Rights Based approaches to climate change

Student-involvement in higher-education is necessary for quality-assurance outcomes, yet such involvement also threatens attainment of quality assured, presenting the paradox of higher-education (HE) systems. With the massification of enrolment-figures across the HE sector has been the need to balance HEI and student-centred perspectives. The notion of students as co-producers, consumers, and products of HEI processes creates discord in the quality assurance arena. Contradictory problems manifest when the producer must satisfy the consumer and audit quality of the products, yet students are all of these. This article explored the extent to which student-involvement fosters quality as well as sets parameters beyond which such participation cannot be done without compromising quality-assurance and desired academic-success. The artile drew a line for student-involvement and quality- assurance as double-barreled and sometimes paradoxical, contradictory pursuits. Data elicited from two H...

The article explores reconfiguring the concept of academic success in Zimbabwe, now premised on the attainment of benchmark Doctrine Education 5.0 pillars set by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and enforced by Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZimCHE) as a quality assurance agency. It reviews academic success standards based on teaching and learning; research, community engagement; innovation; and industrialisation. Targeting, HEI quality assurance officers, managers, and students as the population, the study purposively selected three HEIs based on stated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) mandates drawn from Zimbabwe’s 20 registered public and private universities. Questionnaire-elicited data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists and presented in graphs derived from descriptive statistics to enhance meaning in findings. Findings show the five-fold Doctrine Education...

RRI is a global coalition consisting of 15 Partners, 7 Affiliated Networks, 14 International Fellows, and more than 150 collaborating international, regional, and community organizations dedicated to advancing the forestland and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. RRI leverages the capacity and expertise of coalition members to promote secure local land and resource rights and catalyze progressive policy and market reforms.

This survey was conducted to establish the role of students in quality assurance at the Zimbabwe Open University. Since the participation of students in quality assurance is the same throughout the university, Mashonaland East Region was used involving all the 300 registered students as the population. While a random sample of 20 students was selected for participation. Fifteen members of the past and present student representative council were selected through convenience sampling and these were interviewed individually. Document analysis was conducted on ZOU Quality Policy Manual and ZIMCHE and analysed qualitatively. The study established that ZOU has got a strong policy on student involvement in QA. Also ZOU QA has structures, which however, do not include students, such as at Quality Management Systems Review and Academic Committees to allow them to take part in the decision making process. ZOU QA systems provide for student participation through feedback mechanisms, but do not take part in internal reviews. Results also show that the feedback mechanisms do not include formative evaluation on overall student experiences of their university life. Furthermore, students are not conversant with levels and forms of student involvement in QA processes. In view of the above conclusions, it was recommended that the ZOU Quality Management System structures should involve students from the Regional structures to the National Centre structures. The SRC should also have QA representatives at Regional and National Centres and SRC QA representatives should take part in internal reviews. The SRC should also produce a formative evaluation at the end of year covering all the student experiences of their university life. There is also need for the SRC to work in partnership with the university staff produce a students' charter that will facilitate both service delivery and evaluation by students as they receive the service.

The article explores reconfiguring the concept of academic success in Zimbabwe, now premised on the attainment of benchmark Doctrine Education 5.0 pillars set by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and enforced by Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZimCHE) as a quality assurance agency. It reviews academic success standards based on teaching and learning; research, community engagement; innovation; and industrialisation. Targeting, HEI quality assurance officers, managers, and students as the population, the study purposively selected three HEIs based on stated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) mandates drawn from Zimbabwe’s 20 registered public and private universities. Questionnaire-elicited data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists and presented in graphs derived from descriptive statistics to enhance meaning in findings. Findings show the five-fold Doctrine Education...

Student-involvement in higher-education is necessary for quality-assurance outcomes, yet such involvement also threatens attainment of quality assured, presenting the paradox of higher-education (HE) systems. With the massification of enrolment-figures across the HE sector has been the need to balance HEI and student-centred perspectives. The notion of students as co-producers, consumers, and products of HEI processes creates discord in the quality assurance arena. Contradictory problems manifest when the producer must satisfy the consumer and audit quality of the products, yet students are all of these. This article explored the extent to which student-involvement fosters quality as well as sets parameters beyond which such participation cannot be done without compromising quality-assurance and desired academic-success. The artile drew a line for student-involvement and quality- assurance as double-barreled and sometimes paradoxical, contradictory pursuits. Data elicited from two H...

Women contribute to reducing hunger and improving household food security and livelihood. However, they do not benefit from secure land rights. This study thus aimed to determine the factors that prevent women from Rubi-Tele from enjoying their rights. A 2-week survey completed by four focus groups in four villages helped us gather information that was later analysed using a socio-legal approach. All women were involved in agriculture, but they were the only workers who could not control or manage the land. They often accessed land through the family channel (96.7%), while other pathways were less used by the origin (3.3%). Although the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made enormous progress, women were unaware of these advances: thus, 70% did not know their rights. This unawareness impeded their ability to initiate strategies to claim their rights. Some women have been able to identify their difficulties. They incriminated the custom standards that favoured their male counterparts (21.7%). Additionally, begging for husband permission (28%) and poverty (20%) were cited as barriers to women's property rights. Moreover, some women conservationists preferred the custom to formal laws, despite their advances (30%). No strategy has been initiated because women fear the society's response.

Teachers play a vital role in the implementation of educational policies and inventions. Without a clear understanding of any programme that teachers have to implement, teachers may not deliver expected outcome. The purpose of this study was to examine the roles of teachers in the implementation of the school curriculum in Namibian schools. The study used a qualitative research methodology, which employed a case study design. Semi structured interview and open-ended questionnaire were used to obtain data from the participants and respondents. The sample was made up of teachers and schools principals who were purposively sampled because of their typicality to the subject of research. The collected data was analysed using thematic analysis method. Key findings reveal that teachers have key roles to play in facilitating the implementation of the new school curriculum. Teachers have a fundamental role to ensure quality implementation of the curriculum. Teachers play an important operational duty of implementing curriculum in the class, and without teachers' concerted efforts, the quality of curriculum implementation will be compromised. Teachers should also serve as effective collaborators during curriculum implementations. Teachers alone in their own classrooms could hardly implement curriculum effectively, requiring them to collaborate with each other's on how best they can implement the curriculum collectively. As teachers are key implementers, they should be actively involved in evaluating and assessing learning outcomes of the new curriculum, in order to inform continuous training for improved quality of learning outcomes. Teachers should be cognisant of the key roles that they have to play in ensuring an effective implementation of the new curriculum.

Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is not only a Congolese and central African issue, but is also a global problem. This paper argues that the destruction of tropical forests influences the planetary climate and presents the ways deforestation directly affects climate change in the world. It describes the historical, social, political, economic, and ecological causes of deforestation in the DRC and assesses the relevant power dynamics in the deforestation process. The paper then analyzes critical ethical issues of deforestation in light of Laudato Sí’s insights and the principles of environmental ethics. Finally, this paper argues that any preferential option taken for the poor should not leave them behind; rather it must include them in the dialogue and implementation of new strategies to combat deforestation and climate change. The practice of community forestry is a valuable response to Pope Francis’ call for an overall approach to deal with climate change. E...

Although the phenomenon of technology is gradually being integrated into tertiary education in Ghana, challenges impeding effective integration are endemic. Among the upfront challenges are the perceptions and attitudes of students and lecturers to adopt and adapt to learning technologies for smooth integration of technology into academic programmes in public universities. From the Constructivist and Positivist paradigm, this is an exploratory study of the perspectives of Policymakers and Implementers in their quest to infuse technology into academic programmes. Qualitative method through in-depth interviews of Policymakers and Policy Implementers (IT Support Staff) was adopted in six (6) accredited public universities. The study found that public universities are at the Adaptation level of integrating technology into academic programmes. This has impacted positively on teaching and learning because it has enhanced the understanding of how to use modern technological tools and techniques, while supplementing and facilitating face-to-face teaching and learning.

In this study we analyze gender relations legitimatized by socio-political institutions of forest governance in REDD+ pilots in Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Using data from interviews, focus group discussions, and field observations, we show that men and women have different knowledge and use of forests, but these differences are not given due consideration in forest governance. Women's voices are often muted in decision-making arenas and they occupy only a nominal position in both forestry and development initiatives as compared with men. This status quo is extended to the REDD+ pilot projects as well. Women have limited information about REDD+ compared with men. The mechanisms used to establish new village organization for REDD+ exclude women from decision making in the ongoing REDD+ pilot project. We show that women's bargaining power for equal inclusion in decision-making processes and for sharing benefits are constrained by existing social norms regarding local access to land and material resources, existing gender division of labor, local perceptions regarding women's roles and contributions/ responsibilities, as well as men's dominant position in rural settings. For a gender transformative REDD+, we suggest that REDD+ actors should attempt to bring about institutional changes that transform gender relations and thereby increase women's bargaining power.

This paper investigates the introduction of REDD+ in two pilot sites in the Équateur province of the DRC, focusing on the issues of community participation. Using information collected through household questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions, the paper shows that community participation at both sites was characterized as 'tokenism' whereby the communities were consulted and informed, but never achieved managerial power or influence over the REDD+ pilot project. The decision for the communities to join REDD+ was not democratic and the information provided during the process of introducing REDD+ was not sufficient for the communities to make an informed decision to join or not. The project organizer had full control over the dissemination of information. Community participation in the REDD+ project did not extend beyond labour supply in activities and attending meetings for per diems. The institutional basis for enabling 'full and effective community participation' is weak and excludes women. The paper argues that ensuring meaningful participation as defined by the REDD+ social safeguard guidelines might be difficult to achieve if social inequalities and local power relations are not acknowledged and addressed in the implementation of REDD+.

This thesis focuses on forest governance and the establishment of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) pilot projects in the Équateur province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The province is considered to host 28 per cent of the total forest area in the DRC and has been selected for the national REDD+ integrated programme supported by the Central Africa Forest Initiative. The programme is launched in a context in which the use and management of forests do not meet the needs and aspirations of forest-dependent communities. Increased poverty is actually observed, a trend that seems to be caused by weak institutions and enforcement, conflicting claims over forests and exclusion of forest dwellers and marginalised groups (Batwa Pygmies) with regards to decision-making about forest resources and access to benefits.Denne avhandlingen omhandler skogbruksforvaltning og etableringen av pilotprosjekter rettet mot reduksjon av klimautslipp fra avskogi...

In 2014 the Council for Higher Education in South Africa launched a national Quality Enhancement Project (QEP). The aim of the project is to improve student success both at individual Higher Education Institutions and in the higher education sector as a whole. There is a widely-held belief that teaching quality is a many-sided yet ultimately elusive phenomenon. Performance indicators in higher education focus largely on research outputs and academic performance of students. They largely ignore the quality of the academic experience. The inevitable question that then arises is: how do we know quality enhancement projects are making a difference? There are two aspects related to this. What is the QEP catalysing and mobilising in institutions to bring about culture change? To what extent there is a greater focus on improvement in the culture of the institutions? Adopting a biomatrix system thinking perspective, this article unpacks the web of systems and stakeholders that impacts on qu...

Although the phenomenon of technology is gradually being integrated into tertiary education in Ghana, challenges impeding effective integration are endemic. Among the upfront challenges are the perceptions and attitudes of students and lecturers to adopt and adapt to learning technologies for smooth integration of technology into academic programmes in public universities. From the Constructivist and Positivist paradigm, this is an exploratory study of the perspectives of Policymakers and Implementers in their quest to infuse technology into academic programmes. Qualitative method through in-depth interviews of Policymakers and Policy Implementers (IT Support Staff) was adopted in six (6) accredited public universities. The study found that public universities are at the Adaptation level of integrating technology into academic programmes. This has impacted positively on teaching and learning because it has enhanced the understanding of how to use modern technological tools and techniques, while supplementing and facilitating face-to-face teaching and learning.

This study aims to describe the implementation of integrated quality management in elementary schools. This research is a qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. The setting of this study is two public elementary schools in Balangan Regency. The key informants were principals and teachers defined by purposive sampling technique. The data collection techniques were done through interviews, observation and documentation. The data validity was carried out by triangulating data by means of triangulation and peer breafing triangulation. The data analysis used interactive analysis of the Huberman model which consisted of data collection, data display, data reduction and verification/inference. The results of the study found that the implementation of integrated quality management in elementary schools is implemented through the principle of focus on customer satisfaction, respect for everyone, leadership and implementation of the principle of continuous improvement.

Teacher professional attitude, particularly at the State High Schools in the Balangan Regency, is relatively average. Moreover, the teaching and learning activities have not fully reflected the 21st-century learning. In addition to the teachers' individual responsibilities, the principal is the main driving force of instructional activities in the school. Thus, this research study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of the principal's situational leadership, communication, and work culture on the professional attitudes of state high school teachers in the Balangan Regency. The population of this study consists of as many as 189 teachers from State High Schools in Balangan Regency, with a sample size of 128 using Simple Random Sampling technique. The researchers used descriptive techniques and path analysis to analyze the data. Utilizing the principal's situational leadership instruments (17 items), communication (30 items), work culture (35 items), and teacher professional attitudes, the data was collected (25 items). The results indicated that there is an effect of principal situational leadership on teacher professional attitudes, communication, and work culture, communication on teacher professional attitudes, work culture towards the professional attitude of the teacher, communication towards the work culture, and the indirect effect of situational principal leadership on the professional attitude of the teacher through communication and work culture. Situational leadership, communication, work culture, and the professional attitude of teachers are relevant.

The search for talent is one of the great challenges faced by organizations and, as globalization increases competition, strong leadership becomes even more important for businesses in the future. Fundamental to success or failure will be upon these individuals, who will lead these organizations, i.e., the individuals who are as of now in higher management and the individuals who are being prepared for future CXO roles.

Motivation serves as an integral part of a student's learning process. It is considered as the driving force of students in achieving good quality performances and results from the academic tasks brought by the school as it gives students the opportunity to learn efficiently and effectively. One great factor that could influence students' motivation is through the feedback that teachers give to their students. Teachers' feedback is vital as it lets students adjust to their best learning by reflecting on their progress and strategies. However, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, new normal learning has been implemented which became a great challenge to the teaching and learning process and imposed issues on feedback and motivation. This qualitative research is a descriptive case study which aims to know what feedback teachers provide to students and describe how this feedback influences their motivation to learn in the new educational setting. Results have indicated that teachers' feedback, specifically positive feedback, enhances student motivation to learn in the new normal. On the contrary, when there is a negative or no feedback at all given, students feel demotivated and would resort to self-motivation. These findings suggest that teachers' feedback has a direct influence on students' motivation to learn depending on the quality of the feedback given. With this premise, teachers and the institution must develop effective ways to improve teachers' skills in delivering efficient feedback practices as it would help in enhancing students' academic performance and improves students' motivation to learn.

In this study we analyze gender relations legitimatized by socio-political institutions of forest governance in REDD+ pilots in Équateur Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Using data from interviews, focus group discussions, and field observations, we show that men and women have different knowledge and use of forests, but these differences are not given due consideration in forest governance. Women's voices are often muted in decision-making arenas and they occupy only a nominal position in both forestry and development initiatives as compared with men. This status quo is extended to the REDD+ pilot projects as well. Women have limited information about REDD+ compared with men. The mechanisms used to establish new village organization for REDD+ exclude women from decision making in the ongoing REDD+ pilot project. We show that women's bargaining power for equal inclusion in decision-making processes and for sharing benefits are constrained by existing social norms regarding local access to land and material resources, existing gender division of labor, local perceptions regarding women's roles and contributions/ responsibilities, as well as men's dominant position in rural settings. For a gender transformative REDD+, we suggest that REDD+ actors should attempt to bring about institutional changes that transform gender relations and thereby increase women's bargaining power.

Student-involvement in higher-education is necessary for quality-assurance outcomes, yet such involvement also threatens attainment of quality assured, presenting the paradox of higher-education (HE) systems. With the massification of enrolment-figures across the HE sector has been the need to balance HEI and student-centred perspectives. The notion of students as co-producers, consumers, and products of HEI processes creates discord in the quality assurance arena. Contradictory problems manifest when the producer must satisfy the consumer and audit quality of the products, yet students are all of these. This article explored the extent to which student-involvement fosters quality as well as sets parameters beyond which such participation cannot be done without compromising quality-assurance and desired academic-success. The artile drew a line for student-involvement and quality- assurance as double-barreled and sometimes paradoxical, contradictory pursuits. Data elicited from two H...

Abstract: This survey was conducted to establish the role of students in quality assurance at the Zimbabwe Open University. Since the participation of students in quality assurance is the same throughout the university, Mashonaland East Region was used involving all the 300 registered students as the population. While a random sample of 20 students was selected for participation. Fifteen members of the past and present student representative council were selected through convenience sampling and these were interviewed individually. Document analysis was conducted on ZOU Quality Policy Manual and ZIMCHE and analysed qualitatively. The study established that ZOU has got a strong policy on student involvement in QA. Also ZOU QA has structures, which however, do not include students, such as at Quality Management Systems Review and Academic Committees to allow them to take part in the decision making process. ZOU QA systems provide for student participation through feedback mechanisms, ...

: The article explores reconfiguring the concept of academic success in Zimbabwe, now premised on the attainment of benchmark Doctrine Education 5.0 pillars set by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and enforced by Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZimCHE) as a quality assurance agency. It reviews academic success standards based on teaching and learning; research, community engagement; innovation; and industrialisation. Targeting, HEI quality assurance officers, managers, and students as the population, the study purposively selected three HEIs based on stated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) mandates drawn from Zimbabwe’s 20 registered public and private universities. Questionnaire-elicited data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists and presented in graphs derived from descriptive statistics to enhance meaning in findings. Findings show the five-fold Doctrine Educati...

Researchers have investigated co-curricular and extracurricular activities associated with student learning and personal development but neglected exploring levels of students’ involvement. IHLs oftentimes have no structures responsible for quality assurance (QA). Research should focus on specific structures, activities and the frequency of student involvement. Although Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education superintends over QA processes, it remains unclear which/how institutional structures foster student inclusivity in QA processes. Pragmatic research, marked by mixed methods was used to examine university QA structures for inclusivity. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics IHLs were targeted and purposive sampling helped select 15 QA office(rs) and SRC in one STEM university. Primary data from questionnaires and key informant interviews were used. Structures governing IHLs are prescribed by Acts of Parliament and the current frequency of involvement depends on meetings scheduled for IHL structures. This constricts effective involvement. Minimal involvement occurs in prescribed structures although more satisfying involvement is in student-initiated social clubs and organisations. IHL legislative instruments should be amended to reflect diversity in higher education; allow university Councils to tailor-make IHL institutional / infrastructural structures to deliver on their mandates than rely on prescribed one size fits all. Such change will foster more satisfying involvement for student socio-academic success.

Keywords: Institutional, structures, HEIs, quality-assurance, student-inclusivity

This report is one of the outputs of the project “Man and forests – an evaluation of management strategies for reduced deforestation,” which aims to evaluate the different management regimes established to protect forests and improve livelihoods under the so-called REDD+ framework – reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

ABSTRACT: Student-involvement in higher-education is necessary for quality-assurance outcomes, yet such involvement also threatens attainment of quality assured, presenting the paradox of higher-education (HE) systems. With the massification of enrolment-figures across the HE sector has been the need to balance HEI and student-centred perspectives. The notion of students as co-producers, consumers, and products of HEI processes creates discord in the quality assurance arena. Contradictory problems manifest when the producer must satisfy the consumer and audit quality of the products, yet students are all of these. This article explored the extent to which student-involvement fosters quality as well as sets parameters beyond which such participation cannot be done without compromising quality-assurance and desired academic-success. The article drew a line for student-involvement and
quality- assurance as double-barreled and sometimes paradoxical, contradictory pursuits. Data elicited from two HEIs in Zimbabwe
using the questionnaire method and analysed using Microsoft Excel package generated descriptive frequencies and related graphs
and charts to present findings. Documents were analysed using thematic content analysis to glean for relevant secondary data. Student-involvement is marred by unclear parameters at the three confluences of ‘students as co-producers’; ‘students as consumers’; and ‘students as products’ of HEI quality-assurance processes students should participate in, consume, and be products of. Derolling is thus necessary for students to function in various capacities as as co-producers, consumers, or as products. Students as ‘co-producers’ cannot be expected to produce themselves through ‘students as products’, neither can they be ‘consumers’ themselves while being the ‘product’ to be consumed by industry and communities through employment and innovation. The
National Assembly should address contradictions through amending HEI-establishing Acts to cede policy making powers to the University Councils acting jointly with senior management of universities. As co-producers, students involvement should be unlimited at governance levels (by different HEI students) while as consumers (within particular HEIs), student involvement should be limited to lower rungs at consumer level to avoid contradictions that potentially compromise quality. As HEI products, students should be limited to Alumni activities as main function should clearly differentiate among the various roles when crafting HEI
policies that foster student involvement.

KEYWORDS: higher-education-institutions, student-involvement, quality-assurance, students-as co-producers, paradox

Key messagesThe essence of gender-responsive Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) is ensuring that women and men at all levels have equal voice and influence in strategic decisions related to FLR, and that this contributes to substantive equality in outcomes for women and men.‘Free and Prior Informed Consent’, ‘fair’ and ‘just’ compensation, and impartial and effective grievance mechanisms for all those affected are critical to safeguarding the rights of local andindigenous women and men.Decisions about target areas for restoration, choice of stakeholders for FLR governance and how to include them, restoration approaches, priority species and how to monitor progress should be made following gender-inclusive participatory processes to capitalize on the knowledge and experiences of both women and men.Mechanisms and measures at various scales are required to equitably distribute benefits and costs associated with restoration for both women and men in participating communities.

This report is one of the outputs of the project “Man and forests – an evaluation of management strategies for reduced deforestation,” which aims to evaluate the different management regimes established to protect forests and improve livelihoods under the so-called REDD+ framework – reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

The capacity of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) forests to sequestrate carbon has attracted interest from the international community to protect forests for carbon storage and alleviate rural poverty by establishing REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Using information gathered from interviews, focus groups, field observations, and policy document analysis, this paper demonstrates that REDD+ is not well adapted to the institutional structures of forest governance in the DRC, including both statutory and customary tenure. The lack of harmonization between these systems has created a situation of competition between state and customary authorities. This has created opportunities for powerful actors to ‘shop’ between the two systems to attempt to legitimize their expanded use and control over forest resources. As the REDD+ process evolves from the preparation to the implementation phase, competing institutional structures may negatively impact th...

John Clark explains in his essay that the crisis of civil society today is driven by a number of external causes, including the recent financial crisis and the re-assertion of state power, but their negative consequences are amplified by an inability of activists to articulate appropriate solutions to global problems. We argue here, primarily from the perspective of US-based transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs), that Clark describes mostly symptoms of two larger, structural developments driving the civil society sector over the past two decades. First, the fragmentation of civil society did not start with the three crises, but has been an endemic problem for some time, resulting from the equally splintered funding structures and growing competition.Second, we argue that the lack of solutions provided by civil society actors has to be understood in the context of increasingly ambitious goals of CSOs which have moved beyond limited strategies such as letter-writing camp...

In 2003, Plan International adopted a Child-Centered Community Development (CCCD) approach as its international framework for its programmatic work. CCCD reframes some familiar tools of Plan’s work, including capacity-building and participation, while also expanding into new strategic areas, such as addressing national level policies and legislation and developing more holistic crosslevel activities and partnerships. Plan’s shift to CCCD represents a significant shift in the organization’s approach to its development work. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of how CCCD enhances Plan’s program effectiveness and sustainability by reviewing all available single-program, external evaluations completed between 2007 and 2010 in the areas of water and sanitation, education, and health.

In 2008, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) established multistakeholder platforms in the agricultural sector known as agricultural and rural management councils (CARGs). The aim of CARGs is achieving a decentralized governance of the agricultural policies and strategies through a large participation of stakeholders of the sector in the design and implementation of agricultural policy processes. Multistakeholder platforms are institutional arrangements intended and used for learning, policy dialogue, and priority setting, but they are rarely evaluated. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of local-level (territory) multistakeholder platforms using data from 55 CARGs in 23 randomly selected territories in three provinces (Bandundu, Bas-Congo, and Kinshasa) of the DRC. The first CARG was established in 2008, and the survey was conducted three years later, from August to October 2011.The results indicate that the effectiveness of the CARGs has been rather limited. Fifty-one pe...

This study aims to assess the cumulative risks and impacts of all REDD+ initiatives in Mai-Ndombe on the rights and subsistence of local communities and Indigenous Peoples, using existing tools while taking into account gray areas of the REDD+ process. Findings come from existing project documentation, field studies conducted in recent years, and a series of interviews with REDD+ stakeholders in Mai-Ndombe. The study provides a mapping of all existing and planned REDD+ initiatives in the province, as well as a cross-cutting contextual analysis of risks which connects REDD+ to human rights. This is followed by an assessment of these initiatives’ cumulative impacts as well as of national and project strategies to address and reduce risks. It thus offers a perspective on the link between the accumulation of REDD+ initiatives and conflicts at different scales.

This short NGO practitioner-oriented article appeared in Monday Developments, the journal of InterAction, the largest umbrella organization of US development and relief NGOs. Based on the case study of our strategic evaluation of Plan Guatemala's transition towards a Rights Based Approach (RBA), the article analyzes the trade offs and challenges involved in implementing RBA for an child-sponsorship based NGO such as Plan, which in the past primarily engaged in service delivery activities.