R4D Bangladesh

Improvement of rice genotypes for salt affected areas of Bangladesh.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:26:00 GMT

Miscellaneous M. R. Islam, M. A. Salam, T. L. Aditya, M. A. R. Bhuiyan, M. A. Rahman, M. S. Rahman, S. Khatun and H. U. Ahmed 2008 International Journal of Biological Research (2008) 4 (5) 81-85 This paper reports on studies conducted to: Identify salt tolerant donors adaptable to rainfed lowland rice ecosystems; and Develop high yielding salt tolerant genotypes for irrigated ecosystems for increasing productivity of the coastal areas of Bangladesh.

Participatory variety selection for salt tolerant rice

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:17:00 GMT

Miscellaneous M. R. Islam, M. A. Salam, M. A. R. Bhuiyan, M. A. Rahman and G. B. Gregorio 2008 International Journal of Biological Research (2008) 4 (3) 21-25 Breeders are habituated to develop rice varieties on the centralized breeding approach. Varieties recommended in this method are popular to farmers at favorable rice production systems and often they are not suitable for stressed soil like saline prone land. To develop varieties suitable for saline prone areas, farmers participation are directly involved to choice variety as they want. A large range of salt tolerant improved genotypes was grown in mother and baby system trials of participatory variety selection (PVS) at five coastal areas of Bangladesh. Experiments in farmers fields with farmers participation based on their needs has helped identify high yielding varieties for their lands. The success of PVS in the five coastal localities has convinced researchers and partner organizations to mirror the appreciation for this approach of rice variety development in risk prone environment. Among 234 genotypes the chosen five for both of Boro and T. Aman seasons of PVS were included in the national variety release system.

Plant clinics uncovered.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:17:00 GMT

Miscellaneous Danielsen, S.; Kelly, P. 2009 Global Plant Clinic, CABI UK, Egham, UK, 24 pp. Rural plant clinics have been implemented in Bangladesh by RDA, AAS and Shushilan since 2005, and there are currently 19 clinics in the areas of Bogra, Natore and Satkhira. This report documents a visit to Bangladesh from 18 February to 1 March 2009 which set out to follow up on a workshop held at Satkhira in 2008 on monitoring and networking. Two monitoring visits were conducted to clinics at Moukhara and Radhanogar. Training needs were identified from the visits to the clinics and talks with the plant doctors. To promote the development of networks between the rural plant clinics and formal institutions, visits were made to the USDA-funded Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic at Bangladesh Agricultural University, the Agricultural Health Care Clinic ( a private, self-funded business), and a meeting was held with DANIDA ASPS (Agricultural Sector Programme Support) advisor.

BRRI dhan47: a salt tolerant variety for Boro season, IRRN, IRRI, Philippines.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:55:00 GMT

Miscellaneous M. A. Salam, M. A. Rahman, M. A. R. Bhuiyan, K. Uddin, and M. R. A. Sarker, R. Yasmeen and M. S. Rahman, 2007 IRRN 32.1, 42-43, June 2007 A salt tolerant rice variety for Bangladesh is reported.

Fighting The Battle Against Disease - Leeds Researchers Take On The World

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:52:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2006 Medical News Today, 02 Mar 2006 This news reports the start of the COMDIS programme fighting malaria, TB and HIV.

COMDIS Bulletin 1

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:46:00 GMT

Miscellaneous L. Brehmer 2009 COMDIS Bulletin 1, Autumn 2009. 6 pp. The aim of this bulletin is to allow COMDIS partners to share updates with each other. It contains information on events, activities and new projects in the COMDIS programme.

COMDIS Brochure

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:14:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 2 pp. This updated brochure introduces the COMDIS programme on HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

Newsletter 7, Religions and Development Research Programme

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 Newsletter 7, Religions and Development Research Programme, University of Birmingham, UK, 3 pp. September 2009 News on events and publications from the RaD programme is presented.

Marker of identity: religious political parties and welfare work - the case of Jma' at-i-Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:52:00 GMT

Miscellaneous Masooda Bano 2009 Working Paper No. 34, Religions and Development Research Programme, University of Birmingham, UK, 43 pp. Why do so many religious political parties have substantial welfare programmes/ Is their welfare work merely a means of winning votes or does it serve other purposes?

An investigation of the welfare programmes of the Jama'at-i-Islami parties in Pakistan and Bangladesh shows that they:-

are involved in a wide range of charitable, welfare and service provision activities, including health care and training, education, emergence relief, water supply and orphan support
charge a basic (below market rate) fee for the services they provide (except to those who cannot afford to pay), which users are prepared to pay because of the perceived good quality.
are organized in very different ways for historical, political and practical reasons: in Pakistan the Jama'at has established its own network of specialised or multi-sectoral welfare and service delivery organizations, whereas in Bangladesh (where the organisation has periodically been restricted or banned) members play key roles in the management of apparently independent organizations
demonstrate the parties' commitment to their religious ideology, especially social justice, which is seen as central to Islam
require a very organized party structure, meaning that not all religious parties can maintain large welfare programmes
deliver their services through networks of voluntary organizations, which rely on managers who are party members and volunteers, rather than paid professionals.

The claim that political parties are 'membership groups' that compete with other membership groups for citizens' loyalty and resources is borne out by this study.

Exploring the broader use of Community Therapeutic Care

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:32:00 GMT

Current High levels of poverty, food security, childhood illness and HIV/AIDS combine to increase the risk of malnutrition, which is associated with more than 50% of childhood deaths. Services to treat severe acute malnutrition in many areas of the developing world are often not able to reach those most in need and have failed to achieve a sustainable impact. To produce and disseminate evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of CTC in multiple contexts through research, programme development and documentation of best practice.

This proposal aims to achieve outputs as follows:

A. Substantial evidence of where CTC is appropriate and how to maximize its effectiveness
1. CTC will be the internationally accepted approach and practice for a nutrition response in humanitarian emergencies and will be incorporated into policy and programme documents of international, national and local institutions and organisations
2. Evidence will be generated to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of integrating CTC within primary health care services as part of emergency preparedness and disaster mitigation, as well as treatment of severe malnutrition in non-emergency/development context as demonstrated by increased number of MOH-run integrated CTC programmes.
3. Refined CTC models for different country contexts (e.g. conflict, disaster preparedness/mitigation, HIV/AIDs, development) incorporated into policies and programmes in five (5) target countries at national, regional and district levels

B. Improved, affordable therapeutic products available for use in CTC programmes
1. Credible published evidence that local recipe RUTFs made from local crops are as effective as Plumpynut® in promoting recovery from acute malnutrition.
2. Locally produced RUTF integrated into new and ongoing CTC programmes thereby increasing stability of supply and eliminating cost of RUTF importation.
3. Alternative compositions of Ready to Use Supplementary Foods (RUSF) developed and proved to be effective
4. A growing body of evidence of the effectiveness of RUTF consumption on the rehabilitation of severe acute malnutrition in PLWHA
5. Evidence of the effectiveness of the addition of Synbiotic to RUTF in promoting recovery and decreases mortality and morbidity in acute malnutrition and HIV/AIDS.

C. Dissemination of results/best practices and expanded capacity to implement CTC
1. Broad dissemination of CTC best practices through national and international training and workshops
2. Key international and national organisations involved in translating results into policies and practice
3. Cadre of health professionals trained in CTC implementation in target countries

Learning, Technology Acquisition and Governance Challenges in Developing Countries.

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Miscellaneous M. H. Khan 2009 114 pp. Development is fundamentally about learning to use modern technologies to create jobs and prosperity in poor countries. Poor countries cannot produce their way out of poverty despite their low wages because even if they have some formal skills, they cannot actually use modern machines at competitive levels of efficiency. The most important missing ingredient is tacit knowledge, the knowledge that cannot be learnt in manuals but has to be acquired through learning-by-doing. The implication of this simple observation is that startup firms in developing countries will have to finance periods of loss-making while the tacit knowledge is being acquired through practice. The market failure that constrains economic development most seriously is that investors cannot be sure that they will be able to enforce the levels of effort that will make this investment viable. The institutional and governance conditions that ensure high levels of effort in learning in at least some sectors are vital and perhaps the most important preconditions for any policy aiming to sustain development.

Old-style investment policies failed because they could not ensure effort. The abandonment of ambitious industrial policy did not remove the market failure, which still needs to be addressed. Today, firms and countries are trying to finance these learning attempts in a multitude of different ways. The success of countries and sectors in the market depends on the variables that determine whether their financing strategies will work. We argue that the effectiveness of any financing instrument applied to the learning process depends on the interaction and appropriateness of three other sets of variables: the governance agencies implicitly responsible for enforcing the terms of the instrument, the firm structures describing the internal hierarchies of firms, their relationships with the state and the markets they operate in and the broadly defined political settlement that describes the relevant distribution of power between the different agents involved in the learning and financing process.

Through a set of extensive case studies of Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Tanzania, we show that this approach can explain the emergence of competitive success in their most important high growth sectors. The success of these sectors depended not just on access to the market in a liberal economy but much more fundamentally on deliberate and accidental factors that combined specific financing instruments with appropriate combinations of governance, market and political factors that ensured high levels of effort, and therefore the achievement of global competitiveness. As these factors are interactive, blueprints are not transferable, but the methodology provides a guide for thinking through in policy terms, the types of financing instruments and governance capabilities that are most likely to work in different contexts. The analysis also prioritizes different types of market failures affecting technology acquisition, and allows us to think through the most effective way of sequencing policy. It establishes the importance of limiting technology support to sectors where success is most likely. But it also establishes that without specific policies to develop technological capabilities, the market by itself will not pull sectors, regions and countries with low capabilities towards sustained development.

The nature, extent and eradication of homelessness in developing countries

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:34:00 GMT

Completed An in-depth study of homelessness in nine developing countries (Bangladesh, South Africa, China, Zimbabwe, India, Indonesia, Egypt, Ghana and Peru) was conducted. The nine countries chosen for the study presented a range of housing and homelessness situation and degrees of poverty. They gave a range of different cultural experiences and understanding of housing and homelessness. To establish the nature and extent of homelessness in developing countries; to formulate workable definitions of homelessness suitable for developing country situations; to identify innovative practice in eradicating homelessness, in ameliorating its effects and in getting people off the streets; to disseminate findings through electronic and paper means. This will be done in relation to children as well as adults. The international conference on 'Homelessness: A Global Perspective', India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India, 9-13 January 2006 was developed to disseminate the current findings and to identify ways to take the work forward.

Integrated approaches halve pesticide use

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Using an integrated pest management strategy to control the aubergine pest - the eggplant fruit and shoot borer - has dramatically reduced pesticide use on the crop in Bangladesh and India. Control involved good sanitation practices in crops, resistant varieties, biological control methods, and a wide-scale publicity and promotion programme

Improving income and nutrition by incorporating mungbean in cereal fallows in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:59:00 GMT

Completed The new improved short-duration, high yielding mungbean varieties resistant against Mungbean yellow mosaic virus were multiplied and over 51,000 tons of seed were produced and distributed to farmers.

On-farm trials by a network of public and private sector organizations in India, Bangladesh and Nepal were conducted to evaluate the improved varieties. This project follows on from R6719, Promotion of Mungbean Research Outputs for Farmer Adoption in South Asia. Farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains adopt and integrate the Mungbean yellow mosaic virus-resistant/tolerant, short duration mungbean cultivars in the rice-wheat cropping system

Mungbean consumption promoted in South Asia for a better balanced-diet. Methodologies to encourage adoption by farmers should be location-specific, considering socio-economic conditions and constraints of the beneficiary targets.

It is essential to recommend and demonstrate to farmers good agricultural practices to be able to reach the potential yield of the improved mungbean cultivars.

Partnerships among public, private and non-profit communities have been shown to be essential in the effort.

As a nitrogen-fixing legume, the incorporation of mungbean into cereal cropping system added Nitrogen into the soil to be used by the succeeding crops.

The iron bio-availability from mungbean consumption can be enhanced by modifying the locally existing foods.

Implementation and promotion of an IPM strategy for control of eggplant fruit and shoot borer in South Asia

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Completed To expand promotion and implementation of the integrated pest management strategy for the control of eggplant fruit and shoot borer to farmers in Bangladesh and India. This project follows on from R7465 (C). The implementation of pilot projects on farmers fields was an effective way to demonstrate the utility of the IPM strategy in reducing EFSB damage while reducing pesticide use and labor costs.

Pilot project sites also served as venues to organize field days, bringing together participating farmers, their neighbors and other farmers from outside the community, providing suitable fora for dialogues between scientists and farmers.

When elected officials attended such events, it led to dialog between them which could lead to the IPM promotion at the government policy level.

Press were attracted to these events and coverage of pesticide abuse and IPM strategy in eggplant production could spread the message nationwide.

Attendance of local pesticide dealers enticed them to commercialize and stock pheromone lures and traps, making these IPM tools readily available to farmers at competitive prices. The IPM strategy was implemented and disseminated via pilot project demonstrations on 2,084 farmers fields and training courses to 9,984 farmers in India and Bangladesh.

Using Art for Social Change

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:00:00 GMT

The Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme is putting the arts at the centre of their research and communications work.

Connecting Researchers, Journalists and Activists to Change Policy

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Collaboration between researchers, journalists and activists developed through Panos Londons Relay Programme in the Northeast Indian state of Assam can create positive relationships and ultimately contribute to real policy change

Many Poor Countries Will Suffer as Climate Change Damages Fisheries

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:00:00 GMT

A new DFID-funded study is the first to identify national economies that are likely to suffer most as climate change imperils fisheries. Research on fisheries worldwide warns that climate change combined with fisheries dependency and limited capacity to adapt pose a dangerous triple threat to countries in Africa, South America, and Asia

Going to Scale: The Potential of Community-led Total Sanitation

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:44:00 GMT

Current Sanitation remains one of the biggest development challenges in developing countries. Around 6,000 people, mainly children under five, die everyday due to poor sanitation, hygiene and water.

Sanitation-related diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera continue to seriously undermine human health and well-being, particularly in South Asia where 900 million people have no access to adequate sanitation. Improving sanitation is therefore key to achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing child mortality and combating disease.

In recent years, the impact of the Community led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach has drawn significant attention. At the heart of this approach is a shift away from the focus on supporting toilet construction for individual households, to an approach that seeks to create open defecation free villages through an emphasis on attitudinal and behaviour change of the whole community. CLTS is an approach in which people in rural communities are facilitated to do their own appraisal and analysis of their sanitation situation and the extent and consequences of open defecation. They are not instructed or taught but allowed to come to their own conclusions, and take their own action.

In its classical form, a small team of facilitators conduct a triggering. The facilitators may be government, NGO or project staff, or Natural Leaders from other communities. The PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) principle that they can do it is fundamental and PRA methods are used. These include participatory mapping on the ground to show where people live and where they defecate, transect walks to visit and stand in those places, calculations of quantities of shit (the crude local word is used) produced by each household and the community, and identifying pathways to the mouth leading to the shocking recognition that we are eating one anothers shit. This triggering is designed to facilitate the communities recognition of the negative externalities to all as a consequence of the sanitary practices of some, and thus lead to a moment of ignition and a collective decision and action to end open defecation. When triggering is successful, Natural Leaders emerge. People dig holes and build latrines. There are no standard models and construction is by self-help.

There is a growing recognition that this approach offers tremendous potential for developing countries to achieve their MDG targets for sanitation. This has resulted in this approach spreading from Bangladesh where it originated in 2000 to India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Pakistan and Nepal in Asia; Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia in Africa, Bolivia in Latin America and Yemen in the Middle East.

OBJECTIVE:
To make a difference by reducing the deprivation and enhancing the wellbeing of poor people through research to generate knowledge and insights concerning CLTS, through participatory action research engaging with practice, and through the sharing of knowledge, experience and insights across communities, organisations and countries.

PROJECT AIMS

Research to understand on-the-ground realities of CLTS and issues of spread, scale and quality
The research examines some of the core assumptions of CLTS around hardware subsidies, local notions of sanitation/hygiene, facilitation, sustainability and replicability. It is concerned with identifying on-the-ground realities through interdisciplinary research drawing on sociological, anthropological and political and institutional analysis. The project involves research in communities with and without CLTS, and in various stages of moving towards it, looking at the processes of ignition, adoption, dissemination and spread, local dynamics within communities, the effects of Government and NGO programmes with and without subsidy or other inducements, and the relationships between bureaucratic norms and imperatives, and programmes at the community level. Another issue for consideration is the social and physical sustainability of total sanitation. The research will seek to identify the most favourable conditions under which total sanitation can be achieved.
Participatory action learning to engage with practice and improve processes and outcomes
Participatory Action Learning engages with the facilitators and implementing organisations (both NGOs and governments) in ways which will enhance learning and improve practice and policy. Areas of attention include the selection, training and mentoring of facilitators; processes of preparation, ignition and follow up and support; forms of support for external and also community facilitators, networking at local and other levels, and overcoming obstacles.
Networking and sharing between organisations and countries to influence policy and practice
The aim of the networking and influencing component is to optimise the exchange of experiences and learning and to have an impact on policy. The networking activities facilitate sharing, learning and functional linkages between and across organisations, programmes and countries via Sharing and Learning workshops, presentations at UK and international events to share research findings and policy-relevant lessons, experiences and insights, a CLTS mailing list and a website. The CLTS website www.communityledtotalsanitation.org serves as a global hub for CLTS, connecting the network of practitioners, communities, NGOs, agencies, researchers, governments, donors and others involved or interested in CLTS. The site, which contains practical information about the approach, information on CLTS in different countries, research papers, relevant news and events and many other useful materials, serves as an up-to-date virtual resource centre and a space for sharing and learning on CLTS across organisations, countries and sectors. The site reflects the rich, varied and dynamic nature of the approach and hopes to encourage debate around key aspects of CLTS in order to improve policy and practice. The CLTS website is populated with contributions from those engaged and interested in CLTS around the world.

Book on CLTS
Website hot topic on CLTS on livelihoods connect (now replaced by www.communityledtotalsanitation.org)
Establishment of a CLTS network
IDS Working Papers on CLTS and related issues
Events to facilitate sharing and learning on CLTS
Practical publications (eg Handbook on CLTS)

Through generating cutting edge knowledge on CLTS and sanitation, and ensuring that lessons are learnt and shared across countries and organisations, the project supports the development and spread of good CLTS practices and supportive policies which will contribute to major gains in human wellbeing and help to address the MDGs.

The research that has been carried out by IDS and its partners in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia will be published in the form of research papers and a book on CLTS in 2009.

The main output of the action learning to date has been the CLTS Handbook published by Plan (UK) and IDS.

Networking activities have established an active and well-connected global CLTS network with linkages and partnerships across organisations, sectors, countries and continents; linking practitioners, researchers, policymakers, governments, NGOs and donors, facilitating exchanges of experience and information with the aim of contributing to policy and practice. Goodwill, momentum and interest have focused on the CLTS website which is the core global resource for CLTS. A new website dedicated to CLTS, which replaces the old hot topic on livelihoods connect, was launched in December 2008: www.communityledtotalsanitation.org.

Sharing and Learning Workshops on CLTS (at SACOSAN II and III and AfricaSan+5).
Workshop reports:

Bongartz, Petra (forthcoming) One Day Sharing and Learning Workshop on Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), 17th November 2008, Workshop Report.
Bongartz, Petra (2008) CLTS Sharing and Learning Workshop at AfricaSan, Durban, South Africa, 17th February 2008
Bongartz, Petra (2007) CLTS Workshop at SACOSAN II (Second South Asian Conference on Sanitation), Islamabad, Pakistan, 19th September 2006.
Chambers, Robert (2008) Durban remarks: Lessons learned with CLTS, 19th February 2008.
A global conference on CLTS (December 2008) to present research findings, take stock of global developments and experiences with and research on CLTS, and mark the end of the Year of Sanitation.

What Development Interventions Work? The long-term impact and cost-effectiveness of anti-poverty interventions in Bangladesh.

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:47:00 GMT

Current Bangladesh has experienced impressive reductions in poverty over the past 10 years. The percentage of the population living in poverty fell from 51 percent in 1995 to 40 percent in 2005 while there have been substantial improvements in non-monetary indicators of the poorest. Nevertheless, poverty remains a key challenge with more than 50 million people living in extreme poverty. Because of the urgent need to reduce poverty, Government and NGOs in Bangladesh have undertaken many important interventions designed to help individuals and households escape poverty, many of these targeted to women. While many evaluations have attempted to assess their short-term effectiveness, relatively little is known about their long-term impact nor is there much in the way of comparative assessment across interventions. The objectives of this project are threefold:
(1) to estimate the long-term impact of three antipoverty interventions/microfinance, agricultural technologies, and educational transfers--on a range of monetary and non-monetary measures of well-being;
(2) to compare the cost-effectiveness of these interventions in attaining their poverty-reduction and other development objectives;
(3) to stimulate a policy dialogue among key stakeholders inside Bangladesh and contribute to the design of future antipoverty interventions in Bangladesh and South Asia.

Mining, Social Networks and Rural Livelihoods in Bangladesh

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:02:00 GMT

Current In recent years, mining has emerged as an explosive political issue in Bangladesh, pitting those whose livelihoods depend upon land where mines are to be developed against multinational corporations and the state. Indeed, recent protests point to a clash between the state sponsored push for economic growth, in which foreign investment and the extraction of coal and gas are key to achieving economic development, and local populations, for whom the loss of land means the destruction of livelihoods and physical displacement. For the most vulnerable, who sharecrop, labour or 'gather' on affected land, and who rarely, if ever, receive compensation, informal social protection provided by locally based networks and relationships is often a crucial safety net; for these households, physical displacement and the loss of immediate access to longstanding social networks may lead to destitution. Here, it would seem, the development of mining may boost national growth statistics, but leads directly to impoverishment. Yet despite the urgency of these issues, and their impact on national poverty reduction goals, no research has yet been conducted on the relationship between mining and the disruption of social networks and rural livelihoods in Bangladesh. 1. Data which can be used to draw conclusions about the differential impacts of mining on livelihoods and poverty in Bangladesh, with analytical focus on the role of social networks.

2. Recommendations concerning the role of practices of CSR in poverty reduction, and how these might be best targeted and used in contexts of mining.

3. Tools and 'best practice' recommendations for the development of social impact assessment in contexts of land loss and displacement.

4. New understandings of the dynamics of resistance and protest movements in South Asia

5. An ethnography of the lived experience of globalisation and industrialisation

Tropical forests in poverty alleviation: from household data to global-comparative analysis

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:53:00 GMT

Current Forests are important to the rural livelihoods of poor people in developing countries. But due to the paucity of quality data on rural household economies in the tropics and sub-tropics, we know very little about just how important forests are, for what specific purposes they primarily serve, and for how many people forests are vital assets. This impedes the design of effective strategies for forest-based poverty alleviation. This project aims to fill these serious empirical gaps by using a uniform methodology to gather high-quality primary household data in about 25 sites with tropics-wide coverage. The global data bank (5-6000 households) with complete annualized income information and other economic and non-economic data will be used for a global-comparative analysis of forest-poverty linkages in rural household economies. Our goal is to analyse the general importance of various forest types in different aspects of rural livelihoods, identify major causes of geographical variation, and point to tangible options for interventions that actively enhance forest-based poverty alleviation. Specifically, we will test for hypotheses related to the alleged pro-poor role of market integration and of collective forest mangement at the local level. The data will also enable tests of broader microeconomic hypotheses regarding the role of natural resources in rural livelihoods, e.g. to what extent natural resources serve as seasonal gap-fillers, as safety nets in response to shocks, and as means of accumulating assets that eventually can lift people out of poverty. The project is integrated into the Poverty and Environment Network (PEN), coordinated by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). PEN is an ongoing collaborative research effort between CIFOR, a network of PhD students, and external experts from ten universities including the University of East Anglia. PEN data collection is already advanced; we thus seek financial support over a three-year period mainly to establish a global data bank, to undertake the global-comparative data analysis, and to carry out synthesis & dissemination work. Research results will be communicated through a variety of media to the main intended beneficiaries that include academia, donors, multilaterals, and policy makers at different levels. The primary project objective is:
I. To undertake a comprehensive global-comparative analysis of the role of forests and environmental income in preventing and reducing rural poverty, built on a centrally coordinated pan-tropical data bank with high-quality primary household and village data collected though PEN (research outputs);
The secondary project objectives are:
II. To elaborate recommendations for tangible forest-poverty interventions, and feed them into national and global policy processes (policy impacts);
III. To enhance the ability of project partners in using best-practice methods for conducting income-accounting rural household surveys, and to suggest improved research methodologies for future studies of environmental incomes and rural livelihoods (capacity building and methodological innovation).

What can be done to beat urban poverty?

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:00:00 GMT

DFID-funded research by Practical Action has improved understanding of the impact of different approaches to urban poverty reduction through research and sharing the experiences of Southern-based NGOs

CREATE seeks nominations for Commonwealth Scholarships

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:00:00 GMT

The Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) has been asked to nominate two suitable candidates for the Commonwealth Scholarship scheme to pursue studies in educational access

New project will promote ecologically-based rodent management in Bangladesh

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A new project, funded as part of the Research into Use programme, will build on previous research to develop the use of ecologically-based rodent management techniques in Bangladesh

Chronic Poverty is 'a global emergency that we cannot afford to ignore'

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:00:00 GMT

The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09: New solutions to escape poverty traps reminds us that 'alleviating chronic poverty is not merely a question of economics. It is a moral imperative' according to UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

Cutting diarrhoeal diseases in the rural poor of Bangladesh

Thu, 29 May 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A Health Impact Study Baseline Survey, conducted by Institute of Cholera and Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) looked at water use, sanitation and behaviour in poor rural areas of Bangladesh. Hand washing before eating food could cut incidence of diarrhoea by half in poor households in Bangladesh

COMDIS: Overcoming barriers to tuberculosis treatment and diagnosis

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Presentations by COMDIS researchers were made at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Tuberculosis on 1 April 2008.

New project to look at long term impact of poverty interventions in Bangladesh.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:00:00 GMT

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) are to lead a project investigating the long-term impact of three anti-poverty interventions.

Pathways of Women's Empowerment

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Current

Pathways of Womens Empowerment is an international research and communications programme established in 2006 which links academics with activists and practitioners to find out what works to enhance womens empowerment. The aim is to make these pathways of change visible and to build on them to inspire a radical shift in policy and practice. By involving policy actors and practitioners directly in the research and learning, they hope the work will be in itself a catalyst for change.

The programme investigates what enables women, individually and collectively, to empower themselves, how they can sustain these changes, and how development agencies' policies support or hinder this process in order to make such changes visible and to build on them to inspire a radical shift in policy and practice. The key areas of focus are:

Locating empowerment in women's everyday lives, applying a range of methodological and analytical strategies to gain a better understanding of how positive change happens in women's lives.
Tracing policy processes that seek to promote women's empowerment in order to understand the enabling conditions, strategies and tactics for achieving policy change.
Understanding strategies for change, seeking to reveal the factors for success and asking what works and what is specific to particular contexts, and what more generic lessons can be drawn.

Research strategy implemented for systematic identification of pathways of women's empowerment in four thematic areas.

Four centres of regional excellence in applied research strengthened CEGENSA, NEIM, SRC/AUC and BRAC University with capacity to implement and support policy research on womens empowerment within their regions.

Associated global institutions UNIFEM, DFID and other donors, IDS strengthened in their capacity to make use of innovative and critical research.

Communications strategy achieved, having influenced key stakeholders to take RPC research findings into account in policy practice.

Consortium governance and management system achieved horizontal working practices and power sharing.

The Mid Term Review of 2009 found that most of the outputs have either been achieved or are in the pipeline and nearing completion. Some of the real successes highlighted include:

Knowledge outputs of extremely high academic quality, the consistency of the quality is remarkable for a consortium comprising such diverse locations, the outputs are diverse in form, content and style.
A significant number of policy-advocacy and public education oriented communications materials have also been produced and used in the form of pod casts, photo exhibitions, films and videos.
Capacity of the research partners enhanced. There is some variation, in relation to the increased capacity of individual and teams compared to improved institutional capacity.
Communications is not an "end of pipe" activity but a central part of the programme.
Some stunning examples of creative communications work across all hubs: Stories for Change (Bangladesh), a pilot TV drama on mythical stories of Nigerian women, the Changing Times, Changing Lives photography course and exhibition (Bangladesh), work with Ghanaian Foundation for Female Photojournalists.
The programme created a transparent, democratic, egalitarian and effective system of managing the multiple partnerships and relationships within its structure.

Stories of Change

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Pathways South Asia has developed a documentary film to highlight the research conducted under the DFID-funded Pathways of Women's Empowerment Research Programme in Bangladesh

Citizenship DRC Participatory Video Project

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:00:00 GMT

Encouraging early results from the Citizenship DRC Participatory Video Project suggest videos are providing new ways for research participants to articulate their views, and promote debate with stakeholders

Religions and Development Research Programme Consortium (RaD)

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:14:00 GMT

Current Research will be based in comparative analysis of world faiths (especially Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, but also Buddhism, Sikhism and traditional belief systems) across Africa and Asia, with a focus on Nigeria, Tanzania, India and Pakistan. Select additional cases will enrich the research's international comparative dimensions. Engagement with international agencies, governments and non-governmental users, especially faith groups, at international, national and local levels, will drive the research, provide audiences for the findings and create opportunities for outputs to ease dialogue and collaboration.

Director: Professor Carole Rakodi Through interdisciplinary research, the RPC will develop the shared concepts and analytical tools currently lacked, in order to improve understanding of relationships between faiths and development. It will enable positive dialogue between development partners to facilitate achievement of development goals, especially the MDGs. Interconnected projects will generate new knowledge on·relationships between
* religious values and beliefs and development concepts and practices, including perceptions of well-being and attitudes to corruption;
*faiths, governance and development, for example in Poverty Reduction Strategy processes, post-conflict development and movements for social change;
*the involvement of religious organisations in development activities and the delivery of services such as education and health care;
*religious transnationalism and development

Rights of the Camp-dwelling 'Bihari' Community in Bangladesh

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:00:00 GMT

In 2007 the government of Bangladesh decided to award citizenship rights to a disenfranchised ethnic grouping, the Bihari, following a campaign by the DFID-funded Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit

Climate change and cities

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A new issue of id21 insights looks at the effect of climate change on urban areas in developing nations

Involving the poor in urban development

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Livelihoods of micro entrepreneurs should be taken into account in infrastructure and service development

Time is money for poor rural travellers too

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Travel time savings associated with transport projects in developing countries are often underestimated as benefits to rural economies

Taking a look at the bigger picture

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Farmers and fishers involved in adopting Integrated Floodplain Management in Bangladesh have benefited from higher catches, higher incomes from crops and greater community solidarity

Managing the world's fish resources

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Over 70 per cent of world fisheries are fully, or over exploited. This programme has developed guidelines, to improve resource management, because the sector directly supports over 200 million people

Promoting Composting as a Business for the Urban Poor

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 01:00:00 GMT

An environmentally-friendly way to deal with waste...