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Newsletter, April

This week we have an interview with Sheela Patel, blogs on artisanal mining, The Gambia's climate change strategies and urban growth, new briefing papers, and jobs.

The world's poorest communities live and work with risk every day (Photo: Jean Pierre Candelier via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

COVID-19: on the front line where crisis meets normal

IIED director of communications Liz Carlile spoke to Sheela Patel, IIED trustee and founder and Director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) India. They discussed the practical, immediate realities of these 'virus' times for communities.

It is time for the development community to rethink its attitude to risk, and COVID-19 shows the need to challenge vertical hierarchies and top-down responses to global crises.

Read the blog from their discussion

Gold has been mined in Marmato for more than 500 years. Now a nearby mountain, nicknamed ‘El Burro’, is at the centre of a mining conflict (Photo: Jimena Sierra)

Guest blog by Jimena Sierra and Brendan Schwartz

Mining reforms have left Colombia’s artisanal miners behind

Following a recent visit to California, Colombia, Jimena Sierra and IIED's Brendan Schwartz discuss the impact of the government’s push to promote large-scale mining on artisanal and small-scale gold miners.

Read their blog

"Given many rural communities’ dependence on ASM for their livelihoods, implementation of the reforms is causing major tensions. Regulatory authorities have focused on verifying whether local miners operate with formal mining permits and seize equipment of those deemed non-compliant. This has led to artisanal miners being portrayed, and treated, as criminals."

The Gambia is experiencing increasingly irregular rainfall patterns, resulting in saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean seeping into freshwater river systems (Photo: Dan Roizer, via Unsplash, public domain)

Blog by Gabrielle Swaby

Developing a vision for The Gambia’s future

The Paris Agreement invites all countries to submit mid-century low-carbon, climate-resilient development strategies by 2020. Gabrielle Swaby chronicles The Gambia’s progress towards fulfilling this commitment.

Read the blog now

Thailand is one of many nations transforming from a predominantly rural country to an increasingly urban one. Bangkok has a population of more than 9 million, or close to 13% of the country's population (Photo: Bryon Lippincott via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

Blog by David Satterthwaite

An urbanising world

David Satterthwaite examines global trends in the size, growth and distribution of the world’s urban population, and considers climate change and COVID-19.

Read the blog

Briefings, 4 pages

Briefing papers

Against the odds: growing producer power in agricultural value chains

Calling for business unusual: mechanisms for delivering change

How can standardised evaluation metrics increase climate resilience?

Trade-offs in sustainable agricultural intensification: the farmers’ perspective

We're hiring

Wanted: latest advertised roles at IIED

We're advertising roles for a principal researcher in our inclusive blue economy research programme, and a director of human resources.

Human resources director: Find out more and apply by 14 May

Principal researcher (inclusive blue economy): Find out more and apply by 17 May