R4D Pakistan

Genetic diversity studies in Pakistan wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) germplasm.

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:50:00 GMT

Miscellaneous Y. Ali, B. M. Atta, J. Akhter, P. Monneveux, Z. Lateef 2008 Pakistan Journal of Botany (2008) 40 (5) 20872097 Seventy local and exotic wheat genotypes grown in Faisalabad, Pakistan during the Rabi season of 2005/2006 were evaluated for variability parameters, correlations and path coefficients for eight metric traits i.e., plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, number of spikelets per spike, spike length, number of grains per spike, fertility %, 1000 grain weight and yield per plant. Significant genotypic differences were observed for all the traits studied indicating considerable amount of variation among genotypes for each character. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were high for yield per plant, number of productive tillers per plant and number of grains per spike. The remaining traits recorded moderate to low PCV and GCV estimates. Moderate heritability was observed for number of productive tillers per plant and fertility %. High heritability estimates were recorded for plant height, number of spikelets per spike, spike length, number of grains per spike, 1000 grain weight and yield per plant. These traits also indicated high genetic advance (except fertility %). Grain yield per plant showed highly significant positive correlation with number of productive tillers per plant, number of spikelets per spike and number of grains per spike and significant positive correlation with spike length. Path coefficient analysis revealed that number of productive tillers per plant and number of grains per spike had the highest direct effect on grain yield per plant and each must be given preference in selection along with optimum plant height to select superior wheat genotypes. The cluster analysis grouped 70 wheat genotypes into 4 different clusters. Five genotypes of China were grouped in cluster I that showed the maximum diversity. Genetic diversity was partially related to the geographic origin. From the cluster mean values, Chinese genotypes deserve consideration for their direct release as a variety(s) or as parents in hybridization programmes to develop high-yielding wheat varieties. The genotypes in cluster II may be used for the improvement of plant height and 1000 grain weight in wheat.

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.

Development Research Centre for the Future State (Research Scheme R8490) Annual Report 1 July 2008 30 June 2009

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:40:00 GMT

Miscellaneous Institute of Development Studies 2009 73 pp.

Progress on the 3 programmes is reported:

1.Public Action and Private Investment
Progress has been steady. Key activities/achievements have included the PAPI 2009 cross cutting workshop attended by representatives of all the major projects. This workshop was also attended by Max Everest Phillips (DfID) and representatives from the Africa Power and Politics RPC and the Institutions for Pro Poor Growth RPC. Closer ties with these RPCs which carry out research in similar themes have been highlighted as having great potential to deepen the research and analysis and vastly improve quality through knowledge sharing activities.

The field research on the 'China's investment in Africa' project was completed and work has now entered a new phase. This project has received a lot of attention from the academic and policy making community. Jing Gu the lead researcher has been highly active in presenting her work and publications are being finalised. Additional funding for this project was recently obtained for the work to continue.

There has been good progress in the Egypt project with a number of publications in the final stages of writing or publication. The projects in Indonesia and Brazil have now been completed with outputs coming from both. The work on particularistic property rights regimes in China is nearing completion. There has been fair progress in the Vietnam project; research partners have been formally identified. With regret the research in Pakistan cannot be completed.

A new project due for completion in March 2010 will attempt to bring some of the key findings of the programme into two publications to answer the core question.

2.Collective Action around Service Delivery (Social Accountability)
Despite good performance as reported in last year's report Modes of Service Delivery in Brazil, India and Mexico (BIM) has experienced some setbacks. It has been formally agreed that Mexico can no longer form part of the project as no researcher of suitable ability could be identified who would be willing to finish the work. There have been some problems with writing up from some of the India researchers, many of whom are younger academics in their early careers. This has led to some delays. Brazil continues to perform well. Despite these setbacks there have been some major achievements especially in the communication of research findings at conferences.

3.State Capacity, Financing the State and Informal Local Governance
Comprising three key research themes (State Capacity, Financing the State and Informal Local Governance), programme three has progressed well over the last year.

There have been some major movements in the taxation work, mainly in communication efforts. The multi country study into the resource curse in Andean countries started and is now nearing completion.

Work into Informal Local Governance institutions has progressed adequately and there is possibility of funding one further stage of work. The multi-country study into donor proliferation in Africa was completed and a research proposal submitted to other funders for follow up work.

WEMC Annual Report. 1 July 2008 30 June 2009

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:05:00 GMT

Miscellaneous WEMC 2009 WEMC Secretariat, Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC), Hong Kong, China, 85 pp.

With regard to progress on intended outputs the research capacity of 228 individuals has been enhanced; 13 English-language and 10 other language publications printed/in press; the published and widely distributed research framework has been positively received; comparative analysis has commenced. WEMC research products are being used in over 100 institutions; an integrated action research methodology dialectically combining research, capacity building and communication of findings has strengthened women as rights claimants; findings and analyses have enabled evidence based communication with diverse audiences from the grassroots to international policy makers.

Impact of the research programme
Significant progress has been made towards WEMC's purpose to help build 'a sustained growing critical mass of civil society expertise engaged in policy debates for long-term changes in policies and practices that promote women's empowerment in Muslim contexts.' By June 2009, some 10 WEMC specific (or sets of) research-derived recommendations had been accepted and implemented in Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, and China as well as for migrant women workers in Hong Kong and Indonesia. This year, four new sets of/specific recommendations were accepted by government authorities. Previously accepted recommendations started being implemented. Importantly, research findings are being requested by policy-makers and forums.

Enhanced analytical and communication skills enabled women to successfully negotiate expanded rights, demand expanded/better service delivery and accountability from meso-level government duty bearers (China, Indonesia, migrant workers, Pakistan). WEMC has transformed the approaches of government extension workers (Indonesia and Pakistan) and service providers (Iran). At the RPC level, in August 2008, key WEMC concepts and research results were communicated to UN ESCAP policy-makers at a WEMC-focused forum (Where's the power in women's empowerment?) and followed up by invited inputs to the UN Beijing+15 review process.

Research confirms WEMC's hypothesis that the greatest obstacles to women's empowerment operate at the meso level and that, somewhat counter-intuitively, women's priority expressed need is to have their own spaces for collective strategising, rather than improved linkages with government institutions. If cultural considerations, including interpretations of Islam and 'Muslim' women, are critical factors that keep women immobilized and disempowered, women's own counter-strategies of empowerment are diverse. Women's demands for different sets of rights derive legitimacy from constitutional rights and a re-orientation of cultural concepts as well as religious interpretations.

Enhanced capacity provides women a new/stronger voice in formal and non-formal forums, impacting developmental and governance processes. Women are questioning the dominant discourse culturally justifying women's disempowerment, reorienting religious instruction forums as well as secular arenas; women have started to speak out on empowerment on local radio, television and at public events, including in dialogues with officials.

WEMC has seeded multiplication. To date, at least 20 new initiatives directly catalysed, facilitated or inspired by WEMC transformative new knowledge processes, have emerged supported by reliable, non-DFID resources. Shaped by the research process and informed by findings, these vital meso-level discursive spaces for women's collective sharing and analyses of experiences are enabling indigenous strategies for women's empowerment to be forged, implemented and replicated. WEMC-catalysed collective spaces include five women's self-help groups in Indonesia, eight new Pakistani organisations, a young women lawyers' group and a young people's media group in Iran. In China, 'safe spaces' have developed in the form of a 'health centre', a handicraft initiative created within an academic institution (Gansu Academy of Social Sciences) and around traditional religious spaces. Among Afghan refugees and returnees, research led to a self-help teachers' group. An exciting WEMC-inspired international initiative is the 'Institute for Women's Empowerment', established and registered by several RPC members to:
a. Document and make visible women's empowerment initiatives in different communities and countries
b. Develop women's strategies for empowerment at multiple levels c. Communicate lessons on women's strategies for empowerment for replication and upscaling
d. Build the capacity of civil society groups in multiple countries to advance womens empowerment

IWE is collaborating with the international coordination office of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) in the programme 'Women reclaiming and re-defining culture: asserting rights over body, self and public places.'

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.

Solutions for sick plants on the Pakistan/India border

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 YouTube video clip, 1 min.

Confusion with radish in Lahore

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:56:00 GMT

Miscellaneous 2009 YouTube video clip, 1 min 7 sec. A second pilot plant clinic in Ferozepur Road Market uncovered an unusual problem on radish. Outside they looked fine but once cut they revealed a blackened interior. So was this an abiotic problem? One of the many fabled 'nutrient deficiencies' that are the third most popular cause of plant health problems (after insects and fungi)? No, courtesy of Martin McPherson, we now know this is radish downy mildew. It can sneek in without showing any external symptoms.

STIs and HIV in Pakistan: from analysis to action

Thu, 21 May 2009 01:00:00 GMT

A recent study from Realising Rights published as a special issue in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections seeks to understand the drivers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Pakistan.

A Small Dream

Tue, 19 May 2009 01:00:00 GMT

A tale of how one young woman, Humaira Bachal, transformed the lives of girls and her entire community in a squatter settlement in Karachi, and how DFID-funded researchers helped local film makers tell her story

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

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

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.

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

Crisis States Research Centre - Phase 2

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:59:00 GMT

Current Continuation of Phase 1 To examine and provide an understanding of processes of war, state collapse and reconstruction in fragile states, and to assess the long-term impact of international interventions in these processes. Ultimately, to advance understanding of the processes of state collapse that are at the heart of problems of insecurity and poverty. To examine and provide an understanding of processes of war, state collapse and reconstruction in fragile states and to assess the long-term impact of international interventions in these processes. Through rigorous comparative analysis of a carefully selected set of states and of cities, and sustained analysis of 'global and regional axes of conflict', to identify the symptoms of state collapse, why some fragile states collapse while others do not, and the ways that war affects future possibilities of state building. It is planned to distil the lessons learned from past experiences of state reconstruction to inform current policy thinking and planning.

Informal local governance in rural South Asia.

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Can policy makers and citizens find ways of improving the accountability of local government in India and Pakistan?

Centre for the Future State - Phase 2

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:26:00 GMT

Current The primary purpose of the Development Research Centre for the Future State is to harness the ideas and the research skills of applied social science researchers, in both developing and developed countries, to assist in finding ways of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by increasing the accountability and effectiveness of public authority in the South. The secondary purpose is to contribute to enhancing the capacity of researchers to perform this role by (a) helping to upgrade research and communication skills, especially for younger researchers from developing countries, and (b) strengthening an institutional framework that permits and encourages researchers from South and North to work together to share resources and collectively to define and implement applied research programmes. To harness the ideas and the research skills of applied social science researchers, in both developing and developed countries, to assist policymakers and citizens to find ways of increasing the accountability and effectiveness of public authority in the South. Policy-relevant research. This is the core activity, and constitutes the intellectual and organisational framework around which the other activities will be organised.

Dissemination and policy-influencing activities. The project has a very good record in this field and has begun to invest more heavily in these activities, in particular in the activities of the Synthesis Task Force.

Capacity Building. The approach and plans are that the major investments in this area will be on increasing the capacity of younger Southern researchers to undertake high quality policy-relevant research, and to communicate their findings to various audiences.

Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts (WEMC)

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current

The Research Programme Consortium on 'Women's empowerment in Muslim contexts: gender, poverty and democratisation from the inside out' (WEMC) was formed to address this knowledge gap - that is, 'how to achieve women's empowerment', especially in the face of disempowering forces, old and new.

WEMC defines women's empowerment as an increase in their capacity to make autonomous decisions to challenge or transform power relations that impede gender equality. It contends that conventional development interventions ignore power structures standing between women and the state.

The aim of the WEMC research programme is to understand women's indigenous strategies for empowerment in ways that could transform unfavourable power relations. New knowledge from the RPCs should be effectively communicated to key policy makers and development practitioners. The research objectives are to document, analyse and multiply women's empowerment strategies; to make visible, validate and strengthen women's agency, and to build analytical capacity and strategic alliances.

The RPC's new knowledge is communicated effectively and persuasively, through diverse means and products, to key policy makers, implementers, decision- makers, development practitioners, and other agents of change.

The capacity of civil society groups and networks is developed in ways that enhance their critical analyses of changing environments, as well as their growing engagement for women-centred transformations in policy and practice.

The RPC's ground-breaking, high-quality and coherent new knowledge transforms understanding of women's empowerment in Muslim contexts, with particular relevance for the MDGs and the Beijing Platform for Action.

Since its inception, the programme has been successful in generating a "growing critical mass of civil society expertise engaged in policy debates for long-term changes in policies and practices that promote women's empowerment in Muslim contexts". In fact the achievements far exceed the initial 'targets' set. These can be seen in the successful implementation and integrated outcomes of the research, communication and capacity building thrusts of the programme.

The publication of the seminal WEMC framework (2008) has certainly added a new and valuable dimension to the notion and understanding of empowerment as a "relational, qualitative phenomenon shaped by contesting forces, not a quantity to have in incremental amounts". Often times in current development discourses, the term 'empowerment' has been appropriated by funders and development agencies which seek to 'measure' a dynamic process almost impossible to quantify. By problematising empowerment in diverse Muslim contexts, in its multi-layered, multi-lingual and multi-dimensional forms, the research thrust has highlighted the non-linear resistances of women to disempowering forces as well as their individual, collective and institutionalised mobilisations to empower themselves and their communities. About 50 papers and/or policy reports in both English and local languages have been produced, not including a variety of multi-media products - a number way above the set targets. Many of the research findings have been presented and very well received in conferences and workshops and in different media forms to a wide variety of audiences. Indeed this knowledge and movement building project has been made possible by the dynamic synergies of the partners who are mainly scholar activists or committed women activists with vast community and research experiences.

The communications work has been interesting and exciting. A coherent communications strategy was developed during the inception phase to ensure that the communication of research findings was fully embedded into the overall research programme. There has been continued discussion and consultation and the strategy continuously updated. The strategy has ensured that the communications activities are planned with key audiences and messages identified.

Communications activities have taken placed at the micro level with women in the research sites; at the meso level to influence local policy and decision makers and at the national and international level. The range of media used from academic articles to film and radio has been impressive. There are clear indications that the new knowledge has been communicated effectively and persuasively. Now with less than two years left, the programme needs to focus on identifying and communicating the key research findings.

The programme has made great progress in meeting the specific capacity building output. The programme has been very successful at enhancing many skills. However there are a number of the more analytical skills such as drawing out research findings and distilling key messages where there is still a need for more work. The programme has spent a considerable amount of effort on building capacity at the organisational level and the results have been impressive. The programme has recognised that it is not enough to just build the capacity at the individual and organisational levels but that there is a need to address issues in respect to the political, social and the regulatory context that the individual and organisations work. WEMC had identified this need and has decided to focus on "building alliances to strengthen institutions".

Participatory promotion of on farm seed priming

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current There is ample evidence that poor crop establishment is a widespread constraint of crop production in developing countries, particularly in the marginal environments farmed by poor people. Patchy plant stands are common, and yields are often reduced simply because there are not enough plants in the field. In addition, plants that do eventually emerge often grow slowly, and are highly susceptible to stresses such as drought, pests and diseases. Farmers can choose to re-sow, although this entails severe yield penalties and increased labour and financial costs, and there is evidence from India that borrowing to pay for replacement seed can initiate or add to a spiral of indebtedness. Clearly, anything that can be done to increase the proportion of seeds that emerge, and the rate at which they do so, will have a large impact on farmers' livelihoods. Low, unstable yields are a major contributor to the fragile lives of poor farmers in marginal areas. Low-cost, low-risk interventions that increase and stabilise yields will have a large impact on the livelihoods of such farmers. Pathways for the equitable uptake of technologies from plant science programme outputs identified, piloted and promoted. Benefits of seed priming validated by farmers in at least six countries.

Benefits of seed priming validated by farmers in at least three production systems.

Increased awareness of the value of seed priming with research, extension and development agencies in at leasat four countries.

Increased awareness of the value of a participatory approach with research, extension and development agencies in at least four countries.

Experiences with seed priming shared with institutions from non-collaborating countries.

Impact of seed priming quantified for at least four countries.

Greater understanding of the process of farmer-to-farmer spread of seed priming knowledge. Trials were funded by the project in eight countries (Cameroon, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Nepal, India and Pakistan) on 13 crops (rice, maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, bambara groundnut, chickpea, lentil, mung bean, blackgram and niger). Responses to seed priming were generally positive, although not all trials are complete.

In Pakistan, priming gave a mean increase of 31% from 2 on-station RBD trials with sorghum, an average 26% increase with pearl millet (from 3 trials) and an average 20% increase with maize (2 trials). The mung bean average (from 4 experiments) increase was 69%, but included a 206% increase from one 4-rep RBD.

Non-project-funded trials were instigated in Bangladesh (chickpea, India (pearl mlllet, finger millet, rice, chickpea, maize) and Senegal (pearl millet, groundnut).

Registration of seed priming as a recommended practice was discussed at ministerial level in Pakistan (after only one year's trials).

Funding of work on seed priming was implemented or proposed by the British Embassy, Senegal, DFID Crop Protection Programme (ongoing project R7189 and proposed project on IPM in Nepal) and the Eastern India Rainfed Farming Project, India (DFID bilateral project).

Institutional information has been collated for production of a web page. The first season's data will be included on the web page and will allow the production of the first edition of a newsletter.

The web page can be found at: www.seedpriming.org and is being regularly updated. This has also been completely re-designed.

Trials funded by the project continued in 10 countries (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Thailand) on 14 crops (rice, maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, cotton, chickpea, lentil mungbean, blackgram, pigeonpea and niger).

Non-project-funded trials continued in Bangladesh (chickpea), Bolivia (wheat), India (finger millet, rice, chickpea, maize), Kyrgyzstan (various crops), Mexico (wheat), Pakistan (wheat, groundnut, maize) and Zimbabwe (pearl millet, sorghum, cowpea, Bambara groundut, maize).

There was continued interest from researchers and NGOs around the world and information on priming was supplied to a large number of groups.

OFSP adopted from Farmer Field Schools in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Widespread use of OFSP in NWFP, Pakistan. Promotion by DoA, BARI and BRRI, Bangladesh of OFSP for chickpea in rice fallows.

Paired-plot trials adopted by On-Farm Research Division of BARI, Bangladesh (also linked to R7540).
Presentations were made at WARDA, and at two meetings in Nepal: the Nepal Maize Symposium; and a project-funded workshop in Bharatpur.
An additional uptake and impact study was implemented in Zimbabwe.

Trials funded by the project continued in 13 countries (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Zimbabwe) on 14 crops (rice, maize, wheat, barley, sorghum, pearl millet, cowpea, cotton, chickpea, lentil, mungbean, blackgram, pigeonpea and niger).

Non-project-funded trials continued in Bangladesh (chickpea), Bolivia (wheat), India (finger millet, rice, chickpea, maize), Kyrgyzstan (various crops), Mexico (wheat), Pakistan (wheat, groundnut, maize) and Zimbabwe (pearl millet, sorghum, cowpea, Bambara groundnut, maize).

There was continued interest from researchers and NGOs around the world and information on priming was supplied to a large number of groups.

OFSP adopted for Farmer Field Schools in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Widespread use of OFSP in NWFP, Pakistan. Official promotion by DoA, BARI and BRRI, Bangladesh of OFSP for chickpea in rice fallows.

Paired-plot trials adopted by On-Farm Research Division of BARI, Bangladesh (also linked to

Communicable diseases: vulnerability, risk and poverty (COMDIS)

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current

The Nuffield Centre is the lead coordinator for COMDIS which began in 2006. COMDIS is a partnership of equals and builds on long established research partnerships between Nuffield, the Malaria Consortium and other overseas partners. The big idea is to anchor communicable disease research within operational programmes, so that knowledge generated is relevant (ie feasible and affordable in resource-constrained countries) and rapidly incorporated into policy and practice, to ensure that utilization of effective interventions is on a far greater scale than now, especially for poor and vulnerable people.

A range of technologies (both established and new) exist for communicable disease control. A major problem limiting communicable disease control is an inability to use these technologies in ways that are responsive to patient needs, cost-effective and sustainable. The big challenge over these five years is therefore to find out how to increase access to known effective interventions and promising new interventions (as soon as efficacy and safety are proven). The strategies we will test will be developed with patients, communities and health workers to ensure they are locally appropriate (ie. straightforward, can be implemented locally, and acceptable to patients and health workers).

Better health for those affected by communicable diseases. Specifically, to ensure access to effective interventions on a far greater scale and reaching vulnerable people.

COMDIS will research and develop feasible and affordable interventions for TB, malaria, and HIV care. It will investigate patient and provider issues and evaluate approaches to improve utilization, delivery, and quality of interventions together with health systems issues. A key strategy will be to anchor research within operational programmes, so that knowledge will be rapidly incorporated into policy and practice at scale in partner countries and elsewhere.

Specific research objectives are:

To identify barriers and test strategies to increase coverage and improve the quality of prevention programmes;
After the assessment of key weaknesses, develop and evaluate strategies to improve decentralized systems for delivery of communicable disease programmes;
To explore and test strategies to improve and understand the drivers of demand for and the barriers to utilization of selected interventions.

1. Significant impact in Pakistan TB national programme. Good model of building evidence based training materials for rolling out in national programmes and using impact evaluations to fine tune, particularly production and evaluation of locally appropriate materials. Good capacity building of Southern partners.

2. In close partnership with the national disease control programmes COMDIS research findings define national disease control policy and practice. COMDIS played a pivotal role in the development of national policy on malaria diagnosis in Uganda, and studied areas needing more support during the scale up.

3. An analysis of the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in southern Sudan by COMDIS has been the basis for the development of the new national guidelines for NTD control there.

4. COMDIS improves quality of care and adherence to treatment. Research findings have been used to inform products such as TB case management guidelines that have been developed jointly with various national TB, malaria and HIV/AIDS programmes in five countries, with scale up across all of Pakistan and much of China.

5. COMDIS have shown that anti-retroviral treatment can be delivered by nurses in health centres, safely, effectively and acceptably through a trial in southern Africa.

6. COMDIS bridges the public-private sector divide through Public-partnership guidelines and tools that have been developed and evaluated and are being scaled-up in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

7. Through research conducted in garment factories in Bangladesh, COMDIS established an operational mechanism for effective, sustainable TB control in workplace situations there.

8. COMDIS builds local capacity through research and health development embedded within national programmes. Partner country NGOs and national programme officers are involved in all stages of research, guideline development and evaluation. Research findings, guidelines and improved training methods have been used to train health workers in all seven partner countries eg. in China 5,500 TB doctors on case management of TB. COMDIS has turned WHO documents into user-friendly guidelines for doctors and other health workers.

9. In consultation with international and national agencies, COMDIS have developed case management guidelines for childhood TB, multi-drug resistant TB and sexually transmitted diseases: these are currently being evaluated in Pakistan.

Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP)

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current Improving the Outcomes of Education for Pro-Poor Development: Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation

Poverty often leads to inferior educational outcomes. Those outcomes in turn play a major role in determining the future extent and incidence of poverty. The core objectives of this programme of research are to study the mechanisms that drive this cycle of deprivation and to identify the policies needed to ensure that educational outcomes properly benefit the disadvantaged. It is clear that a simple expansion of education systems does not always benefit the poor, particularly where the quality of education is very low. During this five-year research programme, more children than ever before - particularly those from poor households - will be moving through schooling and training to become working youths and adults. Their fortunes will be affected not only by their educational experiences, but also by the broader context of welfare and opportunity that they confront. The multi-sectoral objectives of the Millennium Development Goals acknowledge this interdependence. Yet its nature and strength is not always well understood, and judgements about priorities for policy change, or about their sequencing, are not always firmly based. Our research will help clarify these matters, focussing upon the circumstances of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa - the two regions of the world where the challenge of achieving the MDG objective of halving world poverty by 2015 is greatest and where the policy benefits are most urgently required.'

Director: Christopher Colclough, University of Cambridge Education and poverty reduction strategies improved in poorer countries by applying new understanding of the educational impacts on poverty an of their synergies with other dimensions of poverty reduction

One important achievement of the RECOUP RPC is to have carried out research that informs investment choice in education. We find the wage return to primary education to have been falling, and that it is now generally lower than that at higher education levels. Thus achieving a given poverty-reducing impact of education will usually require a higher level of educational investment (on the part of both individuals and society) than in the past. Increasing returns imply that demand for secondary and tertiary education is rising, and achieving higher tertiary enrolments should not require large student subsidies, except for the poor. The case for universalising good quality primary education is not affected by these results, both because it is a necessary means of accessing higher levels, and because it provides the route to securing the economic externalities and the non-market benefits of education, which are considerable (though difficult to measure). The points are elaborated in RECOUP Policy Briefing #4.
Our research has provided new information about how family structures and dynamics are changing in all four partner countries as a result of extensions of educational opportunities to young women. This will allow our partners to offer more targeted advice on information, education and communication strategies with respect to reproductive and child health and contraception. As an example: in Pakistan, even though mothers should remain the key target for child health messages, fathers may be more important to immunisation decision-making than previously thought.
Educational strategies for young people with disabilities are in need of reform and additional support in all four partner countries. Our research will help policy-makers to judge the significance not only of special schooling versus mainstreaming, but also on how these two kinds of provisions might be linked. Further, it suggests how the pedagogical approaches might be better balanced between preparing students for work, for wider social roles, and for ways of presenting themselves in the face of stigma.
RECOUP has collected unique data and conducted novel research on the role of teachers and their unions in shaping the school governance environment in India. Teachers are central to providing good quality education yet little is known about their motivations and activities. RECOUP has generated information on the issues on which teachers have lobbied, their stances on school-reform proposals, their influence on educational legislation, their connections with politicians, and on the association of these factors with teacher accountability and teacher effort. RECOUP funding permitted the collection of survey data on teachers across 160 schools in two states of north India. It allowed information on teacher effort and accountability measures to be linked with the learning achievement levels of the children they teach.
Other important achievements of RECOUP are:
(a) strong capacity development of staff from all partner countries, arising particularly from regular training workshops and from collaborative research papers jointly-authored by staff across the north and south partner institutions;
(b) generation of unique data sets that have permitted new insights in a number of areas, for example, (i) showing some of the pathways through which parental education has its impact on child health outcomes, and (ii) estimating whether returns accrue to mere years of education (quantity of education) or more to what is learnt at school (quality of education). Both of these are highly policy-relevant pieces of research;
(c) asking similar research questions and applying the same research methods across four countries, which allows instructive cross-country comparisons of issues and outcomes.

Globalisation, Education and Development

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Current To assess the implications of globalisation for education policy in the less developed regions of South Asia, China and sub-Saharan Africa.

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

Deadline for submitting proposals for RIU's Challenge Fund is noon on 30 September

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:00:00 GMT

A newsflash from the Research into Use (RIU) team provides useful guidance on submitting proposals for the Challenge Fund, based on an interview with Dr Frances Kimmins

The world needs 18 million new teachers

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:00:00 GMT

The world needs eighteen million primary school teachers over the next ten years, reports the September 2007 issue of ID21's insights education

ICTs help poor get access to public services

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:00:00 GMT

OneWorld South Asia has published reports and toolkits on the role of ICTs in enabling better access to government services

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...

Improving TB Control Programmes to Save Lives - Lessons from Pakistan

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 01:00:00 GMT

Research into the barriers to access and adherence to TB treatment

R4D Pakistan

Genetic diversity studies in Pakistan wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) germplasm.

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

COMDIS Bulletin 1

COMDIS Brochure

Development Research Centre for the Future State (Research Scheme R8490) Annual Report 1 July 2008  30 June 2009

WEMC Annual Report. 1 July 2008  30 June 2009

Newsletter 7, Religions and Development Research Programme

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

Solutions for sick plants on the Pakistan/India border

Confusion with radish in Lahore

STIs and HIV in Pakistan: from analysis to action

A Small Dream

Many Poor Countries Will Suffer as Climate Change Damages Fisheries

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

What can be done to beat urban poverty?

Pathways of Women's Empowerment

Religions and Development Research Programme Consortium (RaD)

Crisis States Research Centre - Phase 2

Informal local governance in rural South Asia.

Centre for the Future State - Phase 2

Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts (WEMC)

Participatory promotion of on farm seed priming

Communicable diseases: vulnerability, risk and poverty (COMDIS)

Research Consortium on Educational Outcomes and Poverty (RECOUP)

Globalisation, Education and Development

Involving the poor in urban development

Deadline for submitting proposals for RIU's Challenge Fund is noon on 30 September

The world needs 18 million new teachers

ICTs help poor get access to public services

Promoting Composting as a Business for the Urban Poor

Improving TB Control Programmes to Save Lives - Lessons from Pakistan

Development Research Centre for the Future State (Research Scheme R8490) Annual Report 1 July 2008 30 June 2009

WEMC Annual Report. 1 July 2008 30 June 2009