This workbook is intended to help policy makers in developing countries plan for a safer future in urban areas in the face of natural disasters and the consequences of climate change. It is based on the experiences of three cities in Vietnam, Can Tho, Dong Hoi, and Hanoi, that worked with international and local experts under World Bank supervision to develop local resilience action plans (LRAPs) in 2009-10.

Read more: http://go.worldbank.org/Q4RPZGYVQ0

As the world approaches the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which include a goal of reducing the proportion of hungry people by half – the 2010 Global Hunger Index (GHI) offers a useful and multidimensional overview of global hunger. The 2010 GHI shows some improvement over the 1990 GHI, falling by almost one-quarter. Nonetheless, the index for hunger in the world remains at a level characterized as “serious.” The result is unsurprising given that the overall number of hungry people surpassed 1 billion in 2009, even though it decreased to 925 million in 2010, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

See the paper

The UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme (UNDP-UNEP) Poverty-Environment Initiative has published this Handbook, which is designed to serve as a guide for champions and practitioners engaged in mainstreaming poverty-environment linkages. It draws on experience at the country level and lessons learned by UNDP and UNEP in working with governments, especially ministries of planning, finance and environment, to support efforts to integrate the complex interrelationships between poverty reduction and improved environmental management into national planning and decision-making. French and Spanish translations are currently under preparation and will be made available soon.

Download the handbook
http://www.unpei.org

This flow chart shows the sources and activities across the global economy that produce greenhouse gas emissions. Energy use is responsible for the majority of greenhouse gases. Most activities produce greenhouse gases both directly, through on-site and transport use of fossil fuels, and indirectly from heat and electricity that comes “from the grid.”

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http://www.wri.org

1.2 billion people in developing countries rely on smallholder agroforestry systems to sustain agricultural productivity and generate income. 60 to 80% of these smallholders are women. The desperately poor are enmeshed in highly complex poverty traps. Poor households need enterprise solutions that build assets, increase labor productivity, sustain enterprise diversity, and generate marketable surpluses while minimizing cash investment. Pro-poor approaches to development must generate solutions that address these boundary conditions.

Download the presentation (7.9 MB, PDF)
http://www.csir-forig.org.gh

This is the presentation that accompanied the speech by Sonja Meister, Trade, Environment and Sustainability Program Coordinator of Friends of the Earth Europe. It was delivered at the policy dialogue "After Hong Kong: The EU’s responsibility at the WTO: Environment, Gender and Development II" held in July 2006 in Brussels, Belgium.

Download the presentation (78 KB, PDF)
http://www.foeeurope.org

Floods have the greatest damage potential of all natural disasters worldwide and affect the greatest number of people. On a global basis, there is evidence that the number of people affected and economic damages resulting from flooding are on the rise at an alarming rate. Society must move from the current paradigm of post-disaster response. Plans and efforts must be undertaken to break the current event-disaster cycle. More than ever, there is the need for decision makers to adopt holistic approaches for flood disaster management.

Extreme flooding events are not relegated to the least developed nations, but can also devastate and ravage the most economically advanced and industrialized nations. In the last decade there has been catastrophic flooding in Bangladesh, China, India, Germany, Mozambique, Poland, the United States and elsewhere. When floods occur in less developed nations, they can effectively wipe out decades of investments in infrastructure, seriously cripple economic prosperity, and result in thousands of deaths and epidemics. Most of these deaths, associated post traumatic stresses, and social and economic hardships can be either avoided or dramatically reduced through pre-, during, and post-disaster investments in preparedness activities and associated infrastructure, flood plain policy development, effective watershed land use planning, flood forecasting and warning systems, and response mechanisms.

These guidelines are oriented to the needs of the decision-maker and provide a description of the range of mitigation options that need to be considered when making efforts to reduce losses from flooding. The guidelines are designed to provide an introduction to the general area and to introduce the reader to various measures to mitigate the impacts associated with floods. A bibliography is provided that cites detailed material available for the planning and implementation stages. These guidelines are not meant to address floods resulting from storm surge, ice or debris jams, or the failure of human-made structures.

Download the report (2.47 MB, www.unisdr.org)

This guide offers suggestions to practitioners and the rural communities they serve on ways to prevent, mitigate and reduce poverty through forest-based interventions. Those who may find it of interest include district forestry officials, forestry and rural development extension workers, local administrators and planners, and people involved in small-scale enterprises, including their partners.

The document highlights the importance of tailoring activities to local circumstances and of using participatory approaches to design and implement interventions. Emphasis is on making and responding to changes for the benefit of people living in or near forests, and on helping users gain a better understanding of:
• the forms of rural poverty and priorities for rural poverty reduction;
• how local decisions both inside and outside the forest sector affect segments of poor rural communities in different ways – women, children and the elderly being the most vulnerable;
• the vital roles that forestry and agroforestry systems play in sustaining livelihoods and preventing poverty;
• the ways in which changes in forest management can cause poverty or worsen it;
• how forestry practices can better contribute to poverty reduction and better protect the livelihood functions of forests.

The suggestions for practical actions draw on current literature on the subject, and from field studies and experiences.

Download the guide
http://www.fao.org

The modern ecological sanitation (ecosan) concept represents the culmination of the paradigm shift initiated in response to satisfying the health needs of unserved, mostly poor population groups. Education has a clear role to play, both in acknowledging the paradigm shift in sanitation and in incorporating the interdisciplinary theme of innovative sustainable sanitation systems into teaching curricula. Education on ecosan should enable the people to develop, plan and implement ecosanitation systems that are hygienically safe, socially acceptable, economically feasible, environmentally sound and technically appropriate.

This publication constitutes a means of providing educational tools, upgrading existing ones, and suggesting revised teaching plans. The educational platform being developed under IHP auspices could serve as an opportunity to include ecosan-related subjects in modernized course curricula.

Download the publication (9.2 MB, PDF)
http://www.gtz.de

This presentation is on the role of the IDB in meeting the dual challenge of Poverty and Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was given during the 6th Meeting of the Natural Distasters Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue.

Download the presentation (1 MB, PPT, www.iadb.org)

The concept of payments for environmental services (PES) has received substantial interest in recent years as a way of creating incentive measures for managing natural resources, addressing livelihood issues for the rural poor, and providing sustainable financing for protected areas. The basic idea is that those who “provide” environmental services by conserving natural ecosystems should be compensated by beneficiaries of the service.

A number of schemes are currently operating around the world involving governments, business, government aid agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Although most schemes are still in their infancy, there is already an emerging consensus on several key constraints and opportunities to the provision of poverty reduction and sustainable management of natural resources through PES.

WWF’s approach of equitable PES, which it is developing and implementing with partners including CARE and the International Institute for Environment and Development, aims to address these constraints by finding a balance between conservation and development outcomes; by delivering conservation of biodiversity with significant benefits to the poor; and by doing so in a just and equitable way.

This publication gives an overview of current PES schemes and players, WWF's approach to equitable PES; and field examples of equitable PES projects (Guatemala, Peru, Philippines, Tanzania, Indonesia and Eastern Europe).

Download the publication (721 KB, PDF, www.panda.org)

The Programme on Natural Livelihood Resources and Poverty Alleviation is a joint Programme by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, the Netherlands Committee for IUCN and the World Wide Fund for Nature Netherlands with funding from the Policy Framework for Theme-based Co-financing of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This presentation gives an outline of the program's mission: to support vulnerable, poor groups of society in sustainable use and management of critical ecosystems in developing countries. This support in safeguarding and restoring natural livelihood resources is expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty in 17 countries.

Download the presentation (4.92 MB, PPT)

This presentation provides the goal of advancing conservation in a social context: that is, to advance sustainable conservation outcomes through diverse, dynamic social processes. It identifies the challenges and the audience for this initiative, and discusses the "Conservation Bazaar," a multi-disciplinary mixing zone and marketplace where new knowledge is disseminated, tested, and connected in new ways.

Download the presentation (81.5 KB, PPT, www.povertyandconservation.info)

This presentation discusses indigenous poverty and the impacts of exclusion, both social and environmental. New principles for conservation are listed, as well as the obstacles to reform.

Download the presentation (757 KB, PPT, www.povertyandconservation.info)

Global experience demonstrates that Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) can profitably serve poor and vulnerable populations, enabling them to reach large numbers of clients. The majority of MFIs however remain challenged to develop the institutional capacity, client-responsive products, and business models to offer services sustainably. Rarely is this goal more threatened than in times of upheaval such as natural disasters.

This guide seeks to assist MFIs in defining an institutional strategy for disaster preparedness. It lays out the steps for assessing the potential risk of disaster, the clients’ needs and the institutional capacity to respond.

Based on assessments, it offers a variety of recommendations for internal preparedness as well as examples of financial products that could mitigate the impact of disaster on clients. Secondly, this guide provides references to tools and guidelines which institutions may use in rolling out their decided strategies.

The guide is organized as a series of exercises and references to tools to assist MFIs to plan and implement a disaster management strategy. It helps MFIs assess the risk of a disaster, their clients’ needs and their own institutional capacity to respond. Finally, it offers guidance for preparation, response and recovery. The guide addresses the following topics in this sequence:

1. Assessment of Risk
2. Institutional preparedness
3. Client preparedness
4. Emergency response
5. Recovery

Download the guidebook, www.worldbank.org

The Primer for Integrated Flood Risk Management in Asia is a "how-to" reference manual for all stakeholders engaged in development at all levels, who in their daily work need to understand basic concepts, terminologies, methodologies and available tools to address their risks.

It provides examples from various parts of the world to demonstrate the use of tools and successful methodologies. It is hoped that the Primer will support stakeholders in assessing their risks, planning for actions, and forming collaborative partnerships, to reduce risks and ultimately save human lives.

Download the publication (5.5 MB, PDF)
http://www.adpc.net

This presentation discusses indoor air pollution risks, citing conditions in the People's Republic of China and India and the common use of fuels such as wood, coal and straw. It explores the improvements that a move to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) can bring, listing the health, environment, and gender equality benefits of using LPG.

Download the presentation (1.2 MB, PDF)
http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu

This report contains the IDB-sponsored system of disaster risk and risk management indicators presented at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan. The indices estimate disaster risk loss, distribution, vulnerability and management for 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Download the report (682 KB, PDF, www.iadb.org)

Poverty-environment mapping offers a valuable tool to support poverty-focused conservation. Maps of poverty and environmental conditions can pinpoint opportunities for development and are useful to donors and development agencies in allocating investment and targeting activities. Several international institutions have been doing very important work on mapping poverty related indicators and exploring their links with environmental factors.

This publication aims to communicate and illustrate the poverty-environment mapping eff orts of several of these organizations in order to enhance and improve knowledge of the methodologies and indicators being employed.

The initiatives described in this booklet are the work of the institutions that presented at the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress held in Bangkok in November 2004, at a workshop entitled Mapping Poverty & Conservation Linkages: Using Decision-Support-System Tools to Help Implement the MDGs.

Download the booklet
http://www.iucn.org

As part of a multi-collaborator research project on the potential of non-timber forest product (NTFP) trade for conservation and development, the authors designed tools to assess the effects of NTFP trade on people’s livelihoods and the environment.

To assess livelihood outcomes of NTFP trade, they used the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods framework and identified indicators to capture changes in financial, physical, natural, human and social assets at the household and community level. They also selected indicators to assess livelihood related changes at the national level.

To assess the environmental impacts of commercial NTFP production they identified indicators at four levels: target species population, land use ecosystem, landscape, and global level.

The method presented in this paper is meant to provide a time and cost effective tool to measure the effects of NTFP trade, based on expert judgment. It first presents a brief overview of the research project and the challenges faced in the design of the method, followed by a description of the method.

Download the paper (1 MB, PDF, www.cifor.cgiar.org)

A useful approach to explore linkages between development (people) and conservation (nature) is through the use of poverty-conservation mapping. Although poverty-environment mapping in biodiversity applications has been limited, there are numerous potential applications that are of use to IUCN and its members. Such applications range from substantiating the key role of biological resources in food security to improving geographic targeting of pro-poor ecosystem management.

While poverty-environment mapping offers a suite of tools for improving the analysis between biodiversity and development issues, it must not be seen as a panacea for understanding or solving poverty-conservation problems. Mapping applications need to be used together, not in lieu of, other approaches including multi-level socio-economic assessments, traditional and community-based knowledge, community mapping, and statistical analyses.

Download the report (6.47 MB)

This presentation, part of a World Health Organization and the Association des Medecins du canton de Geneve (WHO-AMG) Roundtable on “Healthy Environments for Children,” explores the issues of health and pollutants that are present in the home -- in particular, concerning water, sanitation and energy use. It presents the interventions available for the home environment, and notes that improving access to safe water and clean energy sources links to Millennium Development Goal 9 ("To Ensure Environmental Sustainability") and Goal 4 ("To Reduce Child Mortality").

Download the presentation (124 KB, PDF, www.who.int)

The element of monitoring and evaluation including the use of indicators is one of the main instruments in designing effective Poverty Reduction Strategy. This report aims to apply the analytical framework for choice of indicators that can be used to assess poverty and environment interaction in Nigeria. The analysis has shown that data are actually available to match the proposal for indicators regarding environmental health and natural resources conditions, such as malaria, diarrhea and respiratory infections.

Existing data for these indicators are sourced from the Federal Office of Statistics, the National Population Commission, World Health Organization, World Bank, UNICEF, and UNDP. Specific attention, however, should be paid to the environmental, income, vulnerability, and food security indicators on which data is lacking in Nigeria.

Download the full report
http://www.worldbank.org

The purpose of the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme is to improve the livelihoods of small-scale fisheries communities. Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) projects have an impact on community livelihoods, community capacity for empowerment, and the policies, institutions and processes that influence livelihoods.

Aimed at National Coordinating Units (NCUs) and members of NGOs working to support poor communities, this guide raises greater awareness about the different components and stages involved in using SLA. It also gives guidelines for the participatory process of identifying and formulating community projects.
Read the guide (www.sflp.org)

Livelihood in this context means the assets available to people and how they use these to sustain their living. A livelihood becomes sustainable when a family or a community has sufficient assets and the capability to use them to create a life free from hunger, disease, illiteracy and all the other factors associated with poverty.

It also becomes sustainable when a family or a community can withstand a shock or trend that threatens its livelihood. Social and human development are also essential parts of a sustainable family or community existence. Capital assets such as a stable family life, equitable access to community institutions and an education however basic are also needed. Likewise, access to medical facilities, comfortable housing and a supply of clean water are prerequisites.

Developed by the Sustainable Livelihoods Development Programme, this training manual is a guide to what assets (these are not exhaustive) may be available to a fishing community. When a set of them combine to bring a community out of poverty on a permanent basis over time, they can be said to be providing a livelihood that is sustainable.

Download the manual, www.sflp.org

In July 1997, the second International Conference on Acute Respiratory Infections was held in Canberra, Australia. In this conference, there was not one paper or plenary presentation on these factors in developing countries, and only one session out of 34 on the topic in developed countries. This is partly due to a perception in the ARI professional community that little progress has been made in understanding this complicated set of issues.

Wishing to dispel this image, although recognizing that there is still much room for additional work, EHP prepared a bibliography of material related to air pollution and childhood ARI in developing countries, the vast bulk of which had been published in the period between the two conferences.

That bibliography, compiled by John P. McCracken and Kirk R. Smith and published in 1997, contains 192 references pertaining to air pollution as a risk factor for acute respiratory infections (ARI). Its focus is ARI in young children in developing countries, who bear the greatest burden of ill-health from ARI worldwide and many of whom seem to have high exposures to a number of harmful air pollutants. A major purpose of the bibliography was to provide an easily accessed source of information on the relationship between ARI and air pollution to researchers and field staff in developing countries, where access to current publications may be limited.

This new annotated bibliography contains citations and abstracts for 235 papers that relate to air pollution and environmental exposure as a risk for acute respiratory infection (ARI). As did the predecessor volume, this bibliography focuses on children and environmental health conditions in developing nations.

Download the bibliography (463 KB, PDF, www.ehproject.org)

This guide to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) first discusses the issues surrounding the world's land degradation problem and what led to the foundation of the Convention. It elaborates on the "Bottom-Up" approach, in which the people most affected are involved directly in the projects, not just for their skill and knowledge of the land but also to prevent their sinking into poverty due to failing "outside solutions."

The second part of the guide provides details of the implementation processes of the UNCCD, in Africa and other regions.

Download the guide (9.7 MB, PDF)
http://www.unccd.int

The link between protected areas and tourism is as old as the history of protected areas. Protected areas need tourism, and tourism needs protected areas. Though the relationship is complex and sometimes adversarial, tourism is always a critical component to consider in the establishment and management of protected areas.

These guidelines aim to build an understanding of protected area tourism, and its management. They provide a theoretical structure, but are also intended to help managers in practical ways. The underlying aim is to ensure that tourism contributes to the purposes of protected areas and does not undermine them.

While protected area planners and managers can do much to build a more constructive relationship with the tourism sector, they operate within legal, political, economic and cultural contexts that greatly limit their freedom. Moreover tourism itself is driven by many forces that are beyond the influence of park managers. Therefore the success of these Guidelines depends in part on action taken by governments and others, for example in updating legislation relating to protected areas and tourism, or introducing economic incentives to encourage sustainable forms of tourism.

Nonetheless, managers can and do play a critical role. By working with a broad range of stakeholders, and notably the industry and local communities, they can do much to ensure that tourism works for their park and for the people living in it or nearby. These Guidelines contain numerous practical suggestions about how this can be done, based not only on sound theory but also on practice from around the world.

Download the paper (1.6 MB, PDF)
http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr

Environmental mainstreaming in UNDP involves integrating sustainability objectives into poverty reduction practices, building internal and external capacities, promoting regional strategies for maintaining environment, enhancing environmental soundness and sustainability of UNDP policies, programs and operational processes, and improving the capacity of environment programs to achieve broader socio-economic and human development goals.

Download the paper (311 KB, DOC)
http://www.undp.org

"Smarter Sanitation" is ADB's new electronic toolkit to help national and local governments put their sanitation and wastewater sectors on the MDG success path. More than 30 specialists from developing countries in Asia and the Pacific contributed case studies.

"Smarter Sanitation" includes a CD and companion booklet that guides users through the main barriers confronting them:

* Attitudes and misconceptions about what is and is not possible
* Getting policies to work
* Changing community behavior and awareness levels
* Choosing the most suitable technology

The toolkit is loaded with links to the best websites, resources, case studies, and virtually everything about sanitation and wastewater management that planners and managers need to know. It also includes SANEX™, a high-powered software for assessing and planning sanitation systems in developing countries.

Read more
http://www.adb.org