Governance and policy blog posts

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encompass a vast set of development targets. A draft framework from the International Council for Science (ICSU) presents a concrete way to understand SDG interactions and the resulting trade-offs and synergies.

Abating the huge urban and industrial pollution loads that the Ganga receives each day will require strong political will and billions of dollars. But will this be enough? 

Landscape restoration is in urgent need of private capital, as identified at the GLF—The Investment Case meeting in London. What are the barriers to business investment in landscape restoration, and how might organizations like CGIAR play a role in overcoming those barriers?

When resettlement of villagers is planned and carried out, local power dynamics and relationships can have a huge effect on the outcome and lived experiences and perceptions of resettled individuals.

The Economist Events’ recent Sustainability Summit opened with a strong argument: “There will be no jobs on a dead planet.” If for no other reason, that’s why businesses need to act on sustainability – their existence depends on it.

Translating research-derived technologies into impact on the ground can be a challenge. Especially when technologies come from on-station trials or small pilot areas, it is often unclear how they will perform under ‘real-world’ farm conditions.

As part of WLE's partnership with The Economist Events' Sustainability Summit, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre explore how sustainability can be evaluated to improve decisions in development and business.

Researchers, communicators and our blog readers commonly report that Thrive is the only space that dares to bring up controversial issues and that focuses on stimulating topics. But becoming a space for online scientific discussion wasn't smooth sailing. 

 Proper water management is a particularly tricky balancing act to achieve. There must be sufficient access to clean and safe water for consumption, sanitation, and agriculture, while communities must have enough disaster-risk infrastructure in place to deal with drought, flooding, and any other water-related issues. Too little and we have a problem, too much, and again, it’s a problem: this is a Goldilocks dilemma.

People should be allowed and even, in some circumstances, encouraged to move for work. But the current structure of migration, particularly in the Ganges plains, contributes to the reproduction of rural poverty. 

There is currently a lack of data and understanding of rural youth and high unemployment rates of youth in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. What we need to understand is how best to engage youth in agriculture by facilitating linkages.