STEPS Newslive
Download Newsletter Spring 2008 as a PDF (413kb)
Newsletter Spring 2008
Welcome to Newslive from the ESRC STEPS Centre. In our spring newsletter find out about our research, events and publications so far this year and what is coming up. If you are interested in environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and science and technology for development in an era of dynamic change, please join the debate.
With best wishes, Julia Day, Communications Officer
Kofi Annan backs our work - ‘Green Revolution in Africa’
Kofi Annan chaired a new vision for agricultural development in Africa conference, hosted by STEPS affiliate the Future Agricultures Consortium and the Salzburg Global Seminar.
Newsletters, media, photos, blog and more from this event
Livestock revolution for southern African farmers
How can southern Africa benefit from the global ‘livestock revolution’? New research explores policy options for trade, veterinary and food safety standards, disease control and management.
> Policy briefings / Briefings Politique
> Pretoria workshop
Video interviews
Reframing Resilience
The STEPS Centre's theme this year is resilience; engaging with resilience thinking and exploring practical implications for policy in agriculture, water, peri-urban dynamics, epidemics and regulation..
> Find out more
Global access to health
Our affiliate partner Future Health Systems launched a Special Issue of Social Science and Medicine at the Geneva Health Forum, co-edited by Gerry Bloom, the STEPS Centre's health convenor.
> Special Issue of Social Science and Medicine
> Read the blog from Geneva
New STEPS Centre briefings
The STEPS Centre's work in a digestible format: Our first bite-sized briefings, covering the STEPS Approach, Dynamics and Governance, are now available to download.
> Policy briefings: livestock revolution in southern Africa
> New publications and STEPS Working Papers
STEPS Centre video channel : bringing our work to life
Join the debate on the blog with Esha Shah on a sentimental European response to 'India-China', Adrian Smith on the politics and governance of sustainable development, Adrian Ely on China's 'economic miracle' cities, Gerry Bloom on Chinese exports & more.
Our video
Our audio
Our photos
Rethinking regulation in China and Argentina
One of our five flagship projects is comparing the regulation of two technologies - transgenic cotton seeds and antibiotics - with the way those technologies are experienced amongst poorer communities in rural Argentina and rural China.
> Find out about our other projects
> Our affiliate projects
Hitting the headlines
Reuters, BBC World Service, International Herald Tribune, New Era, the Guardian, New Scientist, New Agriculturist and AllAfrica.com are among the media outlets who have covered our work recently.
Epidemics: pathways of disease and response
Case studies on SARS, multi-drug-resistant TB, HIV/AIDS, ebola, avian flu, obesity are underway as part of this project on the dynamics and governance of epidemics.
> Melissa Leach on haemorrhagic fevers for Wellcome History
On the blog: hunger, resilience and biosafety
John Thompson takes a critical look at the IAASTD report calling for sweeping changes to world farming. Also on the blog, Melissa Leach and Adrian Smith at Resilience 2008 and Adrian Ely on rethinking regulation in China and UN deliberations on biosafety.
STEPS seminar series
Podcasts, presentations, photos and blogs from our 2007-2008 season of seminars, including Polly Ericksen on food systems for resilience, Andrew Jamison on the quest for green knowledge, Bill Adams on biodiversity conservation, JV Meenakshi on biofortification and Les Levidow and Helena Paul on global biofuels.
Sussex Manifesto: science & technology for development
Listen to Geoff Oldham's Seminar on the Sussex Manifesto and its aftermath, download the original documents and debate the future of science and technology for development 40 years on.
Material from previous STEPS seminars
Farmer First Revisited: 20 years on
In 1987 a meeting of 50 social and natural scientists proved a defining moment for farmer participation in agricultural research.The Future Agricultures Consortium, STEPS and IDS hosted an international workshop, Farmer First Revisited, 20 years after the first meeting.
Videos, wiki-timeline, podcasts, papers, radio programme, photos and more
Accommodating dissent
Providing cures for health problems isn't enough, if people's personal or cultural beliefs clash with the scientific approach, Melissa Leach argues in Nature magazine and on the Nature podcast.
> Download article (pdf 77kb)
> Vaccine Anxieties - about Melissa's new book
Listen to the Nature podcast
Stop press
> STEPS news page
> Avian 'flu: the politics and policy processes of a global response - a new STEPS affiliate project with FAO and DFID
> Building pathways to a more secure future Melissa Leach writes for the ESRC's The Edge magazine on securing a safer, sustainable and more equitable world
> What's the Beef? Ian Scoones talks to Developments Magazine
> Can science sustain our world? BBC Radio 4's Material World asks STEPS co-director Andy Stirling and three other scientists about the role of science in sustaining and preserving Earth
> Focus on water, sanitation and hygiene To mark UN Sanitation and Hygiene Week, our researchers and partners have written about the challenges ahead.
> Journal articles by STEPS members
Media
The STEPS Centre wants help media professionals access the latest news, resources and background material as quickly as possible. We can also offer comment, analysis and opinion from experts on many development and science and technology policy issues.
- For more information email: j.day@ids.ac.uk
- Media Centre
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Previous newsletters:
Autumn 2007 - Download newslive as a PDF (214kb)
The views expressed in this newsletter and on the STEPS website and blog are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of STEPS, IDS, SPRU or its funder, the Economic and Social Research Council.
