In this issue: the SDGs through 2017 and beyond, the power of partnership, Southern civil society organisations' reactions to 'disruptive change' and more.
Fighting for the future – sustainable development and the battle for ideas in 2017
In a new blog, IIED Director Andrew Norton shares his thoughts on some of the key debates affecting 2017 and future generations: climate change, aid, the future of work, inequality, land access, and more.
News and blogs
New video highlights how IIED's partnerships deliver change
Our new annual report animation, 'Powering change through partnership', illustrates how IIED is working with partners at the local, national and international levels.
How much can the eyes in the sky really tell us about deforestation?
The group shared personal insights, looked at our organisations' roles in the broader political economy of disruptive change, and considered a wide range of disruptive forces.
Sustainable development in 2016 – how much do you know?
Down with the delicacies served up by Uganda street vendors? Tapped in to the targets for measuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goals? Do you know how much of the world's population depends on forests for their livelihoods?
Are you as advanced as Morocco, or do you have as much to do as Japan? Our specially devised ranking system is based on how hard countries are working to tackle climate change...
New publications this month
Over the past 15 years China has become Africa’s largest trading partner. There are continuing misperceptions about China-Africa economic relations, and little empirical evidence on the policy tools that underpin China’s economic diplomacy in Africa and how they affect the conduct of Chinese companies.
China and several sub-Saharan African states have signed bilateral investment treaties. 'China-Africa investment treaties: do they work?' explores the content of the treaties, and whether they achieve their stated goal of promoting foreign investment as part of South-South foreign cooperation.
Effective monitoring of deforestation and cropland expansion in Africa requires reliable estimates of land cover area. However, continental scale land cover datasets generated through remote sensing technologies show large differences in distribution of forest and cropland. 'Understanding agricultural drivers of deforestation through remote sensing: opportunities and limitations in sub-Saharan Africa' identifies 14 commonly used land cover data products, summarises their properties, and compares their estimates of forest and cropland area.
Significant uncertainties around future climate change challenge the implementation of policies and programmes. Mobilising action that can respond to climate change and be flexible enough to learn from new experiences as well as adapt to unknowns is difficult, due to a variety of factors.
Training volunteers to help their communities defend their land rights has proved an effective approach for promoting land justice in Tanzania. 'Pillars of the community: how trained volunteers defend land rights in Tanzania' documents how Hakiardhi, a Dar-es-Salaam based research institute working on land governance issues, has established and trained a 600-strong network of ‘Land Rights Monitors’ (LRMs) to help people and local governments to exercise and ensure respect for their legal rights in land disputes.
Small towns perform a number of essential functions, from market nodes to providers of services and goods and non-farm employment. They represent about half of the world’s urban population, and are projected to absorb much of its growth in the next decades. But the interconnections between rural and urban spaces, people and enterprises – and how these affect poverty and food insecurity – remain overlooked.
IIED's legal tools team has an exciting opportunity for a French-speaking senior researcher to develop and manage action research programmes that will strengthen local rights and promote sustainable development in the governance of land and investment.
