Soil Restoration | Food Sovereignty | Tanzania | Mainstreaming Adaptation
September 2011 Newsletter
Center for Sustainable Development
As a person interested in international development, consider one of our courses or diploma programs this fall. This continuing education can improve project impact—or help you with a promotion or a job transition.
By participating this fall, you will meet fellow students from around the world that you can partner with on projects—and exchange information and case studies. We’ve trained students from 112 countries to develop projects impacting over 140,000 people.
CSDi Fall Quarter 2011: Upcoming Online Development Courses: September 6, 2011
Are you interested in:
Designing and Funding Sustainable Development Projects?
A Diploma in Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change?
A Diploma in Integrated Community Based Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction & Rural Development?
Food Security, Nutrition, and Home Gardens?
¿Cursos en Español?
Designing and Funding Sustainable Development Projects?
A Diploma in Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change?
A Diploma in Integrated Community Based Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction & Rural Development?
Food Security, Nutrition, and Home Gardens?
¿Cursos en Español?
THIS MONTH’S NEWS
| Home Gardens for Food Security. First step: Soil Restoration with Compost | |
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Frequently people in developing countries are living in areas with depleted soil. So the first thing we recommend community members to do is to begin a restoration project for the soil by adding organic material, thus begin rebuilding a soil structure which guides and holds water, supports microorganisms, and retains soil nutrients.
Studies have shown that home gardens can provide 60% of leafy vegetables & 50% of all fruits and vegetables consumed by households & have shown evidence of significantly reducing the number of malnourished children. Follow link to see downloadable gardening resources.
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| Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation: A Guide for Practitioners | |
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Climate change adaptation is an area of growing concern for many developing countries. Increasingly, countries are coming to realize that, in the long term, climate change adaptation needs to be supported by an integrated, cross-cutting approach.
We are pleased to draw your attention to a new Guide released by UNDP-UNEP. This guide provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how governments and other national actors can mainstream climate change adaptation into national development planning as part of broader mainstreaming efforts. .
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| Climate Change Risk & Vulnerability in a Remote Tanzanian Village | |
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Chris Enns & Catalina Gheorghe are doing a community-based adaptation to climate change project in Wagete village, Tanzania, impacting 4,000 villagers. Their project is a ‘mainstreamed’ project—they are incorporating adaptation to climate change activities into a traditional rural development project.
They have a healthcare & education component— and for adaptation—a soil & water conservation program & a farmer extension program. Detailed project outline & great photos at link. They’ve been determining their risks and vulnerabilities to climate change by combining scientific data with local community knowledge. Chris & community developed a list of local resources, hazard maps, seasonal calendar & historical timeline. |
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To learn about other student projects in real time, please visit our Facebook Page or CSDi Development Community to see their postings—or our Field Projects page for in-depth project information.
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| Food Sovereignty | |
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Food sovereignty is the people’s right to decide what they eat & what they produce. The concept of food sovereignty contests the globalization of agribusiness & proposes defending family farming through producing healthy food for local markets while creating jobs and protecting the land and its diversity.
More student projects relate to growing food than any other single development challenge. Farmers are faced with record drought, storms, have depleted soils, a shortage of irrigation water & a lack of funds for purchasing seed. Solutions for these challenges can be very simple: soil conservation techniques like mulching, and water conservation techniques like watering plant roots with inexpensive micro-drip irrigation.
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| Join us on September 6 for an intensive series of courses with other students from all over the world. | |
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Are you a donor, a development practitioner, in a job transition, or a student who wants to learn more about what works in designing impact-oriented projects? Online course participants are using our courses to develop real, on-the-ground projects with real communities—both individually and through North/South student partnerships.
Our online courses use each class assignment as a concrete step in developing a real project within a real community. You will take an assignment into the field and use it as a solution-oriented activity that you do together with community members—thereby finishing one component of the project you are developing in the class. And there you have it: an online field course with tangible, concrete results.
Visit Online Learning to see a listing of Fall Quarter courses.
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What’s happening in the region where you live?
Please write us with your stories, thoughts and comments through Online.Learning@csd-i.org or post them at the Development Community, at our Facebook Page, or on the Center’s Blog.
Be sure to visit CSDi’s Development Community. Join 550 colleagues in sharing resources & collaborating online.
Like us: CSDi Facebook.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tim Magee, Executive Director
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The Center for Sustainable Development specializes in providing sound, evidence-based information, tools and training for humanitarian development professionals worldwide. CSDi is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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