Updates from Environment for Development, a global network of researchers solving the world’s most urgent environmental and development challenges.

Newsletter from EfD

March 2021

Dear friend of Environment for Development,

In March we celebrated International Women's Day. Although much remains to be done to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment, there have been some positive developments recently, including the appointment of economist Dr. Ngozi Okonju-Iweala as head of the World Trade Organization. She is the first woman and first African tohold the position. Her first tweet after the appointment stated Forget Business as usual. We look forward to seeing what she can achieve at the WTO.

In this newsletter, we highlight some of the many accomplished women who work in the field of environmental economics and interesting research that relate to gender issues, among other things.

You get this newsletter because we believe that you share the passion for our work! The newsletter provides you with the latest news and research from our network.

Study shows: Female entrepreneurs are just as competitive and performs just as well as male

One of the co-authors, Rebecca Klege, and some of the participants at the end of an experiment session. Photo: EfD

Researchers have examined how gender attitudes and performance under competitive situations in the lab reflect microenterprise outcomes in the renewable energy sector of Rwanda. They found that female entrepreneurs are not less likely to compete and are not outperformed by male entrepreneurs. The study was conducted by EfD researchers Rebecca Afua Klege, Martine Visser, Manuel F. Barron A, and Rowan P. Clarke.

Spreading pro-social behavior, one smiley face at a time

Photo: EfD

Professor Marcela Jaime Torres, Center Director at EfD Chile, is a warm advocate of "green nudging" as a way to drive environmentally responsible behavior, such as encouraging water- and energy-wise habits. These methods have also turned out to be useful when tackling the problem of plastic pollution.

Many participated in the Women in the Economy meeting 

Farzana Afridi organized the conference

Over 200 people participated in the third Women in the Economy Workshop on March 11-13. It was hosted by ISI in Delhi and supported by IWWAGE. The research presented at the conference focused mainly on three themes: health, jobs, and the workplace. Meet EfD researcher, Professor Farzana Afridi who organized the conference!

Meet our new WinEED leaders!

Maria del Pilar López Uribe and Rocìo Moreno are the new leaders for WinEED. Photo: EfD

The WinEED collaborative program has moved to EfD Colombia and two new women have taken over the stern: Rocío Moreno and María del Pilar López Uribe. The move is a step towards strengthening women researchers' capacity. We asked the new leaders some questions about them and their ambitions for WinEED.

EfD is hiring! Are you the environmental economist that we are looking for?

You will have a dual role as a researcher and responsible for the coordination of EfD's collaborative programs. As a researcher, you conduct high-quality research in environmental economics, climate economics, and development economics with a special focus on issues related to poverty and sustainability in low- and middle-income countries. As responsible for EfD's collaborative programs, you have well-developed skills in administration and management to be able to support research within the programs and coordinate research applications that involve the programs. Close collaboration with EfD centers in the Global South is key to the role.

Deadlline for applications: April 15th, 2021

The Cape Town drought: A study of the combined effectiveness of measures implemented to prevent “Day Zero”

Photo: tanertosun/PIxabay

In the 2016–2018 drought, Cape Town almost ran out of municipal water. Tariff increases, restrictions and campaigns brought big reductions in water use during the dry spring and summer months. A combination of methods helped avoid "Day Zero". EfD researchers Martine Visser and Johanna Brühl are the authors of this study.

COVID-19: From health crises to food security anxiety and policy implications

Photo: David Mark/Pixabay

Disruptions in food supply chains cause limited access to food, especially where households are dependent on day-to-day purchases of fresh produce, particularly among the poor and vulnerable, the majority of whom are women. In this report you can, among others, read about a feminist approach to food security. One of the co-authors is EfD researcher Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah.

Want to study "Women’s economic empowerment in a low-carbon COVID-19 recovery"?

The IDRC, International Development Research Centre, calls for expressions of interest for a grant. They seek short proposals for projects that will support the generation and use of nationally and locally relevant evidence on women’s economic empowerment in a low-carbon COVID-19 recovery in the Global South. Projects should support the generation of solutions-oriented, local research and evidence that help address the specific and systemic barriers women face during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and in accessing opportunities that arise in new low-carbon economic activities.

Deadline for submissions: April 13th

EfD collaborative presents nine articles in the March issue of Marine Policy

Members of the collaborative program Blue Resources for Development. Photo: EfD

The Blue Resources for Development collaborative presents some of its research results in a special section in the 2021 March issue of Marine Policy. The focus is on fisheries performance.

Mining taxes in Chile does not improve the quality of life in the mining communities

Copper extration site in Antofagasta. Photo by Shebang, Pixabay

Chilean mining municipalities collect a mineral tax to compensate for the negative externalities associated with resource extraction. Although this implies a positive marginal impact on local finance, there is not enough empirical evidence to support that this improves the quality of life in these communities. In fact, the results show that the educational performance of mining municipalities is worse than that of the counterfactuals. The authors of the publication are EfD Researchers Mauricio Oyarzo and Dusan Paredes.

Job opening: Two assistant professors in Economics

The holders of the positions will be a part of the Discipline of Economics at JIBS, Jönköping, Sweden, positioned at the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Statistics. The work tasks contain teaching activities at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, along with research and other services to JIBS that are related to the position.

Busy? You can get a short version!

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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