Collective Action & Property Rights News

EMPLOYMENT: World Agroforestry Centre Economist/Adaptation Specialist

2012-05-22T11:41:00.001-04:00

The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is an independent research institution which generates science-based knowledge about the complex role trees play in agricultural landscapes and rural livelihoods. As part of the Centre’s work to bring tree-based solutions to bear on poverty and environmental problems, researchers – working in close collaboration with partners – are developing new technologies, tools and policy recommendations for increased food security and ecosystem health.

The Centre’s headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, and research is conducted in 23 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We are supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and receive funding from over 50 different donors.

The main purpose of the position will be to: a) learn from existing community and farmer practices to identify and map current and future vulnerabilities to climate change; b) analyze impacts of development projects and develop robust adaptation strategies and climate smart practices, with special focus on agroforestry systems and derive possible transition pathways; c) identify the limits of adaptation to weather extremes in agroforestry systems and devise opportunities for complementary safeguard systems.

Responsibilities

Assess vulnerabilities of smallholder farmers to current and future climate risks by learning from community and farmer practices
Develop robust adaptation strategies and climate smart practices with special focus on agroforestry systems and derive possible transition pathways
Identify limits of adaptation to different climate shocks and devise opportunities for complementary safeguard systems
Develop multi-institutional project designs and contribute to fundraising and knowledge dissemination
Develop and disseminate methods for analysing vulnerability and adaptation strategies to climate change within ICRAF and partner organizations
Prepare reports, guidelines and scientific papers.

More information.

Deadline: June 33, 2012

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Dissertation Research Fellowships on Gender and Agriculture

2012-05-22T11:37:00.001-04:00

IFPRI and its partners are pleased to announce a call for applications for Ph.D. dissertation research fellowships on the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI). The first of its kind to directly capture women’s empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector, the purpose of the Index is to understand why women in developing countries face persistent obstacles and economic constraints to inclusion in the agriculture sector though they play a critical role in agricultural growth.

Released on February 28, 2012, the Index is a partnership among IFPRI, the USGovernment’s Feed the Future initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of Oxford University. Read more about the Index here.

The threefold goal of the fellowship is to strengthen understanding and evidence of the WEAI; expand understanding of WEAI dynamics through complementary qualitative and ethnographic work; and support promising researchers interested in gender and agriculture. Research proposals supported under this call must be focused entirely or mostly on one or more of 19 Feed the Future countries, listed here.

More information.

Deadline: July 31, 2012

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: India Biodiversity Awards

2012-05-18T11:01:00.001-04:00

India has a rich heritage of biodiversity that it is committed to protect, as it provides ecological, economic, social, cultural, spiritual, educational, scientific and aesthetic services for millions of people. India also has vast experience in natural resource conservation and there are diverse models of biodiversity management in operation, ranging from officially managed protected areas to community-led conservation. The valuable work done by biodiversity managers at the grassroots has remained unsung, even as the value of biodiversity itself has begun to be widely recognised. It is felt that national recognition of these outstanding biodiversity management efforts will provide an additional impetus to them, as well as spread awareness for improved biodiversity management across the country.

Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India; and the United Nations Development Programme, India, are pleased to announce the call for nominations for the India Biodiversity Awards, which will recognize contributions that embody outstanding governance models of biodiversity management. The Awards will be presented during the 11th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to be held in October 2012 in Hyderabad.

One nomination in each of the following four categories will be selected for the award:

Community stewardship – Community-led biodiversity management by autonomous community institutions
Decentralised governance – Biodiversity management by local self-governments and local level statutory institutions
Co-management – Biodiversity jointly managed by communities and the Government
Protected Areas – Effective and innovative management practices by management agencies of Protected Areas

Each of the four recipients of the India Biodiversity Awards will receive a cash prize of INR 100,000 and a citation.

More information (pdf).

Deadline: June 10, 2012

This Week’s Posts

2012-05-17T17:49:00.001-04:00

EMPLOYMENT: CARE Gender and Livelihoods Advisor. The Advisor will have two main functions (i) support CARE’s efforts to design, implement, learn from and disseminate information about the issues of gender justice within a livelihoods, nutrition and food security context and (ii) work with the Pathways Women in Agriculture Program in Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Mali, India and Bangladesh to promote the empowerment of women in agriculture. Deadline: open

EMPLOYMENT: CIMMYT Social Scientist: Gender and Development. CIMMYT seeks an enthusiastic quantitatively-oriented social scientist with a strong interest in gender to join their international team of highly qualified and motivated scientists working to improve the livelihoods of resource-poor maize and wheat farmers in the developing world. Deadline: May 20, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: IWMI Researcher–Water Management and Institutions. IWMI seeks a scientist who is practiced in the analysis of social and physical interaction of water processes for this Cairo-based position. Deadline: June 10, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: CIAT Senior Scientist: Land Policy. CIAT is looking for a creative and innovative scientist to lead research in the areas of political ecology of land use and social processes resulting in identification of options that create or accelerate positive change and transformation in livelihood strategies with positive benefit to the rural poor. Deadline: June 15, 2012

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Global Environmental Change and Human Security Conference (GECS 2012). The conference is structured around the three key themes of Identification of Challenges, Impacts, and Vulnerabilities; Identification of Dynamics, Adaption, and Mitigation Options; and Features of a New Vision. Proposals are invited that address these topics. Deadline: July 15, 2012

AWARD: The Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food. The prize aims to recognize individuals and groups for their exemplary and promising contribution in promoting innovation through research, development and capacity building in the North, South or in the Mediterranean, in order to improve food and agricultural systems sustainability as well as contribute to addressing food security and poverty reduction. Deadline: July 16, 2012

PUBLICATION: Land institutions, investments, and income diversification. A new IFPRI discussion paper examines land reform in Brazil’s quilombo communities.

PUBLICATION: The Custodians of Biodiversity: Sharing Access to and Benefits of Genetic Resources. This IDRC publication addresses threats to local and indigenous approaches to biodiversity conservation, crop improvement, and managing precious natural resources under threat.

NEWS: An Interview with Elinor Ostrom on Climate Change. Readers may enjoy this recent interview with Nobel Laureate and longtime CAPRi friend and Steering Committee member Elinor Ostrom on the subject of climate change.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Global Environmental Change and Human Security Conference (GECS 2012)

2012-05-17T16:48:00.001-04:00

The conference, as a major knowledge consolidation initiative, is structured around three key themes and under each of these a number of session topics are listed. Proposals (presentations, sessions, panels and roundtables, etc.) are invited that address these topics.

Global Environmental Change and Human Security: Identification of Challenges, Impacts, and Vulnerabilities:

Global environmental change as a new security policy challenge: Towards a new geopolitics
Global environmental change as a human security threat
Human security as an ecological process
Trade-offs between global environmental change and food security, health security, and water security
Global environmental change, energy, migration, and conflicts
Biosafety for bio-engineered primary commodities
Environmental change, poverty and the MDGs
Mechanisms for rewarding communities for conservation and sustainable management of ecosystem services- Bio-right perspective
Climate change as a civilization challenging ethical problem

Global Environmental Change and Human Security: Identification of Dynamics, Adaptation, and Mitigation Options:

Strengthening multi-level resilience and adaptive capacity to face the impacts of environmental change
Building resilience against insecurity and trade-offs between various options to ensure security
Adaptation and mitigation: Relevant governance and risk management options
Market-based and technical green economy responses to global environmental change
Managing global change with new Knowledge, Know-how, technology and funding mechanisms
Usefulness of ecosystem and community-based approaches and climate-smart practices
Global environmental change within a gender and equity perspective

Global Environmental Change and Human Security: Features of a New Vision:

Rethinking human security in a changing environment: The need of a paradigm shift
Partnerships between science and policy, industry, and the public
Facing global change: The role of dynamic innovation in science, technology and policy
Mainstreaming equity imperative in enacted policies
Pathways towards global sustainability
Role of integrative and multi-levels governance systems
Importance of North-South and South-South perspectives
Role of stakeholders and public leadership
Role of nation state and discretion to choose from the menu of potential solutions

More information.

Deadline: July 15, 2012

PUBLICATION: Land institutions, investments, and income diversification

2012-05-17T10:02:00.001-04:00

A new IFPRI discussion paper examines land reform in Brazil’s quilombo communities:

Efforts to distribute land titles to low-income rural Afro-Brazilian communities, known as quilombos, have been disappointing despite the provision of ample government resources. Until now, research on the implications of Brazil‟s land reform policies has not considered quilombo communities in an economic context. The unique case of the quilombo communities provides an interesting context to advance the understanding of the role of land titles in rural income generation. The impact of land tenure security in the cycle of assets, activities, and income is explored to identify the importance of institutions for land dependent agricultural enterprises. We find evidence of land titles contributing to desirable welfare outcomes through their impact on production and investment behavior. Income diversity from various production activities is found to positively contribute to higher income levels, particularly for producers earning more than the minimum wage, once conditioned on secure land rights and productive investments.

Available here.

NEWS: An Interview with Elinor Ostrom on Climate Change

2012-05-17T09:56:00.001-04:00

Readers may enjoy this recent interview with Nobel Laureate and longtime CAPRi friend and Steering Committee member Elinor Ostrom on the subject of climate change. A sample:

Q: You are a great believer in ordinary people's ability to organize and use their commonly shared resources wisely, but I take it that does not work all the time? But ultimately collective action at the grassroots can force change at the top?

A: I am a believer of the capabilities of people to organize at a local level. That does not mean that they always do. There are a wide variety of collective action problems that exist at a small scale. The important thing is that people at a small scale, who know what the details of the problems are, organize, rather than calling on officials at a much larger scale.

Officials at a larger scale may have many collective-action problems of their own that they need to address. They do not have the detailed information about problems at a small scale that people who are confronting those every day do have. Thus, the solutions that are evolved by local people have a chance of being more imaginative and better ways of solving these problems than allowing them to go unsolved and eventually asking a much larger scale unit to solve it for them.

The full interview is here. Many of the ideas Ostrom discusses in the interview are spelled out in greater detail in her paper from 2009, “A polycentric approach for coping with climate change”.

AWARD: The Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food

2012-05-16T17:34:00.001-04:00

The Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food aims to recognize individuals, or a group of individuals, for their exemplary and promising contribution in promoting innovation through research, development and capacity building in the North, South or in the Mediterranean, in order to improve food and agricultural systems sustainability as well as contribute to addressing food security and poverty reduction.

The Prize consists of two categories:

Louis Malassis Distinguished Scientist Prizeis conferred to an outstanding scientist, or a group of scientists, who holds a PhD degree, with at least 15 years of professional experience and who has made significant contribution in the field covered by the Prize through his/her (or their collective) work. The awardee will receive €20,000.
Louis Malassis Young Promising Scientist Prize is given to a young individual, or a group of young scientists, who has carried out original and promising work in the field covered by the Prize. The awardee should be no more than 40 years old by 01 January 2012, hold a PhD degree and have at least five years of professional experience in the field covered by the Prize. The winner will receive €20,000.

More information.

Deadline: July 16, 2012

PUBLICATION: The Custodians of Biodiversity: Sharing Access to and Benefits of Genetic Resources

2012-05-15T17:07:00.001-04:00

This IDRC publications, edited by Manuel Ruiz, Ronnie Vernooy, is freely available online.

Globally, local and indigenous approaches to conserving biodiversity, crop improvement, and managing precious natural resources are under threat. Many communities have to deal with “biopiracy,” for example. As well, existing laws are usually unsuitable for protecting indigenous and traditional knowledge and for recognizing collective rights, such as in cases of participatory plant breeding, where farmers, researchers and others join forces to improve existing crop varieties or develop new ones, based on shared knowledge and resources.
This book addresses these issues. It outlines the national and international policy processes that are currently underway to protect local genetic resources and related traditional knowledge and the challenges these initiatives have faced. In particular these themes are addressed within the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The authors broaden the policy and legal debates beyond the sphere of policy experts to include the knowledge-holders themselves. These are the ‘custodians of biodiversity’: farmers, herders and fishers in local communities. Their experience in sharing access and benefits to genetic resources is shown to be crucial for the development of effective national and international agreements. The book presents and analyzes this experience, including case studies from China, Cuba, Honduras, Jordan, Nepal, Peru and Syria.

Download here.

EMPLOYMENT: CIAT Senior Scientist: Land Policy

2012-05-15T17:06:00.001-04:00

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is looking for a creative and innovative scientist to lead research in the areas of political ecology of land use and social processes resulting in identification of options that create or accelerate positive change and transformation in livelihood strategies with positive benefit to the rural poor. The work will have a focus on incentives for change to build into solutions strategies, and will require utilization of a variety of participatory approaches. This new position comes at a time of great opportunity within the CGIAR for more integrated and impact oriented research for development, and offers wide scope for development.

Candidates must have a strong desire to bring research to bear on important development questions, and ensure impact of our work on poverty alleviation. They must also have an interest in engaging in global discussions on the role of institutions, policy research and incentives to achieve development objectives. Initial responsibility will be to contribute to planning and implementation of research on incentive mechanisms to support improved natural resources management in agroecosystems managed by smallholder farming communities within the framework of the CGIAR Research Program Water, Land and Ecosystems. S/he will contribute to cross cutting research on policy, institutions and gender within that program.

The position will be based in Nairobi, but with responsibility to guide researchers in other regions including Latin America and Southeast Asia.

More information (pdf).

Deadline: June 15, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: IWMI Researcher–Water Management and Institutions

2012-05-14T16:08:00.001-04:00

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) seeks a scientist who is practiced in the analysis of social and physical interaction of water processes. If you have at least 3 years’ post-PhD experience conducting systemic analyses of irrigated agriculture and/or river basin management and can use approaches that combine the technical understanding of water management and farming systems with consideration of institutional or policy dimensions), then you fit our profile perfectly. Your research portfolio will be to conduct original research on water management and institutions, mostly in the Nile Delta in Egypt. You will be based at the IWMI office located at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Cairo, Egypt. You will report to the Principal Researcher based in the Cairo office.

As a Researcher, you will:

contribute to research projects on irrigated agriculture, water management and institutions, predominantly in the Nile Delta, in both old lands and new lands, including fieldwork and data analysis;
write reports and articles for journals and other appropriate a udiences;
contribute to a six-country regional project on groundwater gov ernance;
contribute ideas and assist in bibliographical searches to deve lop new research ideas related to water and agriculture in the Middle East, for example, on river basin management, or assessment of policy processes and governance;
co-design concept notes and related research projects and contr ibute to those projects when implemented;
supervise Master’s students involved in specific field research; and
contribute to IWMI’s overall research program.

More information (pdf).

Deadline: June 10, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: CARE Gender and Livelihoods Advisor

2012-05-14T15:45:00.001-04:00

CARE is seeking an experienced Gender and Livelihoods Advisor who will work within CARE USA's dynamic and cross-cutting Gender and Empowerment unit and with close affiliation with the Food, Livelihoods Justice unit in the Program, Partnership, Learning and Advocacy Division. The division’s mandate is to generate, harvest, cross-fertilize and promote the application of knowledge and learning throughout and beyond CARE. The Gender and Livelihoods Advisor will have two main functions (i) support CARE’s efforts to design, implement, learn from and disseminate information about the issues of gender justice within a livelihoods, nutrition and food security context and (ii) work with the Pathways Women in Agriculture Program in Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana, Mali, India and Bangladesh to promote the empowerment of women in agriculture.

More information.

Deadline: open

EMPLOYMENT: CIMMYT Social Scientist: Gender and Development

2012-05-14T15:41:00.001-04:00

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) seeks an enthusiastic quantitatively-oriented social scientist with a strong interest in gender to join our international team of highly qualified and motivated scientists working to improve the livelihoods of resource-poor maize and wheat farmers in the developing world. As a member of the CIMMYT Socio-Economics Program, and in close collaboration with biophysical scientists and national- and international partners including other centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and research universities you will undertake research on gender issues in relation to wheat- and maize based farming systems and contribute to strengthening the institutional capacity for incorporating social equity in maize and wheat research for development. The position will be based in any of the CIMMYT regional offices in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia.

Primary research areas include:

Analysis of the drivers of change and options for agricultural productivity growth, food security and sustainable intensification in cereal based systems.
Improving the understanding of farmers’ economic incentives and adoption constraints under different agro-ecological and socioeconomic settings.
Improving the understanding of intra-household decision making processes and their impacts on the gender-specific welfare of individuals in farming households.
Analysis of gender-differentiated technology adoption pathways and their impacts on poverty and food security for targeting technology and policy interventions.
Developing institutional innovations for enhancing gender-equitable access to and use of promising technologies, inputs and output markets for income growth and food security.
Policy options for supporting the development and diffusion of climate smart and sustainable agriculture for enhancing adaptation and reducing vulnerability to climate change in maize and wheat systems.

More information.

Deadline: May 20, 2012

This Week’s Posts

2012-05-10T16:56:00.001-04:00

EMPLOYMENT: Genetic Resources and Food Security Policy Specialist, Bioversity International. The successful candidate will provide scientific support to the project Strengthening national capacities to implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources Project (GRPI 2). Deadline: May 20, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: FAO Senior Gender Officer (Policy). The incumbent will contribute to FAO’s strategic objective on “Gender equity in access to resources, goods, services and decision-making in rural areas”. Deadline: May 23, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: IDRC Director, Agriculture and Environment. The program area focuses on the connection between agricultural development and environmental sustainability in time of global changes. Deadline: May 25, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: Full Professor, Water Resources Management at Wageningen University. The position is chair of the Water Resources Management (WRM) group responsible for the scientific development of interdisciplinary research and education in the field of water resources management, including irrigation, from an integrated socio-technical and socio-ecological perspective. Deadline: May 31, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS: Fostering Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa in an Age of Global Economic Uncertainty. The 2012 Africa Economic Conference will take place from 30 October to 2 November in Kigali, Rwanda. Deadline: June 1, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Design and Dynamics of Institutions for Collective Action' Conference. Scholars from all social sciences, including history, are invited to present papers on the design and long-term evolution of institutions for collective action in comparative perspective. Stress will be laid upon long-term comparative analyses, in a global perspective. Deadline: July 1, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS: 6th Annual Conference on the Political Economy of International Organizations. The 6th Annual Conference on The Political Economy of International Organizations will take place from February 7 – 9, 2013. Deadline (full papers): September 30, 2012

PUBLICATION: How Valuing Nature Can Transform Agriculture. An article in the open-source journal Solutions argues for designing payments for ecosystems services (PES) mechanisms through collective action institutions.

ONLINE RESOURCE: EASYPol, FAO’s Repository of Resources for Policymaking. FAO’s Policy Support Unit develops, publishes and hosts freely downloadable resources to assist policy makers and analysts in the assessment and implementation of development policies.

PUBLICATION: How Valuing Nature Can Transform Agriculture

2012-05-10T10:16:00.001-04:00

An article in the open-source journal Solutions argues for designing payments for ecosystems services (PES) mechanisms through collective action institutions.

Society must increase food production and restore vital ecosystem services or suffer unacceptable consequences. Unfortunately, conventional agriculture may be the single greatest threat to ecosystem function. At the same time, reducing ecologically harmful agricultural inputs or restoring farmlands to native ecosystems threatens food production. We fell into this predicament because we designed agricultural and economic systems that failed to account for ecosystem services, and the path forward requires redesigning both systems. Agroecology—which applies ecological principles to design sustainable farming methods that can increase food production, wean us away from nonrenewable and harmful agricultural inputs, and restore ecosystem services—promises to be an appropriate redesign of agricultural systems. We focus on the example of management-intensive grazing (MIG), which mimics natural grassland-grazer dynamics. Compared to conventional systems, MIG increases pasture growth and cattle production, reduces the use of fertilizers and pesticides, and enhances biodiversity, water quality, nutrient capture, and carbon sequestration. Redesigning economic institutions to reward the provision of ecosystem services and provide the public goods required for the global-scale development and dissemination of agroecology practices still presents a serious challenge. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are a promising mechanism through which those who benefit from ecosystem services can compensate those who provide them, for mutual gain. Numerous schemes already exist that pay landowners for land uses that sequester carbon, regulate and purify water, and enhance biodiversity, but their effectiveness is debated. We propose a form of PES in which the potential public beneficiaries of ecosystem services at the local, national, and global scales fund the research and development, extension work (i.e., farmer education, usually supported by government agencies), and affordable credit required to scale agroecology up to the level required to provide for a growing global population.

The article is here.

CALL FOR PAPERS: Fostering Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa in an Age of Global Economic Uncertainty

2012-05-09T10:58:00.001-04:00

The 2012 Africa Economic Conference will take place from 30 October to 2 November in Kigali, Rwanda, on the theme of “Fostering Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa in an Age of Global Economic Uncertainty”. Policy-oriented papers that are linked to the overall theme of the conference are of particular interest. Papers that address the following other themes are also welcome:

Economic growth, poverty reduction and inclusive development.
Economics of sustainable development including sustainable patterns of consumption and production.
Food and nutrition security and the prospects for a double Green Revolution in Africa.
The changing role of macro-economic and structural policies in Africa.
Private sector development and employment generation.
Challenges to economic, social and environmental sustainable development and implications for the post-2015 agenda.
Deprivation and inequalities in income and non-income measures of welfare.
The role of foreign direct investment, trade, regional integration and new economic partnership.
Strengthening Africa’s economic institutions, building infrastructure and expanding markets for the poor.
Technology transfer and innovation for inclusive and sustainable development.

More information.

Deadline: June 1, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: Genetic Resources and Food Security Policy Specialist, Bioversity International

2012-05-09T10:52:00.001-04:00

Bioversity International is soliciting applications for the position of Genetic Resources and Food Security Policy Specialist, funded by through the Netherlands’ Junior Professional Officer (JPO) scheme.

The Genetic Resources and Food Security Policy Specialist will provide scientific support to the project Strengthening national capacities to implement the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources Project (GRPI 2). GRPI 2 supports efforts in a number of countries, with complementary subregional level activities, to implement the International Treaty’s multilateral system of access of benefit sharing.

The JPO will focus on a) countries’ ability to use the multilateral system to respond to climate-change related challenges to food security, and b) farmers’ capacity to participate directly in the multilateral system.

The JPO will work with teams of researchers comprised of national partners, and staff from Bioversity, the Centre for International Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and numerous universities, and the Treaty Secretariat, to:

Conduct ‘national interdependence and food security studies’
Identify climate change-related challenges to agricultural production in partner countries, and identify potential sources of genetic diversity as part of strategies to adapt to those challenges
Identify policy and legal options for implementation of the Treaty in ways that address bottlenecks and promote availability and use of germplasm for formal and informal sector conservation, breeding and research
Build capacity/empower farmers and farming organizations to take advantage of the multilateral system
Organize activities to draw together participants from the different countries supported by the GRPI 2 project and international experts to develop research and capacity building tools, work on common research products including peer reviewed publications, workshop reports, draft policy options

More information (pdf).

Deadline: May 20, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Design and Dynamics of Institutions for Collective Action' Conference

2012-05-08T17:17:00.001-04:00

From the 29th of November until the 1st of December 2012 a three-day conference will be held at Utrecht University on the theme of the Design and Dynamics of Institutions for Collective Action.

Scholars from all social sciences, including history, are invited to present papers on the design and long-term evolution of institutions for collective action in comparative perspective. Stress will be laid upon long-term comparative analyses, in a global perspective.

Among the questions that will be addressed are:

The regulation of institutions for collective action, e.g.: How do rules evolve? What sanctioning systems are used? How is social control stimulated via regulation?
The dynamics of institutions for collective action, e.g.: What explains institutions’ resilience and why do some fail? What is the role of institutional design? What is the role of internal malfunctioning, and when and why may it
emerge? How do such institutions cope with supra-local forms of pressure and interference?
The emergence of institutions for collective action, e.g.: What kind of problems do Institutions for collective action try to solve? What has been the role of Institutions for collective action across history in contributing to environmental sustainability and communities’ survival? Which role do they play in contemporary less-developed regions? Can Institutions for collective action contribute to reduce the risks of social and economic exclusion in times of economic crisis?
Institutions for collective action, the market and the state, e.g. Which is the interaction between Institutions for collective action, top-down state management and markets? Are there complementarities between them or is it mainly a conflictive relationship? Can Institutions for collective action provide new ideas regarding the institutional re-design necessary for firms and states to cope with new 21st-century challenges?
Institutions for collective action and internal factors, e.g. what is the influence of factors such as group size and group heterogeneity on the functioning of Institutions for collective action?
Institutions for collective action and external factors. How do institutions for collective action interact with exogenous factors such as inheritance patterns, economic development (a.o. market integration), population pressure etc., e.g.: Which exogenous factors influence the emergence of such institutions? What is the effect of exogenous shocks on such institutions? Do crises (economic, social, environmental) have long-lasting effects on the regulation of institutions?

More information (pdf).

Deadline: July 1, 2012

ONLINE RESOURCE: EASYPol, FAO’s Repository of Resources for Policymaking

2012-05-08T10:00:00.001-04:00

Among other activities FAO’s Policy Support Unit develops, publishes and hosts freely downloadable resources to assist policy makers and analysts in the assessment and implementation of development policies. EASYPol is their online repository of resources for policymaking.

What's on EASYPol?
Policy findings, methodological guidelines and capacity development are presented through issue papers, analytical tools (software), case studies, and other conceptual and technical materials. [See latest issues]

About our analytical tools
Our software packages assist policy makers and analysts in the effective analysis of policy impacts and implication and in data management. All tools are tested and currently used in various countries, and can be adapted to a specific country's needs. [See all analytical tools]
Who develops EASYPol resources?
FAO technical experts develop resources, often in collaboration with universities and other institutions involved in policy making. Before publication, resources undergo a peer-review to ensure satisfactory content quality standards.

CALL FOR PAPERS: 6th Annual Conference on the Political Economy of International Organizations

2012-05-07T17:46:00.001-04:00

The 6th Annual Conference on The Political Economy of International Organizations will take place from February 7 – 9, 2013.

The PEIO conference will bring together economists, political scientists and other scholars to address political-economy issues related to any international organization, including the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Union, and also other international organizations that have yet received less attention in the academic literature. Questions we seek to address include how IOs are organized and governed, what are the incentives of governments dealing with IOs as well as the incentives of the bureaucrats who staff them, and what are the effects of IOs on policy outcomes. We will also consider the interaction of IOs with transnational actors such as commercial lobbies and NGOs. Finally, we have a particular interest in the interaction of the international political economy with the domestic political economy of IO members.

More information.

Deadline (full papers): September 30, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: Full Professor, Water Resources Management at Wageningen University

2012-05-07T17:45:00.001-04:00

The full professor is chair of the Water Resources Management (WRM) group responsible for the scientific development of interdisciplinary research and education in the field of water resources management, including irrigation, from an integrated socio-technical and socio-ecological perspective. The WRM group aims at promoting technologies, management practices and policies that contribute to a sustainable use, equitable distribution, and democratic governance of water. Over the last decades, the chair group has evolved from an engineering oriented group focusing on irrigation in developing countries to an interdisciplinary group that looks at interdisciplinary water resources management across scales both in the developed and in the developing world.

The successful candidate is a dynamic person, a recognised authority in the scientific field and a unifying/inclusive team leader. S/he holds a PhD degree in the field of water resources management with a proven track record in interdisciplinary research from a socio-technical and socio-ecological perspective.

For more information. Visit this site and search for vacancy number WU-2012-HL007.

Deadline: May 31, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: FAO Senior Gender Officer (Policy)

2012-05-04T17:19:00.001-04:00

Under the overall guidance of the Director and the Principal Officer, ESW, and as leader or member of one or more multidisciplinary task teams, the incumbent will contribute to FAO’s strategic objective on “Gender equity in access to resources, goods, services and decision-making in rural areas”. In particular, the incumbent will:

lead and monitor policy support for member countries to promote progress and results on gender equitable policies in the agriculture and food sectors;
develop peer-review quality research and report on the impact of policies to eliminate gender inequalities in food and agriculture, with a particular focus on emerging trends;
provide guidance and technical support on national capacity development efforts and regional partnerships to enhance government policy making skills;
contribute to and improve the policy content of FAO’s flagship publications and communications in collaboration with member governments, partners and clients;
foster and manage strategic partnerships to plan, allocate and mobilize resources, update knowledge, and enhance FAO’s capacities to deliver at multiple levels;
represent the Division in internal meetings and FAO in interagency and other meetings dealing with gender, equity, and rural employment issues; perform other related duties as required.

More information (pdf).

Deadline: May 23, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: IDRC Director, Agriculture and Environment

2012-05-04T17:18:00.001-04:00

The Agriculture and Environment (AE) program area focuses on the connection between agricultural development and environmental sustainability in time of global changes. It recognizes that providing basic goods such as food and water requires increased productivity and environmental sustainability as well as ensuring improved human health and sound economic development.

The AE program area is composed of four programming units that were launched in April 2010 for a period of five years:

Agriculture and Food Security (AFS),
Ecosystems and Human Health (Ecohealth),
Climate Change and Water (CCW), and
Environmental Economics (EE).

Reporting to the Vice-President Program and Partnership, the Director provides strategic intelligence and promotes its effective utilization in the design and execution of the Program Area; provides intellectual leadership in research for development and in the identification of new research areas; contributes to policy development, planning, management and evaluation of the Program Area at corporate and regional levels; manages a team of professionals and support staff in a matrix environment based in Ottawa and overseas Regional Offices; and strives to enhance and expand partnerships with Canadian and international agencies of other developed and developing regions.

More information.

Deadline: May 25, 2012

This Week’s Posts

2012-05-03T17:48:00.001-04:00

EMPLOYMENT: Research Positions at FEEM’s Climate Change and Sustainable Development Research Programme. Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei is looking to recruit motivated and talented researchers to cover open positions within the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Research Programme. Deadline: open

EMPLOYMENT: Forest Risk Commodities Researcher, Global Canopy Program. The Forest Footprint Disclosure project is designed to help investors identify how a company’s activities and supply chains contribute to deforestation and use this 'forest footprint' to assist in their evaluation of companies. Deadline: May 10, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: OXFAM Research Consultancies in Tanzania, Ghana, and Zambia. These research positions will examine the gender impacts of corporate land investments in these three countries. Deadline: May 10, 2012

EMPLOYMENT: RECOFTC Senior Program Officer, Livelihoods and Markets. RECOFTC is seeking a Senior Program Officer to work as the focal person for further development and advancement of Livelihoods and Markets. The successful applicant will be based at RECOFTC’s Bangkok headquarters and will be required to travel frequently to RECOFTC’s focal countries and beyond. Deadline: May 25, 2012

FELLOWSHIP: Social Science Post-Doctoral Fellow, Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI). The Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites applications for this position to be based in the Council’s Executive Secretariat in Dakar. Deadline: May 31, 2012

TRAINING: Course on Land, Property and Conflict. The US Institute of Peace (USIP) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will organize their fourth Course on Land, Property and Conflict from 21 to 24 May at the USIP Headquarters in Washington DC. Deadline: open

CALL FOR PAPERS: Natural Resources Forum, a UN Sustainable Development Journal. This quarterly journal issued by the Division for Sustainable Development of the United Nations calls for papers for a new series on the themes of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development at its 20th and 21st sessions, over the 2012-2014 period.

ONLINE RESOURCE: Land Matrix: The Online Public Database on Land Deals. The Land Matrix is a valuable new tool that allows users to track, analyze, and produce visualizations on large-scale land deals.

PUBLICATION: IFPRI 2011 Global Food Policy Report. IFPRI has released the first of a new series of annual reports, providing an in-depth, contextualized look at the past year’s major food policy developments and events.

FELLOWSHIP: Social Science Post-Doctoral Fellow, Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI)

2012-05-03T16:42:00.001-04:00

The Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites applications for the position of Post-Doctoral Fellow in its Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI). The position will be based in the Council’s Executive Secretariat in Dakar. The Fellow would also be expected to spend part of their time participating in various programs of the University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in terms of existing collaboration agreements between CODESRIA and UCAD. The RFGI is a joint programme of CODESRIA, the Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP) Initiative of the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is an Africa-wide environmental-governance research and training program focusing on enabling responsive and accountable decentralization to strengthen the representation of forest-based rural people in local-government decision making. Further information on RFGI can be found at www.codesria.org. RFGI project description can also be viewed at: http://sdep.beckman.illinois.edu/files/RFGI_Programme_Summary_and_Introduction.pdf.

Under the overall authority of the Executive Secretary and the direct supervision of the RFGI Coordinator, the Post-Doctoral Fellow will be based in Dakar and will work closely with the RFGI Coordinator on the day-to-day scientific management of the RFGI. The Post-Doctoral Fellow will also be required to contribute to the research and training objectives of the RFGI.

The key tasks and responsibilities of the Programme Manager will include:

Assist the Program Coordinator with the Scientific management of the day-to-day activities of the RFGI;
Develop and carry out research on a topic relevant to the objectives of the RFGI.
Provide support and technical backstopping to researchers in different parts of Africa, and collaborating researchers elsewhere;
Liaison with RFGI researchers;
Participate in the review of proposals, research reports, background papers and manuscripts commissioned by the RFGI core team.
Assist the Coordinator with the preparation of reports and monitoring of all programme obligations to funders;
Production of draft quarterly, half-yearly and annual reports.

The Post-Doctoral Fellow is expected to be hands-on, self-motivating and target-oriented individual requiring minimum supervision. She/he must also be capable of leading and motivating research teams and individual researchers.

Requirements

Candidates for this position must:

Have recently (within the last 5 years) graduated with a PhD in the Social Sciences with a focus on environmental governance, decentralised local governance or closely related field;
Be familiar with the challenges of social-science research in Africa;
Be familiar with the trends in the global social sciences/humanities;
Have some experience or interest in programme monitoring and evaluation
Have experience in the organisation of research and research meetings of various types;
Be fully conversant with current Information technology and possess knowledge of the use of ICT tools in research;
Be fluent in French and English
Have excellent writing skills.

How to Apply

All applicants wishing to be considered for this position are required to supply the following documents:

A cover letter expressing your interest;
A one-page essay on your research interests and how they may relate to RFGI;
2 samples of your published work;
A detailed CV describing your professional experience;
Three reference letters, two of which must be academic references.

Both the application and the reference letters should be sent by email by 31^st May 2012 to:

The Executive Secretary
CODESRIA
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV
P.O. Box 3304 CP 18524
Dakar, SENEGAL

Executive.secretary@codesria.sn

Deadline: May 31, 2012