scholarly journals Foreword: sustainability in agrifood chains and networks

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-97
Author(s):  
Arnout Fischer ◽  
P.J. Beers ◽  
J.C.M. van Trijp ◽  
Evert Jacobsen ◽  
Hans Mommaas ◽  
...  

To feed this and the next generations, sustainable development is considered the only viable future for agriculture. The successful implementation of sustainable development has remained an elusive goal in agriculture. Innovation initiatives in agriculture, such as TransForum in the Netherlands, have tried to provide best practice to start such innovations in agrifood chains and networks. In its 6 year existence, between 2004 and 2010, Transforum has been an intermediary between knowledge institutes, entrepreneurs, NGO's and governmental organisations. This has resulted in several successful innovation initiatives in Dutch agriculture and a wealth of knowledge on organising networks and chains for sustainable innovation. TransForum has operated from its vision that metropolitan agriculture is the way forward for sustainable development in the Dutch agriculture sector and posited 4 central elements of successful innovation: (1) shared image creation; (2) relevant inventions for sustainability; (3) dealing with institutional context; and (4) the creation of market directed chains for sustainable products (Fischer et al., 2012; Veldkamp et al., 2009).

Author(s):  
John Mubangizi

That National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) play an important role in the protection and promotion of human rights is a well-known fact. This has been widely acknowledged by the United Nations (UN). Also well-known is the fact that several African countries have enacted new constitutions during the last two to three decades. One of the most salient features of those new constitutions is that they establish NHRIs, among other things. Given their unique role and mandate, these NHRIs can and do play an important role in the realisation of the sustainable development goals contained in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Adopting a case study approach, this article explores the role NHRIs have played in the promotion and protection of human rights in selected African countries and implications for sustainable development in those countries. The main argument is that there are several lessons African countries can learn from each other on how their NHRIs can more meaningfully play that role. Accordingly, best practice and comparative lessons are identified and it is recommended that NHRIs can contribute to sustainable development more meaningfully if they can make themselves more relevant, credible, legitimate, efficient and effective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 252
Author(s):  
Philip Marcel Karré

Increasingly, hybridity, i.e., the combination of contrasting and conflicting elements within organizations, is seen as a way to create innovation and synergy in dealing with complex societal questions, leading to more sustainable development. Much research on the subject deals with the phenomenon of social enterprise, but hybridity also takes place in other, more traditional organizational settings. For example, many governments have created hybrid organizations by embracing new public management (NPM) as a way to overcome the perceived shortcomings of traditional, hierarchical forms of public administration, such as inefficiency and the lack of an entrepreneurial spirit. Here, hybridity is often not so much seen as a way to increase sustainability but rather as a way to cut cost and to increase the quality of service provision. This article adds the sustainability dimension to this discussion through a deductive approach, reinterpreting the results from a study on the effects of the hybridity of three municipal waste management organizations in the Netherlands. The main conclusions are that hybridity leads to a more professional management style but also to more attention on output than on outcome. The article discusses what this means in terms of pursuing sustainability and sustainable development.


Author(s):  
TJ Ó Ceallaigh ◽  
Aoife Ní Shéaghdha

While research on Irish-medium immersion education (IME) has heralded benefits such as cognitive skills, academic achievement and language and literacy development, many studies have also identified challenges to its successful implementation. Immersion-specific research-validated tools can help school leaders navigate the school self-evaluation journey, critically review and evaluate the quality of aspects of their school’s provision and plan for improvement. This paper reports on one theme, leadership, from a larger study, Quality indicators of best practice in Irish-medium immersion (Ó Ceallaigh and Ní Shéaghdha, 2017). Qualitative in nature, the study was guided by the following research question: What are IME educators’ perceptions of best practices in IME?. The study explored 120 IME educators’ perceptions of best practice in IME to inform the development of IME quality indicators. Individual interviews and focus group interviews were utilised to collect data. Data analysis revealed particular themes related to best IME leadership practices. Findings in turn informed the design of an evidence-informed school self-evaluation tool for IME settings. The various functions of the tool will be explored with a particular emphasis on building teaching and leadership capacity in IME through the school self-evaluation process.


Author(s):  
René Kemp

- This paper is aimed at examining the scholarship on system innovation and societal transformation for sustainable development, which today is known as "transition management". In theoretical terms, the approach of transition management relies on markets, guidance in the form of goals and visions of sustainable development, network management with an element of self-organisation. Transition management could be viewed as "evolutionary governance" as it is concerned with the functioning of the variation-selection-retention process: creating variety informed by visions of the sustainability, shaping new paths and reflexively adapting existing institutional frameworks and regimes. It is a model for escaping lock-in and moving towards solutions offering multiple benefits, not just for users but also for society as a whole. It is not a megalomaniac attempt to control the future but an attempt to insert normative goals into evolutionary processes in a reflexive manner. The multilevel perspective of change and the model of goal-oriented modulation and reflexive governance, on which transition management is based, are described. Experiences with transition management in the Netherlands are described too, as well as the international debate on transition management as a model of governance for sustainable development.Keywords: eco-innovation, transition, reflexive governance, multi-level change, the NetherlandsJEL classification: B52; Q50Parole chiave: governance ambientale; fallimenti del mercato; esternalitŕ; beni pubblici; economia del benessere; economia istituzionale.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Nurliza Nurliza ◽  
Eva Dolorosa

Palm oil is currently the most widely used vegetable oil in the world and its usage is also expected to double by 2020. However, there are some social and environmental impacts of palm oil plantation. Some complications resulted from the plantation may go as far as mass objections to the production of palm oil. On the contrary, demand for palm oil is still vast and constantly rising. In Indonesia, independent small farmers are the most important stakeholders since they are 43% of the whole Indonesian palm oil producers and have become the biggest spotlight of Indonesian palm oil development, including challenges and problems in which they will have to face to substantially increase their role in the global market as well as maintaining sustainability. Challenges today need to be engaged with innovation and inventions in a more productive and effective way. Enhancing independent small farmers will not only enlarge their contribution to sustainability practices, but also ensuring the sustainable products supplied to the market. Thus, supporting sustainable palm oil production is the way forward. Based on this current issue, this research identifies key point relationships (direct and indirect) on sustainable development factors which are based on Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil Certification System (ISPO), these identified key points will be the primary target to be improved and government support in fostering the sustainability of palm oil industry will be profoundly necessary.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cora Hörstmann ◽  
Pier Luigi Buttigieg ◽  
Pauline Simpson ◽  
Jay Pearlman ◽  
Anya M. Waite

This perspective outlines how authors of ocean methods, guides, and standards can harmonize their work across the scientific community. We reflect on how documentation practices can be linked to modern information technologies to improve discoverability, interlinkages, and thus the evolution of distributed methods into common best practices within the ocean community. To show how our perspectives can be turned into action, we link them to guidance on using the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Best Practice System to support increased collaboration and reproducibility during and beyond the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Roman A. Maydanyk ◽  
Nataliia I. Maydanyk ◽  
Natalia R. Popova

The article examines the features of usufruct in the European countries of Romano-Germanic law, determines the terms for the implementation of the best European practice of usufruct in the law of Ukraine. The law of European countries of continental law recognizes the usufruct as a real right of personal possession for use, which is considered an independent real right to another's property or a kind of easement. The peculiarities of usufruct in some countries of Romano-Germanic law, in particular in Germany, France, Georgia, Moldova and Russia, are researched. The peculiarities of usufruct in some countries of Romano-Germanic law, in particular in Germany, France, Poland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Georgia, Moldova and Russia, are researched. The issues of usufruct implementation in the law of Ukraine are considered. The issues of usufruct implementation in the law of Ukraine are considered. The authors came to the conclusion that it is necessary to introduce the institute of usufruct into the Ukrainian law by supplementing the Civil Code of Ukraine with a new chapter “Uzufruct”, the framework provisions of which are proposed in this paper.


Author(s):  
Mara Zeltina

The complexity of environmental and sustainability challenges has created an ongoing need for innovative and integrated approaches to address them. Design disciplines have a long history. The method “design thinking”, originally applied in architecture, engineering and business, has led to new and creative problem solving, thus creating much potential for use in sustainable development planning. While principles of good design are well established, there has been limited integration of design thinking with environmental science, sustainable development planning and education. This research was focused on how a sustainability approach can be merged with design thinking to develop socially responsible and environmentally sustainable products and services. The case study has been carried out in the master’s study course Sustainable Development Planning. Some of basic principles and stages of design thinking, such as empathy, creativity, collaboration, responsibility and interdisciplinary approach have been tested by using students project work evaluation regarding certain criteria and survey after the study course. The first results of approbated design thinking principles and methods, significant advantages and disadvantages and the perspective of using this method have been analysed and discussed. As the result from this study proposals for the improvement of the content of this study course and related study courses (a study course on sustainable development issues is compulsory in all undergraduate study programs in Latvia) and for the specification of test tasks have been developed, considering also future needs to provide the study course remotely.


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