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Updates from Environment for Development, a global network of researchers solving the world’s most urgent environmental and development challenges.
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Newsletter from EfD
October 2023
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Dear friends of EfD,
This month’s newsletter starts with an account of some of the activities at the EfD Annual Meeting that was held in Accra in early October. With three courses, a policy day, seven plenaries, 121 research presentations, and many meetings it was quite an event. But there are many other things happening in the global EfD network. See for example the interesting published research below on the agrarian origins of civil conflict in Colombia, the barriers to off-grid energy development in Eastern Africa, and much more.
Enjoy!
Gunnar Köhlin, Director
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Dialogue between researchers and policymakers common thread at EfD’s Annual Meeting
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Participants in EfD's 17th Annual Meeting in Accra, Ghana. Photo: Emmanuel Richardson.
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EfD’s 17th Annual Meeting in Accra, Ghana, once again showed why it’s claimed to be the biggest and best conference on the application of environmental economics in the Global South since it encompassed an entire week of courses, plenaries, research presentations, and collaborative meetings involving around 200 people from all over the world. Read more about this!
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“Extremely gratifying to have an impact on policies”
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Wisdom Akpalu. Photo: Petra Hansson
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Wisdom Akpalu, the Director of EfD Ghana embodies in many ways all the values that EfD strives for – high-quality research and a tangible impact on society. He was overjoyed to host EfD’s 17th Annual Meeting. “It’s like having my whole big family coming to my house”. And he was also happy about the visibility this event is giving to the EfD Ghana center, paving the way for even more impact. Meet the host of the Annual Meeting and the winner of the EfD Policy Impact Award!
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Here are the winners of the EfD awards!
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Veronica Valencia Hernández, EfD Colombia, won the Gunnar Köhlin Best Master Thesis Award and attended online. Photo: Emmanuel Richardson.
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EfD presents awards in three categories for outstanding work each year. The winners are announced at EfD’s Annual Meeting. The awards are Peter Berck’s Best Discussion Paper Award, the Gunnar Köhlin Best Master Thesis Award, and the EfD Policy Impact Award. The evaluation committees had, as usual, a tough job selecting the winners.
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The Inclusive Green Economy program kickstarted its workshop in Ghana
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The IGE Fellows, the EfD researchers and support teams. Photo: Emmanuel Richardson.
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Hundreds of thousands of people die prematurely in East Africa because of air pollution in their homes, which in turn is a result of the use of biomass. The use of firewood and charcoal contributes also to climate change and forest loss. Those are issues that were in focus when 25 civil servants and 20 EfD researchers engaged in vivid discussions in Ghana. Check out what they talked about!
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Training sessions empowered researchers in policy engagement and science communication
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The workshop was part of a course in Policy Engagement and Science Communication, which focuses on increasing the impact of EfD researchers. Photo: Emmanuel Richardson.
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Twenty-four researchers from the EfD centers participated in a policy engagement and science communication workshop in Accra, Ghana. The workshop contributed to strengthening participants’ capacity with a range of communication tools and techniques essential to have an impact on society. Read more about this training program!
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EfD network strengthens commitment to gender in research
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The participants brought varying levels of experience in gender economics to the course, which made interactions interesting and meaningful. Amber Peterman (seated, first from left) with course participants. Photo: Emmanuel Richardson.
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The Gender in Development Economics course held in Accra, Ghana concluded with enthusiastic participants expressing their renewed commitment to gender studies and its application in their research. Over three days, early career researchers from the EfD network engaged with the concept of gender and its relevance to research, equipping themselves with valuable tools and knowledge in gender economics. Read more about this course!
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Policymakers and researchers strengthen partnerships at EfD Ghana Policy Day
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Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Moses Anim pledged his willingness to work with researchers in advancing sustainable fisheries objectives.
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The 2023 EfD Ghana Policy Day took place in connection with the Annual Meeting, at the University of Ghana on the 4th of October. It highlighted the contribution of research to society, particularly the impact of the EfD Ghana center on the country’s natural resource sector. It was also an opportunity to exchange knowledge on the future of sustainable fisheries management in Ghana and reflect on the strategies needed to foster enduring research-policy collaborations.
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Collaborative program addresses challenges in fisheries and aquaculture industries
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Ho Quoc Thong. Photo: Petra Hansson.
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EfD’s collaborative program Blue Resources for Development (BlueRforD) focuses on cross-boundary research on marine and coastal resources-related issues, that is, how the fisheries and aquaculture industries can contribute to sustainable development. Some of their current projects were highlighted at EfD’s Annual Meeting in Ghana. Read more about this!
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EfD Chile researchers study droughts and policy adaptability in Chile
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Several studies have warned that climate change is changing the droughts, making them more frequent, severe, and long-lasting. EfD Chile researchers Felipe Vásquez-Lavin and Roberto D. Ponce, alongside other investigators, evaluated the economic impact of droughts on agriculture, the urban drinking water sector, and the rural drinking water sector in Central Chile.
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Agricultural households and climate were featured in an EfD Ethiopia workshop
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Participants in the workshop. Photo by PSI.
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EfD Ethiopia, hosted at the Environment and Climate Research Center (ECRC) in Addis Ababa held a launching workshop on a research project “Rural Household, Agriculture and Climate Change – why and how farmers (do not) adapt in Ethiopia (RACE)". Read more about this interesting project!
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Every choice counts: Changing our consumption and production patterns
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Pablo Ernesto Evia Salas. Photo: Petra Hansson.
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In seemingly simple choices, such as the selection of food, the clothes we wear, or the means of transportation we use, we rarely pay enough attention the environmental impact that such decisions can have. Read this intersting blog post, that clearly explaines what the SCOPE collaborative program is all about!
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Ideology and rifles: The agrarian origins of civil conflict in Colombia
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The Farc guerilla. Photo: Salva Campillo, Shutterstock.
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EfD researcher Maria del Pilar Lopez-Uribe with co-author Fabio Sanchez Torres investigate the relationship between the historical dispossession of peasants’ lands by landlords that led to the rise of peasant grievances and the origin of the rural guerrilla movement – Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) – during the first stage of the Colombian civil conflict (1964–1985). The authors propose two sequential mechanisms through which previous land dispossession resulted in the emergence of rebel-armed groups. Check out this interesting study, that is published in World Development.
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Barriers to off-grid energy development: Evidence from a comparative survey of private sector energy service providers in Eastern Africa
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This paper, by EfD researchers Marc Jeuland, Peter Babyenda, Abebe Beyene, Gabriel Hinju, Richard Mulwa, and co-authors Jonathan Phillips, and Samuel A. Zewdie examines the barriers and opportunities facing off-grid development in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The survey reveals a set of common challenges but also considerable variation within and across countries. Check out this interesting paper, that was published in Renewable Energy.
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Stated preferences with survey consequentiality and outcome uncertainty – A split sample discrete choice experiment
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Survey work. Photo: The research team.
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Stated preference studies are often based on the assumptions that proposed outcomes would be realized with certainty and respondents believe their survey responses are consequential. This paper uses split sample treatments to test whether survey consequentiality and outcome uncertainty lead to differences in welfare measures, focusing on a discrete choice experiment on improving the quality of electricity supply among business enterprises in Tanzania. Read this interesting EfD Discussion Paper by EfD researchers Razack Lokina, Erica Louis Mtenga, Julieth Julius Tibanywana, and Tensay Hadush Meles!
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The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program is now accepting applications for the 2024 DHS Fellows Program. The DHS Fellows Program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is designed to increase the capacity of countries to conduct further analysis of DHS Program data.
Deadline for applications: November 12, 2023.
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Doctoral dissertation completion fellowship
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The award is for doctoral students to take a one-year leave to focus on data analysis and scholarly writing to complete their doctoral dissertations and meet their degree requirements. Fellowship awards are up to $10,000.
Click the link for this and more opportunities!
Deadline for applications: February 11, 2024.
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EAERE 2024 - Call for papers
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The 29th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) will take place on July 1-4, 2024. The conference will take place in person in the city of Leuven, while including some hybrid events as part of the programme. The conference is organised by KU Leuven.
Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2024.
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NESS 2024 - Call for Paper
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The 16th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference, hosted by Åbo Akademi University in cooperation with the University of Turku, Finland, calls scholars to meet and discuss current challenges related to environmental social science. The theme of the conference in Turku is Co-producing knowledge for sustainability.
Deadline for submissions: November 30, 2023.
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Special Issue on “Digital media data in environment and development economics”
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Environment and Development Economics seeks to publish a special issue on digital media data in environment and development economics. The issue will be guest-edited by Andrea Ghermandi, David Katz, and Maria L. Loureiro.
Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2024.
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Special Issue on “Challenges for the development of Latin America in the Anthropocene: current research in environmental economics”
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Environment and Development Economics seeks to publish a special issue on challenges for the development of Latin America in the Anthropocene: current research in environmental economics. The issue will be guest-edited by Marcelo Caffera and Alejandro López-Feldman.
Deadline for application: January 31, 2024.
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Workshop on Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs): From Theory to Practice
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This intensive course, led by Yonas Alem, Director of Academic Programs at Environment for Development (EfD) is designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the realm of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Date: November 3-4, 2023.
Location: UEH University in Ho Chi Minh City.
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AFAERE Webinar: The Triple Dividend of Resilience: Assessing the Full Benefits of Climate Adaptation Investments
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The webinar will be delivered by Carter Brandon, Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute (WRI), and Harald Heubaum, Associate Professor in Global Energy and Climate Policy at the SOAS University Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy (CISD).
Date: October 31, 2023.
Location: Online.
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There is a lot of new, exciting research on our website. Catch up on our work!
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Stay on top of the latest news from collaborative programs and centers around the world!
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Busy? You can get a short version!
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Are you interested in research on environment and development, but prefer to read a summary of the most important findings? Then you must check out our research briefs! You will find much of our research presented in a short and easy-to-read version on our website.
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