Suchergebnisse

Most reports on refugees deal with the immediate needs of displaced people. This paper seeks to go beyond the emergency phase and explore the challenges surrounding protracted refugee situations. The paper examines the refugee situation in Sub-Saharan Africa from a long-term angle, from the perspective of refugees own agency as well as from the perspective of the host community. The paper aims to shed light on the economic lives of refugees in their host communities. Starting with an overview of the situation of refugees in Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper draws on findings from the literature to debunk some entrenched beliefs about refugees. The discussion of refugee crises in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda draws some lessons. The decision to return is discussed and it is argued that the decision depends on the socioeconomic condition in the host country versus the country of refuge, integration versus return policies in place, the individual set of skills of each refugee, and his or her subjective perception of the political climate in both countries.

Twenty million people in Central America cook with biomass using open fires or rudimentary stoves. The number of people using biomass for cooking in the region will remain significant for a long time due to high incidence of poverty, high Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) prices coupled with unsustainable LPG subsidies, as well as relatively easy access to fuel wood in the region. Providing these people with clean and efficient cooking solutions is not just an energy issue, but one related to poverty, gender inequality, public health, environmental sustainability, local employment, climate change, agriculture, and local employment. A new generation of improved biomass cook stoves (ICS) has recently become available in Central America. The economic benefits from improving public health, reducing deforestation, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions well outweigh the costs of ICS dissemination. Efforts involving donor agencies, governments, non-governmental organizations, as well as local entrepreneurs have been made to disseminate ICS in the region in the last 10 years. The objective of this study is to better understand current developments in clean and efficient biomass cooking solutions, factors that have precluded a larger penetration of ICS within the region, and lessons learned from past programs-both in the region and in other countries-that may be relevant to Central America. The study recommends key actions that may help the region step up its current dissemination efforts and promote sustained use of ICS, a first step toward universal access to ICS by fuel wood users. Its intended audience includes different stakeholders, including government agencies, regional and international organizations, as well as various implementing entities who are thinking or rethinking appropriate technologies, policy interventions, financing, and delivery mechanisms for Central America to promote ICS.

The purpose of this report is to inform practitioners on gender dynamics in Bolivia as they relate to natural resource management and climate change. This is done to provide new knowledge for mainstreaming gender into rural development projects. The aim is to go beyond general gender assumptions and provide more detailed empirical knowledge on differentiated gender roles and the relative access of women and men to resources. The report will demonstrate that women and men in rural Bolivia have many different roles and opportunities, which are not equally distributed. The paper will also show that these roles are changing as a result of both general development trends and climate change. Further, evidence demonstrates that women and men experience vulnerability and adapt to climate change differently. As a result, rural development and adaptation strategies should integrate the relative capacities of women and men and respond to their particular needs. This will help avoid counterproductive out comes that widen gender gaps and allow for more sustainable, pro-poor rural development. This report will begin by introducing the methodology and case study regions. It will then examine in detail the specific roles of women and men in rural Bolivia. Next it will look at the gendered access to and control over resources and how gender roles, access and control are changing as a result of climate change. The report will finish with some general conclusions and specific recommendations for development practitioners in rural Bolivia.

This article focuses mainly on the five primary case study countries. For forest impacts, the concentration is on forest conversion to other land uses and deforestation, defined as a (temporary or permanent) removal of trees to less than 10 percent crown cover, which is similar to the Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO's) definition. Selective logging is thus not deforestation but may degrade forests and enable conversion. All of the case study countries are tropical countries that export oil, a choice made for two reasons. First, the macroeconomic 'laboratory' of oil exporters offers a good opportunity to study links between external economic changes and forests. Oil economies often fluctuate dramatically due to heavy reliance on a single export commodity with unstable world market prices. Second, earlier studies provide support for the hypotheses that on average oil- and mineral-exporting tropical countries have more forests left and lose them at a slower rate than non-mineral-exporting countries. The article briefly reviews hypotheses and methodologies and outlines the deforestation data problems and how they were dealt with. It presents empirical results for the five primary case study countries and takes a closer look at three of the key causal linkages in the model. It then examines the role of different policy instruments and finally discusses policy insights that extend beyond the oil exporting countries.

This publication is the result of an initiative to promote an exchange between Brazil and African countries on lessons learned about the role of community forestry as a strategic option to achieve the goals of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). The initiative was supported by the World Bank with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and coordinated by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) with support from the National Forestry Agency International (ONFI). Representatives of five countries from the Congo Basin (Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo) and Madagascar participated in this initiative. This publication organizes information, analyses and conclusions on issues relevant to the design and implementation of REDD+ strategies. The findings do not represent an official position of any of the institutions or governments involved. In fact, the material presented here aims to stimulate further discussions, as the REDD+ debate is still unfolding and could benefit greatly from technical exchanges among the various ongoing initiatives. This publication has the following sections: (i) a conceptual approach to community forestry and REDD+; (ii) the key issues of REDD+ in connection with community forestry in Africa; (iii) how REDD+ and forest carbon (FC) are being developed in Brazil; and (iv) conclusions.

The Cambodia environment monitor 2008 is one of a series of environmental reports prepared for East Asian countries under an initiative sponsored by the World Bank. The objective of this series is to present a snapshot of environmental trends across a range of issues. The purpose of the monitor is to engage and inform interested stakeholders about key environmental changes in an easy to understand format accessible to a wide audience. This report identifies seven strategic priorities for the Royal government of Cambodia and its conservation partners. 1)articulate a clear and shared vision and re-commitment to conservation goals and objectives; 2)formalize a meaningful enabling legal and regulatory framework for management and protection of conservation areas; 3)formulate clear strategies for recognizing and improving community benefit sharing in conservation areas; 4) strengthen mechanisms for institutional coordination across the ministries; 5) adopt new approaches and paradigms for conservation areas management; 6) with donors, develop and secure sustainable sources of funding for conservation; and 7) reinforce the human resource capacity to implement and manage conservation areas.