I recently updated the Primer on the Emergence and Evolution of Sustainable Development (1951 to 2012), to include a discussion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (known as Rio+20), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 20-22, 2012. The updated text takes a close look at the idea of the green economy, which was endorsed by delegates at the conference as a flexible mechanism for advancing sustainability.
Author: Ralph Hall
A Week in Bellagio
I write this post sitting in a beautiful villa at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. During this past week, I have taken part in a workshop on Multiple-Use Water Services (MUS) attended by some 19 practitioners and academics from around the world. The objectives of the meeting were to: develop a common understanding and framework for MUS; elaborate a common direction and goal for the next five years around MUS; elaborate strategies for the MUS Group and its core members to reach this success; elaborate how best MUS can be moved forward; and develop a broad road-map for the way forward and clear commitments for action among the members.
The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Jürgen Hagmann and Dr. Joe Ramaru – professional facilitators from the Institute for People, Innovation, and Change in Organisations (PICOTeam) in South Africa. I mention the PICOTeam because of the superb facilitation they provided. I learnt much from watching how they worked with the group and managed the workflow as the meeting progressed.
The workshop participants developed a comprehensive agenda that will be developed further in the coming months. What was encouraging was the emphasis given to the need for a robust evidence base from which further MUS activities and programs can be built.
In addition to the workshop, we had the opportunity to meet many of the Rockefeller Fellows in residence at the Bellagio Center. I had the privilege with speaking with Geoffrey West, Ellen Silbergeld, and David Freedman and learning about the research and writing projects they are pursing at the center.
Below are several photos from the workshop and grounds of the Bellagio Center, which is now my new favorite place to work in the world. The location has a unique way of relaxing and freeing the mind.
Stockholm Presentation
The presentation I gave during the seminar on “Scaling Pathways for Multiple-Use Services, for Food Security and Health” at the Stockholm World Water Week 2012 is posted below. Following this prezi, I have provided links to the presentations given by the other seminar participants.
Presentations by Seminar Participants
Background to MUS.
Barbara van Koppen, Coordinator MUS Group/IWMI, South Africa
MUS Practices and Scaling Pathways for Food Security in Ethiopia.
Deres Abdulkadir, RiPPLE, Ethiopia
What does MUS Look Like? Moving from Concept to Practice in 7 Countries.
Mary Renwick, Winrock International, USA
Guidelines for Providing and Implementing MUS.
Stef Smits, Secretary MUS Group/IRC, the Netherlands
If it is such a Good Idea, Why doesn’t Is Scale Up? Opportunities and Barriers for Scaling MUS.
Barbara van Koppen, coordinator MUS Group/IWMI, South Africa
Stockholm World Water Week 2012
On August 30, 2012, I will be taking part in a seminar on “Scaling Pathways for Multiple-Use Services, for Food Security and Health,” at the 2012 Stockholm World Water Week. During my presentation, I will highlight some interesting results from our multi-country study on the productive use of rural domestic water in Senegal and Kenya. More specifically, I will discuss the relationship between the productive use of domestic water and the (technical/financial) sustainability of rural piped water systems.
Our first paper from this multi-country study on “The role of productive water use in women’s livelihoods: Evidence from rural Senegal,” will be published in the October edition of Water Alternatives. A series of other papers from this work are currently under review/development.
New Article – Administrative & Regulatory Law News
Nicholas Ashford and I recently published a short article entitled “Regulation-Induced Innovation for Sustainable Development” in the Journal of Administrative & Regulatory Law News (see pages 21-23 of the journal).
Citation: Ashford, N. A. and Hall, R. P. (2012) “Regulation-Induced Innovation for Sustainable Development.” Administrative & Regulatory Law News, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 21-23, Spring 2012.
A Perspective on the Right to W&S
On July 17, 2012, I attended the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition Meeting and took part in a panel discussion with Salman M.A. Salman (former Lead Counsel, Legal Vice Presidency, World Bank) and Eric Tars (Director of Human Rights and Children’s Rights, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty) on the human right to water and sanitation. The panel was moderated by Benjamin Mason Meier (Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
In my presentation, I raised the question of whether focusing on the human right to “drinking water” could limit development opportunities for some peri-urban/rural communities. My remarks were positioned within the context of multiple-use water services, whereby water supply systems are designed to support both domestic and productive uses of water.
If you have an interest in the subject of the human right to water and sanitation, I encourage you to listen to a recent webinar on the “Implementation of the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation,” held on June 5, 2012.
Bern Meetings – July 2-3, 2012
To conclude the first module of the 2012 Sustainable Europe summer course, the students and I traveled to the city of Bern to discuss the notion of sustainable development with senior government officials and a researcher at the University of Bern. Our first meeting with U.S. Ambassador Donald Beyer, Susan Elbow (Deputy Chief of Mission), and Alex Daniels (Press and Cultural Attaché) provided the students with an excellent opportunity to learn about the close diplomatic and economic relationships that exist between the U.S. and Switzerland. This is the second time Ambassador Beyer has welcomed VT/UVA students taking the summer program and I believe this meeting/conversation is one of the highlights of the course. I encourage you to explore each of the students’ blogs to read more about the questions they asked during this meeting.
Our second meeting with Stefan Ruchti (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs), Daniel Wachter (Head of the Sustainable Development Section, Federal Office for Spatial Development), Daniel Dubas (Federal Office for Spatial Development), and Lorenz Kurtz (Federal Department of Foreign Affairs) was held at the impressive Bernerhof building. The topic of the meeting was the Swiss Government’s Sustainable Development Strategy. Having spent more than a decade thinking deeply about sustainable development, I was particularly interested in hearing Daniel Wachter’s presentation on how sustainable development is being operationalized in Switzerland. During the meeting, the students had an opportunity to apply the knowledge they had developed during the first module of the course by engaging Stefan, Daniel, Daniel, and Lorenz in a conversation about strategies to promote sustainable development. This conversation proved to be a valuable way to connect the theories/concepts the students had researched to the real-world challenges of creating a national sustainable development strategy.
Our final meeting was held at the University of Bern, where Fabian Streiff (a PhD candidate in Economic Geography) provided a detailed overview of the photovoltaic industry in Europe and Switzerland and explored the potential expansion of this industry domestically in the context of the Swiss Cleantech Strategy. Following this meeting, we toured the University of Bern and I had the opportunity to speak with Ellen Krause (Executive Director of the International Office, University of Bern) and Zoë Ghielmetti (Executive Director of International and National Relations, University of Bern) about the new student exchange agreement established between Virginia Tech and the University of Bern. This agreement enables students from each institution to study at the partner institution while receiving academic credit at their home institution.
2012 Sustainable Europe Blog
I recently created a new website/blog for the 2012 Sustainable Europe summer program. This joint VT-UVA summer program will run from June 26 to July 20 and will be located at the beautiful Villa Maderni in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland.
I invite you to follow the learning experience of the 14 students taking the course by visiting the blog from June 26 onwards: http://blogs.lt.vt.edu/sustainable/
Book Review: Cents and Sustainability
I recently published a review of Cents and Sustainability: Securing Our Common Future by Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Pressures, in the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), June 2012, Vol. 32, pp. 240-242.
Textbook Wins at Green Book Festival
The textbook that Nicholas Ashford and I co-authored – entitled Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development: Transforming the Industrial State – recently won the best “Business” book category at the 2012 Green Book Festival. For more information about the award, please go to the Green Book Festival website: http://www.greenbookfestival.com/.
Ralph P Hall 