scholarly journals Neonicotinoids and Their Impact on Ecosystem Services for Agriculture and Biodiversity in Africa: A Review and Recommendations to Policymakers

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
International Development ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Harmful Effect ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Beneficial Insects ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
African Agriculture

Agriculture is critically important for African societies and economies but ensuring food security for Africa’s growing population is a major challenge. One particular concern are pesticides called ‘neonicotinoids’, which render all parts of a plant toxic to all insects and contaminate the soil and water bodies. By exposing all organisms to the toxins, neonicotinoids also harm beneficial insects that provide many important ‘ecosystem services’, such as pollination, soil development, and natural pest control, which are an integral part of sustainable agriculture. Neonicotinoids have contributed to the loss of ecosystem services from pollinators and other insects in Europe and elsewhere, and several of them have been banned in the (European Union) EU and other countries due to their harmful effect on beneficial insects. Africa, with its rich biodiversity and heavy reliance on agricultural production, is one of the fastest-growing pesticide markets in the world, so protecting it from the harmful effects of neonicotinoids is vital to ensuring a sustainable agriculture that provides food security. The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), in collaboration with the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) has recently completed a project exploring the use and effects of neonicotinoids in African agriculture. This project brought together experts from 17 African countries, reviewed the relevant African scientific literature, and analysed the state of knowledge on neonicotinoids and their impact on ecosystem services for agriculture and on biodiversity in Africa. The resultant report ‘Neonicotinoid insecticides: use and effects in African agriculture. A review and recommendations to policy makers’ (NASAC, 2019) has collated an unprecedented amount of information, identified gaps in scientific knowledge and research relating to neonicotinoids in Africa, and developed key recommendations from science to policy-makers to ensure the sustainability of African agriculture and thus food security. One year after the launch of the NASAC report, the purpose of this virtual event was to introduce the report, including an update on recent global scientific and African policy developments regarding neonicotinoids, and to discuss its implications with a wide range of stakeholders, with the aim of stimulating policy and research action on this important issue. The target audience and participants included South African and Southern African Development Community (SADC) policymakers, regulatory agencies, government departments, agricultural associations, extension-service providers, research institutes, international development agencies, representatives of embassies, and other interested stakeholders.

scholarly journals Demonstrating the full-value chain of climate services in Southern Africa: the FOCUS-Africa project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Boscolo ◽  
Hamid Bastani ◽  
Asmerom Beraki ◽  
Nicolas Fournier ◽  
Raül Marcos-Matamoros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
End Users ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
Wide Range

<p><strong><em>FOCUS-Africa</em></strong> is an EU Horizon 2020 project funded to co-develop tailored climate services in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The project, led by the WMO and started in September 2020, gathers 16 partners across Africa and Europe jointly committed to addressing the value of climate services for key economic sectors in Africa: agriculture and food security, water, energy, and infrastructure.</p><p>The project is piloting eight case studies (CSs) in five different countries involving a wide range of end-users. New services derived from seasonal and decadal forecasts are applied for food security and crop production in South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. High-resolution climate projections, as well as historical climate reanalyses, are used to support planning and investment decisions for: a railway infrastructure and a mix of renewable energies in Tanzania, hydropower generation assessment under climate change scenarios in Malawi, and water resources management in Mauritius.</p><p>For all the FOCUS-Africa’s case studies, socio-economic impact assessment of the delivered climate services will be carried out in collaboration with the CS leaders, service providers, and end-users, by providing ex-ante and ex-post evaluations grounded in the Global Indicator Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals. The project will align the capacity development efforts with those promoted by WMO for enhancing the capabilities of the NMHSs to deliver climate services to users and will make sure that the project's innovative processes and tools will be part of the WMO training curricula.</p><p>FOCUS-Africa's expected impacts are:</p><ul><li>Build a strong link between the climate scientific community and stakeholders in the SADC region by leveraging the advanced scientific knowledge and strong networks of the implementing team, and by establishing dedicated channels of communications, so as to target the full value chain of our users, from the start of the project</li> <li>Advance the way in which climate information is developed by characterising end-use requirements through regular engagement</li> <li>Contribute to the advancement of the scientific knowledge in the region and strengthened support for international scientific assessments through publications and reports such as those relevant for the IPCC, through the innovative science developed by FOCUS-Africa</li> <li>Demonstrate the effectiveness of the climate information by strengthening the adaptive capacity of end-users by delivering tailored, actionable, and exploitable climate services and by estimating their socio-economic benefits across the full value chain.</li> <li>Enhance policy-making for climate adaptation in the project and other countries</li> <li>Increase women’s access to climate services</li> </ul>

scholarly journals Determinants of regulatory compliance in health and social care services: a systematic review protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Paul Dunbar ◽  
John P. Browne ◽  
Laura O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Study Designs

Background: The delivery of high quality health and social care services is a fundamental goal for health systems worldwide. Identifying the determinants of quality is a complex task as there are a myriad of variables to choose from. Researchers in this field have assessed a range of organisational and environmental factors (for example: staff composition, facility ownership, facility size) for an association with various quality metrics. Less attention has been paid to the determinants of compliance with quality regulation. Identifying the determinants of compliance has the potential to improve regulatory processes and can inform quality improvement initiatives undertaken by service providers and policy makers. This protocol describes a systematic review which will review literature from a wide range of study designs and sources to develop an overview of the determinants of regulatory compliance in health and social care services. Methods: A wide range of study designs and grey literature will be sought for this review. Searches will be conducted using PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, SocINDEX and CINAHL databases. The studies included in the review will be subject to quality appraisal with reference to the collection of tools available from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data extraction will be informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). A narrative synthesis will be conducted on the barriers, facilitators and factors associated with compliance, with reference to the concepts mapped onto the CFIR. GRADE-CERQual will be used to grade the overall body of evidence. Conclusion: The findings of this review will be useful to regulators to inform regulatory policy and practice. Service providers and policy makers may also use the findings to inform quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving compliance and quality across a range of health and social care services.

scholarly journals Determinants of regulatory compliance in health and social care services: a systematic review protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Paul Dunbar ◽  
John P. Browne ◽  
Laura O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Study Designs

Background: The delivery of high quality health and social care services is a fundamental goal for health systems worldwide. The measurement of quality in health and social care services is a complex task as there are a myriad of determinants and outcome measures to choose from. Researchers in this field have assessed a range of organisational and environmental factors (for example: staff composition, facility ownership, facility size) for an association with various measurements for quality. Compliance with regulations is one such quality measure. Compliance with regulations is variable and the determinants of this variability are under-investigated. Identifying the determinants of compliance has the potential to improve regulatory processes and can inform quality improvement initiatives undertaken by service providers and policy makers. This protocol describes a systematic review which will review literature from a wide range of study designs and sources to develop an overview of the determinants of regulatory compliance in health and social care services. Methods: A wide range of study designs and grey literature will be sought for this review. Searches will be conducted using PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, SocINDEX and CINAHL databases. The studies included in the review will be subject to quality appraisal with reference to the collection of tools available from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data extraction will be informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). A narrative synthesis will be conducted with reference to the CFIR and Normalisation Process Theory (NPT). GRADE-CERQual will be used to grade the overall body of evidence. Conclusion: The findings of this review will be useful to regulators to inform regulatory policy and practice. Service providers and policy makers may also use the findings to inform quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving compliance and quality across a range of health and social care services.

Assessing ambitious nature conservation strategies within a 2 degree warmer and food-secure world

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel T.J. Kok ◽  
Johan R. Meijer ◽  
Willem-Jan van Zeist ◽  
Jelle P. Hilbers ◽  
Marco Immovilli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Global Conservation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Global Biodiversity

AbstractGlobal biodiversity is projected to further decline under a wide range of future socio-economic development pathways, even in sustainability oriented scenarios. This raises the question how biodiversity can be put on a path to recovery, the core challenge for the CBD post-2020 global biodiversity framework. We designed two contrasting, ambitious global conservation strategies, ‘Half Earth’ (HE) and ‘Sharing the Planet’ (SP), and evaluated their ability to restore terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity and to provide ecosystem services while also mitigating climate change and ensuring food security. We applied the integrated assessment framework IMAGE with the GLOBIO biodiversity model, using the ‘Middle of the Road’ Shared Socio-economic Pathway (SSP2) with its projected human population growth as baseline.We found that both conservation strategies result in a reduction in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services globally, but without additional measures to achieve effective climate mitigation they will be insufficient to restore biodiversity. The HE strategy performs better for terrestrial biodiversity protection (biodiversity intactness (MSA), Red List Index, geometric mean abundance) in currently still natural regions, reflecting global conservation priorities. The SP strategy yields more improvements for biodiversity in human-used areas, aquatic biodiversity and for regulating ecosystem services (pest control, pollination, erosion control), reflecting regional priorities. However, ‘conservation only’ scenarios show a considerable increase in food security risks (especially in Sub-Saharan Africa) compared to the baseline and limited reduction of global temperature increase. Only when conservation strategies are combined with climate change mitigation efforts and additional actions especially in the agricultural and energy system into a portfolio of ‘integrated sustainability measures’, both conservation strategies result in restoring biodiversity to current values or even some improvement, while keeping global warming below two degrees and keeping food security risks below baseline. Minimizing food wastes and reducing consumption of animal products will be crucial.

scholarly journals Determinants of regulatory compliance in health and social care services: a systematic review protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Paul Dunbar ◽  
John P. Browne ◽  
Laura O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Study Designs

Background: The delivery of high quality health and social care services is a fundamental goal for health systems worldwide. Identifying the determinants of quality is a complex task as there are a myriad of variables to choose from. Researchers in this field have assessed a range of organisational and environmental factors (for example: staff composition, facility ownership, facility size) for an association with various quality metrics. Less attention has been paid to the determinants of compliance with quality regulation. Identifying the determinants of compliance has the potential to improve regulatory processes and can inform quality improvement initiatives undertaken by service providers and policy makers. This protocol describes a systematic review which will review literature from a wide range of study designs and sources to develop an overview of the determinants of regulatory compliance in health and social care services. Methods: A wide range of study designs and grey literature will be sought for this review. Searches will be conducted using PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, SocINDEX and CINAHL databases. The studies included in the review will be subject to quality appraisal with reference to the collection of tools available from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data extraction will be informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). A narrative synthesis will be conducted on the barriers, facilitators and factors associated with compliance, with reference to the concepts mapped onto the CFIR. GRADE-CERQual will be used to grade the overall body of evidence. Conclusion: The findings of this review will be useful to regulators to inform regulatory policy and practice. Service providers and policy makers may also use the findings to inform quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving compliance and quality across a range of health and social care services.

Loss of ecosystem services value due to food security

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 723-727
Author(s):  
Wei-Ye LU ◽  
Zhi-De JIANG ◽  
Ying-Long ZHANG ◽  
Yong-Sheng XIE ◽  
Xiao LI
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Services Value

Anti-corruption in History

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Human Wellbeing ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Legitimate Power ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Over Time

Anticorruption in History is the first major collection of case studies on how past societies and polities, in and beyond Europe, defined legitimate power in terms of fighting corruption and designed specific mechanisms to pursue that agenda. It is a timely book: corruption is widely seen today as a major problem, undermining trust in government, financial institutions, economic efficiency, the principle of equality before the law and human wellbeing in general. Corruption, in short, is a major hurdle on the “path to Denmark”—a feted blueprint for stable and successful statebuilding. The resonance of this view explains why efforts to promote anticorruption policies have proliferated in recent years. But while the subjects of corruption and anticorruption have captured the attention of politicians, scholars, NGOs and the global media, scant attention has been paid to the link between corruption and the change of anticorruption policies over time and place. Such a historical approach could help explain major moments of change in the past as well as reasons for the success and failure of specific anticorruption policies and their relation to a country’s image (of itself or as construed from outside) as being more or less corrupt. It is precisely this scholarly lacuna that the present volume intends to begin to fill. A wide range of historical contexts are addressed, ranging from the ancient to the modern period, with specific insights for policy makers offered throughout.

scholarly journals Experimental Economics in Agriculture: A Review of Worldwide Research

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1566
Author(s):  
Ernesto Mesa-Vázquez ◽  
Juan F. Velasco-Muñoz ◽  
José A. Aznar-Sánchez ◽  
Belén López-Felices
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Scientific Production ◽  
Bibliometric Study ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Wide Range

Over the last two decades, experimental economics has been gaining relevance in the research of a wide range of issues related to agriculture. In turn, the agricultural activity provides an excellent field of study within which to validate the use of instruments employed by experimental economics. The aim of this study is to analyze the dynamics of the research on the application of experimental economics in agriculture on a global level. Thus, a literature review has been carried out for the period between the years 2000 and 2020 based on a bibliometric study. The main results show that there has been a growing use of experimental economics methods in the research on agriculture, particularly over the last five years. This evolution is evident in the different indicators analyzed and is reflected in the greater scientific production and number of actors involved. The most relevant topics within the research on experimental economics in agriculture focus on the farmer, the markets, the consumer, environmental policy, and public goods. These results can be useful for policy makers and researchers interested in this line of research.

scholarly journals Enhancing the Glopan Food Systems Framework by Integrating Gender: Relevance for Women in African Agriculture

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8564
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mkandawire ◽  
Melody Mentz-Coetzee ◽  
Margaret Najjingo Mangheni ◽  
Eleonora Barusi
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Gender Barriers ◽  
Nutrition Security ◽  
African Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture And Food ◽  
Systems Framework

Globally, gender inequalities constrain food security, with women often disproportionately affected. Women play a fundamental role in household food and nutrition security. The multiple roles women play in various areas of the food system are not always recognised. This oversight emerges from an overemphasis on one aspect of the food system, without considering how this area might affect or be affected by another aspect. This study aimed to draw on international commitments and treaties using content analysis to enhance the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Security food systems framework by integrating a gender perspective. The study found that generally, there is a consensus on specific actions that can be taken to advance gender equality at specific stages of the food system. However, governance and social systems constraints that are not necessarily part of the food system, but have a significant bearing on men and women’s capacity to effectively participate in the food system, need to be addressed. While the proposed conceptual framework has some limitations, it offers a foundation on which researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders can begin conceptualising the interconnectedness of gender barriers in the food system.

Metal-based Green Synthesized Nanoparticles: Boon for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Sudhir Shende ◽  
Vishnu Rajput ◽  
Aniket Gade ◽  
Tatiana Minkina ◽  
Svetlana N. Sushkova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Agriculture And Food
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document