Reports and Documents

Universal access to safe, reliable energy is a necessary condition for providing the poor with safe water and sanitation, for maintaining adequate standards of living, and for achieving any of the Millennium Development Goals.

This paper reviews the boundary concepts that have emerged in interdisciplinary irrigation studies in South Asia, particularly India. The focus is concepts that capture the hybridity of irrigation systems as complex systems, and cross the boundaries of the natural and social sciences.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published scientific opinions on environmental risk assessments of GMO plants and the assessment of potential impacts of GM plants on non-target organisms. The documents will serve as basis for discussions between the EU Commission, member States and stakeholders on the further development and updating of environmental guidance with regard to GMOs.

Maximising the effectiveness of climate finance must include steps to reduce the potential for corruption, as large influxes of resources coupled with an imperative to spend can create conditions ripe for corruption.

The dramatic surge in food prices from 2005 to 2008 seriously threatened the world's poor, who struggle to buy food even under normal circumstances, and led to protests and riots in the developing world. The crisis eventually receded, but such surges could recur unless steps are taken to prevent them.

This study examines experiences with using the private sector to manage domestic water supplies serving dispersed populations or very small settlements in rural areas. The potential contribution from private operators is well-known for small towns. The unanswered
question is whether private operators are an option for more remote rural areas with low population density.

The FAO has released new Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries on the Ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA). The EAA is a strategy for the integration of the activity within the wider ecosystem such that it promotes sustainable development, equity and resilience of interlinked social-ecological systems. As such, the focus is not what is done, but rather how it is done.

Good health is essential to human welfare and to sustained economic and social development. WHO's Member States have set themselves the target of developing their health financing systems to ensure that all people can use health services, while being protected against financial hardship associated with paying for them.

The relationships between energy, the environment, and development are deep and complex. The International Energy Agency has noted that energy is deeply implicated in each of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of human development. Energy services provide an essential input to economic activity, contribute to social development, and help meet basic human needs.

The report highlights key concerns and presents recommendations on how to optimize the opportunities of forests in the region.