Featuring IHE Delft staff

Small Island Development States (SIDS) appear on the map as little dots of green in vast stretches of blue. In popular culture, they take turns appearing as idyllic holiday destinations... and as tiny landmasses always on the verge of drowning under rising sea level.
Just how exposed are these island nations to climate change effects? What makes them extra vulnerable? How are they dealing with this threat? We speak to IHE Delft's Erik de Ruiter van Steveninck.
(If you are from a Small Island Developing State--SIDS--here is a fellowship opportunity for you to study water management at IHE Delft: https://www.un-ihe.org/sids-fellowships-1 )

Small islands in big oceans

Is it possible to predict conflict? That's what the Water, Peace and Security Partnership's machine learning early warning tool sets out to do. Four times a year the predictions are analyzed and turned into a quarterly report.

In this second WPS quarterly report podcast we'll look at the countries most at risk of conflict thanks to the fall out of the war in Ukraine, which has led to much higher fuel and food prices, along with serious predicted future food supply problems. The guest for this podcast is Susanne Schmeier, Associate Professor in Water Law and Diplomacy at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, one of the WPS partners, and the producer and presenter is Nicholas Walton of WRI.

Big Ideas Into Action #50: Water Peace and Security Quarterly Update 2

The Burmese pro-democracy leader won world-wide respect for her courage and resilience during her long imprisonment by the military government in Myanmar. But she's disappointed some people who think she should be more vocal in defence of other victims of oppression.  A radio essay by Jill McGivering, who's been following her career for decades.   

Aung San Suu Kyi and the disappointments of practical politics

[NAIROBI] Africa is said to be one of the fastest growing continents economically. But the continent still faces numerous challenges in addressing its developmental needs even as it strives to catch up with the developed world, according to IBM Africa’s Vice President, Kamal Bhattacharya.

In this podcast, SciDev.Net talks to him on the role of his organisation’s lab in data collection and analysis, and how this can translate into tangible solutions for Africa’s developmental challenges and policy making.

 “IBM opened this lab in Nairobi, Kenya, to help find solutions to the continent’s grand challenges in areas such as energy, transport, health and agriculture,” Battacharya tells SciDev.Net. He urges African governments to build local applications and solutions to the continent’s challenges.

IBM Research - Africa is the first commercial technology research facility on the continent conducting both applied and far-reaching exploratory research. According to Bhattacharya, the lab has been encouraging and strengthening an innovative culture, and building partnerships with businesses, research organisations, governments and universities across Africa and around the world.

For instance, IBM worked with Mobile Service provider, Airtell, to collect and analyse data on people’s perceptions of hygiene and Ebola in Sierra Leone.

This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's Sub-Saharan Africa desk.

http://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/data/multimedia/data-ibm-research-africa.html


IBM's Lab Role In Data Collection And Analysis

This week the UN released a report revealing that 17,000 homes and other buildings in part of the occupied Palestinian West Bank known as Area C are under threat of demolition by Israel. It reiterates the shocking vulnerability of Palestinians living in Area C, which covers 60 per cent of the West Bank and is under full Israeli control.

Life in Area C can be brutal for Palestinians. The UN reports that over 70 per cent of communities are not connected to the water grid, many have no electricity, and around six thousand people live within Israeli ‘firing zones’ used by the military. An Israeli-Palestinian NGO sets up small-scale renewable energy and clean water systems for Palestinians living high in the hills of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Elad Orian, the cofounder of Comet-ME, tells me “the Israeli authorities have been trying for a long while to drive these people off their land”. Withholding energy and water is part of this “political campaign”, he says.

The off-grid energy systems Comet-ME builds tap into this arid region’s intense sunshine and strong winds to produce clean, sustainable energy for homesteads and villages. As Orian explains in this audio interview, access to a small amount of energy each day can transform lives and livelihoods, particularly for women, who carry out the bulk of domestic tasks and who take care of cheese production that is the staple of livelihoods here. 


Battle for basic services in occupied Palestine

In the podcast this week, a language map of the brain, listening for landslides a year after the Nepal quake, and the Soviet internet that never was.

Nature Podcast: 28 April 2016 – brain dictionary, Soviet internet and Nepal one year on.

This week’s ‘UN Gender Focus’ from the United Nations is presented by Janie Cangelosi.

She brings you the following stories:
- Geneva takes diplomatic approach to gender equality 
- Health needs of women and children in conflict zones neglected 
- Future “catastrophic” unless climate action is taken

UN Gender Focus: gender equality, SDGs and climate change

This week’s ‘UN Global Perspective’ from the United Nations is presented by Dianne Penn.

She brings you the following stories:
- UN embraces concept of “sustaining peace” 
- 60 million people worldwide affected by El Niño phenomenon
- Palmyra archeological site has “maintained its integrity and authenticity” 


UN Global Perspective: focus on peacebuilding, El Niño and Palmyra archeological site

For most people a doctor is probably the first port of call when it comes to informFor most people a doctor is probably the first port of call when it comes to information about how to keep in good health. Still, much guidance gets broadcast by the media, and in developing countries the radio remains a major source of public health advice.

But just how much is the impact of the mass media? Do they save lives, and at what cost? 

For five years, the West African country of Burkina Faso has been a testing ground for a media campaign designed to answer these elusive questions using the gold standard of scientific study, a cluster-randomised clinical trial. The trial targeted child mortality, treating the media as any other health intervention and measuring lives saved after three years of continuous radio programming with information about behaviours that can prevent disease, such as taking a child to a health centre.

SciDev.Net spoke to the project’s leader, Roy Head, CEO of the social enterprise Development Media International. Head explains the rationale behind the study and offers a preview of the results, due to be published later this year. 

The interview was recorded on 23 February at the 2017 ISNTD Festival organised by the International Society of Neglected Tropical Diseases in London, UK.
ation about how to keep in good health. Still, much guidance gets broadcast by the media, and in developing countries the radio remains a major source of public health advice.

But just how much is the impact of the mass media? Do they save lives, and at what cost? 

For five years, the West African country of Burkina Faso has been a testing ground for a media campaign designed to answer these elusive questions using the gold standard of scientific study, a cluster-randomised clinical trial. The trial targeted child mortality, treating the media as any other health intervention and measuring lives saved after three years of continuous radio programming with information about behaviours that can prevent disease, such as taking a child to a health centre.

SciDev.Net spoke to the project’s leader, Roy Head, CEO of the social enterprise Development Media International. Head explains the rationale behind the study and offers a preview of the results, due to be published later this year. 

The interview was recorded on 23 February at the 2017 ISNTD Festival organised by the International Society of Neglected Tropical Diseases in London, UK.

http://www.scidev.net/global/health/multimedia/mass-media-save-lives-the-evidence.html

Do mass media save lives? The evidence is in

Climate change is disrupting weather patterns and leading to extreme weather events, such as wild fires, all around the world. Climate-related natural disasters also cause unpredictable water availability, exacerbate existing water scarcities and contaminate established water supplies. In some situations, scarce and valuable fresh water has contributed to conflicts by being a causal factor, target, tool, or weapon. In this episode, we explore what the effects of climate change means for water security around the world and talk to four guests about the weaponization of water, water scarcity, international conflicts over water, and more.

Guests: Scott Moore (Director, Penn Global China Program), Jasdeep Randhawa (International lawyer and policy specialist, currently working in the adaptation team at the United Nations Climate Change agency), Susanne Schmeier (Associate professor, IHE Delft), Michelle Toxopeus (Legal researcher, Helen Suzman Foundation).

What Does Climate Change Mean for Water Security?

Journalists have a crucial role to play in creating inspirational and transformative narratives relating to the world’s complex water conflicts, specialists say in the first episode of a three-part podcast series on water conflict and cooperation. 

In this episode, special guests discuss their research on the role of the media in water diplomacy, which features in a new expert guide for journalists and policymakers launched by the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education.

Water conflicts, science and the media

Hello and welcome to the 'Transformations to Groundwater Sustainability' Podcast. Every month, we will share narratives of knowing, accessing and sharing groundwater from different perspectives and places around the globe. The podcast is hosted by Muna Dajani (Lancaster University) and Cristian Olmos (University of Amsterdam), and today's episode is a conversation about the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on small-scale agriculture in Algeria, India and Morocco. Our guests are Farah Hamamouche (CIRAD, France), Hind Ftouhi (The Agronomic and Veterinary Institute Hassan II, Morocco), Irene Leonardelli (IHE Delft), Lisa Bossenbroek (University Koblenz-Landau) and Sneha Bhat (SOPPECOM). In this episode, we discuss the challenges of doing feminist research during a pandemic, aiming to offer listeners something more than an academic interview. We hope you enjoy the conversation.
www.t2sgroundwater.org

Episode 2: Implications of COVID-19 for small-scale agriculture in Algeria, India and Morocco

SciDev.Net podcasts look at key global development issues and the ways in which science can have a positive impact on equitable and sustainable development and poverty reduction. 

Water conflicts, science and the media

SciDev.Net

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