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Water, Energy, And The Environment
AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
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Call for Papers: Land and Sustainable Food Transformations
GUEST EDITORSAdam Calo, Assistant Professor of Environmental Governance and Politics, Radboud UniversityColine Perrin, Senior Researcher in Geography, INRAEKirsteen Shields, Senior Lecturer in International Law and Food Systems, University of EdinburghSylvia Kay, Researcher, The Transnational InstituteSarah Ruth Sippel, Professor of Economic Geography and Globalization Studies, University of Münster
This Elementa special feature invites articles exploring the role of land in sustainable food transformations. The forthcoming collection provides new understandings on how governance of land (property relations, land access, land tenure, landscape policy) mediates the potential for food system transformations. The special issue goes beyond understanding dynamics of the land food nexus to ask how land relations can be reformed to create favorable conditions for more just and sustainable food systems to emerge. A complete call for proposals can be found here.
Land relations—property, access, tenure, landscape—are a central underlying driver of the material form of food systems, from farm to distribution. Despite their fluidity and historical and geographical diversity, land relations have a tendency to become “normalized” through law, custom, and practice. In particular, the exclusionary private ownership model of property has come to be deeply entrenched in legal systems worldwide, particularly in the Global North. The power of this normalization is evidenced, for example, in how research and practice aimed at reshaping food systems from grassroots movement, policy-level, or biophysical perspectives often omit the role of land relations in bringing about agricultural sustainability and agrarian change. Understanding land relations as “static” thus potentially constrains or directs the kinds of sustainable agriculture and food transformations that can take place.
We thus invite contributions on characterizing the role of land relations in sustainable food production, critiques of existing sustainability interventions in the food system from a perspective of land relations, and socio-legal analysis of pathways to reforming or reimagining synergized land and food system transformations. We aim to highlight the role of land relations and property regimes in a ‘Global North Context’. We call for insights on the power relations embedded in land in both the dominant land regimes that underly the industrial food system but also in the alternative counter movements bubbling up to contest the status quo of the land food nexus.
Articles in this special symposium might examine the following topics or other related issues:
The role of power relations in assembling land for food production of differing forms;
Discourses that shape the legitimacy of strong property regimes and the resulting material influence in institutions, actors, social movements, resources, and technologies;
Cross disciplinary learning from other domains such as housing justice, intellectual property debates, and antitrust applied to understand food system transformations;
Global South—North food system co-learning on alternative land governance for food systems change;
Empirical evidence of the relationship between alternative property regimes and alternative food system practices such as agroecology, diversified or organic farming, local food processing, and/or food sovereignty;
Dominant food system technocratic “solutions” or interventions (such as vertical farming, regenerative agriculture, agricultural easements, payments for ecosystem services, crop biotechnology, alt-proteins and sustainable intensification) and the way they either entrench, challenge, rely upon, or overlook the role of property regimes;
Dominant food system social “solutions” or interventions (such as farmer training programs, capacity building, empowerment campaigns, dietary nudging, microfinance) and the way they either entrench, challenge, rely upon, or overlook the role of property regimes;
Politics of land reform in (seemingly) stable statutory institutions (such as liberal sovereign states in industrialized economies);
Creative imagined or practiced legal or social pathways to reform the norms of property on farmland or other nodes of the food system;
Advancements on access theory with regards to food system transformations;
The above themes relate to questions of how land politics influence food system transformation pathways.
If you wish to submit a paper to the special issue, please submit a 500-word abstract detailing your article’s title, type, purpose, methodology, key findings, and significance to the guest editors at adam.calo@ru.nl by 14th January. Elementa accepts original research articles, reviews, policy bridges, commentary, and other creative multi-media formats such as interviews and podcasts. and discussion papers. All paper formats will be considered although original research articles are preferred. More information about submission criteria can be found here: https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/pages/submissionguidelines
Deadlines:
Abstracts: 14th January 2023 Authors notified of invitation to submit a paper: 1st February 2023Complete first drafts due to editors: April 28th 2023 (Spring 2023)Reviews sent to authors: Summer 2023
By:
Raquel Acosta

AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
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Determinants of Small-Scale Irrigation Use for Poverty Reduction: The Case of Offa Woreda, Wolaita Z
Small-scale irrigation is one of the agricultural activities used by rural farmers to improve the overall livelihood of the rural community by increasing income, securing food, meeting social requirements, and reducing poverty. e main objective of this study was to look into the factors that influence small-scale irrigation for poverty reduction among small-holder farmers in theOffa Woreda, Wolaita Zone.
By:
Elias Bojago

AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
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Transforming Institutions Strategic Funding Proposals
The Alliance for African Partnership is now accepting proposals for the Transforming Institutions Strategic Funding Program. Successful applicants will receive up to $20,000 in seed funding to develop international strategic partnerships with universities, institutions of higher education and research, and/or organizations in the public or NGO sectors.
The application deadline is August 29th, 2022.
Alliance for African Partnership seeks proposals from AAP consortium members and their partners for activities which directly address AAP's pillar to transform institutions to be better able to participate in sustainable, equitable, and research-driven partnerships that make a broader impact on transforming lives. Travel can include any of the following—within Africa, to Africa from external locations, to the US, or to other locations outside of Africa. Virtual engagement is highly encouraged as it can be cost effective.
Exploratory Projects to support initial-stage partnership development. This funding is meant for new partnerships that have not previously worked together
Proposal Development Projects to support partners to develop a proposal in response to a specific funding opportunity
Pilot Workshop Projects to support short-term training activities or workshops
Proposed partnerships should focus specifically on institutional strengthening and capacity development. This could include projects that aim to build institutional strengths; to contribute to individuals’ capacity development which will lead to institutional strengthening; to plan for new units or institution-wide initiatives; and/or to pilot new approaches to research support, teaching or outreach that can eventually be scaled up across the institution(s).
Proposals that address the following areas will also receive priority in review:
1) building grant proposal development and/or improving grant management,
2)innovative models of joint teaching or degree programs (e.g., COIL courses), or
3) innovative models of research communication and engagement (e.g., building capacity of researchers to engage/communicate with policy makers, communities, etc.)
To learn more about the program, including how to apply, visit:
https://aap.isp.msu.edu/funding/transforming-institutions-call-proposals/
By:
Raquel Acosta
HEALTH AND NUTRITION
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The Zayed Sustainability Prize is the UAE's pioneering global award
The Zayed Sustainability Prize is the UAE's pioneering global award for recognising excellence in sustainability. It was established in 2008 to honour the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s legacy of sustainability and commitment to humanitarianism. The Prize recognises nonprofit organisations (NPOs), small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and high schools for their impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainable solutions across the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools. Through its 96 winners, the Prize has positively impacted the lives of over 370 million people globally. Submissions are open until 6th July 2022 5:00PM EST.
Who should apply?
Nonprofit organisations (NPOs), small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with sustainable solutions and high schools with sustainable projects.
What are the categories of the Prize?
HEALTH | The Prize fund for this category is US$ 600,000
FOOD | The Prize fund for this category is US$ 600,000
ENERGY | The Prize fund for this category is US$ 600,000
WATER | The Prize fund for this category is US$ 600,000
GLOBAL HIGH SCHOOLS | In each of the following six global regions, one school will win up to US$ 100,000: Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East & North Africa, Europe & Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia & Pacific
What are the eligibility criteria for the Prize?
Innovation, Impact and Inspiration.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/africanbusinessmagazine.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=82a1c769b4c9e47f2566f4d40&id=b000ec54c6&e=9f847783e3__;!!HXCxUKc!3zryXpRQn9ePvIfLvksEPHpLUVeMoAubBHJ4LWFMNjx4PQO8Ii6QBNMwxtqnuSVMBSI_vRuy5Y6JFcZmG7C5TA$
By:
Raquel Acosta

WATER, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
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Call for Applications for the 2022 Ife Institute of Advanced Studies
Call for Applications for the 2022 Ife Institute of Advanced Studies’ summer institute with doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in the humanities, the social sciences, and STEM affiliated with your institution and related networks.The Ife Summer Institute is an international platform for nurturing a new generation of scholars in the humanities and social sciences held for three years at Ile-Ife in Nigeria, and virtually in 2020-2021 to accommodate COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The institute hosts participants from all over the world and boasts distinguished faculty engaging contemporary scholarly topics.This year’s Institute will be held both in-person and via Zoom. Certificates of participation will be awarded to all registered participants at the end of the Institute.More details about the online application are available on our website: https://www.ias-ife.com/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ias-ife.com/__;!!HXCxUKc!iFM-iw4Hrc2buEwZzpnc791_EE0KuPMSXRZ8ZM5i6kNVTuvob3AJYw2dQVuqTSc$ .We can also be reached for questions or clarification at iiasng.office@gmail.com<mailto:iiasng.office@gmail.com or summerinstituteife.ng@gmail.com<mailto:summerinstituteife.ng@gmail.com>.
By:
Raquel Acosta
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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CALL FOR PAPERS International Journal of Islamic Architecture (IJIA)
CFP for IJIA Special Issue on Climate Change and the Built Environment in the Islamic World
Special Issue: Climate Change and the Built Environment in the Islamic World
Thematic volume planned for May 2024 (IJIA 13.2)Proposal submission deadline: April 30, 2022
This special issue of IJIA focuses on the impact of the current climate crisis on the built environments of the Islamic world. Environmentalist scholar and eco-theologist Seyyed Hossein Nasr once said that the natural environment occupies a type of ‘sacred’ space in the world, an elevated position that exists only because nature is ‘always in danger of desecration’ (Chidester and Linenthal 1995). In fact, many scientists are now seeing our current global predicament as evidence of the emergence of a ‘fifth nature’ or ‘post nature’, referring to a world ‘after’ nature or potentially beyond or in addition to it, which expands the central definition of the ‘natural’ to include man-made waste, environmental pollution, and importantly climate change as part and parcel of a lived and living ecosystem (Apotsos and Venter 2020). To this end, this special issue takes up the challenge of unpacking this complex topic by utilizing architecture as a space of discourse for thinking about how one might craft a theory of ‘critical environmentalism’ across the Islamic world. Currently accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s total energy usage per year, the built environment provides a fitting platform for a consideration of climate change and attendant environmental themes such as sustainability – broadly defined as ‘the endurance of systems and processes’ – towards examining how such realities are made manifest through the lens of diverse spatial templates within Muslim societies around the globe.
To this point, many architectural approaches being explored in the contemporary period as potential solutions to building in an increasingly unstable climatic future are rooted in historical practices, many of which emerged in proto-Islamic lands. Archaeological evidence from North Africa and the Middle East, for example, not only suggest that early civilizations used thermodynamically efficient materials like earth to build in desert environments, but also developed an understanding of how to generate livable microclimates through infrastructural design and engineering. Some of these early approaches have also served as the basis for some of the first modern attempts at crafting climate-appropriate design, spearheaded by architects such as Hassan Fathy (Egypt) and his utilisation of AT (Appropriate Technology), and even certain contemporary structural counterparts like Dubai’s new eco-mosque in Hatta, which opened in 2021 and uses both solar panels to reduce its energy usage and water treatment units to reuse water for irrigation and cleaning due to the lack of potable water sources in the region. Importantly as well, such building projects and approaches also gesture towards shifting conditions and modes of being in the world, realities informed by numerous different perspectives ranging from social, cultural, economic, and even religious modes of existence. In 2021, the Saudi Arabian government issued a fatwa on the topic of water reuse, requiring mosques in both Mecca and Medina to recycle wastewater or ‘grey water’ due to the limited potable water resources in the region and the extreme drain on regional water resources that events like the annual Hajj provoke. Some see this as evidence of the emergence of a ‘Green Deen’, or an approach to sustainability that positions environmental stewardship as a faith-based ordinance.
Contemporary considerations of the effects of climate change on built environments throughout the Islamic world also compel a reconsideration of the continuing fallacy imposed by western Enlightenment thought that the relationship between architecture and the environment is one of mutual exclusion. Although advancements in green technology, the growth of design fields oriented around biomimetic applications, and the development of sustainable building materials such as ‘cradle to cradle’ products are shifting the relationship between built form and the environment in a more cooperative direction, the fact remains that architectural practice continues to position the natural environment as a separate, distinct realm to be studied and above all controlled, a largely non-collaborative system that rarely overlaps with the built environment unless forced and often actively opposes it.
To this end, this special issue encourages contributions that explore the role of architecture and the built environment in shaping the contours of current climate change and environmentalist discourse in the context of diverse socio-political, cultural, and economic spheres throughout the Islamic world. Contributions might consider past and present events, circumstances, and spaces that offer different or nonconventional interpretations of environmentalism and even the idea of ‘nature’ itself as a space of multiple perspectives, definitions, and concerns, as well as how communities individually encounter and define environmental concerns and incorporate natural design elements into structural responses and solutions specific to the context. Papers might additionally address how architecture as an analytical mechanism challenges established approaches and tendencies that position the built environment in opposition to environmentalist concerns by recognizing its capacity to act as a type of text composed of multiple narratives and registers of knowledge that reflects the value system and frameworks operating within a society at a particular moment with regards to the environment.
Papers should adhere to the IJIA’s remit, which is defined broadly as ‘the historic Islamic world, encompassing the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, but also the more recent geographies of Islam in its global dimensions’. Further, contributors should fully exploit the self-reflexive potential of this remit towards addressing a spectrum of critical approaches to the built environment in the Islamic world that not only position architecture as a theatre of environmental performance, but also a platform from which to consider additional conditions revolving around issues of race, gender, ethnicity, culture, and politics as they relate to environmental challenges and concerns. To this end, this special issue not only aims to be strongly interdisciplinary, drawing from fields ranging from urban design, history, architecture, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology, but also accommodate a diversity of discourses that focus on regions, communities, and built environments not widely addressed in scholarship on Islamic space. Such case studies are particularly important toward generating a comparative interrogative approach to effectively consider the ongoing encounter/relationship between humanity and the natural world over time and space.
Examples of themes contributors might wish to explore include, but are not limited to, the following:
Imagining sustainable futures/architecture as an environmentalist frontier
Global warming, climate change, and its social/cultural impacts
Natural aesthetics as design inspiration
Green architecture in desert environments
Environmentalism, heritage, and its discontents
Eco-Islam and the ‘Green Deen’
Armed conflict and its environmental impacts/implications
Petropolitics and sustainable space
Architecture and ecological conservation/preservation
Non-traditional/emerging designs, materials, and spaces
Colonial/postcolonial frameworks in environmental discourse
AT (appropriate technology)
Articles offering historical and theoretical analysis (DiT papers) should be between 6000 and 8000 words, and those on design and practice (DiP papers) between 3000 and 4000 words. Practitioners are welcome to contribute insofar as they address the critical framework of the journal. Please send a title and a 400-word abstract to the guest editor, Michelle Apotsos, Williams College (IJIAsustainability@gmail.com), by April 30, 2022. Authors of accepted proposals will be contacted soon thereafter and will be requested to submit full papers by January 30, 2023. All papers will be subject to blind peer review. For author instructions, please consult: www.intellectbooks.com/ijia.
By:
Raquel Acosta
WATER, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Africa and the Environment: Documenting and Archiving a Changing Climate
CALL FOR PAPERS
Africa’s natural environment is rich and diverse, ranging from its wildlife and plants to its land and resources. It is also one of the continents most severely affected by climate change, with increasingly erratic weather events adversely impacting biodiversity, agriculture and those living there. This conference will explore library and archive materials relating to Africa and the environment and how they are collected, catalogued, preserved and used in research and teaching. We would welcome papers relating to a range of media including documents and manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, historical printed collections, audio-visual material and born-digital material.
Subjects might include:
How the archives of individuals and organisations working on environmental issues are being preserved and made available
How library and archive materials are used to chart and address climate change
How collections are used to research renewable energy in Africa
How current field research is being preserved and published
How environmental challenges affect libraries and archives in Africa and how they respond
Librarians, archivists and researchers are invited to submit abstracts of up to 350 words for consideration to Sarah Rhodes (sarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk) by 31 March 2022.
http://scolma.org
By:
Raquel Acosta
WATER, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Fish4Thought Event
Fish4Thought Event:Gender-inclusive innovations in aquatic food systems
A virtual event to celebrate International Women's Day and highlight the importance of gender-sensitive approaches to empower women actors in aquatic food systems.Tuesday, 8 March 202215:00-16:20 (UTC+8) / 08:00-09:20 (UTC+1)
Click here to register and save your spot
Growing evidence points to gender equality playing a key role in aquatic food systems’ crucial contributions to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. However, despite recent progress in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, inequity and barriers still remain in most parts of the world.In this upcoming Fish4Thought virtual event held in conjunction with International Women’s Day, WorldFish's research experts will come together to highlight gender-sensitive approaches that empower women actors and ensure gender-equal opportunities in food, nutrition and income security in aquatic food systems.The presentations will focus on WorldFish’s years of research work in designing and implementing gender-inclusive innovations in response to climate and COVID-19 impacts. The panel of experts will also share regional innovations in aquatic food systems to increase the visibility, agency and leadership capabilities of women in small-scale, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture sectors in Asia, Africa and the Pacific.
By:
Raquel Acosta

CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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TWAS – Women in Climate Action research grants
To support action-based projects with a direct impact on society, the Elsevier Foundation is partnering with TWAS – the World Academy of Sciences to provide research grants for projects led by women scientists that address concrete problems in climate change through collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
The program is community-focused: a competitive, open call for applications will consider projects that respond to the needs of, and to the development requirements, of the applicants’ community and/or national or regional context in one of the 66 scientifically and technologically lagging country (STLCs). The TWAS-Elsevier Foundation Project Grants Programme for Gender Equity and Climate Action aims to:
• Promote gender equality by creating opportunities for women in climate action projects that take them outside the lab, enabling them to deepen their scientific skills, while acquiring, through training, soft skills such as project management and leadership.
• Respond to and tackle communities’ needs in ways that are in line with the principles of sustainable development, focusing on the brunt of climatic changes.
• Effectively transfer knowledge from scientific research to real-life scenarios for practical and tangible change under the umbrella of the “climate action” SDG.
Knowledge deriving from scientific research often suffers from not being applicable to real-life scenarios, especially in the Global South – slowing down tangible improvements. Greater progress in the livelihoods of individuals are achieved when research is done in cooperation with local populations, and when scientific know-how is effectively shared by those living in the same communities. UN Women reports that globally, one fourth of all economically active women are engaged in agriculture, where they regularly contend with climate consequences such as crop failure and experience an unequal burden of care for collecting increasingly scarce water and fuel.
The grants will support women researchers from the Global South to reinforce both scientific and soft skills such as project management, leadership and science diplomacy – with the aim of sustainably improving the livelihood of their entire community by supporting women’s wellbeing.
To learn more: https://elsevierfoundation.org/partnerships/inclusive-research/twas-women-climate-action-research/
By:
Raquel Acosta
WATER, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
AAP Public Dialogue “Climate Adaptation for Africa’s Cities”
AAP is excited to be hosting our next Public Dialogue “Climate Adaptation for Africa’s Cities” this Wednesday, February 23rd at 8:00am- 9:30am EDT. This dialogue session will be co-hosted by AAP consortium member - University of Cheikh Anta Diop. Climate change is undoubtedly one of Africa’s greatest challenges. This dialogue will focus on the importance of building resilient cities in Africa that can reduce the threats resulting from climate change: droughts, heat waves, landslides, storms, and – especially in coastal areas – floods. As the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, Africa must take the opportunity to leverage rebuilding efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable economies and infrastructure that will engender resilience to climate change and build cities that are more inclusive and resilient. Panelists will share best practices, as well as approaches and resources needed for action.
To learn more/register: https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/9816443342295/WN_YMIXxcQCQpauxVheISTFbw
By:
Raquel Acosta

AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
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AGRILINKS EVENT: Managing Soils to Address Global Challenges
Join us for the 2022 USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (USAID/RFS) Research Honorary Lecture, given by 2020 World Food Prize Laureate Rattan Lal. Dr. Lal is recognized globally as a pioneer in soil-centric agricultural management to improve food security and develop climate-resilient agriculture through soil carbon sequestration, sustainable intensification, use efficiency of agroecosystems, sustainable management of soils, and soil health. His career in soil science and international agricultural research spans over 5 decades and four continents.
The lecture and discussion will outline global challenges including food and nutritional insecurity, climate change, soil degradation, water scarcity, and pollution. This presentation will also highlight Dr. Lal’s modeling research for achieving sustainable and resilient production systems to restore soil health. The strategy involves producing more from less and returning land back to nature.
To register: https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/register/sgghvjcz
By:
Raquel Acosta
WATER, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Virtual Workshop on Water Equity Access
This workshop will serve as a knowledge transfer for early career researchers and students and we will invite local subject matter experts, entrepreneurs, government leaders, and development agencies to discuss their current and future activities related to water equity access. We will actively seek opportunities to further expand our research activities through collaborations and educational programs, which would highlight the role of gender in different levels for providing water in different regions of the world. The workshop will have graduate students (from Nigeria and the U.S.) as the audience. The mixed format of the workshop will combine seminars and roundtable discussions. This workshop is intended to inspire students and researchers and build their enthusiasm for science, engineering, and technology.
Sponsored by a Michigan State University African Studies Center Strategic Partnership Grant.
Although the Workshop will be held virtually, there will be audiences gathered at both Michigan State University and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Registration Link: Click here to register (No registration fee)
The details for the workshop can be found at https://www.egr.msu.edu/boehlertgroup/upcoming-events
By:
Raquel Acosta
