GECHS

We are pleased to announce the availability of the inaugural issue of the GECHS newsletter published by the Global Environmental Change and Human Security International Project Office. Climate change is the theme of this issue which includes articles by:

Karen O’Brien (University of Oslo): New Beginnings

Jon Barnett (University of Melbourne) and W. Neil Adger (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research): Climate Change, Human Security, and Violent Conflict

Richard J.T. Klein (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research): Mainstreaming Adaptation to Climate Change into Offical Development Assistance: Promoting Synergies or Diverting Money?

Lorenz Petersen (GTZ/German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development): Climate Policy After Montreal: What Can Development Agencies Do?

Thomas Tanner (Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex): A Recipe for Mainstreaming: Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Official Development Assistance (ODA)

and Kirsten Ulsrud (University of Oslo): Renewable Energy, Climate Change, and Development.

Download the PDF

SSC members Ken Conca, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, and Lyla Mehta held a roundtable disucsssion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to discuss the escalating water crisis experienced around the world and the threat of growing water scarcity.

Water is an emerging issue for human security, however, conventional portrayals of water scarcity mask how access to and control over water is highly unequal and a result of socio-political processes. Dr. Ken Conca examined how social and economic globalization are yielding informal but increasingly embedded sets of global rules and shaping the governance of water systems around the world. Dr. Patricia Kameri-Mbote addressed the conflict and cooperation dynamics at play in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region. Dr. Lyla Mehta discussed how water scarcity relates to competing forms of governance that shape people’s rights and access to natural resources. This meeting was webcast live and will be archived at www.wilsoncenter.org.

Drs. Ken Conca, Lyla Mehta, and Patricia Kameri-Mbote speaking at the roundtable discussion on 24 May 2006. Photo: David Owen Hawxhurst.

The University for Peace (UPEACE), affiliated to the United Nations, is pleased to announce that applications are now invited for the Dual-Campus MA program in Environmental Security and Peace, for the 2006 – 2007 academic year. For more information on the structure and content of the MA in Environmental Security and Peace, as well as application instructions and scholarship information, please visit www.upeace.org.

GECHS hosted a reception on 16 March 2006 to celebrate the opening of the International Project Office in Norway. This event was open to the public and brought together a kaleidoscope of research perspectives on human security.

Presentations

Gender and Human Security by Gunhild Hoogensen, University of Tromsø

Conflict Over Resources by Nils Petter Gleditsch, PRIO

Development and Human Security by Asuncion Lera St. Clair, University of Bergen

Ethical Perspectives on Human Security by Sturla Stålsett, University of Oslo and Kirkens Bymisjon

Global Environmental Change and Human Security by Karen O’Brien, University of Oslo

Download the program and speaker bios

The GECHS project recently organized a workshop on Climate Change and Poverty. The objective of this workshop was to discuss climate-poverty links relevant to mainstreaming adaptation to climate change into official development assistance. Participants from development agencies and academia shared experiences and information needs, including the challenges of linking scientific research on vulnerability with development projects aimed at reducing poverty. The workhop was held from 9-10 January 2006 in Oslo, Norway. It was organized by GECHS Associates Siri Eriksen and Richard Klein, with support from Norad.

Download the agenda and the workshop summary. Presentations are available below:

Session I: Climate change as a development and poverty issue

• Siri Eriksen: Objectives of the workshop
• Karen O’Brien: Climate change and human security–implications for development
• Richard Klein: Climate change mitigation and adaptation–the role of development institutions
• Siri Eriksen: Climate change poverty linkages–what do we know?
• Ian Noble: Climate change poverty linkages–what do we need to know?

Session II: Experiences and institutional challenges

• Richard Klein: Analysis of past assessments of development aid and climate change
• Richard Klein: Case study–climate change in GTZ
• Lorenz Petersen: GTZ adaptation efforts
• Frode Neergaard: DANIDA approach to adaptation in development
• Kristinn Einarsson: ICEIDA climate and energy in development
• Siri Eriksen: Case study–climate change in Norad
• Pernille Holtedahl: Norad climate and adaptation priorities

Session III: Information needs and international collaboration

• Ian Noble: Experiences of international collaboration in climate change
• Thomas Tanner: National information needs–climate change and disaster risk assessment in Bangladesh