Policy & Governance

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 nov 2024

Social enterprises bring innovative solutions to social good issues through business-like methodologies. According to the report published in April 2024 by Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Bertelsmann Foundation for World Economic Forum, 'The State of Social Enterprise: A Review of Global Data 2013-2023' [Contributors to the report: François Bonnici (Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship & Head of Foundations, World Economic Forum, Switzerland); Veerle Klijn (Policy Lead, Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, Schwab Foundation, Netherlands); Daniel Nowack (Head, Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, Schwab Foundation, Switzerland); Tiffany Bennett (Research Manager, Euclid Network, Netherlands); Dan Gregory (Associate Director, Social Enterprise UK, United Kingdom)], provides a comprehensive synthesis of the global state of social enterprise, using data from more than 80 countries gathered between 2013 and 2023. It aims to inform policy-makers and business leaders about the underestimated contribution of social enterprise towards global GDP, employment and the Sustainable Development Goals. In the foreword of the report, Hilde Schwab (Chairperson and Co-Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship) and Brigitte Mohn (Member of the Executive Board, Bertelsmann Stiftung), say, 'As social enterprises gain momentum worldwide, the need for reliable data increases. Since 2013, a range of actors have been gathering data in more than 80 countries. Their insights reveal that social enterprises are a significant economic force driving positive outcomes worldwide...The report highlights the power of such data and calls on governments, international organizations and the social enterprise ecosystem to invest in and coordinate for a strong data infrastructure at a global level...Social enterprises are not merely catalysts of change; they embody a fundamental shift in how businesses can tackle societal problems on a global scale. At the same time, they prioritize benefits for employees, communities and the planet alongside financial returns. They are at the forefront of the transition towards a fair, sustainable and equitable economy - the stakeholder economy.' HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT: The global data indicates that there are approximately 10 million social enterprises across the world, which means they comprise more than 3% of all businesses; Social enterprise accounts for around 2% of global GDP and 3% of all businesses; They generate around US$ 2 trillion in revenue each year; They create nearly 200 million jobs; They bridge the gender gap, with one in two social enterprises worldwide led by women, compared to one in five for conventional enterprises; They deliver against all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those focused on health and education, climate and jobs, thereby reducing poverty and inequality; According to Statista.com, Social enterprise is larger than the US$ 1.79 trillion apparel industry and almost twice the size of the US$ 1.01 trillion advertising industry; The study reveals gaps and challenges in social enterprise data. These challenges include the availability and quality of data, the comparability of the available data and the difficulty with quantifying social and environmental value creation; Barriers faced by social enterprises include - limited access to finance, lack of public awareness and recognition, lack of government support, inadequate legal and/or fiscal framework, limited access to procurement processes. The report concludes, 'Robust data on social enterprise is critical to inform policy-makers on the design of policies and the most effective allocation of resources.' Read on...

World Economic Forum: The State of Social Enterprise: A Review of Global Data 2013-2023
Authors: François Bonnici, Veerle Klijn, Daniel Nowack, Tiffany Bennett, Dan Gregory

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 jul 2024

Online privacy, online advertising, user data analytics and online regulatory policies are issues that continue to be debated regarding internet and online users. Big technology companies, consumer organizations, government regulators and various industry lobbies continue to push their conflicting agendas to influence the internet and its future. Convergence of interests that keep the internet free from manipulation by any particular group or groups is a challenging task. The paramount concern of all parties should ba a focus on keeping the internet safe, free, open and friendly, while at the same time bringing economic benefits to all. The socio-economic balance on the internet with consideration of the needs of all concerned groups should remain paramount while deciding the future. Recent backing out by Google from deprecating cookies from Chrome again brought the influence of big tech, user data privacy and online advertising issues on the forefront. Patrick Roman Gut, senior vice president and head of new business at Adstra, explains these issues and suggests options for the post-cookie internet. He says, '...there will eventually come a day when the Chrome browser no longer supports third-party cookies. Other major browsers like Safari and Firefox already default to cookies off, so no matter when Google finally makes the change, it's clear that the world has entered a post-cookie era. Another way to think about this is as a multi-identifier era, where brands must use multiple tools and tactics to find and understand their customers across online environments.' As advertising landscape continues to be more omnichannel and entrenched in multi-ID world, brands must be prepared to effectively handle the paradigm shift. Mr. Gut says - Advertising still largely relies on cookies, but the open market is a multi-ID space; Effective targeting requires a combination of methodologies (deterministic, probabilistic or contextual); Crosswalk solutions provide effective data management in a multi-ID landscape (Crosswalk solution involves mapping anonymous digital identifiers to personally identifiable information to unify online and offline data for a comprehensive view of customer behaviors); AI enables additional insights and predictions for extended reach and future success. Read on...

DIGIDAY: How advertisers are moving from cookies to a multi-ID landscape
Author: Patrick Roman Gut

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 13 jul 2024

cOAlition S, launched on 04 September 2018 by a group of national research funding organisations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), is an initiative to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. On its website (coalition-s.org), cOAlition S signals the commitment to implement the necessary measures to fulfil its main principle - 'With effect from 2021, all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.' cOAlition S is build around Plan S that is a set of principles that ensure open and immediate access to funded research publications. It was born from the cooperation between the Heads of the participating Research Funding Organisations, Marc Schiltz, the President of Science Europe, and Robert-Jan Smits, previously the Open Access Envoy of the European Commission. It also drew on significant input from the Scientific Council of the ERC. cOAlition S presented a proposal 'Towards Responsible Publishing (TRP)', that includes a vision for a community-based scholarly communication system fit for open science in the 21st century, where scholars can rapidly and transparently share the full range of their research outputs and participate in new quality control mechanisms and evaluation standard. According to the proposal, the main challenges that a future scholarly communication system should address include that - The dominant publishing models are highly inequitable; The sharing of research outputs is needlessly delayed; The full potential of peer review is not realised; The coupling of editorial gatekeeping with academic career incentives is damaging science. To address these challenges, cOAlition S proposed a set of five guiding principles - (1) Authors are responsible for the dissemination of their findings, (2) All scholarly outputs are shared immediately and openly. (3) Quality control processes are community-based and open, to ensure trustworthiness of research findings. (4) All scholarly outputs are eligible for consideration in research assessment. (5) Stakeholders commit to support the sustainability and diversity of the scholarled publishing ecosystem. The report, 'Towards Responsible Publishing': Findings from a global stakeholder consultation, presents the findings of a global multi-stakeholder consultation conducted between November 2023 and May 2024 by Research Consulting Limited (UK) and Leiden University's Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) (Netherlands) on behalf of cOAlition S. Johan Rooryck, Executive Director of cOAlition S and Bodo Stern, Chief of Strategic Initiatives, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Chair of the TRP Steering Group at cOAlition S, in the foreword of the report write, 'Research funders have the responsibility to make sure that their funding is used in ways that improve the scholarly publishing landscape for the benefit of the research community and society. The 'Towards Responsible Publishing' proposal is therefore a logical next step for cOAlition S funders to help make the publishing system fit for the 21st century. It builds on Plan S and goes further in proposing a way to disseminate research that is not only more open, but also more trusted, equitable, efficient, and sustainable...This report presents the findings of that consultation: it shows an insightful picture of researchers' attitudes towards innovative research practices, such as open access publishing, preprint posting, open peer review and the incentives needed to embrace these behaviours.' For the report, authors collected 11145 responses from researchers via a global survey, reached 440 respondents through an initial feedback survey, engaged 72 participants via focus groups, and attracted a total of 10 organisational feedback letters from low- and middle-income countries that were underrepresented in the data. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT - When deciding how to reach their target audiences, researchers continue to rely on the current journals ecosystem; When deciding what to read, researchers once again prioritise the reputation of a journal; The consultation revealed support among researchers for some of the practices encouraged in the TRP proposal, such as preprint posting and the open sharing of peer review reports; Across the most represented disciplines in our data (medical and health sciences, life sciences, social sciences, engineering and arts and humanities), views regarding preprint posting are broadly aligned; Views are slightly more positive for respondents who have posted a preprint in the last three years; The highest resistance to the publication of open peer review reports was in the field of Law (39%), followed by Arts and Humanities (36%). In this context, consultation participants highlighted that existing recognition and reward mechanisms are inadequate for incentivising adoption of these practices, which will highly affect their uptake by researchers; The consultation found that, on balance, researchers would support the integration of practices like preprint posting (48% would support the practice vs 27% who would be opposed) and open peer review (47% would support the practice vs 29% who would be opposed) into journal publication workflows; Lack of clear implementation guidance emerged as a significant concern during the consultation; The need for a gradual, collaborative implementation approach involving pilots and engagement with existing initiatives was emphasised; Without broader engagement, cOAlition S' efforts risk being viewed by low- and middle-income countries as an imposition by wealthier nations; Shifting more publication responsibilities to individual authors could disproportionately overburden under-resourced researchers with limited institutional support services; Consultation participants highlighted the perceived importance of peer review and dedicated editorial roles in scholarly communication; Consultation participants saw a significant increase in preprint posting as potentially risking the proliferation of poor-quality, unvetted research outputs that may flood the public domain unchecked; The problem of subpar research making it through the peer review and publication process, while undesirable, already exists to some extent in the current system; The complexity of the proposed system may make it challenging for nonexperts like journalists, policymakers and the public to navigate the research landscape effectively. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS - Based on the findings from this global multi-stakeholder consultation, we conclude that there is support for some of the principles and practices encouraged in the TRP proposal. This highlights opportunities for cOAlition S to make progress in their desired direction of travel, building on select parts of the proposal; cOAlition S is well-placed to pursue the preprint posting and open licensing activities in the near term; In the medium-term, cOAlition S could focus on encouraging and promoting open peer review across the publishing landscape, including both preprints and journal articles; Realising the full vision of the TRP proposal will require longer-term efforts and cooperation with other stakeholders to update recognition and reward mechanisms at a global scale and ransition funding and infrastructures to support a globally inclusive, scholar-led publishing ecosystem. Read on...

Zenodo: 'Towards Responsible Publishing': Findings from a global stakeholder consultation
Authors: Andrea Chiarelli, Ellie Cox, Rob Johnson, Ludo Waltman, Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner, André Brasil, Andrea Reyes Elizondo, Stephen Pinfield

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 mar 2024

According to GlobalData 2023 Q4 Consumer Survey, firms are held accountable by public on their stand on social issues such as human and animal welfare, fair trade, health etc and those that fail to consider and act on it risk losing sales. Survey finds that 31% of Middle East & African consumers and 29% of Asian consumers admitted that they find it essential for products to be ethical or support social causes. Global conflicts and geopolitical issues also influence consumer perception and impact businesses. Meenakshi Haran, lead consumer analyst at GlobalData, says, 'Consumers are increasingly making decisions based on responsibility towards ethical and social issues, driving the need for companies and brands to continually set measures to create and develop genuinely responsible products and services.' Isha Varma, Middle East business development manager at GlobalData, says, 'The Middle East, given its high spending ability, and Asia, with its 'surging' population represent huge growth opportunities for brands - however those that operate in these markets need to send a clear and transparent message about their commitment to ethical and social responsibility to mitigate any loss of reputation and revenues.' Read on...

ESM - European Supermarket Magazine: Brands Ignoring Ethical Consumerism Face Sales Risk, Says GlobalData
Author: Steve Wynne-Jones

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 may 2023

Textile industry has become highly globalized, contributes significantly to the global economy and provides employment to millions. The emergence of 'fast fashion' concept has further increased the production level, nearly doubling in the last 15 year period. The present textile industry system works in a linear way - raw material obtained from non-renewable sources, processed and clothes are produced in mechanised factories in large quantities, consumed for a short period and then disposed of in landfil or incinerated. This linear system is negatively impacting humans and environment - Excess of US$ 500 billion of value is lost every year due to clothing underutilisation and the lack of recycling; Total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production, at 1.2 billion tonnes annually; When washed, some garments release plastic microfibres, of which around half a million tonnes every year contribute to ocean pollution. The project report, 'A NEW TEXTILES ECONOMY: REDESIGNING FASHION'S FUTURE' [Core Project Team: Andrew Morlet, Rob Opsomer, Dr. Sven Herrmann (Lead Author), Laura Balmond, Camille Gillet, Lukas Fuchs], published in 2017, outlines a vision for a system that works, delivering long-term benefits - a new textiles economy based on the principles of a circular economy. It offers a direction of travel on which the industry can agree and focus its efforts. In a new textiles economy, clothes, textiles, and fibres are kept at their highest value during use and re-enter the economy afterwards, never ending up as waste. Circular economy is a systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT - Globally, the US$ 1.3 trillion clothing industry employs more than 300 million people along the value chain. Clothing - the focus of this report – represents more than 60% of the total textiles used and is expected to remain the largest application; The current clothing system is extremely wasteful and polluting. The recent Pulse of the fashion industry report estimated that the overall benefit to the world economy could be about EUR 160 billion (US$ 192 billion) in 2030 if the fashion industry were to address the environmental and societal fallout of the current status quo; Clothing is massively underutilised. Worldwide, clothing utilisation has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago. Globally, customers miss out on US$ 460 billion of value each year by throwing away clothes that they could continue to wear; Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing, representing a loss of more than US$ 100 billion worth of materials each year; Today's linear system uses large amounts of resources and has negative impacts on the environment and people. The textiles industry relies mostly on non-renewable resources - 98 million tonnes in total per year - including oil to produce synthetic fibres, fertilisers to grow cotton, and chemicals to produce, dye, and finish fibres and textiles. Textiles production (including cotton farming) also uses around 93 billion cubic metres of water annually; Should growth continue as expected, total clothing sales would reach 160 million tonnes in 2050 - more than three times today's amount; If the industry continues on its current path, by 2050, it could use more than 26% of the carbon budget associated with a 2°C pathway; The Pulse of the fashion industry report projects that, by 2030, fashion brands would see a decline in earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins of more than three percentage points, if they were to continue business as usual. This would translate into a profit reduction of approximately EUR 45 billion (USD 52 billion) for the industry; Ambitions For A New Textiles Economy - (1) Phase out substances of concern and microfibre release (Align industry efforts and coordinate innovation to create safe material cycles; Drastically reduce plastic microfibre release). (2) Transform the way clothes are designed, sold, and used to break free from their increasingly disposable nature (Scale up short-term clothing rental; Make durability more attractive; Increase clothing utilisation further through brand commitments and policy). (3) Radically improve recycling by transforming clothing design, collection, and reprocessing (Align clothing design and recycling processes; Pursue technological innovation to improve the economics and quality of recycling; Stimulate demand for recycled materials; Implement clothing collection at scale); Make effective use of resources and move to renewable inputs. Read on...

Ellen Macarthur Foundation: A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion's future
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 mar 2023

As the world is becoming more divided and tussle-oriented, the usual development strategies with a top-down approach driven by international trade and investments are losing their effectiveness. Prof. Andrew Sheng of University of Hong Kong and Prof. Xiao Geng of The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen, explain that in such a scenario a systemic bottom-up approach can yield progress. According to them, 'Poverty, inequality, climate change and environmental degradation are complex systemic challenges. Yet prevailing policy approaches focus on devising separate solutions to specific problems, or even specific facets of problems, with little to no regard for how their solutions - and the underlying problems - interact...Only by recognising the interconnected nature of our social, ecological and economic systems, and addressing problems holistically, can we optimise their functioning and ensure human and planetary well-being.' They quote environmental scientist Donella Meadows's definition of a system as 'an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organised in a way that achieves something.' Prof. Sheng and Prof. Geng further elaborate, 'Multilateral action - implemented by nation-states - tends to be even less efficient...What is needed instead are bottom-up strategies underpinned by community-based and non-profit social enterprises.' According to Peter Drucker, successful non-profits, 'dedicated to "doing good"', but also 'realise that good intentions are no substitute for organisation and leadership, for accountability, performance and results.' Authors suggest harnessing the power of already-existing tools and resources. They explain, 'Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are far better equipped than their large counterparts to deploy the mission-driven management social enterprises require. MSMEs - 90% of all businesses globally - account for 70-80% of total employment...Yet, MSMEs do not have access to formal capital markets, let alone the holistic policy and institutional framework - including supporting infrastructure and a consistent legal environment - that would enable them to act as effective social enterprises...technology has enabled the creation of a 'global knowledge commons', through which social enterprises can access the knowhow - and, through trusted accreditation, the financing - they need.' Read on...

IPS Journal: A social-enterprise development model
Authors: Andrew Sheng, Xiao Geng

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 sep 2022

The U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) program established in 2011 is an experiential education and training program designed to facilitate entrepreneurial innovations in universities towards commercialization and expand their economic and social benefits and impact. The program has three aims - (1) Train an entreprenneurial workforce (2) Bring cutting-edge technologies to market (3) Nurturing an innovation ecosystem. According to the NSF website (nsf.gov) article 'NSF expands the National Innovation Network (NIN) with 5 new I-Corps Hubs' dated 08 sep 2022, NSF now has 10 hubs in total spread all across US with each hub funded for up to US$ 3 million per year for five years and comprises a regional alliance of at least eight universities. The I-Corps™ Hubs work collaboratively to build and sustain a diverse and inclusive innovation ecosystem. Erwin Gianchandani, NSF Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, says, 'I am delighted the I-Corps™ Hubs that we are awarding today will expand the footprint of the National Innovation Network, harnessing the innovation potential that exists all across the country by establishing clear pathways for researchers to engage with NSF's Lab-to-Market Platform. Each regional I-Corps™ Hub provides training essential in entrepreneurship and customer discovery, leading to new products, startups and jobs. In this way, the I-Corps™ program will open up new economic opportunities throughout the United States.' Vanderbilt University is the lead institution for the new Mid-South Region Hub and will coordinate the program through the Wond'ry Innovation Center. Daniel Diermeier, Chancellor of Vanderbilt, says, 'This role aligns perfectly with our position as a leading center of research and innovation, and with our efforts to help cultivate a thriving ecosystem supporting invention and entrepreneurship in our region...' Wond'ry's Charleson Bell, director of entrepreneurship, biomedical innovation and I-Corps™, and Deanna Meador, deputy director, in a joint statement say, 'The Mid-South I-Corps™ Hub is for everyone. Led by Vanderbilt with an intentional emphasis on inclusive innovation, this hub will accelerate the translation of groundbreaking university research outcomes into commercialized ventures that seed emergent, prosperous innovation ecosystems across the Midsouth. We are thrilled to extend our local successes with I-Corps™ to the greater Midsouth and help underrepresented innovators bring their ideas to life.' David A. Owens, Evans Family Executive Director, and Mandy Lalrindiki, program manager of innovation and design research, are other members of I-Corps™ team. The effort received broad bipartisan support from politicians including Tennessee's U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, and U.S. Reps. Jim Cooper, Tim Burchett and Chuck Fleischmann. C. Cybele Raver, provost of Vanderbilt, says, '...In keeping with NSF's aims, Vanderbilt drives discovery, harnessing big ideas in ways that dramatically increase their economic and social impact...' Padma Raghavan, vice provost for research and innovation at Vanderbilt, says, 'The spirit of collaborative innovation that defines our Vanderbilt community is key to our success...advance the development of an inclusive innovation corridor.' Read on...

Vanderbilst University Research News: The Wond'ry, Vanderbilt's Innovation Center, named National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Hub lead institution
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 jul 2022

Nonprofit governance is a challenging issue and typical measures like reducing boards size, identifying best practices etc arent' able to assure better quality governance. According to 2021 'Leading with Intent: BoardSource Index of Nonprofit Board Practices' survey, board performance receives average marks for key responsibilities. Researchers from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Prof. Paul Jansen and MBA student Helen Hatch, conducted a research for Center for Social Sector Leadership and explored the new idea of having a dedicated Chief Governance Officer (CGO) who is a board memeber. They interviewed 30 experienced nonprofit directors representing over 100 nonprofit boards and found that CGO could catalyze improved board performance. Researchers summarize here the common sources of inconsistent governance quality and outlines the expected benefits of appointing one director as a CGO. EIGHT SOURCES OF INCONSISTENT GOVERNANCE: (1) Nonprofit directors often lack a shared understanding of what good governance means. (2) Nonprofit boards do not always have the right voices in the boardroom. (3) Pressure to help organizations meet annual fundraising targets shifts attention away from governance. (4) Boards fail to regularly assess governance performance and develop improvement plans. (5) Poor governance processes push boards to underinvest in critical issues and governance activities. (6) A low-accountability board culture leads to inconsistent effort by individual directors. (7) Confusion between the board’s role and that of management. (8) Governance has gotten tougher (Challenges - Financial complexity; Technology; Sociocultural shifts; Increased public scrutiny; Evolving legal duties). DEFINING THE CGO ROLE: (1) Ensure compliance with legal and social expectations. (2) Champion the adoption of proven governance practices that enable the board to help the organization fulfill its mission effectively and efficiently. Anne Wallestad, CEO of BoardSource, in her 2021 SSIR article 'The Four Principles of Purpose-Driven Board Leadership', defines 'Purpose-Driven Board Leadership', a mindset characterized by four fundamental principles, mutually reinforcing and interdependent, that define the way that the board sees itself and its work: (1) Purpose before organization. (2) Respect for ecosystem. (3) Equity mindset. (4) Authorized voice and power. The CGO should play a hands-on role in four activities: (1) Leading a bi-annual review of governance effectiveness and monitoring initiatives to improve board performance. (2) Driving new director governance training and shaping supplemental training and education over time. (3) Monitoring external governance-related developments pertaining to the law, regulations, and social expectations on behalf of the board. (4) Engaging with the CEO on how staff can best support high quality governance. The best suited candidate for CGO role should have a certain set of skills that should include - an independent, objective, organization-first mindset and willingness to ask hard, sometimes uncomfortable questions is essential to this role; legal skills; communication and persuasion skills; trained in board governance. Organizations should find their own way of implementing the CGO role. Some suggestions are - Recruit the skill set; Make CGO an officer of the board; Have the CGO report to the board; Sponsor the CGO to receive governance training and certification; Support the CGO's membership in good governance forums; Arrange for access to outside counsel; Consider adopting the role on a temporary basis. Read on...

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Does Your Nonprofit Board Need a CGO?
Authors: Paul Jansen, Helen Hatch

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 mar 2022

Diversity and inclusion is one of the most important social issues for organizations, communities and countries. In the scholarly and research publishing industry, efforts are underway to analyze researcher diversity. Global publishers, amounting to more than 50 and representing 15000 journals, have come together to build a secure demographic database of researchers by asking them questions about race, ethnicity, gender etc when they send their research papers for publishing, and also when they edit and review manuscripts. This is intended to analyze demographic representation and detect biases in editing and review in what gets accepted and published. Many researchers support the idea and achnowledge issues of racism and under-representation in scholarly publishing. Holly Falk-Krzesinski, VP of research intelligence at Elsevier, says, 'If you don’t have the data, it is very difficult to understand where you are at, to make changes, set goals and measure progress.' Joel Babdor, an immunologist at the University of California and cofounder of the group Black in Immuno that supports Black researchers in immunology and other sciences, says, 'It is never too late for progress. Now we want to see these efforts being implemented, normalized and generalized throughout the publishing system. Without this information, it is impossible to evaluate the state of the current system in terms of equity and diversity.' Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) led 11 publishers in signing a joint commitment to track and reduce bias in scholarly publishing. This group has grown to 52 publishers now. The process to build a standard international database has challenges as cultural understanding of race and ethnicity differs from country to country. Nicola Nugent, publishing manager at the RSC, shares her experience of using computational algorithms to measure gender diversity. Analyzing 700000 manuscripts submitted to RSC journals between 2014 and 2018, identified biases against women at each stage of the publishing process. But Ms. Nugent says, 'Collecting those data was crucial - without the baseline numbers, it was hard to see where to make changes.' Prof.Casey Greene, computational biologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, says, 'Publishers could glean insights from these methods, if they apply them to large numbers of names and limit analysis to broad ethnicity classes - especially when examining past papers, for which it might not be possible to ask authors directly.' A team led by computer scientist Steven Skiena at Stony Brook University in New York used millions of e-mail contact lists and data on social-media activity to train a classifier called NamePrism. It clusters names into similar-seeming groups, and uses curated lists of names with known nationalities to assign nationalities to those groups. Ariel Hippen, a graduate student in Prof. Greene's lab, scraped biographical pages from Wikipedia to train a classifier that assigns names to ten geographical regions. A team including Prof. Greene, Hippen and data scientist Trang Le at the University of Pennsylvania, used the tool to document under-representation of people from East Asia in honours and invited talks awarded by the International Society for Computational Biology. Natalie Davidson, a postdoc in the Greene lab, used the same tool to quantify representation in Nature’s news coverage, finding fewer East Asian names among quoted sources, compared with their representation in papers. A team led by physicist Danielle Bassett at the University of Pennsylvania found that authors of colour in five neuroscience journals are undercited relative to their representation; the team's analysis suggests that this is because white authors preferentially cite other white authors. Cassidy Sugimoto, an information scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says, 'Computational methods are largely incapable of addressing the most pressing questions about racial diversity and inclusion in science...Race and ethnicity classification is infinitely more complicated than gender disambiguation.' Jory Lerback, a geochemist at the University of California at Los Angeles, says, 'Given those complex dimensions, the best option for collecting data is simply to invite scientists to self-identify.' Raymond Givens, a cardiologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, also started privately tallying editors' ethnicities. The efforts got reported on website STAT. He says, 'A lot of journals have all of a sudden been shocked by being confronted in this way. But it's important to ask why it has taken them so long to start thinking about how to collect this kind of information.' American Chemical Society (ACS) pledged in June 2020 to collect demographic data to make its journals more representative of the communities it serves. Sarah Tegen, SVP at ACS journals publishing group, says, 'Designing the categories required some market research, with a goal of being inclusive and crafting questions that are clear and easy to answer...the data are a useful baseline for understanding the demographics of ACS journals.' Ann Morning, demographer at New York University, was hired by publishers as consultant to design a framework for asking about race and ethnicity. The draft questionnaire was pilot tested with 1000 anonymous repondents. Greater than 90% reported their race and ethnicity, and more than two-thirds said they felt well represented in the schema. About half said they would be comfortable providing this information when submitting a paper. Also some respondents were not willing to provide information. Keletso Makofane, a public-health researcher and activist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says,'The efforts of publishers are a fantastic start. But it's not just about authors and reviewers, it's important to look at the people who make the higher-level decisions about policies of the journals.' Ms. Lerback says, 'To engage the historically marginalized populations they hope to reach, publishers (and researchers studying how ethnicity affects scholarly publishing) must commit to engaging with these groups beyond simply asking for data. They should build trust by following up findings with action...Data is the currency of which policy gets implemented.' Read on...

Nature: The giant plan to track diversity in research journals
Authors: Holly Else, Jeffrey M. Perkel

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 nov 2021

Online education has been part of education strategy for many institutions and organizations even before COVID-19. According to National Center for Education Statistics (US Department of Education) website (nces.ed.gov), more than 30% of all students enrolled at postsecondary institutions took at least one online course in the fall 2016 term. Moreover, online education advocates suggest that departments offering online courses can support their students through the ease of access to coursework. But, 2013 research study 'The impact of online learning on students' course outcomes: Evidence from a large community and technical college system' by Di Xu of Columbia University and Shanna Smith Jaggars of Columbia University, indicates that students perform slightly worse and have lower course retention within online learning compared to traditional face-to-face classes. Recent study published in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis titled 'Increasing Success in Higher Education: The Relationships of Online Course Taking With College Completion and Time-to-Degree' (Authors: Christian Fischer of The University of Tübingen in Germany, Rachel Baker of University of California at Irvine, Qiujie Li University of California at Irvine, Gabe Avakian Orona University of California at Irvine, Mark Warschauer University of California at Irvine), examines how online courses relate to students’ four- and six-year graduation rates, as well as time-to-degree-completion for students who graduate college within six years. According to the findings of the study, 'Online course-taking is associated with more efficient college graduation. Students who are given the opportunity to take classes online graduate more quickly compared to students in departments that offer fewer online courses. We also find that online course-taking is associated with a higher likelihood of successfully graduating college within four years. Importantly, our findings seem robust for students who are generally considered at-risk in college environments.' Even though Online education may not be as effective as face-to-face education but the study suggests that there are other benefits that help in overall long-term educational success of students. Keeping online education portfolio, even after the pandemic, is a valuable proposition for educational institutions. Read on...

Brookings: Access to online college courses can speed students' degree completion
Authors: Christian Fischer, Rachel Baker, Qiujie Li, Gabe Avakian Orona, Mark Warschauer

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 jun 2021

According to the 2019 Reuter's report based on a study by Center for American Progress titled 'How Much Nature Should America Keep', the US needs to set a goal to protect 30% of land and oceans by 2030 to stem the rapid decline of natural areas, which will protect the country from the worst impacts of climate change and wildlife extinction. The report mentioned that the US has lost 24 million acres (9712455.41 hectares) of natural area, between 2001 and 2017 due to agriculture, energy development, housing sprawl and other human factors. This phenomenon is happening worldwide and many countries and cities are working to create open spaces and 'rewild' their communities to combat the global loss of nature. Rewilding restores an area to its original, uncultivated state, shifting away from the centuries-long practice of controlling and managing nature for human need. It incorporates both the old and the new, allowing wildness to reclaim an area and/or incorporating new elements of architectural or landscape design, like growing greenery on the facades of buildings. Rewilding is generally carried out in wild areas that have gone through deforestation. Many rewilding projects aim to restore biodiversity in an ecosystem. But now many cities are trying to rewild. Rewilding in urban areas might include reintroducing native plant species, building parks on empty lots, incorporating more biophilic design when building new structures, or simply allowing nature to reclaim space. A major draw to rewilding in urban areas is the proven positive impact of nature on human health - particularly for city-dwellers with less access to outdoor spaces. Following are the select 8 cities that are significantly embarking upon rewilding - (1) Singapore: The Gardens by the Bay have transformed Singapore from a 'Garden city' to a 'City in a Garden'. 18 'Supertrees' are dispersed throughout the landscape. They are not living things themselves, but these trees are home to over 158000 plants and mimic the functions of regular trees by providing shade, filtering rainwater, and absorbing heat. Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is also an example of rewilding in Singapore, incorporating elements of water-sensitive urban design and reducing the urban heat island effect in the city. Beyond parks, Singapore maintains more than 90 miles of Nature Ways - canopied corridors that connect green spaces, facilitating the movement of animals and butterflies from one natural area to another throughout the city. Singapore has also developed a City Biodiversity Index to examine and track the progress of biodiversity and conservation projects. (2) Nottingham, United Kingdom: The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has proposed a new vision for the empty Broadmarsh shopping center in the city - an urban oasis of wetlands, woodlands, and wildflowers. Replacing these 6 acres of development could set a precedent for how such spaces are redeveloped in the future. (3) Haerbin, China: The city of Haerbin which is the capital of China's northernmost province and which sees 60-70% of its annual precipitation from June-August, has taken a creative approach to address flooding by fostering a wetland in the middle of the city. The Qunli National Urban Wetland provides invaluable ecosystem services - collecting and filtering stormwater into the aquifer, recovering a native habitat vital to the surrounding ecosystem, and supplying a place for recreation in the city with a network of raised paths and viewing towers for visitors. (4) Dublin, Ireland: One-third of bee populations in Ireland are threatened with extinction, so the country has begun retiring their lawnmowers and letting grasses grow high. Dublin created a 2015-2020 Biodiversity Action Plan, aimed at reducing mowing and herbicide use in parks, roadsides, and other green spaces. By letting native plants grow instead of maintaining monocropped, chemical-laden lawns, native insect, bird, and bee populations thrive. 80% of the city's green spaces are now 'pollinator-friendly'. (5) Sydney and Melbourne, Australia: Australia has caught on to the biophilic cities movement - a different design approach that brings nature and urbanites together, welcomes back native species, and makes even the densest cities more 'natureful'. The biophilic One Central Park in Chippendale – a suburb of Sydney – is known for its vertical hanging gardens, which incorporate 35200 plants of 383 different species more than 1120 square meters of the building's surface. Melbourne has also taken similar action with the Green Our City strategic action plan, which outlines how nature can be brought back into the city through green walls and roofs. (6) Hanover, Frankfurt, and Dessau, Germany: As a part of the Städte Wagen Wildnis ('Cities Venturing into Wilderness', or 'Cities Dare Wilderness') Project, Hanover, Frankfurt, and Dessau, Germany have agreed to set aside plots in cities – such as the sites of former buildings, parks, vacant lots, etc. – where nature will be allowed to take over. The resulting wildflower gardens and untamed nature will create new habitats for plant and animal species, and thus will increase the overall biodiversity of these cities. (7) New York City, United States: On the site of a former elevated railroad, the High Line gardens have become a staple attraction of Manhattan. The High Line gardeners work to facilitate the natural processes occurring in this landscape, allowing plants to compete, spread out, and grow/change as they would in nature. a valuable habitat for native butterflies, birds, and insects – and, of course, the hundreds of plant species covering its surface. (8) Barcelona, Spain: After the six-week coronavirus-induced lockdown in April'2020, the population of Barcelona found that the city was bursting with growth. With parks closed, nature had begun to reclaim spaces. In May and June of 2020, the Urban Butterfly Monitor Scheme found significant increases in biodiversity - 28% more species per park overall, 74% more butterflies, and an explosion of plant growth during the spring rains that supplied more insects for birds to feed on. Inspired by these changes, the city is now working to create 49000 square meters of 'greened' streets and 783300 of green open space. Furthermore, beehives and insect hotels have been dispersed throughout the city, as well as 200 bird- and bat-nesting towers to encourage even more biodiversity. Read on...

EcoWatch: 8 Cities Rewilding Their Urban Spaces
Author: Linnea Harris

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 aug 2020

COVID-19 pandemic has affected art and culture sector, and significantly impacted talent associated with it. Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO in her message on World Art Day (15 April 2020), celebrated on the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci, said, 'Bringing people together, inspiring, soothing and sharing: these are the powers of art, the importance of which has been made emphatically obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic.' The art community is adapting to the new challenges and finding innovative solutions to keep the spirit alive. The program, 'Arts and Culture Education Change-Up', a collaboration between South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Culture and Arts Education Service and the Seokyeong University Arts Education Center, has come up with something positive during the pandemic. The program teaches and supports creative people who are interested in social entrepreneurial projects in the field of arts and culture education. Han Jeong-seop, professor and dean of the Seokyeong University Arts Education Center, says, 'If it were not for COVID-19, we might not have brought those international guest speakers or have participants from Jeju Island due to geographical factors...We wanted to showcase how overseas cultural social enterprises play a role in resolving social problems between the public and private sector.' The participants in the online interaction included representatives from STEPS (Canada-based charitable public art organization that develops one-of-a-kind public art plans, installations and engagement strategies that foster vibrant communities), and Starcatchers (Scotland-based art organization specializing in creating performances and exploring creative activities for babies, toddlers and young children up to the age of five and the adults who care for them). Anjuli Solanki, program director of the STEPS Initiative, says, 'Applying our multidisciplinary expertise, we strive to develop a strong contextual understanding of the neighborhoods and sites we are working in for all our projects. Our goal is to create iconic public works that attract widespread attention by transforming underutilized public spaces.' Bebhinn Jennings, program manager at STEPS, says, 'The pandemic has highlighted our need to connect, to be inspired and to contribute to our communities. As such, art and public art in particular are increasingly important as they offer numerous entry points for engagement. Public art can both beautify a space, and ignite dialogues around important issues such has climate change, public health and systemic inequalities - all conversations that have been active throughout the pandemic.' Rhona Matheson, chief executive of Starcatchers, says, 'We know we are not going to be able to tour any of our productions until at least spring 2021 so our focus is on providing a range of activities that parents or childcare settings can share with very young children. Retaining a connection with audiences has been very important and making the offers through our online activities has been essential. Similarly, being able to retain connection with the families who participate in our community engagement programs has been very important - this has been a means to offer support to young families who experience social and rural isolation and have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.' Lee In-kyung, an art instructor at an alternative school on Jeju Island, says, 'If it were not operated online, it would be very difficult and time-consuming for me to participate in a training program held in Seoul. Now I can communicate with other social entrepreneurs while on Jeju...We made environmental picture books and tried junk art, campaigning for environment. I realized that students could learn better through empirical art education.' She developed such experiences into an idea for a social enterprise, aiming to support teenagers to cultivate creativity, problem-solving skills and empathic abilities. Kim Soo-jung, CEO of Open Your Arts and in the second year of Change-Up program, says, 'I wanted to provide sustainable art education for socially disadvantaged children, but it was impossible to solve the problem as a volunteer. So I came up with this art educational kit developed in collaboration with artists...Their (Starcatchers and STEPS) business model is not based nor suitable for online, but it was interesting to see the possibility of online platforms, transcending physical or regional limitations.' Read on...

The Korea Times: Social enterprise bridges art, community amid pandemic
Author: Kwon Mee-yoo

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 aug 2020

Collaborative and coordinated efforts by multiple agencies and institutions are needed to manage, control and overcome a crisis like COVID-19 pandemic. Team from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is partnering with Commonwealth of Pennsylvania agencies and stakeholders in the areas of public health, economics, and emergency management, to create data-based tools for informed decision-making and strengthen planning efforts of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to re-open the state's economy. Some of the main criteria to determine when a region is ready to re-open and return to work will include - The incidence rate of COVID-19 cases per capita will be evaluated and several public health requirements must be met; A region need to have an average of less than 50 cases per 100000 individuals over the course of 14 days to return to work; Enough testing available for individuals with symptoms and target populations; Robust case investigation and contact tracing infrastructure need to place; Identification of an area's high-risk settings must be made and would include adequate healthcare facilities with sufficient safeguards and equipments. The model dashboard developed through the collaboration will take a regional and sector-based approach to re-openings, the easing of restrictions and response. This data-driven decision support tool will help to better understand the current health and economic status, as well as the inherent risks and benefits to re-opening certain businesses and industry areas. Using data that considers worker exposure and spread risks, health care capacity, economic impact and supply chain impact, the administration will prioritize re-openings where it has the potential for the most positive impact on the economy for workers and businesses, while mitigating risk to public health and safety. Ramayya Krishnan, dean of CMU's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and director of CMU's Block Center for Technology and Society, says, 'The purpose is to provide important information to the governor's team to make data informed decision. For example, all indicators could point to opening a specific county, but other factors, such as population density around a hotspot, availability of supplies to ensure workers are protected, or Department of Health criteria could make the county unfit to open.' The multidisciplinary team from CMU involved in the project include - Laurence Ales; Kasun Amarasinghe; Scott Andes; Gary Franko; Rayid Ghani; Jared Kohler; Tim McNulty; Illah Nourbakhsh; Roni Rosenfeld; Randy Sargent; Richard A. Stafford; Chris Telmer; Anne Wright; Ariel Zetlin-Jones; Xuege Zhang. Other contrubutors to the project include - Beibei Li; Lee Branstetter; Jon Caulkins; Karen Clay; Baruch Fischhoff; Marty Gaynor; Joel Greenhouse; Po-Shen Loh; Dan Nagin; Rema Padman; Wes Pegden; Lowell Taylor; Hai Wang; Peter Zhang. Read on...

Carnegie Mellon University News: CMU Dashboard Will Help Inform State Decision-Makers During Pandemic
Author: Jason Maderer

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 apr 2020

COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecended disaster that is simultaneously affecting all parts of the world. Global healthcare infrastructure has been found wanting to effectively face the challenge of the outbreak with some of the best healthcare systems struggling to cope with the deluge of patients. On the economic and social front the impact of the pandemic will continue even after the direct health threat has subsided. World has to proactively strategize and plan to stop such outbreaks from escalating and individual countries have to better prepare their healthcare systems to tackle them. The current pandemic will provide lessons and bring subsequent changes to the global healthcare systems - (1) Reskilling of health workers will be taken with focus on infectious diseases. Changes in health education and training are expected to better prepare for such outbreaks. Global health governance will need further improvement. (2) Global governance organizations like UN and OECD need to coordinate and work better in such circumstances. Global organizations need a rapid realignment of roles to respond in global pandemics and disasters. (3) Maintaining strategic stockpiles of essential goods and medical supplies will prove advantageous. (4) Greater government control over essential pharmaceutical production and medical equipment manufacturing. (5) More emphasis on vaccine research with focus on its availability to all. (6) There will be bridging of the traditional divide between the developed and developing world in terms of global health practice. Developing countries will start investing in building their own public health capacity with long-term focus. (7) Universal Health Coverage (UHC) should become the top priority in the global health agenda. More investments are required in health and there is need to build strong primary healthcare system. Read on...

Moneycontrol: COVID-19: 7 changes to expect in the global healthcare system
Author: Philip Mathew

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 11 jan 2020

Food security problem is a global concern. Everyone should become a part of the solution. Technologies like drones, data analytics, blockchain etc can assist in solving some of the issues related to farming and agriculture. This is what Agriculture 4.0 is all about. It is a new age of food production that leverages digital technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) to cater more precisely to the needs of crops, farmers and consumers. The coming together of - farming communities, researchers and policy makers; farm equipment and machinery, biotechnology, computer and telecommunication companies - can bring agriculture to a new state of success. Multinational agriculture and biotech companies are competing in the race to achieve the technological breakthroughs and expand their businesses and profits. Advocates of Agriculture 4.0 believe that it will solve the food security problems of the future. While critics on the other hand caution that without proper regulation few big companies will attain huge monopolistic power in global agricultural decision-making that will adversely affect small producers. According to the 2018 report Agriculture 4.0 by World Government Summit, approximately 800 million people currently suffer from hunger and by 2050 we will have to produce 70% more food to feed the world. Juanita Rodríguez, Vice-Chancellor of Innovation at Ean University (Colombia), says, 'Even though it's still not widely known, this fourth revolution in agriculture has been agile and its benefits are beginning to show, helping farmers maximise crop yields and developing ways to stop the epidemic of waste that destroys 45% of our supply.' In Mexico, Mexican engineer Julio López and German economist Manuel Richter, have created a platform helping producers to manage their crops using drone and satellite technology. Mr. Richter says, 'There is a huge potential to make the work more efficient, reduce agro-inputs, improve water use, lower environmental impact and create more economic sustainability for the farmer.' Big data use and privacy are other areas that are part of Agriculture 4.0. In 2018, North American companies spent almost US$ 20 billion on third-party data, 17.5% more than in 2017. Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America director of the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC), says, 'Companies have a huge amount of data at their disposal. They can convert it into another business. What lies behind this is the generation of new profits.' Gabriel Cuéllar, an AI researcher, says, 'Data is the new oil. Companies today need data to make their systems more powerful.' Big data and analytics has positive side in agriculture and can assist farmers in effectively detecting pests, spotting failures in agricultural processes, or understanding market demands. The question with data is not only who is collecting it, but who can analyse it, and who wins or loses as a result. In the report 'The Unsustainable Agriculture 4.0 - Digitization and Corporate Power in the Food Chain', Pat Mooney of ETC explains his concerns on big data in agriculture. He believes that the concentration of power in agricultural data collection could result in a few companies controlling seed patenting data, pesticides, fertilisers and machinery, leaving little or no option for farmers and workers to choose what they buy. In recent times many multinationals have been drawn into controversy regarding Agriculture 4.0. According to Ms. Rodríguez, there is also a significant hacking risk associated with Internet of Things devices. Dennis Escudero from UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says, 'The profile of the farmer is changing. It is more digital. You have to understand the new tools. They don't threaten farmers, they empower them.' Read on...

Diálogo Chino: Agriculture 4.0 promises to transform food production
Authors: Emilio Godoy, Alejandra Cuéllar

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 jan 2020

Tackling climate change and protecting environment is critical for the better future of our planet. Current agricultural practices and economic policies that surround it have substantial impact on the natural environment. Prof. Benjamin Houlton, director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment at the University of Califoria at Davis and champion of the One Climate Initiative, says, 'Agriculture might just be the single most important industry on the planet for creating negative carbon emissions under current economic policy. Carbon farming is the key to help solve climate change. Farmers and ranchers can capture carbon and store it in the soil. They can create negative emissions, which means the amount of greenhouse gases that are going into the air from their industry is lower than the amount that they're drawing out of the air.' Prof. Houlton plans to further develop the carbon farm project through One Climate. He explains, 'The One Climate vision is about transforming society in a way that is sustainable, produces the jobs we need, trains the next generation of leaders and creates a climate-smart workforce. And one of the centerpieces of One Climate is creating the world's most innovative carbon farm.' Carbon farming involves using resources such as compost, biochar and pulverized rock, and using enhanced weathering - basically, accelerating Earth's natural processes - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Explaining about biochar, Prof. Houlton says, 'We've teamed up with industry partners to use biochar, which is taking organic carbon like trees, vegetation and manure, and burning it slightly at a high temperature. It becomes more resistant to breakdown and helps with water and nutrient use, while also storing carbon for longer periods of time.' In California, biochar can reduce wildfires by removing trees that could be a fire risk and putting it into the soil. Similarly, compost deposits green waste or food waste into the soil to create a carbon sink. Read on...

UC Davis Magazine: How Can Agriculture Be a Part of the Climate Solution?
Author: Ashley Han

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 14 nov 2019

Achieving global food security is a challenge that requires all humanity to participate and work together. It is imperative to improve food production and distribution, tackle environmental degradation and climate change, alleviate poverty and resolve conflicts through peaceful means. Prof. Miguel Altieri of University of California at Berkeley focuses his research on the concepts of agroecology. His group's research and publications aid in the emergence of agroecology as the discipline that provides the basic ecological principles for how to study, design, and manage sustainable agroecosystems that are both productive and natural resource conserving, and that are also culturally-sensitive, socially-just and economically viable. He explains that urban agriculture has potential to enhance food security in US cities. According to him, 'I believe that raising fresh fruits, vegetables and some animal products near consumers in urban areas can improve local food security and nutrition, especially for underserved communities.' US Dept. of Agriculture estimates that for 1 out of 8 citizens food insecurity is a near-term risk. The current food distribution system in cities of Califormia, where large population resides, requires enormous amounts of energy and generates significant greenhouse gas emissions. Prof. Altieri says, 'The food it delivers fails to reach 1 of every 8 people in the region who live under the poverty line - mostly senior citizens, children and minorities. Access to quality food is limited both by poverty and the fact that on average, California’s low-income communities have 32.7% fewer supermarkets than high-income areas within the same cities.' In the past 30 years, urban farming has grown by more than 30% in the US. Moreover, it is estimated that urban agriculture can meet 15 to 20% of global food demand. But, it is yet to be seen what level of food self-sufficiency it can realistically ensure for cities. There are limitations and challenges. According to a survey, 51 countries do not have enough urban area to meet a recommended nutritional target of 300 grams per person per day of fresh vegetables. Moreover, it estimated, urban agriculture would require 30% of the total urban area of those countries to meet global demand for vegetables. Land tenure issues and urban sprawl could make it hard to free up this much land for food production. Prof. Altieri explains, 'Although urban agriculture has promise, a small proportion of the food produced in cities is consumed by food-insecure, low-income communities. Many of the most vulnerable people have little access to land and lack the skills needed to design and tend productive gardens.' Cuban model of urban farming can be applied, where local urban farmers were trained to use well-tested agroecological methods to cultivate diverse vegetables, roots, tubers and herbs in relatively small spaces. In Cuba, over 300000 urban farms and gardens produce about 50% of the island's fresh produce supply, along with 39000 tons of meat and 216 million eggs. Most Cuban urban farmers reach yields of 44 pounds (20 kilograms) per square meter per year. Access to land and unaffordable water for irrigation are critical challenges for urban farming in US. Discounted water rates and land reforms specifically for urban farming can provide a boost to the concept. Prof. Altieri says, 'Cities have limited ability to deal with food issues within their boundaries, and many problems associated with food systems require action at the national and international level. However, city governments, local universities and nongovernment organizations can do a lot to strengthen food systems, including creating agroecological training programs and policies for land and water access. The first step is increasing public awareness of how urban farming can benefit modern cities.' Read on...

The Conversation: How urban agriculture can improve food security in US cities
Author: Miguel Altieri

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 sep 2019

To tackle complex issues facing the world like environment protection, peace building, human rights, poverty, hunger etc, requires coming together of people, organizations and governments to find solutions through sharing diverse ideas, collaborative efforts and pooled resources. Around the world various platforms are developed to provide just that. At Stanford Social Innovation Review's (SSIR) Nonprofit Management Institute 2019, leaders and experts from diverse fields converged to address the economic and emotional anxieties facing civil society leaders and shared advice for moving forward with confidence. Prof. Tyrone McKinley Freeman of Indiana University said, 'We must pull more people into the philanthropic circle.' Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland said, 'We have got to think big and be less afraid of losing something through collaboration.' Jeffrey Moore, Chief Strategy Officer of Independent Sector, said, 'We have to co-create everything with community.' Charlotte Pera, President & CEO of ClimateWorks, said, 'We have to work together in and across philanthropy, civil society, government, academia.' Mayor Michael Tubbs of Stockton said, 'Change in collaboration really only moves at the speed of trust.' Bradford Smith, President of Candid, said, 'Building those relationships will take more than nice memos about teaming up - try joint projects.' The event had various sessions and here are the highlights - (1) THE CHANGING FACE OF AMERICAN PHILANTHROPY: Kim Meredith, Executive Director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and Prof. Tyrone Freeman of Indiana University and co-author of 'Race, Gender, and Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations', discussed common myths of modern philanthropy, the true history of giving by minority groups in the US, and ideas on how to better connect with givers in anxious times. (2) MOVING FORWARD - MERGERS AS A GROWTH STRATEGY: David La Piana, Managing Partner of La Piana Consulting, Rinku Sen, a racial justice activist, author, and strategist, and Bradford Smith, President of Candid, discussed the upsides and risks of nonprofit mergers.' (3) VITAL BALANCE - INNOVATION AND SCALING FOR IMPACT IN THE SOCIAL SECTOR: Christian Seelos, co-author of the best-selling book 'Innovation and Scaling for Impact and co-director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at Stanford PACS, examined various 'innovation pathologies' that can derail organizations and 'innovation archetypes' - case study-based models that sidestep these threats, blending innovation with scaling. (4) LEVERAGING TALENT - THE POWER OF SKILLS-BASED VOLUNTEERING: Danielle Holly, CEO of Common Impact, Cecily Joseph, former VP of CSR at Symantec, and Greg Kimbrough, Lead Director of executive development at the Boys & Girls Club of America, shared insights gleaned from their experiences with volunteer programs. They talked about how can skills-based volunteering engage and strengthen your teams amid transitional, high-anxiety, or crisis situations. (5) ACHIEVING GREAT THINGS - THE ART AND SCIENCE OF ASPIRATIONAL COMMUNICATION: Doug Hattaway, President of Hattaway Communications, explored the best ways to use strategy, science, and storytelling to connect with an audience. (6) WORKING TOGETHER - HOW PUBLIC SECTOR AND NONPROFIT LEADERS CAN COLLABORATE TO TACKLE TOUGHEST CHALLENGES: Mayors Libby Schaaf of Oakland and Michael Tubbs of Stockton spoke with Autumn McDonald, Director of New America CA, about the best ways to build successful, mutually beneficial partnerships between local government and nonprofits. (7) TRUST, POWER, EQUITY - TELLING BETTER STORY TO OURSELVES AND THE WORLD: Jeffrey Moore, Chief Strategy Officer of Independent Sector, examined trends with the potential to restore the nonprofit sector's self-confidence and bring back the public's trust in it. (8) WEATHERING THE STORM - LESSONS ON EFFECTIVELY MANAGING THROUGH TOUGH TIMES: Maria Orozco, Principal of The Bridgespan Group, explored lessons from the last recession and drew from her organization's work in the years since to share insight on surviving and thriving in difficult times. (9) ACTIVATING AUDIENCES - PARTNERING BEYOND THE 'USUAL SUSPECTS' TO SPOTLIGHT SOCIAL ISSUES: Jessica Blank, a writer, director, actor, lecturer, and social innovator, Nicole Starr, VP for social impact at Participant Media, Marya Bangee, Executive Director of Harness, and Prof. Courtney Cogburn of Columbia University, discussed how storytelling can expand and accelerate social change and provided advice on how to wield narratives. (10) LEADING WITH PURPOSE - ACCEPTANCE, MINDFULNESS, AND SELF-COMPASSION: Leah Weiss, lecturer at Stanford GSB and the author of 'How We Work', described how to lead with acceptance and resilience using proven self-compassion and mindfulness techniques. (11) CLIMATE CHANGE - THE POWER OF TRANSCENDENT ISSUE TO MOTIVATE AND AFFECT REAL CHANGE: Larry Kramer, President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Charlotte Pera, President & CEO of ClimateWorks Foundation, discussed the impact of climate change on society and nonprofits. Read on...

Stanford Social Innovation Review: The Speed of Trust in an Anxious Era: Recap of the 2019 Nonprofit Management Institute
Authors: M. Amedeo Tumolillo, Barbara Wheeler-Bride

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 sep 2019

In the closing speech of United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, 'You understand that climate emergency is the fight of our lives, and for our lives. I thank young people around the world for leading the charge – and holding my generation accountable. We have been losing the race against climate crisis. But the world is waking up. Pressure is building. Momentum is growing. And - action by action - the tide is turning.' Not so long ago, Ernest Hemingway (Novelist and Nobel Laureate) said, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.' And now the stern remarks of Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, in the UN Climate Summit resonated around the world and were call to action for governments, businesses and all those responsible. Although all humans have responsibility to maintain the environment, but along with governments, businesses have extra responsibility towards the upkeep of environment, particularly those that use natural resources or have direct impact on natural environment. So, what it takes to be a sustainable business? The answers are many and approaches different. In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.' For businesses to be sustainable would require change in current practices and they come with a cost. They have to evolve strategies towards sustainability by taking all the stakeholders on board. Moreover, one's move to sustainability may impact the environment in some other way. So, there are challenges to attain sustainability. Here are 4 reasons why it's hard for businesses to be sustainable - (1) THERE IS NO SINGLE DEFINITION OF 'SUSTAINABILITY': UN's Mr. Guterres in the recent Summit sets the goal to completely transform the world's economies to be more sustainable and find solutions to climate change. A daunting task considering the slow pace governments and businesses have been moving in that direction so far. Geoffrey Jones, a business history professor at Harvard University and the author of 'Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship', says, 'There is a crippling vagueness about what sustainability means. While carbon emissions are receiving much of the focus because of climate change, deforestation, water shortages and soil erosion are also serious problems that should not be ignored.' Lack of clear definition translates to lack of accountability. At present few companies can provide hard evidence that their businesses are not negatively impacting environment. Socially responsible investment funds (Environmental, Social & Governance - ESG) often include oil & gas companies, and also those that have plastics as an essential component of their business model. Businesses are tryig but it is a long way to go before they become truly sustainable. (2) DETERMINING THE VALUE OF SUSTAINABILITY: Switch to sustainability is costly for businesses. Bruno Sarda, President of the Carbon Disclosure Project North America, says, 'Someone can come up with a cost of doing something different much more quickly than determining what is the value to the business.' Sustainability solutions can be complex and expensive. (3) CONSUMING LESS CAN REDUCE PROFITS: Experts suggest that less consumption is road to sustainability. But, it is contrary to the basics of businesses - more consumption, more profits. There are exceptions though. Doug Freeman, COO of Patagonia (an outdoor clothing and gear company), says, 'We hope our existing customers do indeed buy less. But we hope to attract more customers that are interested in our message: to build the best product, to reduce our impact and cause the least amount of environmental harm.' (4) CLIMATE SOLUTIONS REQUIRE COLLECTIVE ACTION: 'Tragedy of the commons', an economic problem, creates a situation of competitive consumption of natural resources thereby depleting them. To overcome this, collaboration and cooperation, is imperative. Companies are now teaming up with each other and with environmental nonprofits. Joanne Sonenshine, CEO of Connective Impact, says, 'By working together, companies gain more leverage in the national and global marketplace and legitimacy in the eyes of consumers. If you have a group of very respectable nonprofits or research agencies saying we are working with this company because we believe they can make a change, that puts a lot of credence behind what they are trying to do.' Read on...

PBS: 4 reasons it's hard to become a sustainable business
Author: Gretchen Frazee

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 aug 2019

According to Wikipedia, 'Place branding (including place marketing and place promotion) is a new umbrella term encompassing nation branding, region branding and city branding. Place branding is the process of image communication to a target market. It is invariably related to the notion that places compete with other places for people, resources, and business...A place brand is a network of associations in the place consumers' mind based on the visual, verbal, and behavioral expression of a place and its' stakeholders. These associations differ in their influence within the network and in importance for the place consumers' attitude and behavior (Erik Braun, Sebastian Zenker; 2017). It therefore aims to affect the perceptions of a place and position it favourably in the minds of the target groups. Place branding can even be considered as a governance strategy for projecting images and managing perceptions about places (Erik Braun, Jasper Eshuis, Erik-Hans Klijn; 2014).' Bill Baker, veteran place brander and author of the recent book, 'Place Branding for Small Cities, Regions and Downtowns: The Essentials for Successful Destinations', while speeking with Bobby McGill, founder and publisher of Branding in Asia, shares insights based on his long experience in destination marketing and tourism development. Mr. Baker says, 'Tourism can play a very positive role as part of an economic development strategy. However, locations around the world are recognizing that there is the need for a tourism masterplan to balance the marketing of the destination with the need for sustainable and harmonious development to meet community values and aspirations while meeting the needs of external audiences.' Explaing some of the mistakes in place branding, he says, 'The most common mistake or weakness that we see in place branding very often relates to positioning. Defining the brand position for a city, downtown or region is, without a doubt, the most important and trickiest part of the entire process. If they don't get this part right, everything else will miss its mark, since it's the positioning and its relevance to target audiences that informs and shapes all other elements of the brand. Compounding this is the challenge of dealing with the many competing voices of stakeholders.' He also cautions, 'Place branding can be a perilous journey. Some do a great job with defining their brand identity, but soon falter or fail when it comes to deployment and brand management, and the consistency needed to follow the agreed strategy. Others are unable to sustain the leadership, funding, personnel, and partner enthusiasm required to succeed...Our experiences have shown that a lack of understanding about branding, particularly among key decision-makers can be the Waterloo or graveyard for a place branding initiative. Unless staff and committees can get beyond thinking in terms of logos and taglines, or mistaking a snappy campaign theme, then their efforts to define and deploy a genuine, unifying place brand will likely fail.' Regarding the book, he says, 'The focus of my book is on smaller cities and regions, and their focus may not be on tourism alone. Instead, their brand development may be centered on an overarching brand to embrace tourism, economic development, education, relocation and inward investment. Developing an overarching brand often brings to the table many participants who may not be familiar with branding, or in some cases, marketing.' He suggests, 'A multitude of stakeholders will be, or at least should be, involved in revealing a city or downtown brand, and this will depart from the accepted path for branding corporate products and services. One reason for this variation is the composite nature of places. They are a compilation of many independent and competing businesses, products, and experiences that are owned and managed by many different entities. There's no single custodian or owner of the brand. Community leaders who are aware of the differences in branding places and consumer goods are in a much better space to adapt to these challenges when they become evident...One of the leading determiners regarding who will lead the effort comes down to who is funding the project. Place branding frequently involves a single source of funding...Economic development organizations and DMOs (Direct Marketing Organizations) are usually the best-situated entities to plan, coordinate, and manage a place branding initiative...Determining the lead organization can involve balancing acts...Hence, the calls for DMOs to broaden their roles within communities and bring all parties together.' Read on...

Branding in Asia: Q&A: Insights from Veteran Place Branding Guru Bill Baker
Author: Bobby McGill

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 jul 2019

Experts' views are divided on how non-profit hospitals benefit communities. In US, non-profit hospitals received tax-benefits valued at over US$ 24 billion annually in 2011. In exchange for tax exemptions these hospitals provide 'community benefits' like free and subsidized care, investments in public health, community-based health initiatives intended to address the social determinants of health, such as food or housing insecurity. But, many observers argue that hospitals avoid making sustained community investments in favor of counting millions of dollars of 'discounts' to low-income patients as community benefits while aggressively pursuing unpaid bills. Krisda Chaiyachati and Rachel Werner, Senior Fellows at LDI University of Pennsylvania, have recently written two research to add information to this debate. They provide detailed estimates of how much hospitals spend on different types of community benefits, whether community benefits are matched to local need, and what effects community benefits have on health outcomes. Mr. Chaiyachati and Ms. Werner analyzed IRS tax data from over 1600 non-profit hospitals. By law, hospitals report total spending on community benefits, broken out by health care-related spending (e.g. free care), community-directed spending (e.g. anti-smoking initiatives or funds for local community organizations), and research and educational activities. To standardize comparisons, the authors measured all spending as shares of total hospital expenditures. Researchers find out that hospitals still rely on discounted charity care to meet community benefits requirements. In 2014, non-profit hospitals reported that they spent an average of 8.1% (US$ 17 million) of their total expenditures on community benefits, more than 80% of which was health care-related. On average, 6.7% (US$ 11 million) of expenditures were on health care services, compared to 0.7% (US$ 1.2 million) for community-directed contributions. The remainder of community benefits were on educational and research initiatives. The results are disappointing in light of a second study from Ms. Werner and Mr. Chaiyachati, which suggests that community-directed spending could improve health outcomes, specifically, 30-day readmission rates. Readmissions rates are a useful measure of health care quality-capturing in-hospital care, discharge planning, and follow-up. Since the Affordable Care Act, hospitals have been financially penalized for high readmission rates. The evidence from research suggests that increased investment in the social determinants of health, rather than simply writing off free care, has a significant impact on measurable health outcomes. Read on...

Penn LDI Blog: How Do Non-profit Hospitals Give Back?
Author: Aaron Glickman

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 jun 2019

Wikipedia explains 'Spin' as, 'A form of propaganda in public relations and politics that is achieved through knowingly providing a biased interpretation of an event or campaigning to persuade public opinion in favor or against some organization or public figure. While traditional public relations and advertising may also rely on altering the presentation of the facts, "spin" often implies the use of disingenuous, deceptive, and highly manipulative tactics.' Researchers (Paris Descartes University: Isabelle Boutron, Romana Haneef, Philippe Ravaud; Hôpital Hôtel Dieu, Paris: Amélie Yavchitz, Gabriel Baron; Inspire: John Novack; New York University: Ivan Oransky; University of Minnesota: Gary Schwitzer) in their study, 'Three randomized controlled trials evaluating the impact of "spin" in health news stories reporting studies of pharmacologic treatments on patients'/caregivers' interpretation of treatment benefit', published in journal BMC Medicine, found that participants were more likely to believe the treatment was beneficial when news stories were reported with spin. Prof. Gary Schwitzer of University of Minnesota and founder/publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, says, 'This is important research because misinterpretation of the content of news stories due to spin could have important public health consequences as news articles can affect patient and public behavior.' Prof. Schwitzer says that spin can originate in all stages of the flow of information from researchers to the public. Researchers suggest that spin can be managed by taking the following steps - Train researchers to understand how the public uses the media and, in response, frame their communication to the public in a way which is truthful, relevant, understandable and devoid of distortion or hype; Train PR professionals, journalists and other communicators to detect spin and accurately convey research results; Educate news consumers on the resources available to help them critically evaluate health claims; Support research for developing ideal approaches for communicating scientific and health information. Read on...

University of Minnesota News: Research Brief: Evaluating the effect of spin in health care news
Author: NA

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