News from the Secretariat

Jonathan Foley's Keynote address to the the SIANI/LUCSUS Global Food Security event

This one-day conference brought together international leaders in their field with early-career researchers in Sweden working on global food security from both biophysical and socioeconomic perspectives. The keynote speaker articulated the key challenges to global food security and highlight the latest trends and projections, as well as innovative solutions, while the early-career researchers presented empirical work addressing these challenges from global to local scales. The goal was to strengthen connections between academic researchers, government policymakers, and practitioners in working towards a shared agenda of a more sustainable and equitable global food system.

SIANI Member Survey 2012

We are pleased to see that our member network continues to grow and many of our new members represent exciting new interest areas within the field of agriculture and development. Our aim is to represent all members' needs for information that falls within SIANI's remit. As both the messages and the means of communicating within our network is changing we would like to see the SIANI webpage take this into account and become a platform for active exchange of knowledge and ideas for all members.

In order to best respond to your needs for information and communication we kindly ask you for a minute of your time to fill in the survey via the link below. The survey will guide us in how to improve the communication services and outreach activities from SIANI secretariat.

Here is the survey (Opens in a new window)

Can you help? Survey of over 55s attitudes to the environment

As you may be aware, the SEI is leading a consortium of organisations conducting a global survey of over 55s attitudes to the environment in the run up to Rio+20.  The survey is being undertaken in collaboration with Simon Fraser University (Gerontology Research Centre) (Canada), Age UK, Help Age International, UK Retired and Seniors Volunteer Programme and Council for the Ageing (Australia).

They want many individuals (over 55 years old) from different countries in this demographic group represented. 

You can fill in the survey here!

SIANI welcomes Matthew Fielding as new Programme Officer

SIANI and the SEI are happy to welcome Matthew Fielding as the new Programme Officer for SIANI.  He started on the 6th February, replacing Olivia Taghioff, who is leaving for a new position with the UNDP in Rwanda.  Matthew has most recently been working on the resilience of rural communities under land use changes in Sierra Leone.  Read more about Matthew here.

World Water Week 2012 to focus on Food Security -first announcement out now!

The 2012 World Water Week will be held under the theme "Water and Food Security" August 26-31, 2012 in Stockholm. SIANI is associated with this event. The first announcement with a Call for Workshop Abstracts and Event Proposals is out now!

SIANI event at ARDD in Durban

SIANI organized one of the learning events at this year's Agriculture and Rural Development Day, a side event to the COP 17 climate negotiations. The event looked at Vi Agroforestry/KACP's innovative ways to use green house gas mitigation funding for a transition to sustainable, productive and climate resilient agricultural practices. Read more about the event here.  And find a summary of ARDD here.