This month find cotton at a crossroads in Zambia, an African agribusiness investment webinar, CBA11 field visits and more...

May 2017

Cotton at a crossroads

Across Zambia, cotton is a key source of income for more than 300,000 smallholder farmers, ensuring money for school fees, food, fertiliser and other household necessities.

The cotton sector is facing a number of challenges. It is under threat due to cotton being at its lowest production in decades, and farmers and companies trading with each other illegally outside of formal contracts (side-trading).

With the sector at a crossroads, the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) and IIED embarked on research to understand the drivers behind side-trading and explore possible solutions with key stakeholders. While the research is being finalised, this photo story gives some key impressions.

News and blogs

How does IIED seek to make a difference?

Drawing on the findings of the independent external review of our work, IIED director Andrew Norton tries to answer "how does IIED make a difference in the world?", and "what are IIED's distinct characteristics?".

Marching into May talks: LDCs lead the way on climate change

With UN climate change negotiations underway in Germany, Gebru Jember Endalew, chair of the Least Developed Countries Group at the UNFCCC, shows how the world's poorest countries are leading by example.

IIED webinar: improving accountability in agribusiness investments

IIED is hosting a webinar with experts from three African countries on Tuesday, 6 June 2017 to examine how civil society organisations are working to improve the accountability of land managment authorities in the context of agribusiness investments.

This online seminar is designed for civil society organisations in low and middle-income countries that want to support communities whose land rights and livelihoods are affected by agricultural projects.

For full details and to join the webinar, visit the IIED website.

New publications this month

A number of Asian cities have been involved in climate change adaptation and resilience-building initiatives, focusing on the capacity of local governments to assess vulnerabilities and implement effective mitigation strategies.

Developing city resilience strategies: lessons from ICLEI and ACCCRN presents the key lessons based on a sample of 15 city resilience strategies from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Policy and decision makers are increasingly recognising that nature-based solutions or ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) may often provide the most cost-effective and broadly beneficial solution to adapting to climate change.

Ecosystem-based adaptation: Question-based guidance for assessing effectiveness sets out guidance for assessing the effectiveness of an EbA approach to climate change adaptation. It describes a process that can be used to shape project design, assess progress of an ongoing project or draw conclusions about the effectiveness of a finished project.

Mozambique has seen a huge rise in the volume of its timber exports to China in recent years. Meanwhile, reports of illegality and unsustainable logging have steadily grown.

Boosting governance in Mozambique’s forests explores what options exist for incentives that can put in place more sustainable forestry. It identifies six main areas of concern and outlines for each area possible incentives that might be developed to improve practice.

Briefings

Resilience planning in Asian cities: lessons from the ICLEI–ACCCRN process

Tackling poverty and food security: lessons from India’s peri-urban frontier

Field visits to highlight community-based adaptation in Uganda

In Uganda, where the 11th Conference on Community-based Adaptation (CBA11) will be held from 26-29 June 2017, the population is greatly exposed to the impacts of climate change. In response, people have devised various ways to adapt and improve their resilience.

Ahead of CBA11, read about the various field visits to sites that demonstrate some of the ways in which communities are adapting to these changes.

The deadline to register for field visits has been extended to 31 May. Register now!

IIED's external review

Every five years, IIED's main institutional funders commission an independent review of our work. This is a major undertaking, which requires work spread over a full year and the engagement of our supporters, partners and users of our work.

The final report provides a hugely valuable assessment of the strengths and challenges we face, as well as shifts in the broader context in which we operate.

The most recent review was completed in March 2017. The review team presented an excellent analysis of the means by which IIED contributes to broader change, as well as a set of recommendations for future attention.

Think people should hear about this? Forward to a friend

Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

unsubscribe from this list