R4D Liberia

Identity crisis for Liberian plague insect

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Joined-up action by FAO, IITA and the DFID-funded Global Plant Clinic has been instrumental in figuring out the identity of the insect devouring crops and contaminating water supplies in northern Liberia

The Missing Link - Fostering Positive Citizen-State Relations in Post-Conflict Environments [Policy Brief].

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Miscellaneous World Bank 2008 Brief for Policymakers, Communication for Governance and Accountability Program, 6 pp. The 'Missing Link' (World Bank 2008) relates the value of public sphere processes to the challenges of post-conflict environments. Demonstrating the shortcomings of current assistance approaches with evidence from the field, it makes a case for much needed change in current donor policy and practice. A public sphere analysis is conducted of case studies from Timor-Leste, Liberia and Burundi and recommendations on how to address the specific challenges observed are made. This brief outlines the publication's contents and highlights the key challenges and policy recommendations.

Improved treatment for sleeping sickness

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:00:00 GMT

A new combination of drugs has been successfully trailed by the DFID-funded Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative as a treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Missing Link: Fostering Positive Citizen-State Relations in Post-Conflict Environments.

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:36:00 GMT

Miscellaneous H. von Kaltenborn-Stachau 2008 World Bank, Washington, D.C.; 124 pp. The paper introduces the principles, mechanisms and processes that connect citizens with each other and with state institutions. The Missing Link relates the value of public sphere processes to the challenges of post-conflict environments. Demonstrating the shortcomings of current assistance approaches with evidence from the field, it makes a strong and convincing case for much needed change in current donor policy and practice. A public sphere analysis is conducted of case studies from Timor-Leste, Liberia and Burundi and recommendations on how to address the specific challenges observed are made.

Capital Cities in Civil Wars: The Locational Dimension of Sovereign Authority.

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:34:00 GMT

Miscellaneous M. Landau-Wells 2008 Occasional Paper No. 6, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 26 pp. Civil wars are a feature of the modern political landscape and significant attention has been given to the increase in this type of conflict in recent years. This discussion centres on those civil wars that are primarily political in nature - conflicts that concern the supreme executive power in a given state. Although civil wars can have obvious winners and losers militarily, the judgment of international actors can often be decisive. The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which international actors decide who holds the sovereign authority of a state during civil wars and what is needed to 'win' such wars in the eyes of the international community. Existing theories stress effective control over territory or the political interests of the recognising states. However, my hypothesis is that states observe a rule of recognition that equates control of the capital city with possession of a state's sovereign authority. I examine four civil wars (Chad, Somalia, Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia) in order to test these three theories and in all four cases control of the capital city is shown to be necessary for recognition by other governments. Effective control and political expediency demonstrate less explanatory power. The second part of the paper investigates the possible reasons why capital cities should be so significant in civil wars and considers the arguments for the special circumstances of the African state and for the economic significance of capital cities. However, it is the symbolic value of capital cities and, more importantly, the long-standing perspective in military history that views capitals as political and territorial proxies for states, that explain the recognition pattern in civil wars. The conclusion argues that the merits of this practice of recognition should be debated, as should the 'de-certification' of capital cities as a way of changing the incentive structure of some civil wars.

Supporting the provision of security and justice

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:00:00 GMT

A seminar at DFID London investigates the limitations of justice and security provision by states, the nature of local justice and non-state providers

Investigating Chronic Poverty in West Africa, CPRC Working Paper No. 28

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Working Paper Oduro, A. D.; Aryee, I. 2003 Investigating Chronic Poverty in West Africa, CPRC Working Paper No. 28, Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC), Manchester, UK, ISBN 1-904049-27-3, 43 pp. This review seeks to examine the dimensions of poverty in general and chronic poverty in particular in West African countries. In a number of West African countries nationally representative survey data has only recently become available. The preparation of poverty reduction strategy papers by several countries in the sub-region as part of the HIPC initiative has created an incentive for the collection of nationally representative data on living conditions. Thus several countries have nationally representative household surveys. Very few, however have large longitudinal or panel data sets on living standards. Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire appear to be the only exceptions in the sub-region. An investigation into the incidence and causes of chronic poverty and the profile of the chronic poor ideally requires a longitudinal or panel data set. In recent years researchers have developed methodologies to investigate the incidence of chronic and transient poverty using cross-sectional data (Chaudhuri 2002, Gibson 2000). Unfortunately, these data sets do not provide information to conduct an analysis of the determinants of movements in and out of poverty. However, these methodologies are an important first step in drawing policy makers' attention to the phenomenon of chronic poverty.

Towards Responsive Schools Supporting Better Schooling for Disadvantaged Children: case studies from Save the Children

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Research Paper Molteno, M.; Ogadhoh, K.; Cain, E.; Crumpton, B. 2000 Educational Paper No. 38, DFID, London, UK, 270 pp. This publication brings together case studies from the experience of Save the Children in nine countries, four in Africa, three in Asia, and one each in the Middle East and Latin America. It is a contribution to debates on how to improve the quality of primary education in countries where resources are limited, and where problems of schooling link with issues of poverty and social or political disadvantage.

Development of clean gene technology for rice transformation, and mapping of natural resistance to rice yellow mottle virus and nematodes in rice interspecific crosses.

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Completed Half the world's population depends on rice as its major source of nutritional calories. Rice systems in W.Africa are intensifying to meet a demand for rice which has, until now, been fed by imports. This process of intensification is taking place without a parallel adoption of practices to replace the restorative aspects of traditional fallowing. Rice transformation technologies hold great promise for increasing rice productivity, especially in areas where rice farmers have little means to counter damage caused by pests and disease. The absence of classic plant breeding solutions (limited genetic sources of resistance available) and the limitations of chemical treatments (not economically feasible under low input sustainable systems, and extreme damage to the environment) presents an excellent opportunity for biotechnological solutions. To date, particle gun bombardment-mediated transformation is the most widely used technology to genetically engineer rice. Despite its efficiency, particle gun technology has several drawbacks, due to the type of transgene integration patterns it generates in the plant genome. Uncontrolled transgene rearrangements, and systematic transgene linkage, results in transgenic loci of unpredictable structure, and from which the different transgenes - including antibiotic resistance genes - cannot be separated by genetic recombination in segregating progeny. Transgenic plants containing such antibiotic resistance genes are a constraint to uptake. Therefore, improved transformation technologies need to be developed in order to generate transgenic loci of simple and predictable structure, and plants free of undesirable marker genes. Such clean gene technology could be achieved using (1) Agrobacterium-mediated transformation systems for rice (2) alternative selectable marker genes. Methods to genetically modify crops and aid conventional plant breeding to overcome biotic and abiotic constraints developed and tested. Project 1: Project R4578-1 has sucessfully provided enabling technology for the production of transgenic rice plants free of selectable marker gene (i.e. containing only the genes of interest) to other DFID programmes which concentrate on improving rice resistance to nematodes (R8031). Hundreds of transgenic lines and thousands of progeny plants were produced and studied. In addition, R4578-1 contributed to an understanding of the factors controlling T-DNA integration in rice. The transgenic technologies developed in R7548-1 allowed DFID collaborative programmes (R8031) to introduce nematode resistance genes into rice without any selectable marker genes. Upon confirmation of resistance under controlled conditions, transformed seeds will be made available to downstream users for testing at WARDA and IRRI. Germplasm would then be made available to NARS by the CGIAR centres, for the testing and release. The ultimate beneficiaries would be farmers in Africa and Asia. Project 2: This project will provide enabling technology for marker-assisted selection (MAS) to be conducted in Africa and at WARDA. WARDA already has the capacity to use MAS in conjunction with conventional breeding techniques. Once a more closely linked marker to this nematode resistance is identified, this project will enable the Molecular Marker Group at WARDA to select efficiently rice plants carrying nematode resistance towards H. sacchari. WARDA will be the main conduit for promoting outputs and ensuring that technology reaches beneficiaries in Africa. R7548 is composed of two projects:
Project 1 - Development of clean gene technology for rice transformation.
Project 2 - Mapping of natural resistance to rice yellow mottle virus and nematodes in rice interspecific crosses.

Production of transgenic rice plants free of selectable marker genes tested.

Production of transgenic plants containing alternative selectable marker genes tested.

Mapping of introgressed resistance segments in four O.sativa x O.glaberrima crosses using a mixture of BC1 doubled haploid and recombinant inbred lines.

QTL for nematode and RYMV resistance, and components of yield, identified. Conversion of linked markers into simple diagnostic tools. Project 1:
Construction of 1st generation binary vectors for ,clean-gene, technology.
*6 binary vectors for rice ,clean-gene, transformation were designed and constructed.

Identification of Agrobacterium strains competent to interact with DFID targetted rice varieties.
*Agrobacterium strain AGL1 harbouring the dual binary vectors pGreen/pSoup allowed rice transformation at high frequency.
*pGreen-based binary vector pRT18 (containing one T-DNA with the bar and gus gene) and pSoup-based binary vector pRT47 (containing another T-DNA with the aphIV and gfp genes) were introduced into AGL1.

Production of transgenic rice tissues via Agrobacterium transformation.
*Three selection regimes were applied during the transformation process with strain No. 25 (i) dual selection of pRT18 and pRT47 T-DNAs (ii) Selection of pRT18 T-DNA only (iii) selection of pRT47 T-DNA only.
*The dual T-DNA selection regime was used to produce a large and random population of plants co-transformed and co-expressing all the transgenes present in the pRT18 and the pRT47 T-DNAs. This strategy was designed to by-pass the limitations of post-transformation screening for co-transformed and co-expressing lines in experiments designed to produce marker-free transgenic plants. Later on, the single T-DNA selection regimes were used to directly mimic experiments designed to produce marker-free transgenic plants.
*Hundreds of independently transformed callus lines were produced using single or dual T-DNA selection.

Production of fertile transgenic rice plants containing 1st generation Clean Gene vectors.
*403 independent plant lines were produced using single or dual T-DNA selection and were assessed for co-transformation and co-expression of transgenes.

Segregation analysis of transgenics to determine genetic linkage of different transgenes.
*Transgene inheritance and segregation of transgene phenotype were analysed in 62 independently transformed plant lines: 50 plant lines produced with dual T-DNA selelction (3109 T1 plants studied) and 12 plant lines with single T-DNA selelction (727 T1 plants studied).
*Transgene inheritance was studied using the genotyping data of the T1 plants. The observed ratios for each line were compared statistically to those of 30 theoretical models representing all possible linkage configurations of pRT18 (pGreen-based) and pRT47 (pSoup-based) T-DNAs in up to four Mendelian loci. For each independent line, a three step analysis was undertaken to compare the observed ratios to the ratios from the 30 theoretical models (1) elimination of models predicting the absence of a given type of progeny when some where observed among the T1 plants (2) ranking all possible models according to their probability (using Chi square analysis). (3) comparison of each probable model to the T0 molecular data (i.e. bar, gus, aphIV and gfp gene copy numbers) and to the number of active loci determined by the segregation of transgene phenotype.
*In total, more than 4500 genotyping and 8,000 phenotyping analyses were conducted as well as 7,440 individual tests to identify all probable models for each of the 62 independently transformed plant lines.
*Unlinked T-DNA integrations were obtained in around half of the loci providing proof of concept for clean gene transformation technology in rice.

Project 2:
The purpose of this project was to map major genes/QTL for natural resistance to RYMV and nematodes in introgression lines derived from rice interspecific crosses (Oryza sativa x O.glaberrima), and to investigate QTL controlling components of yield. However, because of the political instabilities in the Ivory Coast and personnel changes at WARDA, it was not possible for WARDA to carry out weed competition experiments with the mapping populations, and hence they did not provide any data on yield components for QTL analysis. This part of the project was therefore not achieved. In additio

Towards Responsive Schools Supporting Better Schooling for Disadvantaged Children

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Completed