This month: take IIED's stakeholder survey, read about climate change denial and its impacts, the illegal wildlife trade, and Dar es Salaam's unique issues.

February 2017

IIED Stakeholder survey

Every year we conduct a survey to assess our performance and learn how we can improve. We want to hear your thoughts on IIED’s work and what you would like to see us do more of in the future.

This survey remains open until 3 March 2017.

News and blogs

Denying denial: climate facts and impacts

IIED Director Andrew Norton and Clare Shakya, director of IIED's Climate Change group, discuss climate change denial in their new blog.

It's happening, it's caused by humans and it will have a negative impact on all our lives. So what are the facts – and what can 'ordinary' citizens do about it?

Tackling the illegal wildlife trade through community-based approaches: building evidence on what works

Local communities are the first line of defence in tackling the illegal wildlife trade. But there's little information on initiatives involving local people.

IIED's new database aims to gather more evidence on approaches that work, those that don't – and why.

Spotlight on... Connecting cities to basins

Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. Much of the population growth is the result of internal migration, with young people leaving the countryside to find work in the city and nearly 80% of the city's inhabitants living in informal settlements.

The SDGs aim to promote the "availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" by 2030. And the challenges of providing safe water and sanitation to people living in Dar es Salaam illustrate the issues that will be faced by cities across Africa and the global South in the next decades.

This longread from the Connecting Cities to Basins project shows how Dar es Salaam provides a useful case study for meeting the water and sanitation SDG targets at scale.

Public event: Evidence-informed decision-making in a complex world

6 March 2017, 4-5:30pm GMT | Public event | Streamed live online

In a fast changing world, development progress is complex: solutions are neither simple nor obvious. There is growing recognition among research and policy communities that flexible and adaptive approaches are the best way to address this complexity, and to deliver sustainable and inclusive change.

Decision-making is inherently political. And in a so called 'post-truth' world, the relationship between evidence and decision-making is becoming even more challenging. But, at the same time, the rise of populist politics and attacks on aid are likely to be driving some donors towards simpler, more technocratic, definitions of impact. Accountability to funders and value for money may squeeze out complexity thinking and learning.

This panel debate event asks a diverse panel of donor, academic and non-governmental organisations: how do you navigate this tension to inform your day-to-day decision-making?

Register to join this event in person or online

New publications this month

Investment in Tanzania’s energy sector is growing, but how much attention is being given to decentralised energy solutions for people who still lack energy for their basic needs?

'Money is Power: Tracking finance flows for decentralised energy access in Tanzania' maps the available data on finance for decentralised energy access in Tanzania, and compares this to funding needs. It finds that the vast majority of public energy finance flows to large grid-connected projects and only a small proportion supports decentralised energy access.

Chinese actors are increasingly engaging in African agriculture. Despite China’s innovative approaches, experience shows that technologies that have worked in China may not offer the same benefits when transferred to Africa. The perspective of the Chinese agronomists is largely missing from the literature on China-Africa agricultural engagements.

'Chinese agriculture in Africa: Perspectives of Chinese agronomists on agricultural aid' presents reflections of more than 160 Chinese agronomists who have spent time implementing agriculture-aid projects in Africa.

Karachi is facing a crisis of governance that is reflected in the poor state of service delivery, and unplanned and unsustainable urbanisation. The city’s development shortcomings have created vulnerabilities at different scales that are likely to exacerbate the impacts of climate change-related weather events.

'Drivers of Climate Change vulnerability at different scales in Karachi' is a step towards identifying and highlighting some of these vulnerabilities, in the hope of initiating a discussion and prompting action on climate change adaptation measures.

Briefings

Managing trade-offs between growing food and conserving forests in sub-Saharan Africa

Cracking the climate-water-energy challenge in the drylands of Kenya

Changing landscapes in Mozambique: why pro-poor land policy matters

New animation: how to secure land rights of people affected by dams

The Global Water Initiative (GWI) West Africa has released a new animation explaining how policymakers can work with local communities to protect the rights of people affected by large dams.

'Securing the land rights of people affected by dams in West Africa', is part of the GWI action-research and advocacy project, and is also available in French (en francais).

Job vacancies

Marketing and communications assistant (Green Economy Coalition)

The Green Economy Coalition (GEC) has an ambitious three-year strategy, a secure funding pipeline and a series of new projects around natural capital and national dialogues, and is looking to expand with the recruitment of a marketing and communications assistant.
Closing date: 4pm on Wednesday, 1 March 2017 (GMT)

Project manager (Green Economy Coalition)

The Green Economy Coalition (GEC) has an ambitious three-year strategy, a secure funding pipeline and a series of new projects around natural capital and national dialogues, and is looking to expand with the recruitment of a project manager to oversee GEC projects.
Closing date: 4pm on Wednesday, 1 March 2017 (GMT)

Programme director (Green Economy Coalition)

The Green Economy Coalition is looking for Programme Director who will develop, lead and manage 2 global Green Economy programmes: National Dialogues (currently active in 7 countries) and Natural Capital.
Closing date: 10am on Thursday, 16 March 2017 (GMT)

Trustee vacancy (based in China)

We are looking for a Chinese national based in country who has extensive experience of working in the field of international environment and development. The ideal candidate is someone with wide ranging strategic experience at board level who has ideally fulfilled a trustee role in a not-for-profit organisation. The trustee will have a very good understanding of IIED's business, will be able to clearly articulate our mission and values, and demonstrate what and how they can contribute towards steering the organisation through the challenges ahead.
Closing date: 5pm, Friday, 24 March 2017 (BST)

Trustee vacancy (based in Sub-Saharan Africa)

We are looking for an African academic based in Sub-Saharan Africa who has extensive experience of working in the field of international environment and development. The ideal candidate is someone with wide ranging strategic experience at board level who has ideally fulfilled a trustee role in a not-for-profit organisation. The trustee will have a very good understanding of IIED's business, will be able to clearly articulate our mission and values, and demonstrate what and how they can contribute towards steering the organisation through the challenges ahead.
Closing date: 5pm on Friday, 24 March 2017 (GMT)

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