to produce a large portion of transportation fuels using advanced biofuel technologies, specifically those that can be grown using a small portion of the world’s land area (for example, microalgae), or those grown on arable lands without affecting food supply (for example, agricultural residues). However, serious technical barriers limit the near-term commercial application of advanced biofuels technologies. Key technical barriers include low conversion efficiency from biomass to fuel, limits on supply of key enzymes used in conversion, large energy requirements for operation, and dependence in many cases on commercially unproven technology. Despite a large future potential, large-scale expansion of advanced biofuels technologies is unlikely unless and until further research and development lead to lowering these barriers."
Adversarial Legalism, Transaction Costs, and the Industrial Flight Hypothesis
(1996) Anderson, C. Leigh; Kagan, Robert A.
"There has been considerable debate in regulatory policy circles concerning the industrial flight hypothesis: increases in environmental regulatory compliance costs will, at the margin, drive investment overseas. The literature on environmental regulations and industrial competitiveness, however, provides little solid empirical support for the hypothesis. There are several possible explanations for the weak empirical evidence. First, the available data are limited. Second, the costs of stricter environmental regulation may be trivial compared to other cost considerations facing the firms, or may be nonbinding because the regulations are not enforced. Third, the costs of regulation may be offset by productivity and innovation benefits which accrue to firms as a result of their compliance efforts: the so-called 'green gold' effect. Fourth, the predicted effect of the hypothesis, i.e., that competitiveness will fall as the cost of regulation rises, may hold for some firms and some industries, while other firms and other industries may be unaffected or experience the opposite effect. Thus aggregate level analysis of the effects of increased environmental regulation have revealed insignificant results; perhaps the industrial flight and the green gold effects negate each other; or perhaps firms for which the hypothesis holds are overwhelmed by unaffected firms. Each of these explanations may have some merit. In this paper, however, we explore a fifth possibility arising from the exclusion of regulatory process costs from total compliance costs."
Adverse Possession and Perpetuities Law: Two Dents in the Libertarian Model of Property Rights
(1986) Ellickson, Robert C.
"Richard Epstein adheres to what can fairly be called a 'libertarian model' of law. Although he occasionally implies that this model positively describes the law as it is, his is mainly a normative vision of what it should be. With great energy and courage, over the past dozen years he has used the model to assess, and often to condemn, prevailing legal doctrines in torts, contracts, labor law, and other fields. In his article 'Past and Future: The Temporal Dimension in the Law of Property' Epstein carries the libertarian mission into new territory, and analyzes a number of fundamental doctrines of property law that law-and-economics scholars have largely ignored. Although in this comment I am often critical of Epstein's analysis, I congratulate him for opening up these neglected topics to debate. I will first outline the libertarian model of law and contrast it with a utilitarian model. I will then analyze the adverse possession and perpetuities problems, and conclude that the venerable doctrines that govern these areas reveal a utilitarian theme in property law. I will conclude by contending that Epstein himself often lapses into utilitarianism, perhaps because the reality of transaction costs makes a purely libertarian model of property rights normatively untenable"
Afforestation of Village Common Lands: The Case of Aslali Village Woodlot in Gujarat
(1989) Singh, Katar; Ballabh, Vishwa
"This paper presents an overview of the village woodlot (VW)component of the Community Forestry Project (CFP) of the Forest Department (FD) of the Government of Gujarat and the findings of a case study of a VW in Ahmedabad district of the State. The overview revealed that the VW scheme was planned and administered well by the FD. The case study showed that the Aslali VW scheme was technically and administratively feasible and financially viable. The benefit-cost ratio at the ten percent discount rate ranged from 2.22 to 2.69 and the financial internal rate of return (IRR) from 39 to 43 percent. The village panchayat (VP)received a substantial amount of income, over Rs.78,000, from the woodlot and used the money to augment the supply of drinking water in the village and for replantation of the harvested area. The villagers benefitted from the fuel wood, datoons, and grass either collected free of cost from the VW or bought at a highly subsidised price. The study demonstrated that afforestation of village guachars which are often degraded and produce nothing can bring about substantial benefits to the village community and that government intervention in managing of village common lands can avert 'the tragedy of the commons.'"
Africa and the Information Economy: Foundations, Opportunities, Challenges and Research Agenda
(2000) Molla, Alemayehu
"Africa's Achilles heels are innumerable or may be not so as the enigmas and challenges we are facing emanate from our poverty if the latter is going to be considered a cause rather than an effect. While the continent is still grappling to provide its citizens with the most basic requirements of life, the rest of the world, especially the developed one, is fast heading towards a globally networked information economy (IE) and society. What does the information economy hold for Africa? What are its opportunities, challenges and impacts when in fact the continent is juxtaposed with the urgency to provide the most basic services of food, education, health, shelter, safe drinking water, etc? Is it prudent for Africa to go global, without successfully meeting its local obligations to its population by catering to their basic needs? Does Africa has a choice? Such are the nature, essence and magnitude of the questions that are haunting many involved in this discourse. "The study presented here doesn't attempt to provide answers to the above challenges and to the gamut of issues that surround these questions. Rather, it is intended to pose many questions than it actually answers and hence functions to provoke discussions and spark debates."
The African Commons
(2010) Gorenflo, Neal
"Dr. Tendayi Viki was born and raised in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. He is now senior lecturer in social psychology at the University of Kent in England. Currently a visiting fellow at Stanford University, his research interests include intergroup relations and multi-cultural co-innovation. He's also founder of social news site thegoodin.us, which aggregates stories about those who do good in the world. I recently sat down with Dr. Viki to explore the social structure of Zimbabwean villages and their commons-based agricultural practices."
The African Digital Commons: A Participant's Guide, 2005: A Conceptual Map of the People, Projects, and Processes that Contribute to the Development of Shared, Networked Knowledge across the African Continent
(2005) Armstrong, Chris; Ford, Heather
"One of the goals of the Commons-sense Project is to conduct research that helps equip African activists and decision-makers with the information they need to develop cutting edge, relevant intellectual property policies and practices. We decided to begin with a map – a map that hopefully presents a broad picture of how far we’ve already come in Africa towards the goal of achieving a 'digital information commons', as well as providing some sense of how to grow it further. We have tried to chart the international, regional and national policies, players and movements that to some extent dictate the scope of the commons in Africa, and at the same time to outline some of the creative responses from people on the ground working towards the expansion of the commons in some way."
African Villages and Public Services
(1978) Thomson, James T.
"This paper presents an analysis of the theories underlying the efforts at development in the Sahel, and then examines some of the probable consequences of what appear to be existing orientations. In particular, the paper will focus on consequences of current state political orientations for village ability to participate effectively in programs designed to improve the management of renewable natural resources. Elements of public choice theory are used to clarify implications of questions raised by the analysis."
After Ujamaa: Farmer Needs, Nurseries and Project Sustainability in Mwanza, Tanzania
(1989) Guggenberger, C.; Ndulu, P.; Shepherd, Gill
"The Sukuma of Mwanza live near the south-east corner of Lake Victoria, occupying an area of low hills surmounted by granite outcrops, and separated by wide grassy valleys. In times gone by the rocky hilltops were covered in trees, homesteads and fields were to be found scattered down the hill slope, the seasonally wet valleys were used to grow rice and sweet potatoes, and cattle were grazed on valley edges in the dry season and on hill fallows and hill tops in the rains. The ideal holding was a wedge of land running from hilltop to valley centre. Because there was ample land, the most valued store of wealth for the Sukuma was cattle, which were and for some still are the substance and the currency of many social and economic transactions."
Against the Tide: Climate Change and High-Risk Cities
(2008) Dodman, David
"In the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations, most cities and towns face a distinct dual pressure: rapidly growing population and high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Drought, storms, flooding and sea level rise are likely to hit hardest here. These in turn put water supplies, infrastructure, health and livelihoods at risk in the very cities already struggling to provide or safeguard such key needs. An effective response demands capable local and national government and support from strong international networks in building capacity to cope. Most of the Least Developed Countries lack both."
Agendas, Strategic Voting, and Signaling with Incomplete Information
(1986) Ordeshook, Peter C.; Palfrey, Thomas
"The literature on agendas with sincere and strategic voting represents an important contribution to our understanding of committees, of institutions, and of the opportunities to manipulate outcomes by the manipulation of institutions. That literature, though, imposes an assumption that may be unrealistic in many situations; namely, that everyone knows the preferences of everyone else. In this essay we apply Bayesian equilibrium analysis to show that the properties of agendas that others derive assuming complete information do not hold necessarily under incomplete information. First, a Condorcet winner need not be selected , even if nearly everyone on the committee most prefers it. Second, the '2 step theorem,' that any outcome reachable in voting stages via some amendment agenda is reachable in two stages under sophisticated voting, need not hold. Third, nonbinding votes such as straw polls, can critically effect final outcomes."
An Agent-based Model Based on Field Experiments
(2012) Janssen, Marco A.
"This chapter describes the empirical calibration of a theoretical model based on data from field experiments. Field experiments on irrigation dilemmas were performed to understand how resource users overcome asymmetric collective action problems. The fundamental problem facing irrigation systems is how to solve two related collective action problems: 1) the provision of the physical and ecological infrastructure necessary to utilize the resource (water), and 2) the irrigation dilemma where the relative positions of 'head-enders' and 'tail-enders' generate a sequential access to the resource itself (water). If the actors behave as rational, self-interested agents, it is difficult to understand how irrigation infrastructure could ever be constructed and maintained by the farmers who utilize the system as opposed to a government irrigation bureaucracy. Wittfogel (1957) argued that a centralized control was indispensable for the functioning of larger irrigation systems and hypothesized that some state-level societies have emerged as a necessary side-effect of solving problems associated with the use of large-scale irrigation."
Agri-Tourism Spatial Development Initiatives in Southern Africa: Are They Enhancing Rural Livelihoods?
(2001) Kepe, Thembela; Ntsebeza, Lungisile
"This paper examines an attempt to kick-start economic growth through the promotion of agriculture and tourism in an impoverished rural region of South Africa."
Agricultural Advisory Services and the Market
(2008) Christoplos, Ian
"This paper presents findings of a review of over thirty case studies of field level experience in promoting market orientation in agricultural advisory services. This study was carried out by the Neuchatel Initiative (www.neuchatelinitiative.net), an informal network that has been working with advisory service policy reform for the past twelve years. Advisory services are starting to respond more effectively to the needs of farmers and other value chain actors as they adapt to market demands. Despite significant progress in analysing and understanding how to respond to markets, sustainable enhancement of the capacities of the rural poor to benefit from markets will require a more focused and consistent approach. It is particularly important to critically monitor the outcomes of current pilot efforts in providing quality services and in reaching different rural clients."
Agricultural Management Practices and Treatment Wetlands in the Gabilan Watershed: Project Assessment and Evaluation Plan
(2006) Harris, Kelleen; Brown, Karminder; Earnshaw, Sam; Hanson, Emily; Largay, Bryan; Lienk, Laura Lee; Watson, Fred; Williams, Regina; Wiskind, Adam
"Several local groups have come together for this project to addresses water quality concerns in the Gabilan Watershed - also known as the Reclamation Ditch Watershed. These are Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County (RCDMC), Central Coast Watershed Studies (CCoWS), Return of the Natives (RON), Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), and Coastal Conservation and Research (CC&R). The primary goal is to reduce non-point source pollution - particularly suspended sediment, nutrients, and pesticides - and thereby improve near-shore coastal waters of Moss Landing Harbor and the Monterey Bay."
Agricultural Water Management in a Water Stressed Catchment: Lessons from the RIPARWIN Project
(2007) McCartney, Matthew; Lankford, Bruce; Mahoo, Henry F.
"In the face of growing water stress and increasing concerns over the sustainability of water use, Tanzania has, in common with many other countries in Africa, focused largely on the development of more integrated catchment-wide approaches to water management. In the Great Ruaha River Basin, considerable effort has gone into increasing water productivity and the promotion of mechanisms for more efficient allocation of water resources. Over a period of five years, the RIPARWIN project investigated water management in the basin and evaluated the effectiveness of some of the mechanisms that have been introduced. The study findings are relevant to basins in developing countries where there is competition for water and irrigation is one of the main uses."
Agricultural Water Storage in an Era of Climate Change: Assessing Need and Effectiveness in Africa
(2013) Rebelo, Lisa-Maria; McCartney, Matthew; Xenarios, Stefanos; Smakhtin, Vladimir
"By mitigating the vagaries of climate variability, agricultural water storage is widely anticipated to make a key contribution to climate change adaptation in Africa. However, if the planning of water storage is not improved, it is likely that many investments will fail to fully deliver intended benefits. This report describes the agricultural water storage continuum and some of the possible implications of climate change. A simple diagnostic tool which can be used to provide a rapid evaluation of the need and effectiveness of different water storage options, under existing and possible future climate conditions, is presented."
Agriculture and Protection of Landscape Area of the White Carpathians
(2003) Krumalova, Veronika; Backman, Stefan
"The protected landscape area of the White Carpathians in Czech Republic is confronted with several threats. The protection of the landscape involves instituted policies and restrictions on production. Due to the approaching EU accession and the possible subsequent institutional changes, there is an increased demand for knowledge on production opportunities and threats. In addition there are immediate concerns on the relation between agricultural production and the environment. One major concern is the abandonment of agricultural land. In this article the combination of production elements and protection is described. Factor analyses are used to identify groups of farms with similarities in production structure and organisation. The results of the factor analysis are compared to typology achieved by interviews. Some important elements with policy and research implications are derived."
Agriculture in the WTO and Rural Development
(2020) BAGDE, RAKSHIT
"Agriculture has been a major occupation of the Indian people since ancient times. Today 65% of the population is dependent on agriculture in various ways. The backbone of agriculture, once considered the backbone of the Indian economy, is crumbling today. The main reason for this is the neglect of agriculture by the government system and the newly started process of globalization. The rural economy that has survived is now on the brink of collapse due to the globalization process in agriculture, which is the only component of agriculture. By signing the WTO Agreement on January 1, 1995, India incorporated the agricultural sector into the process of globalization. In this regard, a secret agreement was reached between India and the United States on December 16, 1999, and India had to lift the numerical restrictions on its protected 715 agricultural commodities. The concept of globalization has been realized through the GATT Agreement, the Dunkel Proposal, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank."
Agriculture, Water, and Ecosystems
(2007) Falkenmark, Malin; Galaz, Victor
"Agriculture depends on ecosystem functions such as pollination. This means it is closely linked with the health of surrounding ecosystems and should be considered an agro-ecosystem. Crop production systems have been managed as though they were disconnected from the landscape in general. Since the complex systems that make up the landscape are interconnected, this approach threatens the processes that make agriculture sustainable. Past agricultural management has caused wide scale changes in land cover, stream-flow, and groundwater systems. This has undermined the processes that support ecosystems and the services that they provide. Agriculture will continue to be a key driver of ecosystem change in the future."
Agro-Well and Pump Diffusion in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka: Past Trends, Present Status and Future Prospects
(2003) Kikuchi, Masao; Weligamage, Parakrama; Barker, Randolph; Samad, Madar; Kono, H.; Somaratne, H. M.
"This study investigates the pattern, extent and causes of the spread and use of agro-wells and pumps for irrigation in traditional villages and irrigated settlement schemes in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Almost 96 percent of major irrigation schemes (command area more than 80 ha) and 72 percent of minor irrigation schemes are located within the dry zone. Groundwater is the sole or supplementary source of water in irrigating crops. An extensive survey was carried out in all districts in the dry zone. Crystalline rocks are predominant in the area while alluvial aquifers are an important feature in rivers within the study area. In terms of the command area, selected schemes represent more than 30 percent of the command area of major irrigation schemes in the country."
Agroforestry Policies Contribute to Sustainable Land Use
(1995) Brooks, Kenneth N.; Gregersen, Hans M.; Ffolliott, Peter F.
"Agroforestry includes all practices that deliberately combine trees and shrubs with agricultural crops and/or livestock over time or space. Most countries have practiced agroforestry for centuries. In many parts of the developing world, it is an important form of land use and a major contributor to land use sustainability. "Yet, because agroforestry is land use between forestry and agriculture, policymakers do not give it the attention it deserves. Here we focus on how agroforestry adds to the sustainable use of many land areas, particularly monocropping of marginal soils and hilly areas. We suggest that policy can encourage agroforestry to improve existing unsustainable land use practices. Readers interested in more information should check other sources. "We want to make three initial points concerning sustainability: 1. We define sustainable land use as that which produces goods and services while continuing to protect the natural resource base. 2. The goal is to maintain sustainable production of goods and services, not to continue given land-use practices. 3. Since we cannot know whether a land use is sustainable far into the future, the best method is to avoid uses that are clearly unsustainable. For example, land use that promotes excessive soil erosion is obviously not sustainable."
Alain Lipietz's Wisdom
(2009) Bollier, David
"French political thinker offers deep insights into commons and politics, markets and history."
Aligning Key Concepts for Global Change Policy: Robustness, Resilience, and Sustainability
(2012) Anderies, John M.; Folke, Carl; Ostrom, Elinor; Walker, Brian H.
"Globalization, the process by which local social-ecological systems (SESs) are becoming linked in a global network, presents policy scientists and practitioners with unique and dicult challenges. Although local SESs can be extremely complex, when they become more tightly linked in the global system, complexity spirals as multi-scale and multi-level processes become more important. Here, we argue that addressing these multi-scale and multilevel challenges requires a collection of theories and models. We suggest that the conceptual domains sustainability, resilience, and robustness provide a suciently rich collection of theories and models but overlapping denitions and confusion about how these conceptual domains articulate with one another reduces their utility. Here we attempt to eliminate this confusion and illustrate how sustainability, resilience and robustness can be used in tandem to address the multi-level and multi-scale challenges associated with global change."
Alley Farming: Have Resource-Poor Farmers Benefited?
(1995) Carter, Jane
"Over the past two decades, there has been much scientific interest in the potential of agroforestry for small-scale farming. One form of agroforestry that has received particular attention is alley farming, intended as a sustainable, intensive system that would radically improve the long-term prospects of resource-poor farmers. Although impossible to estimate precisely, total global expenditure on alley farming research, development and promotion to date runs to tens of millions of US dollars. It is now widely recognised that the technology has far less potential than originally anticipated, major limitations having emerged in both its technical and socio-economic characteristics. This paper reviews the documented on-farm performance of alley farming to date, identifying niche areas with some prospects for successful adoption, and suggesting specific areas for further research."
Alliances in Anarchic International Systems
(1991) Niou, Emerson M. S.; Ordeshook, Peter C.
"Alliances play a central role in international relations theory. However, aside from applications of traditional cooperative game theory that ignore the issue of enforcement in anarchic systems, or interpretations of the repeated Prisoners' Dilemma in the attempt to understand the source of cooperation in such systems, we have little theory on which to base predictions about alliance formation. This essay, then, builds on an n-country, non-cooperative, game-theoretic model of conflict in anarchic systems in order to furnish a theoretical basis for such predictions. Defining an alliance as a collection of countries that jointly abide by 'collective security strategies' with respect to each other but not with respect to members outside of the alliance, we establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for an alliance system to be stable. In addition, we show that not all winning or minima l winning coalitions can form alliances, that alliances among smaller states can be stable, that bipolar alliance structures do not exhaust the set of stable structures, and that only specific countries can play the role of balancer."
Alliances Versus Federations: An Analysis with Military and Economic Capabilities Distinguished
(1994) Niou, Emerson M. S.; Ordeshook, Peter C.
"This essay explores the distinction between federations and alliances and asks the question: When will states choose to federate rather than ally? William Riker (1964) argues that a necessary condition for a federal state's formation is that those offering the federal bargain must seek to 'expand their territorial control, usually either to meet an external military or diplomatic threat or to prepare for military or diplomatic aggression and aggrandizement.' This argument, though, fails to ask why states sometimes respond to threats by forming federations and at other times by forming alliances. Here, after assuming that states have initial endowments of military and economic resources, where economic resources enter utility functions directly and are what states maximize and where military capability influences preference only insofar as it determines a state's ability to counter threats, we offer a multi-stage game-theoretic model in which states may be compelled to divert economic resources to military spending. Alliances, in turn, are self-enforcing coalitions designed to augment a state's offensive or defensive capabilities. Federations, which serve the same ends as alliances, are coalitions that need to be enforced by the "higher authority" established when the federation is formed. Our operationg assumption is that states seek to form a federation in lieu of an alliance if and only if (1) a stable alliance partition does not exist or, if one exists, it is dominated by an unstable partition and (2) if the cost of the loss of sovereignty to each state in the ferderation is offset by the gains from joining it, relative to what that state secures as its security value."
Alternate Wet/Dry Irrigation in Rice Cultivation: A Practical Way to Save Water and Control Malaria and Japanese Encephlitis
(2001) Van Der Hoek, Wim; Sakthivadivel, R.; Renshaw, Melanie; Silver, John B.; Birley, Martin H.; Konradsen, Flemming
"Due to increasing scarcity of freshwater resources that are available for irrigated agriculture, in the future, it will be necessary to produce more food with less water. More irrigated land is devoted to rice than to any other crop. One method to save water in irrigated rice cultivation is the intermittent drying of the rice fields instead of keeping them continuously flooded. This method is referred to as alternate wet/dry irrigation (AWDI). Apart from the water saving potential of AWDI there are also potential human health benefits. Rice fields provide a habitat for mosquitoes to lay their eggs, and rice agrosystems have traditionally been associated with mosquito-borne diseases, especially malaria and Japanese encephalitis. If rice fields are dried, as in AWDI, the mosquito larvae will die and less adult mosquitoes will be produced in the rice fields. This could lead to a lower incidence of malaria and Japanese encephalitis. In certain areas and under the right conditions, AWDI is a promising method in irrigated rice cultivation with dual benefits of water saving and human disease control, while maintaining rice yields at least at the same level. However, many factors play a role in determining the success or failure of AWDI. Some of these factors can be influenced, such as irrigation infrastructure and irrigation management capacity, while others cannot be, such as rainfall and soil conditions. The increased productivity of water, not the mosquito control is likely to be the critical factor that will make farmers and irrigation department officials adopt AWDI in water-scarce areas. This report reviews previous studies on AWDI with a focus on mosquito vector control, water saving, and rice yields. Examples are given from a number of countries and recommendations are provided for further studies."
Alternatives for Seed Regulatory Reform: An Analysis of Variety Testing, Variety Regulation and Seed Quality Control
(1997) Tripp, Robert; Louwaars, Niels P.; Van Der Burg, W. Joost; Virk, D.S.; Witcombe, J.R.
"This paper summarises the findings of a recently completed project which examined the conduct of seed regulation in developing countries and produced a set of guidelines for seed regulatory reform. The three areas of seed regulation included in the study were: public sector plant breeding (particularly the management of variety testing); variety regulation (registration, performance testing and release); and seed quality control (seed certification and seed testing). Adjustment to seed regulatory frameworks is necessary because of significant changes in national seed systems. These changes include: reductions in budget for public agricultural research; the failure of many seed parastatals; increasing concern about plant genetic diversity; pressure for the establishment of plant variety protection; the increasing contributions of commercial seed enterprises; and the emergence of innovative local level variety development and seed production initiatives. There are a variety of reasons why current public seed regulation is unsatisfactory. It is not efficiently organised, often uses inappropriate standards, does not offer opportunities for farmer and seed producer participation, and is not sufficiently transparent. At the same time there are a number of options for regulatory reform. In plant breeding, more emphasis should be placed on decentralising variety testing, breeding for particular niches, and making site selection, trial management and analysis more representative of farmers' conditions. In variety regulation, simpler registration procedures are required, and the demands of plant variety protection should not be allowed to bias or limit the development and use of public and farmer varieties. Variety performance testing for release should be made more flexible. In seed quality control, standards should be re-examined for their relevance to particular farming conditions, and much of the responsibility for monitoring seed quality should be passed to seed producers and merchants, accompanied by well defined public oversight and enforcement mechanisms."
Amazonian Fisheries: Socio Economic Issues and Management Implications
(1998) Fernandez-Baca, Jaime
"Over the last three decades, the demand for fish in the Amazon basin has greatly increased due to population growth in the main cities of the region. While technological improvements in commercial fishing methods have made it possible to meet this growing demand, they have led to concerns about the possible extinction of certain fish species and to conflicts over the resource between commercial fishermen and rural communities. This study reviews the current state of inland fisheries in the Amazon in order to analyse policy options for fisheries management, and identifies key gaps in information on the economic, social and biological aspects of fisheries which constrain policymakers."
America's Cargo Cult: The New Industrial Policy
(1984) Baden, John; Blood, Tom; Stroup, Richard
"A decade ago a vocal minority agitated for a no-growth, 'steady state' economy, in which wealth was created no faster than necessary to replace the wealth being lost. This goal was nearly reached when Congress imposed high marginal tax rates, inflation induced bracket-creep, increased regulation. Until recently, the most notable growth in the economy, aside from a few high technology areas, was in the underground economy. Discussing one such period, the editor of Fortune wrote, 'the country has just gone through a real life try out of zero growth [the period 1973-1975] which is remembered not as an episode of zero growth but as the worst recession since the 1930s.'"
Analyse des Rapports entre les Attitudes des Gens Envers la Foret et Leurs Attitudes Envers la Gestion Forestiere
(1995) Schmithusen, Franz; Kazemi, Yves
"Cet article presente les resultats d'une etude realisee en 1992 a la Chaux-de-Fonds1, et démontre l'interdependance entre les attitudes des gens envers la foret et leurs attitudes envers la gestion forestiere. De par la nature de sa problematique et le nombre restreint de personnes interrogees, la recherche a ete envisagee dans un cadre exploratoire et qualitatif. Elle s'integre dans une demarche d'ouverture et de comprehension envers un phenomene social actuel: la relation Homme-foret, et non pas dans la creation d'un cliche representatif d'opinion."
Analysing Institutions, Policies, and Farming Systems for Sustainable Agriculture in Central and Eastern European Countries in Transition
(2001) Gatzweiler, Franz W.; Backman, Stefan; Sipilainen, Timo; Zellei, Anett
"The aim of this paper is to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for the analysis of institutions, policies and farming systems for agri-environmental sustainability in Central and Eastern European countries in transition. The basic unit of analysis is the 'agri-environmental action scenario'. The action scenario consists of a set of components which together shape the outcomes of an agri-environnmental action situation. The framework consists of 1) the environmental effects of transition, 2) policies, institutions, and 4) farming systems. We aim at characterising these key elements of the framework, their relationship and interactions, and their role in achieving sustainability at the interface between agriculture and the environment. Environmental areas of concern are: water, soil and biodiversity. The paper intends to create a common understanding of basic concepts and a shared conceptual model among the members of the Central and Eastern European Sustainable Agriculture (CEESA) Network. The framework will be adapted according to new insights and findings during the course of research activities of the CEESA research project."
Analysis of Drought Coping Strategies in Baluchistan and Sindh Provinces of Pakistan
(2004) Qureshi, Asad Sarwar; Akhtar, Mujeeb
"This paper presents the results of a comprehensive drought survey in the two provinces, which were conducted to assess the impact of drought on the livelihoods and personal security of people, at the household and village level. It also reviews the role of government agencies and NGOs in providing relief to the drought-affected areas."
An Analysis of Evolution of Water Rights in South African Society: An Account of Three Hundred Years
(2002) Tewari, Devi Datt
"This article reviews the historical development path of water rights in South Africa during the last 300 years or so. The basic finding is that water rights have come to a full circle . As early as 1652, the Dutch Company rulers declared water as public commodity and dominis fluminis status of the state, thus imposing Roman-Dutch law in the country. The British on the other hand privatized water and linked it with land tenure, thus establishing the supremacy of the riparian principle over dominus fluminis status of the state. Apartheid governments tried to swing the balance again to the Roman-Dutch law. The current democratic government has defined water as public resource; sustainable management and equitable distribution are its two major concerns."
Analysis of Fisheries Co-Management Arrangements: A Research Framework
(1996) International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management North Sea Center (NSC)
"This paper describes a research framework which has been developed by the project to carry out the above research. The aim is to provide a common analytical framework which will enable comparison between case studies, country research and pilot-tested co-management models. This will allow data to be analysed in a systematic way and allow generalisations to be made about conditions which facilitate successful fisheries co-management. The framework is in draft form because it is anticipated that once it has been applied in the analysis of case studies and country research, there might be a need to modify and/or expand it. This paper is divided into two main sections. The first section briefly describes the theoretical background to the research framework, exploring the concepts of common property, fisheries comanagement, institutional analysis and rights and rules. For more detailed coverage of the theoretical background, readers are encouraged to consult the bibliography. The second half of the paper describes the framework itself."
Analysis of Hydro-Meteorological Time Series, Searching Evidence for Climatic Change in the Upper Indus Basin
(2001) Khan, Asim Rauf
"The study examines some of the major components of water cycle in the Upper Indus Basin (UIB) to look for evidence of climate change. An analysis of hydrometeorological data has been performed for UIB. An Additive Decomposition Model was used for analyzing the time series data from ten meteorological stations in the Mangla (Jhelum River) and the Tarbela (Indus River) catchments and the long-term flow data for the three major rivers, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab."
An Analysis of Livestock Choice: Adapting to Climate Change in Latin American Farms
(2007) Seo, S. Niggol; Mendelsohn, Robert
"This paper explores how Latin American livestock farmers adapt to climate by switching species. We develop a multinomial choice model of farmers choice of livestock species. Estimating the models across over 1200 livestock farmers in seven countries, we find that both temperature and precipitation affects the species Latin American farmers choose. We then use this model to predict how future climate scenarios would affect species choice. Global warming will cause farmers to switch to beef cattle at the expense of dairy cattle."
An Analysis of the Implications of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
(2004) Muller, Manuel Ruiz
"The paper 'An analysis of the implications of intellectual property rights (IPR) on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)' identifies and analyses some of the key elements of GBIFs situation within the evolving IPR universe. It identifies the tensions between the needs of science for the free flows of data and information and the IPR considerations of private interests with regards to this same data and information. Ultimately, for science to continue building and progressing, flow of data and information must not be restricted or conditioned. Furthermore, conservation of biodiversity must also be linked to sound policy making, which in turn, requires solid scientific foundations to which information and data networks significantly contribute. "The paper also provides some indications about international IPR trends, and how GBIF may adjust its operations -- without compromising its mission -- to fully comply with this new policy and legal paradigms. Very simply, GBIF will facilitate access to and use of biodiversity data and information with due recognition of ownership (if applicable to specific cases) and will seek to ensure that (as far as practically possible) data users respect these rights and utilise data and information accordingly. Institutional IPR policies of GBIFs, Data Sharing Agreements and Data Use Agreements will provide with the overall framework and operational tools to data ownership concerns and interests."

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