Author: Abel Renew

Posted on

Master’s Programmes Scholarships from TRECCAfrica

TRECCAfrica scholarships for Master’s programmes announced

The TRECCAfrica University Consortium has published a call for applications for prospective African Master’s students on its website at www.treccafrica.com. TRECCAfrica is  Transdisciplinary Training for Resource Efficiency and Climate Change Adaptation in Africa; understandably shortened.
Up to 32 full-degree two-year Master’s scholarships will be awarded to applicants to enrol in a number of highly sought-after master’s programmes related to sustainability and environment. The scholarships cover travel, tuition and a living allowance of €600 (about KSh66,000) per month for 24 months.
Applications close on 30 April 2012 for studies commencing from September 2012. A second call for studies commencing in 2013 will be launched towards the end of 2012.
The consortium consists of the universities of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Ghana, Mekelle (Ethiopia), Nairobi (Kenya), Nigeria-Nsukka and Stellenbosch (South Africa). Their programme is called Transdisciplinary Training for Resource Efficiency and Climate Change Adaptation in Africa – or TRECCAfrica, for short.
The list of Master’s programmes presented by each of these institutions range across subjects such as sustainable development, environmental management, renewable energy, food science and technology, natural resource assessment, climate and society, biotechnology, agro-ecology, soil physics, microbiology and veterinary medicine.
The scholarships are for study outside the student’s home country. Interested students can visit the TRECCAfrica website to see who can apply and what Master’s programmes are on offer.
The scholarships are made possible with the support of the European Commission in partnership with the African Union Commission through the Intra-ACP Academic Mobility Scheme (Mwalimu Nyerere Scholarship).
According to the coordinator, Dr Christoff Pauw, TRECCAfrica students at the six universities will be offered unique opportunities to engage with one another via satellite and internet platforms. They will be able to share their learning and research experiences.
Some students will also gain the opportunity to spend an internship at the African Technology Policy Studies network’s offices in Nairobi. Here they can learn to apply their research to policy interventions that will address Africa’s resource opportunities and its climate challenges.

For more information email the coordinator at treccafrica@sun.ac.za or call +27 21 808 3727 or visit www.treccafrica.com

(Transdisciplinary Training for Resource Efficiency and Climate Change Adaptation in Africa)

Posted on

SciDev’s Mobile Website

SciDev.net is an evergrowing resource for news, views and information about science, technology and the developing world.

If you haven’t yet tried SciDev.Net’s new mobile version, it offers:

  • Access to news, feature and opinion articles, alongside Spotlights, topic and regional pages;
  • A clutter-free design with fewer images to ensure faster page load times, and improve your SciDev.Net experience, even on handsets with slower connections;
  • An optimised and more efficient version of SciDev.Net design, that is user-friendly for the smaller screen size on your device;
  • Quick navigation with a clear webpage structure for better browsing, enabling you to access content with ease;
  • Automatic detection that you are viewing our site on a mobile device, offering you the new version instantly; and
  • The ability to switch back to the PC version of the site at any time.

With 67% of Kenyans having a mobile phone according to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), this development is very welcome.

Posted on

Master of Science in Sustainability, Development, and Peace

The Master of Science in Sustainability, Development, and Peace programme at the United Nations University addresses pressing global issues of climate change, development, sustainability, peacebuilding and human rights through an innovative interdisciplinary approach that integrates the social sciences, natural sciences and humanities. The programme is intended for recent graduates, professionals, and practitioners, offering the unique opportunity to study at a global university within the framework of the United Nations. It provides students with the knowledge and skills to make important contributions towards solving global issues, whether through employment by UN agencies, other international organizations, governments, civil society, or the private sector.

The programme is practically oriented, user-focused and of the highest academic quality. It offers opportunities to gain practical experience through internships or field research with a UN agency or other international organization. The programme builds on the strong record of the United Nations University (UNU) in training and capacity development, and utilizes the extensive network of scholars and academic institutions participating in UNU research.

The standard period of study is two years; the programme starts in September, with students expected to complete all the requirements by July in the second academic year after enrolment.

Further information is available from the United Nations University Institute of Sustainability and Peace.

Posted on

The Economics of Poverty – the Top 10 Books

Amy Lockwood, the Deputy Director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford’s School of Medicine, has drawn up a suggested reading list for those wanting to start understanding development, aid, and poverty. Here are her suggestions:

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (2006)
by William Easterly

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (2006)
by Jeffrey Sachs

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (2007)
by Paul Collier

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (2009)
by C.K. Prahalad

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (2009)
by Muhammad Yunus

Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (2009)
by Paul Polak

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (2009)
by Dambisa Moyo

Poor Economics A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty (2011)
by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Development As Freedom (2000)
by Amartya Sen

Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005)
by Jim Collins

To read the reasoning and short introductions to each, go to the original article at http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/the_top_10_books_on_the_economics_of_poverty

Posted on

Power for the Poor – Affordable Solar Power

10 January 2012

Men setting up solar panels in rural villageSolar power can be distributed to poor households by 2020

Poor parts of the world can be supplied with affordable solar power by 2020 through a combination of cheap technology and services provided by cell phone companies, argues Carl Pope, chairman of the US grassroots organisation Sierra Club.

Progress in technology, finance and business models is overcoming traditional barriers to getting renewable power to poor villages, he says. “The combination of dirt-cheap solar, the cell-phone revolution, and mobile phone banking has changed everything”.

Conventional grid power and fossil fuels will not reach those who need it by 2030, according to Pope, and they are becoming more expensive. But cheaper and more sophisticated new technologies create an opportunity to pull together the resources needed to finance solar power for the poor.

Cell-phone towers around the world are being converted to hybrid renewable power sources, offering phone companies a “powerful motivation to get renewable power into rural areas, to get electricity to their customers, and to charge for electricity through their mobile phone payment systems.”

Examples of innovative business models include Zimbabwe’s Econet Power, which provides its cell-phone customers with solar power at US$1 a week with bills tied to a user’s cell phone account.

Providing the poor with off-grid renewable energy requires capital to buy solar power; business models that allow households to pay for what they use, making electricity less expensive than kerosene; and supply chains and distribution networks. “The money is on the table. It’s just on the wrong plates,” says Pope.

He calls for Rio+20 negotiations to embrace distributed solar power and replace kerosene, an expensive and dirty fuel. This would save 1.5 million lives every year (kerosene emits almost as much greenhouse gas pollution as the UK economy), raise income for the world’s poorest fifth by 25–30 per cent, and create demand for expanding solar systems. And it could result in half of the world relying on renewable power, says Pope.

Link to full article in Yale Environment 360

Link to SciDev.Net’s Spotlight on Solar power for the poor