1. RMAP News

What is the case for gender mainstreaming in the mining sector? How can addressing gender equity lead to sustainable livelihoods? What changes in policy or practice have arisen from the growing international interest in gender equity within the extractive industries?

On the 6th and 7th November 2008 RMAP and the World Bank will be hosting an international workshop on Mining, Gender and Sustainable Livelihoods to explore these issues and more.

This two-day workshop will bring together researchers and representatives from industry, government, donors and NGOs to explore a range of questions and issues with implications for future research, industry practice and policy making.

The workshop program features speakers engaged with gender, mining and sustainable development from a diverse range of localities and sectors across South & Central Asia, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and the US.

To register to attend the workshop, please email: sophie.dowling@anu.edu.au

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It is quite challenging to motivate rural people to participate in local water resource management in Bangladesh. There are different reasons for this being such a challenge. However, there are great opportunities for participatory water resource management (PWRM) if local people are motivated and willing to participate in the development process.

Read further my ideas on the Prospect of PWRM in Bangladesh

RMAP has two visiting researchers from Indonesia this week and next: Kurnya Roesad, who otherwise works with the World Bank in Jakarta, and Efa Yonnedi, of Lecturer at Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra. They’re here to work with Frank Jotzo on a project on economic governance for climate change policies in Indonesia, following up on fieldwork in Jakarta and Sumatra earlier in the year.

The project is supported by the Australia-Indonesia Governance Research Partnership (AIGRP), an AusAID-funded program to support policy relevant research.

Please say Hi to Efa and Kurnya when you see them, and come along to our lunchtime seminar on Wednesday 17 September.

- The new international research frontier was the title of last week’s conference organised by the ATSE Crawford fund.

Keynote speakers at this national event were: The Hon MP Tony Burke, The PM Kevin Rudd’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister, Ms Katherine Sierra, Vice President for Sustainable Development at the Worldbank and Professor Ross Garnaut (on wikipedia), Climate Change expert from the ANU/Uni Melbourne.

While most speakers were very interesting and informative, my personal highlights were the presentations by Ms Frances Seymour and Dr Trevor Nicholls. Ms Frances Seymour is the Director General of CIFOR who visited the ANU for a presentation on Indonesian forests a day after the conference. She defined the issue with forests and CC as the 3 C’s: which are

1. CAUSE - ie deforestation in particular of peatland forests,
2. CASUALITIES - simply put a forest is gone means less rain, more droughts, more fire, more forests gone…
3. CO-BENEFITS - standing forests provide long-term livelihoods, and are a biodiversity hub.

Dr. Trevor Nicholls is CEO of CAB International which offers IPM (Integrated Pest Management) solutions to smallholders in developing countries. They have an extensive database which provides a linkage between research and practioners. The good thing about the pesticides CABI develops is that they are non-chemical solutions. These biopesticides are used in fighting invasive weeds for example, or root disases by using specifc fungi and other microorganisms.

The ATSE Crawford Fund was established in June 1987 by The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. It was named in honour of the late Sir John Crawford and commemorates his outstanding services to international agricultural research. The last conference I attended was in 2006 on Water for Irrigated Agriculture and the Environment.

See also a blog entry on the conference on Hendra’s blog.

Btw, did you know that CIFOR also can stands for Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response…?

I gave a talk to school teachers of the ACT this Monday, organised under the Government’s 2020 Asia Literacy program (see news at http://www.priyoaustralia.com.au/index.php?news=17305). The subject was ‘rickshaw art of Bangladesh’ which is my personal, non-academic interest (see http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=643). I have often thought about the connection with rickshaw art to resource management - my interest in thinking about rickshaw art is closely connected to my thinking about resources. I was interested in how the art has been seen by others - within Bangladesh and outside of it - and in developing a framework within which to explain this subaltern artform. Not only do I see the art as placed within a historical and geographical context, but also embedded in the everyday lives of the artists and others in the rickshaw industry. It is an attempt by the poor and often marginalised groups to create a dialogue with those who decide what the modern Dhaka city should look like, an attempt to offer an alternative cityscape that provides spaces for expression even for the poorest and tell us what a modern city could look like. A little book on the subject, jointly done with Dr David Williams, is on the way. Watch this space for more on the subject.