Investing In Commonly Held Resources For Inclusive And Sustainable Development

Key messagesInvestment in commons comes primarily from donors, governments and communities, but private sector investment is increasing.Commons-based investment readiness is conditional on the level of assurance stakeholders have that the obligations of each party will be met. Investment readiness develops over time and in stages, as levels of assurance increase.Each sector has specific roles and responsibilities for mitigating risk.Community rights have fostered investment that recognizes the social character of commons ownership and delivers environmental and social returns, as well as profits.There is a need for additional research on the origins, mechanisms, volume and direction of investment in community-managed resources that can help communities and investors alike better understand their options.

The purpose of this review is to assess the extent to which the research outputs of Flagship 5 of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM5) have been used to inform decisions and behaviors of representatives of government organizations, development agencies, researchers, donors, private firms, nongovernment organizations, and other users. The review addresses seven questions: 1. Who uses the outputs of PIM5, including general publications, journal articles, briefs, and other products? 2. Who uses the tools and games created and disseminated by the Flagship researchers? 3. Who attends the outreach events and capacity-building workshops organized by researchers involved in the Flagship? 4. How are the research outputs being used? What policies, programs, and strategies have been informed, and how? 5. For selected cases, what is the research-to-uptake process and how we can learn from it? 6. What are the key cases and impact pathways identified, and what can we learn from them? What are the promising pathways that we should explore further in the final 18 months of the program? 7. What are the gaps and missed opportunities for impact that we should explore in the final months of the program, or that should be considered in the One CGIAR? To address these questions, the review relied on bibliographic references; document download data; personal interviews; focus group discussions; and three different online surveys targeting researchers and their partners, as well as different types of end users. We used both quantitative and qualitative techniques to analyze these data. In this summary, we selectively discuss the review’s most important findings and recommendations.

What would it take to achieve a genuinely food-secure world—one without hunger or malnutrition, where everyone gets to consume the right quantity and quality of food to live a healthy, active, and productive life? Bringing about such a future requires transforming how our food is grown, managed, and distributed. From production to consumption, food systems must be sustainable, halting environmental degradation and even repairing the damage we have previously done. This book provides an accessible guide to making healthy diets from sustainable food systems available to all. Glenn Denning bridges the divisive worlds of science, policy, and practice. He synthesizes the most relevant literature and shares personal perspectives and insights gained over four decades working in more than fifty countries, coupled with the real-world experience of hundreds of leading experts. Universal Food Security lays out key priorities—sustainable intensification, market infrastructure, postharvest stewardship, healthy diets, and social protection—and presents how to achieve food systems transformation. Denning identifies the education and development of practitioner-leaders as the critical trigger of change. Universal Food Security informs and inspires those leaders—acting on their own and with others through institutions—to achieve a food-secure world. This book is an ideal handbook for students and practitioners looking to transform our food systems at all levels.

Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development makes the case that greening growth is necessary, efficient, and affordable. Yet spurring growth without ensuring equity will thwart efforts to reduce poverty and improve access to health, education, and infrastructure services.

Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the role of international law in regulating the exploration and exploitation of natural resources. It illuminates interactions and tensions between international environmental law, human rights law and international economic law. It also discusses the relevance of soft law, international dispute settlement, as well as of various unilateral, bilateral, regional and transnational initiatives in the governance of natural resources. While the Handbook is accessible to those approaching the subject for the first time, it identifies pressing areas for further investigation that will be of interest to advanced researchers.

"Offers overview of applications of geosciences to sustainable development and geophilanthropic efforts worldwide, and offers advice to guide creation of development projects. Primacy of geologic input to all development activities is highlighted along with problems that are encountered and environmental issues that must be addressed" --

International Natural Resources Law, Investment and Sustainability provides a clear and concise insight into the relationship between the institutions that govern foreign investment, sustainable development and the rules and regulations that administer natural resources. In this book, several leading experts explore different perspectives in how investment and natural resources come together to achieve sustainable development in developing countries with examples from water, oil and gas, renewable energy, mineral, agriculture, and carbon trading. Despite varying perspectives, it is clear that several themes are central in considering the linkages between natural resources, investment and sustainability. Specifically, transparency, good governance and citizen empowerment are vital conditions which encourage positive social, economic and environmental outcomes for developing countries. In addition, this book provides new insights into key concepts which underpin international law, including sovereign rights and state responsibility principles. It is clear from this book that in the attempt to reconcile these concepts and principles from separate legal regimes, complex policy questions emerge whereby it is difficult to attain mutually beneficial or succinct outcomes. This book explores how countries prioritise their policy objectives to achieve their notion of sustainable natural resource use, which is strongly influenced by power imbalances that inform North–South cooperation, as well as South–South cooperation in the international investment regime. This book will be of great interest to students, academics and researchers of international environmental law, international human rights law, international investment law and international economic law. This book may also be of relevance to environmentalists, policy-makers, NGOs, and investors working in the natural resources field.

This timely Handbook draws together insightful analyses of natural resource management challenges and solutions in the face of sustainable development targets and a changing global climate.