Questo studio ha analizzato gli effetti della globalizzazione agroalimentare sulla povertà rurale in Tanzania, inquadrando il fenomeno nei più ampi processi di cambiamento politico, sociale ed economico in corso nel Paese e nel continente africano. Dopo un lungo periodo di disinteresse tanto del settore pubblico quanto di quello privato, negli ultimi anni è infatti emersa una nuova attenzione da parte dei governi nazionali, dei donatori e degli investitori esteri verso l'agricoltura e la terra africana. Come suggerito dalla Banca Mondiale con la pubblicazione del World Development Report 2008, il governo tanzaniano ha intrapreso una strategia di sviluppo che pone grande enfasi sull'attrazione di investimenti esteri nel settore agricolo, sulla creazione di 'cluster agroindustriali' e sulla diffusione di nuove colture 'high value' e 'labor intensive' per l'esportazione nel mercato internazionale. I donatori e il governo tanzaniano ritengono infatti di facilitare la riduzione della povertà sia attraverso la creazione di nuovi posti di lavoro nelle imprese agricole, sia tramite l'inclusione degli agricoltori locali nelle nuove filiere regionali e globali. La ricerca ha preso come caso di studio il recente sviluppo dell'industria ortofrutticola orientata all'esportazione – definita dalla stessa Banca Mondiale come 'la nuova agricoltura africana' - nelle zone montane delle regioni di Kilimanjaro, Arusha e Tanga, focalizzandosi in particolare sulle condizioni degli agricoltori coinvolti nella produzione di 'nuove colture' per il mercato globale attraverso i programmi di contract farming (CF) e sulle condizioni dei lavoratori salariati impiegati dalle imprese agricole e dagli stessi produttori tanzaniani. Lo studio contribuisce al dibattito internazionale sulle trasformazioni agrarie, sul ruolo dell'agricoltura, dello Stato, del mercato e della cooperazione internazionale nel processo di sviluppo in Tanzania e in Africa sub-sahariana. ; This Thesis deals with the impacts of globalization on rural poverty in Tanzania. It does so by looking at the wider process of political and socioeconomic change in the country as well in other sub-Saharan countries in the last decades. Since the beginning of the new century, there has been a growing interest by national governments, private investors and international donors in the African agriculture. As suggested by the World Bank in the World Development Report 2008, the Tanzanian government is implementing a development strategy aimed at attracting foreign investments in agriculture, at crating agro-industrial corridor and clusters and at promoting the production and export of high-value and labour-intensive products. Through this strategy, international donors and the Tanzanian government believe to foster the reduction of poverty by either the creation of wage labour and the inclusion of smallholder farmers in the emerging 'global value chains'. This study has taken the development of the horticultural industry in the northern regions of Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Arusha as case study. Within the actors involved in industry, this research has focused on the one hand on the impacts of contract farming, and on the other on the impacts of wage labor on poverty and inequality. The study contributes to the international debate on agrarian change and transformations and on the role of the State, market, agriculture and donors in the development process in Tanzania as well in other Sub-Saharan countries.
In the year marking the centenary since the foundation of the Azerbaijani Diplomatic Service, Baku's foreign policy is increasingly characterised by a broader understanding of diplomacy, shaped by the gradual yet steady expansion of both areas and the tools for intervention. Guided by the attempt to develop a 'niche strategy' aiming at safeguarding and promoting Azerbaijani national interest, the Humanitarian Diplomacy emerges as a privileged field for Baku to adopt a pro-active and creative foreign policy. Building upon the debate around the interests behind the aid-providing activities of traditional and emerging donors, the article aims at introducing the motivations and the aims behind Azerbaijani aid policy. In particular, it aims at demonstrating that Baku's Humanitarian Diplomacy aims chiefly at achieving immaterial benefits, having to do with international prestige and with the construction and international projection of a Good International Citizenship.
A new era of multiparty politics in Kenya began in December 1991, when President Daniel Arap Moi repealed the constitutional clause that enshrined the Kenya African National Union (KANU) as the sole political party. Despite widespread unpopularity, Moi won the presidential elections and his party secured a majority in parliament in the following two general elections, held in December 1992 and December 1997. This doctoral thesis is structured in five parts. The first part takes a historical perspective of African's Civil Movements and seeks to put into context of African's State. The second part takes a historical reconstruction of Kenya's Political Transiction. The third part traces and analyses the rule of Civil Association and particulary and examines and analyses NCEC's activities in its quest for constitutional reforms. The fourth part examines as aid donors played a central part not only in initially advancing the cause of multipartyism. The last part analyses the political role of NGOs.
This final investigation has been based on a case study with the purpose of analyzing relevant and useful information whose purpose is to demonstrate the humanitarian aid debate in Syria, as who is working on it, with which channels and so on. Thanks to this study, we want to make it clear that humanitarian action in the context of war and violence leads to different requirements than the support offered in disaster scenarios caused by nature, because humanitarian action in situations of war must safeguard the humanitarian principles and provide assistance to all victims of the conflict, without exception and without underestimating anyone, without judging their creed, sex, political participation, etc., even if there are territorial divisions as happens in Syria. However, as will be evident in this research, humanitarian workers are conditioned by the governments where they work, in addition they have to follow the criteria issued by financial donors. The study also helps to demonstrate the complexity of the conflict in Syria, it has highlighted not only the evolution of the war, but what are the main belligerents and why the country is divided by different groups, and how this situation has limited the good work of international emergency cooperation, as well how humanitarian actors are facing unpleasant situations in which early humanitarian principles are violated.
[Damage caused by blood transfusion and medical liability]A wide scientific and jurisprudential literature is available on the issue of medical liability for damage by blood transfusion. National laws and jurisprudential guidelines had transposed the scientific development in term of preventive diagnostic techniques designed to minimize the risk of post-transfusion infections. For this reasons the Ministry of Health has issued several decrees to preserve patients from viral post-transfusion infections, avoiding compensation due to unpredictable transfusion damages. Particularly, by implementing all the methods provided by law, it is now possible to minimize the risk of infection, but it is impossible to cancel it. On the other hand, in the "so-called windows period" for viral infections, potential infective donors can't be identified, although the recent molecular technique (PRC: polymerase chain reaction) has been applied for HBV, HCV, and HIV. This technique has been introduced in the nineties but applied only since 2000. Consequently an unappropriated transfusion therapy for wrong indication or a careless collection, analysis, and storage of blood, according to laws since 2000, remain compensable. Post-transfusion infections, which are impossible to identify for the sensitivity limits of analytical methods, are not compensable. Another important issue is the time-barred for the request of the damage: in this case, the prescription term doesn't start since the time of infection, but since the time when the disease was perceived or it could be perceived as a post-transfusion damage. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the responsibility and the time-barred of damage caused by blood transfusion.
For decades International Relations have seen an uninterrupted increase in the weight of aid policies in defining the number and quality of bilateral and multilateral relations between sovereign States, increasingly replacing the traditional instruments of war and trade. Although aid is an ever-increasing component of States' foreign policies and conditions not only their reciprocal relations but the entire International System, it is struggling to establish itself as an object of historical and political study in its own right. The conceptual definition of aid, which has remained rather vague, charged with a prescriptive and a-political moralising scope, has suffered.The article is dedicated to a (re)-operationalization of the concept of State Aid in the international dimension so as to make it a useful practical tool for historical- political research on the subject. This leads to the definition of a new concept of International Aid Public Policy (IAPP), which goes beyond the traditional concept of Foreign Policy to support a History of International Relations and Institutions that includes the analysis of aid policies between sovereign states, both outgoing (if donors) and incoming (if recipients). ; Da decenni le Relazioni Internazionali vedono un aumento ininterrotto del peso delle politiche di aiuto nel definire numero e qualità delle relazioni bilaterali e multilaterali tra Stati sovrani, sostituendosi sempre più spesso ai tradizionali strumenti della guerra e del commercio. Per quanto gli aiuti siano una componente sempre maggiore delle politiche estere degli Stati e condizionino non solo le loro reciproche relazioni ma l'intero Sistema Internazionale, essi faticano ad affermarsi come oggetto di studio storico politico a se stante. A farne le spese è stata la definizione concettuale dell'aiuto, rimasta piuttosto vaga, carica di una portata moralizzatrice prescrittiva e a-politica. L'articolo si dedica ad una (ri)-operazionalizzazione del concetto di Aiuto di Stato nella dimensione internazionale in modo ...
Historically, the people of Mozambique have faced oppression and social spatial segregation and responded in a way that has reinforced rather than dismantled their traditional values. Since pre-colonial times, the population's strategy for escaping from environmental and foreign political disruption has been to reinvent tradition, based on the principles of resilience, resistance and self-reliance. The development of decentralised human settlements, involving the appropriation of land for domestic space and the self-organisation of neighbourhoods, were strategies to protect communities from adversity and secure collective self-reliance. Following Mozambique's conversion to globalization, the post-colonial 'cement city' is now the core of neo-liberalism, as a node of the global economy, where foreign donors and international market economy control national political economy, exacerbating the premise of the negation of self-sufficiency that continues to evolve resiliently at its margins. The adoption of a neo-liberal model of development during the 1990s, completely bypasses the realities of Mozambican society. This paper argues that the strategy of self-production of space regarding the household/Outdoor Domestic Space unit, which existed previously as a resistance strategy, first of all against colonialism and secondly, against the statist definition of socialism, thirdly, has become a successful strategy for survival, as the building block of the decentralised Agrocity, in the face of a global economy which totally neglects both the people and the land. Outdoor Domestic Space is a multifaceted space that refers to the external space surrounding the built house and which, in the case of Mozambique, is where daily life takes place, involving strong social, ecological and productive functions. Under successive periods of political economy oppression and environmental adversity, the Outdoor Domestic Space has been adapted and refined to ensure collective self-reliance. Shaping a green and ruralised urbanisation at the margins of the Mozambican post-colonial dualistic city, which I call the Agrocity, the Outdoor Domestic Space is resilient because it is able to adjust domestic space as a strategy to secure livelihoods, provide urban food, commerce and services, maintain vital kinship relationships and produce a comfortable and clean microclimate across the spontaneous neighbourhoods. This spatial resilience is the feature underlying the self-organisation of neighbourhoods with a new way of overcoming alienation from nature, which suggest the continuance of an innate relationship between society, the human habitat and nature. ; Historically, the people of Mozambique have faced oppression and social spatial segregation and responded in a way that has reinforced rather than dismantled their traditional values. Since pre-colonial times, the population's strategy for escaping from environmental and foreign political disruption has been to reinvent tradition, based on the principles of resilience, resistance and self-reliance. The development of decentralised human settlements, involving the appropriation of land for domestic space and the self-organisation of neighbourhoods, were strategies to protect communities from adversity and secure collective self-reliance. Following Mozambique's conversion to globalization, the post-colonial 'cement city' is now the core of neo-liberalism, as a node of the global economy, where foreign donors and international market economy control national political economy, exacerbating the premise of the negation of self-sufficiency that continues to evolve resiliently at its margins. The adoption of a neo-liberal model of development during the 1990s, completely bypasses the realities of Mozambican society. This paper argues that the strategy of self-production of space regarding the household/Outdoor Domestic Space unit, which existed previously as a resistance strategy, first of all against colonialism and secondly, against the statist definition of socialism, thirdly, has become a successful strategy for survival, as the building block of the decentralised Agrocity, in the face of a global economy which totally neglects both the people and the land. Outdoor Domestic Space is a multifaceted space that refers to the external space surrounding the built house and which, in the case of Mozambique, is where daily life takes place, involving strong social, ecological and productive functions. Under successive periods of political economy oppression and environmental adversity, the Outdoor Domestic Space has been adapted and refined to ensure collective self-reliance. Shaping a green and ruralised urbanisation at the margins of the Mozambican post-colonial dualistic city, which I call the Agrocity, the Outdoor Domestic Space is resilient because it is able to adjust domestic space as a strategy to secure livelihoods, provide urban food, commerce and services, maintain vital kinship relationships and produce a comfortable and clean microclimate across the spontaneous neighbourhoods. This spatial resilience is the feature underlying the self-organisation of neighbourhoods with a new way of overcoming alienation from nature, which suggest the continuance of an innate relationship between society, the human habitat and nature.
Historically, the people of Mozambique have faced oppression and social spatial segregation and responded in a way that has reinforced rather than dismantled their traditional values. Since pre-colonial times, the population's strategy for escaping from environmental and foreign political disruption has been to reinvent tradition, based on the principles of resilience, resistance and self-reliance. The development of decentralised human settlements, involving the appropriation of land for domestic space and the self-organisation of neighbourhoods, were strategies to protect communities from adversity and secure collective self-reliance. Following Mozambique's conversion to globalization, the post-colonial 'cement city' is now the core of neo-liberalism, as a node of the global economy, where foreign donors and international market economy control national political economy, exacerbating the premise of the negation of self-sufficiency that continues to evolve resiliently at its margins. The adoption of a neo-liberal model of development during the 1990s, completely bypasses the realities of Mozambican society. This paper argues that the strategy of self-production of space regarding the household/Outdoor Domestic Space unit, which existed previously as a resistance strategy, first of all against colonialism and secondly, against the statist definition of socialism, thirdly, has become a successful strategy for survival, as the building block of the decentralised Agrocity, in the face of a global economy which totally neglects both the people and the land. Outdoor Domestic Space is a multifaceted space that refers to the external space surrounding the built house and which, in the case of Mozambique, is where daily life takes place, involving strong social, ecological and productive functions. Under successive periods of political economy oppression and environmental adversity, the Outdoor Domestic Space has been adapted and refined to ensure collective self-reliance. Shaping a green and ruralised urbanisation at the margins of the Mozambican post-colonial dualistic city, which I call the Agrocity, the Outdoor Domestic Space is resilient because it is able to adjust domestic space as a strategy to secure livelihoods, provide urban food, commerce and services, maintain vital kinship relationships and produce a comfortable and clean microclimate across the spontaneous neighbourhoods. This spatial resilience is the feature underlying the self-organisation of neighbourhoods with a new way of overcoming alienation from nature, which suggest the continuance of an innate relationship between society, the human habitat and nature. ; Historically, the people of Mozambique have faced oppression and social spatial segregation and responded in a way that has reinforced rather than dismantled their traditional values. Since pre-colonial times, the population's strategy for escaping from environmental and foreign political disruption has been to reinvent tradition, based on the principles of resilience, resistance and self-reliance. The development of decentralised human settlements, involving the appropriation of land for domestic space and the self-organisation of neighbourhoods, were strategies to protect communities from adversity and secure collective self-reliance. Following Mozambique's conversion to globalization, the post-colonial 'cement city' is now the core of neo-liberalism, as a node of the global economy, where foreign donors and international market economy control national political economy, exacerbating the premise of the negation of self-sufficiency that continues to evolve resiliently at its margins. The adoption of a neo-liberal model of development during the 1990s, completely bypasses the realities of Mozambican society. This paper argues that the strategy of self-production of space regarding the household/Outdoor Domestic Space unit, which existed previously as a resistance strategy, first of all against colonialism and secondly, against the statist definition of socialism, thirdly, has become a successful strategy for survival, as the building block of the decentralised Agrocity, in the face of a global economy which totally neglects both the people and the land. Outdoor Domestic Space is a multifaceted space that refers to the external space surrounding the built house and which, in the case of Mozambique, is where daily life takes place, involving strong social, ecological and productive functions. Under successive periods of political economy oppression and environmental adversity, the Outdoor Domestic Space has been adapted and refined to ensure collective self-reliance. Shaping a green and ruralised urbanisation at the margins of the Mozambican post-colonial dualistic city, which I call the Agrocity, the Outdoor Domestic Space is resilient because it is able to adjust domestic space as a strategy to secure livelihoods, provide urban food, commerce and services, maintain vital kinship relationships and produce a comfortable and clean microclimate across the spontaneous neighbourhoods. This spatial resilience is the feature underlying the self-organisation of neighbourhoods with a new way of overcoming alienation from nature, which suggest the continuance of an innate relationship between society, the human habitat and nature.
Background: The importance of Indian germplasm as origin and primary center of diversity of cultivated melon is widely accepted. Genetic diversity of several collections from Indian has been studied previously, although an integrated analysis of these collections in a global diversity perspective has not been possible. In this study, a sample of Indian collections together with a selection of world-wide cultivars to analyze the genetic diversity structure based on Genotype by Sequence data. Results: A set of 6158 informative Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) in 175 melon accessions was generated. Melon germplasm could be classified into six major groups, in concordance with horticultural groups. Indian group was in the center of the diversity plot, with the highest genetic diversity. No strict genetic differentiation between wild and cultivated accessions was appreciated in this group. Genomic regions likely involved in the process of diversification were also found. Interestingly, some SNPs differentiating inodorus and cantalupensis groups are linked to Quantitiative Trait Loci involved in ripening behavior (a major characteristic that differentiate those groups). Linkage disequilibrium was found to be low (17 kb), with more rapid decay in euchromatic (8 kb) than heterochromatic (30 kb) regions, demonstrating that recombination events do occur within heterochromatn, although at lower frequency than in euchromatin. Concomitantly, haplotype blocks were relatively small (59 kb). Some of those haplotype blocks were found fixed in different melon groups, being therefore candidate regions that are involved in the diversification of melon cultivars. Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that India is the primary center of diversity of melon, Occidental and Far-East cultivars have been developed by divergent selection. Indian germplasm is genetically distinct from African germplasm, supporting independent domestication events. The current set of traditional Indian accessions may be considered as a population rather than a standard collection of fixed landraces with high intercrossing between cultivated and wild melons. ; Javier Forment from the Bioinformatics Core Service at IBMCP for support in bioinformatics analysis. We also acknowledge the support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). NPS Dhillon was supported by long-term strategic donors to the World Vegetable Center: Republic of China (Taiwan), UK aid from the UK government, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Germany, Thailand, Philippines, Korea, and Japan.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO)-FEDER grant AGL2015–64625-C2-R to AJM (project conception, experiments, data acquisition and analysis, manuscript writing, publication costs), AGL2017–85563-C2–1-R and the PROMETEO/2017/078 grant funded by Generalitat Valenciana (Conselleria d'Educació, Investigació, Cultura i Esport) to BP (project conception, provide samples and manuscript drafting). AD was supported by a Jae-Doc contract from CSIC (experiments and manuscript drafting).
A 30 anni dalla Dichiarazione di Alma Ata, l'Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità, sia nei lavori della Commissione sui Determinanti Sociali della Salute che nel corso della sua 62^ Assemblea (2009) ha posto nuovamente la sua attenzione al tema dei determinanti sociali della salute e allo sviluppo di una sanità secondo un approccio "Primary Health Care", in cui la partecipazione ai processi decisionali è uno dei fattori che possono incidere sull'equità in salute tra e nelle nazioni. Dopo una presentazione dei principali elementi e concetti teorici di riferimento della tesi: Determinanti Sociali della Salute, partecipazione ed empowerment partecipativo (Cap. 1 e 2), il lavoro di tesi, a seguito dell'attività di ricerca di campo svolta in Zambia (Lusaka, Kitwe e Ndola) e presso EuropeAid (Bruxelles), si concentra sui processi di sviluppo e riforma del settore sanitario (Cap. 3), sulle politiche di cooperazione internazionale (Cap.4) e sull'azione (spesso sperimentale) della società civile in Zambia, considerando (Cap. 5): le principali criticità e limiti della/alla partecipazione, la presenza di strumenti e strategie specifiche di empowerment partecipativo, le politiche di decentramento e accountability, le buone prassi e proposte emergenti dalla società civile, le linee e i ruoli assunti dai donatori internazionali e dal Governo dello Zambia. Con questa tesi di dottorato si è voluto evidenziare e interpretare sia il dibattito recente rispetto alla partecipazione nel settore sanitario che i diversi e contraddittori gradi di attenzione alla partecipazione delle politiche di sviluppo del settore sanitario e l'emergere delle istanze e pratiche della società civile. Tutto questo incide su spazi e forme di partecipazione alla governance e ai processi decisionali nel settore sanitario, che influenzano a loro volta le politiche e condizioni di equità in salute. La metodologia adottata è stata di tipo qualitativo articolata in osservazione, interviste, analisi bibliografica e documentale. ; 30 years after the Declaration of Alma Ata, the World Health Organization has given the attention on social determinants of health and on the development of healthcare according to "Primary Health Care" approach, both during working session of the Commission about Social Determinants of Health and during its 62nd Meeting (2009), where the participation to decisional process is an aspect that can affect the equity of health among and within nations. Starting from this framework the thesis, after a presentation of principal elements and theoretical concept - Social Determinants of Health, participation and participatory empowerment (Chapt. 1 and 2) -, focuses on: development and reform processes of health care service (Chapt. 3); international cooperation politics (Chapt. 4) and action (often experimental) of civil society in Zambia, considering (Chapt. 5) the main critical issues and limits of participation; the presence of instruments and specific participative empowerment strategies; decentralization and accountability politics; good practice and emerging suggestions from civil society; the broad outlines and functions of international donors and the Government of Zambia. This doctoral thesis aims at highlighting and interpreting both the recent debate regarding participation in health sector and different and contradictory level of attention to participation in development politics of health sector and the emerging of issues and practices of civil society. All this affects spaces and participation forms of governance and also decisional processes in health sector, which influence politics and health equity conditions themselves. The thesis has benefited from some periods of fieldwork carried out in Zambia (Lusaka, Kitwe and Ndola, in the Copperbelt region) besides to a research period EuropeAid Offices in Brussels. The methodology used has been articulated in observation, interviews, bibliographic and documents analysis.
Dottorato di ricerca in Economia e territorio ; L'oggetto della tesi è la ricerca e la sperimentazione in campo di un modello interpretativo degli impatti prodotti dal cambiamento climatico sulla sicurezza alimentare e nutrizionale delle popolazioni residenti del Nicaragua. L'obiettivo specifico è lo sviluppo e la sperimentazione di una metodologia di analisi della vulnerabilità/stabilità all'insicurezza alimentare dei sistemi agroalimentari locali in Nicaragua in relazione agli effetti del cambiamento climatico, finalizzata alla identificazione di politiche di mitigazione. Il raggiungimento di questo obiettivo ha comportato un'amplia ricerca bibliografica e un'indagine di campo in Nicaragua di circa due mesi tra il Marzo e l'Aprile del 2010. Durante la permanenza in Nicaragua sono state realizzate numerose interviste e focus group con stakeholders sia istituzionali che del settore privato. L'analisi degli impatti generati dal cambiamento climatico sull'ambiente e sulle attività economiche è tanto più difficile e incerta quanto più si procede all'interno di un ambito territoriale ristretto. A livello locale, le dinamiche sociali e l'incidenza dell'azione antropica sull'ambiente possono risultare infatti determinanti nella creazione di condizioni favorevoli o avverse rispetto al benessere della popolazione insediata, ben più della variabilità climatica. La complessità dei fenomeni che legano il clima alle attività umane è ancor più manifesta quando si pretende di mettere in relazione i cambiamenti del clima indotti dal riscaldamento globale col tema della sicurezza alimentare di una determinata comunità. Quest'ultimo tema infatti riunisce aspetti sociali ed economici molto diversificati, come la produzione degli alimenti, la loro conservazione e l'accessibilità in base ai redditi familiari, le condizioni igienico-sanitarie e la proporzione con cui gli alimenti stessi vengono consumati. Investigare sulla relazione economica tra sistemi complessi, come il sistema climatico da una parte e la sicurezza alimentare dall'altra, comporta quindi l'attivazione di modelli interpretativi altrettanto complessi, così come di strumenti analitici di tipo sia quantitativo che qualitativo, tanto più preponderanti questi ultimi, quanto maggiore è la carenza di dati e serie storiche attendibili. Lo spunto iniziale della tesi consiste nella ricostruzione critica a posteriori del modello di interpretazione dell'impatto del cambiamento climatico sui sistemi ecologici e sociali sul quale si fonda l'attuale assetto delle politiche promosse dal governo nicaraguense in tema di sicurezza alimentare e di mitigazione dell'impatto del cambiamento climatico. In questo quadro si è analizzato in particolare l'Indice Aggregato di Insicurezza Alimentare e Nutrizionale elaborato da un'agenzia delle Nazioni Unite (il Programma Mondiale per l'Alimentazione), attualmente utilizzato in Nicaragua nella identificazione delle aree più esposte al rischio di sicurezza alimentare. A fronte delle critiche che si avanzano nei confronti di questo indice, si propone un modello di riferimento più completo per la misurazione della vulnerabilità delle realtà locali, ovvero l'Indice Aggregato Dinamico di Insicurezza Alimentare e Nutrizionale (IADIAN). Questo indice utilizza variabili dinamiche (tassi di variazione) riferite ai fattori socio-economici che determinano l'insicurezza alimentare e al tempo stesso cattura i fattori ambientali locali che maggiormente incidono sulle potenzialità produttive. Purtroppo una esemplificazione applicativa dell'IADIAN è impedita dalla mancanza dei necessari dati in serie storica, ma la sua formulazione fornisce comunque una direttrice operativa che si ritiene utile alla pianificazione della raccolta dei dati statistici (attualmente scarsi e mal organizzati) e all'ordinamento delle fonti statistiche. A fronte delle criticità metodologiche emerse nel corso delle analisi precedentemente illustrate, si passano in rassegna modelli interpretativi alternativi accreditati in letteratura, identificando nel modello concettuale classico, il "DPSIR" (Drivers, Pressures, State & Trends, Impacts and Responses) il più adatto allo sviluppo del tema in oggetto. Il DPSIR è finalizzato, oltreché all'interpretazione dei fenomeni, all'elaborazione di policies volte alla prevenzione e alla mitigazione degli effetti del cambiamento climatico. L'applicazione del modello DPSIR, una volta adattato al tema specifico della sicurezza alimentare e nutrizionale, si è rivelato particolarmente utile alla identificazione delle attuali carenze conoscitive, soprattutto per quanto riguarda gli impatti (impacts), e le risposte (responses). Nel quadro dell'analisi degli impatti si è sviluppato una Matrice Multicriteriale degli Impatti e della stabilità dei sistemi agro-alimentari rispetto al cambiamento climatico di due regioni agrarie del Nicaragua. Questa matrice disaggrega i sistemi agro-alimentari nelle loro componenti strutturali (produzione, distribuzione e consumo), mettendole in relazione con gli elementi ("pilastri") costitutivi della sicurezza alimentare e nutrizionale, ovvero: la disponibilità, l'accessibilità e l'uso biologico degli alimenti. La matrice è costruita sulla base di valutazioni di tipo prevalentemente qualitativo, ma offre anche un sistema si "scoring" che consente una priorizzazione dei problemi e, per via comparativa, anche una priorizzazione dei sistemi più vulnerabili. La regione dove si sono potuti apprezzare processi di adattamento e mitigazione degli effetti del cambiamento climatico non è tanto quella che dispone di maggior capitale naturale bensì quella che, contando su comunità di più antico e stabile insediamento, ha sviluppato nel tempo un maggior capitale sociale (come la Regione Agraria delle "Pianure agro-industriali della Costa Pacifica"). La regione agraria della "Nuova Frontiera Agricola e Costa Caraibica", pur contando su un elevato capitale naturale e su un alto potenziale produttivo, è caratterizzata invece da tipologie produttive altamente distruttive e sostenute da una popolazione pioniera che non ha sviluppato ancora modelli di aggregazione comunitaria stabili né un tessuto sociale collettivamente reattivo. L'analisi delle "risposte" si è concentrata su 6 modelli di intervento adottati attualmente dalle istituzioni nazionali (centrali e locali) con l'appoggio della comunità internazionale. Questa analisi ha evidenziato come nessun modello di intervento, considerato isolatamente, riunisca tutte le caratteristiche di efficienza ed efficacia necessari a innescare processi sostenibili di "resilienza" e sviluppo. Nessun intervento si può considerare dunque come una "buona pratica", soprattutto se non inserito in un quadro coordinato e coerente di interventi identificati in ragione di un contesto locale specifico. La durata di tutti gli interventi analizzati è inoltre insufficiente a garantire il successo delle azioni intraprese, tantomeno la loro sostenibilità. In molti casi infatti le iniziative analizzate sollevano aspettative di continuità che nella maggior parte dei casi restano frustrate. E' emersa dunque la necessità di promuovere azioni di sostegno alla sicurezza alimentare e alla mitigazione degli effetti del cambiamento climatico che assumano come criteri guida: - l'integralità, ovvero l'inserzione del tema della sicurezza alimentare nei processi di sviluppo del territorio, evitando che queste rimangano sganciate da una strategia di lotta contro la povertà, di rimozione delle sue cause strutturali e di tutela ambientale, - la coerenza istituzionale, in modo che le azioni di sicurezza alimentare e di mitigazione si coordino sempre con le istituzioni di riferimento, per armonizzare le metodologie di lavoro in vista di una possibile continuità delle azioni intraprese, - coerenza spaziale, ovvero una focalizzazione delle azioni in base a criteri che mettano in relazione le priorità di sicurezza alimentare con quelle ambientali. Dall'insieme delle analisi condotte sembra che si possa affermare dunque che l'insostenibilità ambientale delle pratiche agricole attuali (deforestazione, avanzamento incontrollato della frontiera agricola mediante l'uso del fuoco e dell'apertura di pascoli estensivi, agricoltura nomadica, ecc.) e la debolezza del capitale sociale siano le cause determinati del perpetuarsi di condizioni croniche di insicurezza alimentare. Anche se non suffragata da misurazioni quantitative, sembra credibile inoltre l'ipotesi che le variazioni micro-agro-climatiche a livello locale, originate dalla cattiva gestione delle risorse naturali, incidano attualmente molto più sulla insicurezza alimentare di quanto non facciano gli effetti del cambiamento climatico dovuto al riscaldamento globale. Le attuali politiche di intervento nel campo della sicurezza alimentare e le strategie di mitigazione degli effetti del cambiamento climatico non considerano sufficientemente gli aspetti sopra richiamati e la loro integrazione operativa è ancora insufficiente. Per evidenziare questa discrepanza si è elaborato una matrice degli interventi di mitigazione dell'impatto del cambiamento climatico sulla sicurezza alimentare e nutrizionale. La matrice proposta mette in relazione le carenze politiche e le priorità emerse dall'analisi DPSIR con una serie di proposte di azione politica, riferite in particolare alle due regioni agrarie selezionate. La comunità internazionale dei donanti (UE in primis), che sostiene le politiche ambientali e di sicurezza alimentare del governo nicaraguense, ha la responsabilità di promuovere interventi sinergici e coordinati, volti soprattutto a rimuovere gli ostacoli di carattere strutturale che impediscono l'equità d'accesso al capitale terra e all'alimentazione. Nell'ambito dell'aiuto internazionale dovranno essere inoltre maggiormente considerati gli studi volti al miglioramento delle conoscenze dei fenomeni che legano la variabilità climatica, la sicurezza alimentare e lo sviluppo economico. Il coinvolgimento della società civile nella gestione delle reti di solidarietà (ad esempio le reti di allerta precoce) e nella raccolta dei dati socio-economici e agro-climatici locali è inoltre di cruciale importanza. Solo uno sforzo congiunto delle comunità locali, delle istituzioni nazionali e della comunità internazionale, col supporto di adeguate conoscenze e di più efficaci strumenti di analisi, potrà invertire il processo di riproduzione delle condizioni ambientali e socio-economiche che determinano oggi l'esposizione al rischio di insicurezza alimentare per vasti strati della popolazione nicaraguense. ; The thesis deals with a research and an on-field testing of an impact interpretation model of climate change on food security in Nicaragua. The specific purpose is the development and testing of a vulnerability/stability analysis method of the effects of the climate change on two sample food systems in Nicaragua. The method is also aimed at the identification of prevention and mitigation policies. The achievement of this objective is based on a wide bibliographical research and a two months field survey in Nicaragua (March and April 2010). During the field survey a large number of interviews and focus groups with both private and institutional stakeholders was carried out. The more an impact analysis of climate change on environment and economic activities is focused on a restricted area, the less it results easy and reliable. Social dynamics and human action on environment at local level can be more crucial in creating adverse or favourable living conditions to people than climate variability. The complex relationship between climate and human activities is even more apparent when attempting to relate climate changes and food security of a specific community. Food security concept gets together different meanings, such as food production and conservation, income based food accessibility and biological use of food (diet patterns and hygienic conditions of food consumption). Therefore, dealing with economic relations between complex systems, as climate and food security, involves the use of articulated interpretation models as well as quantitative and qualitative analytical tools, being the latter prevalent in a condition of scarce or unreliable data and time series. The starting point of the thesis is a critical analysis of the current interpretation model of the impact of climate change on ecological and social systems on which the present food security and climate change impact mitigation policies of the Government of Nicaragua are based. In this framework the Aggregated Food and Nutritional Insecurity Index - elaborated by the World Food Programme and presently adopted in Nicaragua in the identification of the areas mostly exposed to food insecurity – is also analysed and discussed. As a consequence of this analysis a more complete model is proposed, named Dynamic Aggregated Food and Nutritional Insecurity Index. This index uses dynamic variables (rates of variation) referring to socio-economic factors which determine food security. At the same time this index captures the most production-related environmental factors at local level. Unfortunately a sample application of this index is impeded by the lack of the necessary time series. Nevertheless its formulation offers a useful operational direction to data collection planning and organization. As a consequence of the critical methodological issues emerged in the previous analysis, a review of alternative interpretation models is proposed and discussed. The "DPSIR" (Drivers, Pressures, State & Trends, Impacts and Responses) model is then identified as the most suitable for the achievement of the thesis objective. The DPSIR model is aimed at interpreting environmental and human contexts as well as at focusing policies makers on prevention and mitigation measures. Once specifically adjusted to food and nutritional security issues, the DPSIR model resulted particularly useful to identifying the existing knowledge deficiencies, about impacts and responses in particular. The "impact analysis" is complemented with a multi-criteria matrix of impacts of climate change on food systems of two different agricultural regions of Nicaragua (stability analysis). This matrix relates the food systems components (food production, distribution and consumption) to the corresponding pillars of the food security concept (availability, accessibility and biological use). The matrix converts quantitative and qualitative assessments into a scoring system allowing for identifying the most relevant problems and comparing stability / vulnerability levels of different food systems. The agricultural region where adjustment and mitigation processes are more visible is not the one counting with a more consistent natural capital (New Agricultural Frontier and Caribbean Cost) but the one relying on old and stable human settlements and more consistent social capital (Agro-industrial lowlands of the Pacific Cost). The first agricultural region, even if provided with a consistent natural capital and a high production potential, is characterised by the highly destructive production patterns of a pioneer population which has not yet developed either aggregative community models or collective resiliency experiences. The "response analysis" is focused on 6 different prevention/mitigation models presently adopted by the national authorities (both central and local) with the support of the international donors community. This analysis stresses that none of the models gets together all the necessary characteristics of efficiency and effectiveness for trigging resiliency and development processes. None of the models can be considered as a "good practice" per se, mainly if not included in a locally focused, coordinated and coherent framework of measures. Furthermore, the duration of the institutional actions applying these models is generally too reduced for ensuring their success and sustainability and fulfilling the expectations of the beneficiaries. From the "response analysis" clearly emerged the need to adopt the following general criteria in the effort to support food security and mitigate the effects of climate change: - Wholeness of the approach: the insertion of any food security action (programme, project, initiative) in the framework of land development process, including actions against poverty and environmental protection, - Institutional coherence: both food security and climate change impact mitigation actions should be always coordinated with the competent institutions, in order to harmonise working methods, - Spatial coherence: the identification of priority action areas should consider food security problems and environmental vulnerability simultaneously. The environmental unsustainability of the present agricultural practices (deforestation, advance of the agricultural frontier by slashing and burning the natural cover, nomadic agricultural patterns, etc.) and the weakness of the social capital perpetuate chronic food insecurity conditions. Even though not supported by quantitative evaluations, it seems apparent that micro-agro-climatic changes due to the mismanagement of local environmental resources affect food security much more than the effects of global climatic change. Present food security policies and climate change impact mitigation strategies do not consider the analysis above and their harmonisation is insufficient and not operational. In order to highlight this discrepancy a comparative policy matrix is presented ad discussed. This matrix shows a comparative analysis between the political deficiencies and priorities emerged thanks to the DPSIR approach and a number of action proposals referred to the two sample agricultural regions. The international donors community (UE first) supporting both food security and environmental policies of the Government of Nicaragua has the responsibility to cooperate in order to remove the structural constraints impeding an equitable access to fertile farming land and food. In the framework of the international aid, more investments in research should be considered in order to improve the knowledge of all factors relating climatic variability to food security and economic development. The involvement of civil society in the management of social solidarity networks (i.g.: food crisis early alarm networks) and the collection of basic socio-economic and climatic data at local level ore of crucial importance. Only a joint effort of the local communities, the national institutions and the international donors' community, supported by adequate knowledge and more effective analytical tools, will revert the process that determines the adverse environmental and socio-economic conditions which currently expose a large number of Nicaraguan people to food insecurity.
La tesi è stata intitolata "Change the System From Within". La participatory democracy e le riforme istituzionali negli Stati Uniti degli anni Sessanta e si compone di cinque capitoli. Nel primo capitolo si riprende l'idea di participatory democracy emersa in seno alla New Left e ai movimenti sociali dei lunghi anni Sessanta. In questo contesto il concetto di participatory democracy assunse due principali accezioni: da una parte rappresentava la rivendicazione politica di un maggior coinvolgimento attivo della cittadinanza nelle politiche - locali, statali e federali - frutto della crisi di legittimità che la democrazia americana stava attraversando in quegli anni; dall'altra, il concetto venne adottato come principio organizzativo all'interno dei gruppi stessi di attivisti, con la funzione di prefigurare quelle riforme politico-istituzionali cui gli stessi militanti aspiravano. Dalla stessa temperie di contestazione sorse del resto anche la critica che alcuni studiosi mossero alla teoria liberale pluralista e alla sua esemplificazione nella coeva democrazia americana. Nel primo capitolo si mostra proprio come da quelle rielaborazioni critiche degli anni Sessanta emerse anche il primo modello di participatory democracy in seno alla teoria politica, sviluppato pienamente negli anni Settanta e Ottanta da Carole Pateman, Crawford B. Macpherson e Benjamin Barber. Questa parte del lavoro di tesi si propone quindi di accostare alle pratiche partecipative introdotte dai movimenti anche la ricostruzione dello sviluppo graduale di una teoria politica della participatory democracy. Tale riflessione è completata da un'analisi storica di ampio raggio, necessaria a meglio contestualizzare il fenomeno e ad includere le nuove richieste democratiche nell'ambito di una tradizione democratico-rappresentativa già dotata di istituti partecipativi di democrazia diretta. Chiarito il quadro storico-politico degli anni Sessanta, il secondo capitolo analizza la ricezione dell'idea di participatory democracy nelle politiche federali. A questo proposito si illustra come il principio di citizen participation fosse stato recepito già con la War on Poverty promossa da Lindon B. Johnson alla metà degli anni Sessanta e fu mantenuto, con esiti istituzionali differenti, almeno fino alla fine della presidenza Carter. Si dimostra inoltre che, malgrado il dettato legislativo federale fosse spesso approssimativo sulle modalità operative, quel principio ebbe in realtà un notevole impatto sulle relazioni intergovernative. Tale principio favorì ad esempio l'intraprendenza di molti amministratori locali nel promuovere il decentramento amministrativo e politico su base di quartiere. Nel terzo capitolo l'analisi affronta le principali trasformazioni in senso partecipativo avvenute nei sistemi di governo statali e locali negli anni Settanta, mettendole in relazione anche alle dinamiche intergovernative di più lungo periodo. Il capitolo è strutturato in modo tale da evidenziare il tendenziale recupero e rafforzamento di istituti già esistenti, come l'initiative, i public hearing e gli school district come strumenti di rivendicazione del community control in alcune città di grandi dimensioni. Mentre il secondo e terzo capitolo tendono a osservare le riforme istituzionali degli anni Settanta in senso partecipativo in seno al governo federale, statale e locale, i due successivi capitoli mirano ad osservare l'impatto della participatory democracy nel confronto tra attivismo militante e pratiche amministrative tradizionali degli anni Settanta. Il quarto capitolo è infatti dedicato all'ingresso della nuova generazione di politici progressisti nelle amministrazioni locali e statali fra la fine degli anni Sessanta e la prima metà degli anni Settanta. Per analizzarlo si è deciso di analizzare come principale caso di studio la Conference on Alternative State and Local Policy (CASLP), una organizzazione e forum nazionale che mirava proprio ad unire alle istanze dei progressisti una expertise di governo. Nell'ambito della CASLP, la cosiddetta Coalizione progressista di Berkeley, CA, fornì un caso esemplare di strategia di confronto con le istituzioni locali e per questo il capitolo le dedica una attenta disanima. La pluriennale esperienza di azione collettiva dei progressisti di Berkeley nell'arena istituzionale è infatti rilevante sia per l'innovazione nella strategia istituzionale, sia per attestare una evoluzione dell'idea di participatory democracy nel tempo. Il quinto capitolo ricostruisce ed analizza la carriera politica di Tom Hayden negli anni in cui passò dall'attivismo alla politica istituzionale, con la campagna elettorale per diventare Senatore della California in Congresso (1975-1976) e la successiva Campaign for Economic Democracy (1976-1982), confermando la spiccata propensione del leader all'innovazione istituzionale in senso partecipativo. In particolare, nella campagna elettorale per il Senato del Congresso del 1976 Hayden riuscì a implementare forme di decision-making partecipato in seno allo staff. Nella gestione del personale cercò inoltre di favorire l'empowerment di volontari e cittadini senza perdere di vista i requisiti essenziali per la sopravvivenza della campagna: fundraising e propaganda. In linea con la sua battaglia contro le distorsioni economiche del big business, scelse di non accettare fondi da corporation e banche e riuscì nell'intento di essere sostenuto per gran parte da small donors. Hayden dunque introdusse pratiche di participatory democracy in seno alla campagna elettorale e continuò a rivendicare la sua fiducia nella forza dei movimenti grass-roots. L'analisi storica, ad ogni modo, evidenzia anche le criticità che derivavano dall'uso di pratiche partecipative nella governance della campagna elettorale. Atttraverso l'analisi teorica e politico-istituzionale della democrazia partecipativa americana fra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta su vari livelli istituzionali (federale, statale e locale), questo progetto di ricerca tenta quindi di colmare un vuoto storiografico e, al tempo stesso intende contribuire alla definizione storico-istituzionale della participatory democracy in seno alla democrazia rappresentativa degli Stati Uniti. Infine, la presente ricerca mira a inserirsi nel dibattito pubblico contemporaneo sulla participatory democracy, offrendo una visione storico-istituzionale importante per meglio comprendere il fenomeno e che, finora, non ha ricevuto l'attenzione che meriterebbe. ; Chapter 1 retrieves the idea of participatory democracy stemmed from the Long 1960s New Left and the following social movements. Indeed, the concept of participatory democracy mainly acquired two slightly different shapes in that historical framework. From one hand, it meant the broad political call for common citizens' greater involvement in the policy-making - at the local, state and federal level. That request was in fact a reply to the ongoing crisis of the American democracy, in terms of political legitimacy and social representation of minorities and poor people. In the other hand, participatory democracy represented the organizing principle adopted by most of the grass-roots groups of that period, with a clear prefigurative function. Indeed, making the activist groups' inner decision-making participatory was a way for the collectives to anticipate the institutional changes they aspired to. In the meantime, because of the same disaffection against the raising social and political inequalities, some political science scholars elaborated a critique to the pluralist version of the liberal democracy - then the most praised one, as well as credited as it was embodied in the American democracy. Those 1960s critiques were eventually used to conceive the first political theory of participatory democracy in the 1970s and 1980s, as Chapter 1 shows. The participatory democracy's canon was in fact mostly developed by Carole Pateman, Crawford B. Macpherson and Benjamin Barber. Beside the intellectual history of participatory democracy from 1960s to 1980s, Chapter 1 allows to contextualize ideas and practices of common citizens' participation into the wider history of the American Political Development. According to that, chapter 1 also provides a detailed analysis of the participatory political institutions that were traditionally part of the United States representative democracy. Chapter 2 verifies whether the 1960s idea of participatory democracy actually affected the federal public policies of the late 1960s and 1970s. Indeed the principle of "citizen participation" was introduced in some of the War on Poverty legislations, promoted by Lyndon B. Johnson since the mid-1960s. Although the heterogeneous institutional effects, that principle was maintained in some grant-in-aid projects until the end of the Carter administration, through the Nixon and Ford administrations. Therefore, the political meanings assumed by the idea of "citizen participation" and its institutional consequences from 1964 to 1980 are carefully analyzed in chapter 2. Moreover, chapter 2 shows that the principle of citizen participation had such a strong impact on the intergovernmental relations. It thus brought forward, for instance, the local public officers' entrepreneurship towards the local devolution, shifting the administrative and political power base from the center to the neighborhood. Chapter 3 deals with the 1970s main institutional reforms aimed at introducing the common citizens' participation in the government decision-making at the state and local levels. Those reforms are deeply related to some long-lasting intergovernmental dynamics and this relationship is also argued. The same chapter's lay-out is vowed to underline the 1970s general trend of retrieval and enhancing of traditional institutions, such as the initiative (direct democracy), the public hearings and the school districts. The school board was indeed reevaluated and reshaped as a means of community control in the biggest cities. As chapters 2 and 3 aim at exploring the implementation of participatory reforms in the federal, state and local level of government, chapters 4 and 5 aim at inquiring the participatory democracy's impact on the 1970s boundary of polity - the space where activism meets political institutions. Chapter 4 inquires the new generations of progressive politicians entering the local and state administrations from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. To frame that national phenomenon, the historical analysis use the Conference of Alternative States and Local Policies (CASLP) as a case study. CASLP was indeed a national organization born in 1975 to give voice to the progressive public officers around the country and allowed them sharing their government experiences for a more effective institutional impact. Inside CASLP, the progressive coalition of Berkeley, CA (called Berkeley Citizens' Action, BCA) was especially spotted for its exemplary strategy to confront local political institutions. The 1970s BCA's political actions are thus specifically analyzed. In fact, the institutional approach of the Berkeley progressive coalition resulted to be innovative in terms of strategy as well as successful in introducing new forms of participatory democracy into the local government, assessing the 1970s evolution of the participatory democracy political theory and practices. Chapter 5 retraces the political career of the former New Left leader Tom Hayden during the years of turning from activism to institutional politics. Especially, the analysis focuses on the 1975-1976 U.S. Senate Campaign and the following Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), a coalition project and organization led by Hayden with the goal of mobilizing activists and public officers around the issues of economic justice, environmental and economic public policies (1976-1982). That period - just before Hayden was elected representative at the California Legislature in 1982 - is thus analyzed as a testing ground to verify his long-lasting commitment towards participatory democracy. The historical and political analysis, based on original archival findings, confirms Hayden's inclination for institutional innovation in the participatory realm. In particular, during the 1975-1976 electoral campaign for the U.S. Senate in California Hayden introduced participatory forms of decision-making involving staff people, volunteers and supporting grass-roots groups. Moreover, that campaign's staff and people management was conceived in order to directly empower citizens and volunteers, without losing track of the campaigning basic requirements (e. g. fundraising and propaganda). As he stood against big business and economic inequalities, he chose to reject fundings from corporations and banks. Therefore his electoral campaign was mostly sustained by small donors. Hayden successfully made the campaigning more open, accountable and participatory and kept on sponsoring his trust in community organizing and grass-roots social movements even in his following political endeavour, CED. Eventually, the investigation casts lights on the strengths, as well as the critical issues, produced by the Hayden's participatory governance of campaigning. By the means of analysing the intellectual history and the institutional implementation of participatory democracy during late 1960s-1970s United States, this research project firstly aims at making up the lack of historiography about the topic. In the second stance, grounding the institutional and political history of participatory democracy in the United States representative democracy - where the concept was born - this research project intends to provide a first genealogy of the participatory democracy's institutional implementation. In this sense, the research projects wants also to contribute to the contemporary debate on the participatory democracy. It is indeed a compelling and popular issue in many worldwide political arenas, but it is still rarely defined by its historical and institutional terms.
