World doi: 10.3390/world5020010
Authors: Irery L. Melchor-Duran Allan Villegas-Mateos
This study aims to contribute to advancing the understanding of entrepreneurial ecosystems, Latin American development, and the evolution and future perspectives of the Middle East. It used a cross-sectional research design and quantitative data with 750 observations from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, specifically the National Experts Survey and the Adult Population Survey. The results were analyzed by the Partial Least Squares Technique (PLS-SEM) by grouping countries into two balanced samples of underexplored regions: the Middle East and Latin America. The two regions, Latin America and the Middle East, have diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems; each condition impacts entrepreneurial activities in different ways. In Latin America, the most significant variable is “Physical Infrastructure”, while in the Middle East, the most significant determinants are “Commercial and Professional Infrastructure” and “Entrepreneurship Culture”. This study shows that to support entrepreneurial activities, each region requires different settings for their entrepreneurial ecosystems. It contributes to the literature on regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and to less explored regions to advance our understanding, which will drive better policies and actions.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5020009
Authors: Rosley Anholon Tiago F. A. C. Sigahi Gustavo Tietz Cazeri Patricia Fernanda da Silva Siltori Wagner Luiz Lourenzani Eduardo Guilherme Satolo Adriana Cristina Ferreira Caldana Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes Vitor William Batista Martins Izabela Simon Rampasso
This paper presents an innovative experience involving students and professors from diverse backgrounds and regions that was designed to integrate corporate sustainability (CS) knowledge into undergraduate programs. An action research approach was adopted, with the course running over one semester. The course involved 146 students with diverse academic backgrounds from universities across Brazil along with eight professors from Brazil, Chile, and South Africa. The proposed approach provides actionable insights into the integration of sustainability concepts in the higher educational setting, thereby contributing to the development of a more environmentally and socially conscious generation of professionals. The learning outcomes are discussed in the light of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Agenda, particularly SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and SDG 13 (climate action). In addition, it is important to highlight that the dissemination of the course’s key features can be useful for universities, professors, and researchers engaged in training future professionals capable of addressing real-world problems of innovation and sustainability. By employing an action research methodology and fostering collaboration among students and professors with diverse academic backgrounds and from different countries, including Brazil, Chile, and South Africa, this paper presents a multiregional and interdisciplinary perspective that sets it apart from conventional practices. The emphasis on providing actionable insights and its potential applicability for universities, professors, and researchers involved in training future professionals further underscore its distinctive contribution to education for sustainable development.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010008
Authors: Deus R. Rutehenda Christopher Adaku Timothy Omara Christopher Angiro Emmanuel Ntambi
Urban vegetable farming in wetlands and riverbanks are common features of Ugandan cities. However, urbanization has led to various anthropogenic activities that can lead to the pollution of water resources, enrichment of pollutants in soils and, consequently, pollutant bioaccumulation in edible tissues of plants cultivated on such soils. In this study, we report on the levels of six trace metals (TMTs) in 75 samples of leafy vegetables (Brassica oleracea L., Spinacia oleracea L., Amaranthus hybridus L., Cucurbita pepo L. and Solanum nigrum L.) and soils (n = 75) grown on the banks of River Rwizi, the second longest river in Uganda only after the Nile River. The concentrations of TMTs (Mn, Zn, Cd, Pb, Cr and Cu) in edible vegetable tissues and soils were quantified using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The mean concentrations (in mg kg−1) of the TMTs in the soil samples were 205–373.84 (Mn), 12.72–65.04 (Zn), 0.26–0.42 (Cd), 3.36–16.80 (Pb), 5.96–25.06 (Cr) and 2.83–35.27 (Cu). In vegetable samples, the concentrations ranged from 43.25 to 110.00 (Mn), 1.08 to 1.83 (Cd), 41.06 to 71.20 (Zn), 4.31 to 6.16 (Pb), 0.65 to 0.81 (Cr) and 5.70 to 14.35 (Cu). With the exception of Mn and Cr, the rest of the TMTs were bioaccumulated in the edible vegetable tissues (bioconcentration factors = 1.03 to 10.71). Considering chronic daily intake through ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation of the TMTs in soils from the banks of River Rwizi, there are no potential non-cancer and carcinogenic health effects that could be experienced in both adults and children. Consumption of leafy vegetables could pose both non-cancer health risks (from ingestion of Zn, Pb, Cr, Mn and Cd) and cancer health risks (due to intake of Cd) in both children and adults. There is therefore a need to enforce regulations to mitigate the pollution of River Rwizi for a more sustainable economic development.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010007
Authors: Canan M. Ozsoy M. Pinar Mengüç
In this paper, we outline a transdisciplinary approach and design thinking methodology (TADTM) to tackle complex problems. Our premise is that these problems need a fundamental understanding of technological solutions and those for human interactions, business operations, financing, socioeconomic governance, legislation, and regulations. They must be approached by different decisionmakers from different disciplines to establish seamless interactions and structured teamwork. In this regard, we emphasize the need for a transdisciplinary framework that accounts for personal preferences based on human behavior as well as the traditional interdisciplinary frameworks. To test and prove our hypothesis, three case studies are discussed. Case Study 1 is based on our studies at a major medical establishment, and Case Study 2 is about the integrated engineering and architecture approach we used at our university campus. Case Study 3 is based on an ongoing project to lead industrial corporations to change their energy policies with practical energy efficiency measures and by adapting renewable/alternative energy adaptations for their operations. Developing creative solutions and strategies to decrease atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions requires such an energy transition framework and should involve every person, company, entity, and all governments. It can only be achieved with efforts on both local and global levels, which needs to convince (a) industries to change their traditional operation modalities, (b) people to alter their consumption behaviors, and (c) governments to change their rules, regulations, and incentives. The complexity and magnitude of this enormous task demand the coordination and collaboration of all stakeholders, as well as the need for technological innovations.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010006
Authors: Nikša Alfirević Igor Jerković Petra Jelić Damir Piplica Darko Rendulić
We offer practical, case-based experiences on sustainability reporting in higher education institutions (HEIs), with a focus on the integration of sustainability activities into strategic planning and quality management. A proposed approach is based on the experience of the University of Split, Croatia, and the lessons learned from the SEA-EU University Alliance. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our model emphasizes the active engagement of stakeholders and the continuous collection and review of sustainability data. In addition, we propose to automate the collection and dissemination of sustainability research findings through the implementation of a Current Research Information System (CRIS). Our case study provides a roadmap for improving sustainability performance and reporting. The experience of the University of Split (Croatia) could be helpful and generalizable to a number of universities with an intermediate level of maturity in sustainability management and reporting, trying to improve their university rankings.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010005
Authors: Sumya Naz Tasin Islam Himel Taufiqur Rafi Sazzadul Islam Saleha Bushra Neha Syeda Tabassum Islam Md Mahmud Hasan Nur Mohammad Ha-Mim Md. Zakir Hossain Khan Rubayet Rahaman
This study aims to examine the loss and damage experienced by coastal regions from the perspective of adaptation. It also seeks to evaluate the adaptation techniques employed when migration is utilized as a significant approach to mitigate the effects of loss and damage on coastal communities. This study evaluates the extent of loss and damage caused by constraints on adaptation. Two districts, Khulna and Satkhira, in the Khulna division of Bangladesh, were chosen for the study. In these districts, a total of twenty-four detailed interviews and one focus group discussion (FGD) were conducted with individuals living in rural areas whom climate-related effects and disasters have impacted. Additionally, seven interviews were conducted with climate migrants residing in informal settlements within the words of Khulna City Corporation. The process of identifying appropriate interview candidates involves utilizing a combination of specific criteria and snowball sampling techniques. The study employed NVivo 14 software to conduct theme analysis on textual data obtained from interviews. In the coding procedure, we sequentially employed semantic coding, latent coding, categorization, pattern exploration, and theme creation, all of which were in line with the research aim. The study indicates that most affected persons utilize seasonal and temporary movement as an adaptive strategy to deal with the slow effects of climate change, such as increasing temperatures and salinity in rural regions, and when they encounter limitations in their ability to adapt. Conversely, they opted for permanent migration in response to stringent constraints imposed by severe climate events like cyclones and river erosion, leaving them with no alternative but to move to urban regions. Social networks are crucial in influencing migration choices, as several families depend on information provided by urban relatives and rural neighbors to inform their relocation decisions. Nevertheless, not all individuals impacted by the situation express a desire to relocate; others opt to remain in rural areas due to their sentimental attachment to their birthplaces and a sense of dedication to their ancestral territory. Due to the exorbitant cost of urban life, they believe that opting not to migrate is a more practical option for addressing the repercussions of climate-induced loss and damage. The study’s findings aid policymakers in determining migration strategies and policies to address the adverse effects of coastal population displacement in Bangladesh. Additionally, it aids in determining strategies to address the challenges faced by climate migrants in both urban and rural environments.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010004
Authors: Eleftheria Fytopoulou Evangelia Karasmanaki Georgios Tsantopoulos
Creating an environmentally aware society is not an easy task and requires knowledge about what affects the formation of environmental views. At the same time, to contribute to environmental protection, individuals with different educational backgrounds need to have environmental awareness, because their decisions as future professionals may affect the environment. The problem, however, is that there is not adequate research on the association between educational background and environmental views. To address this gap, the aim of this study is to investigate whether scientific background affects environmental views and attitudes. Specific objectives are to examine whether scientific background affects university students’ views on environmental issues as well as their attitudes towards the solution to environmental problems. To achieve this aim, a comparative study was performed on two student groups: students attending environmental studies and students attending classical studies. The results showed that non-environmental students were less willing to change their habits to protect the environment and to participate in environmental actions compared to environmental students who expressed a pronounced willingness to do so. However, both student groups did not acknowledge their personal environmental responsibility. Categorical regression revealed that students’ certain sociodemographic variables affected their willingness to change habits. However, other additional variables are recommended to be analyzed in future studies. The results from this study provide support for making changes in the curricula of non-environmental departments and for carrying out actions to reinforce the participation of students in initiatives aimed at raising environmental awareness.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010003
Authors: Abdul Hameed Sadiq Hussain Aysha Rasheed Muhammad Zaheer Ahmed Sahar Abbas
Halophytes are naturally salt-tolerant plants with immense potential to become alternate crops for saline lands. While their economic benefits have gained increasing attention, often, the roles of halophytes in addressing different climate change-related issues are overlooked. Halophytes can be a renewable resource for clean ‘carbon-neutral’ energy by serving as biofuel or biogas feedstock, help in the sequestration of rising CO2 as well as the phytoremediation of various pollutants, can be a good source of food and fodder thereby help in achieving food security in arid/saline areas, can help in protection and biodiversity conservation in various ecosystems, and can provide livelihood to poor local communities inhabiting barren lands. This review also attempts to highlight various usages of halophytes in connection with a global change perspective. However, there are still many challenges such as economic viability, customer preferences, environmental impacts, and scale-up challenges, which need further research, innovation, effective policies, and collaboration. In general, this review provides a synthesis of various biological, environmental, and socioeconomic aspects of halophytes to fully exploit the potential of halophytes for human welfare and combating global climate changes.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010002
Authors: Muhabbat Turdieva Agnès Bernis-Fonteneau Maira Esenalieva Abdihalil Kayimov Ashirmuhammed Saparmyradov Khursandi Safaraliev Kairkul Shalpykov Paolo Colangelo Devra I. Jarvis
The five independent countries of Central Asia, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, contain one of the richest areas in the world for the specific and intraspecific diversity of temperate fruit and nut tree species. Research was carried out via the collaboration of national research and education institutes with local community-based agencies and farmer communities. Raw data (2014 observations) for almond, apple, apricot, cherry plum, currant, grapevine, pear, pomegranate, and walnut were collected at the household (HH) level across the five countries: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan. A set of models was used, including household variety richness as the dependent variable, to understand the influence of socio-ecological variables on the amount and distribution of crop varietal diversity in the farmers’ production systems. Four variables were included as explanatory variables of variety richness (fixed factors): ecoregion, ethno-linguistic group, management, and abiotic stress. The results show clear evidence that abiotic stress determines a higher richness of intra-specific diversity in the form of local varieties grown by farmers living in climatically unfavorable areas. The results for the studied ecoregions follow the same trend, with ecoregions with harsher conditions displaying a higher positive correlation with diversity. Mild environments such as the Central Asian riparian woodlands show an unexpectedly lower diversity than other harsher ecoregions. Ethno-linguistic groups also have an effect on the level of varietal diversity used, related to both historic nomadic practices and a culture of harvesting wild fruit and nuts in mountainous areas. The home garden management system hosts a higher diversity compared to larger production systems such as orchards. In Central Asia, encouraging the cultivation of local varieties of fruit and nut trees provides a key productive and resilient livelihood strategy for farmers living under the harsh environmental conditions of the region while providing a unique opportunity to conserve a genetic heritage of global importance.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world5010001
Authors: Carlos José Lopes Balsas
Does our food for thought come virtually from the internet? When we take a long view, the instant stroke of a keyboard pales in comparison to the centuries-old evolution of real food harvesting and the generation and exchange of ideas, which have resulted in creative capital. The vernacular architecture of the agricultural built environment has almost dematerialized in its transition from the ancient pre-industrial era to the post-truth world, to become almost only an imagined concept. The symbology of the common threshing terrace of a Portuguese remote mountain village can now be found in multiple spaces of the urban realm, including in the metaphor of a community arts incubator’s modus operandi in Albany, New York (USA). How has the concept of food for thought developed and materialized? How has it evolved? And what are some of the expected ways it might be utilized in the future? The purpose of the paper is to trace the evolution of this concept and its elements via the BLC Framework. The methodology employs a time analysis of approximately three centuries to distinguish three distinct evolutionary phases: (i) the pre-industrial era, (ii) the industrial era, and (iii) the information-driven era. The key finding is an up-to-date discussion of the food for thought concept in two distinct geographical worlds and three-time eras, as well as a set of lessons learned according to a protest poem and a rock song. The results are presented in the form of five lessons learned with implications for public policy: the first two lessons pertain to issues of procedural justice as encapsulated in the anonymous ‘The Goose’ poem, while the last three result from a discussion of selected verses in Nick Cave’s ‘Fable of the Brown Ape’ rock song.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040051
Authors: Leah Feor Amelia Clarke Ilona Dougherty
This paper explores the current state of the social impact measurement (SIM) field to better understand common practices in measuring the post-intervention social impact of a program or project and to identify strategies to improve measurement in practice. This study employed a systematic literature review. Articles were manually coded deductively and inductively in NVivo to complete a descriptive and thematic analysis of the literature. The thematic analysis provided an in-depth understanding of the SIM field. We found that similarities existed across the definitions of social impact (e.g., environmental impact is part of social impact). Additionally, social return on investment (SROI) is the most common measurement model and theory of change was identified as a core concept across SIM literature. Strategies are presented for practitioners to consider when measuring social impact, including: (i) engage stakeholders throughout the process, (ii) mobilize existing operational data, (iii) increase measurement capacity, and (iv) use both qualitative and quantitative data. This study reveals the nuances of SIM based on academic literature published across the globe over the span of a decade. It places emphasis on the post-intervention stage and identifies strategies to improve the application of measurement models in practice. Lastly, it outlines future research directions.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040050
Authors: Tannaz Jahaniaghdam Amir Reza Mamdoohi Salman Aghidi Kheyrabadi Mehdi Mehryar Francesco Ciari
Fossil-fuel consumption in land freight is over 19%. Alternative fuel trucks (AFTs) help decrease greenhouse gas emissions. However, AFT preferences in international land transit have received little attention due to passing through various countries with different financial and regulation plans. This variety affects AFTs’ market share. This study analyzes factors influencing AFT preferences in international land transit. A questionnaire (designed in four sections) was distributed among international transport companies in Iran and Europe. A principal component analysis helped extract principal components composed of cognitive, environmental, policy, practical, and economic variables. The multinomial logit models include 26 meaningful variables. The marginal effect analysis shows that the service quality of the manufacturer, importance of greenhouse gas mitigation, and social responsibility do not significantly elevate AFT preferences. In addition, cargo type influences AFT choice. The results of this study help to identify the barriers affecting AFTs’ market share, which can positively impact air pollution.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040049
Authors: Haseeb Akbar Pariyapat Nilsalab Thapat Silalertruksa Shabbir H. Gheewala
Climate change plays a vital role in the hydrology of any river basin, which may have multidimensional consequences. There is a need to conduct climate change impact assessment studies with updated models and scenarios. This study aimed to assess the impact of climate change on the streamflow and hydropower in Pakistan’s Kunhar River basin. Three general circulation models (GCMs), under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (SSPs 2–45 and 5–85), the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, and the flow duration curve were used to project the change in climatic parameters, streamflow, and hydropower potential, respectively. The findings indicated that in the 2080s, the precipitation, maximum, and minimum temperatures are projected to increase by 10%, 2.0 °C, and 3.0 °C under the SSP 2–45 scenario and are projected to increase by 8%, 3.7 °C, and 4.4 °C under the SSP 5–85 scenario, respectively. The annual streamflow may increase by 15 to 11%, and the seasonal fluctuations are more likely to be dominant compared with the annual fluctuations. The hydropower potential will probably increase by 24 to 16% under the SSP 2–45 and 5–85 scenarios in the 2080s. However, seasonal changes in streamflow and hydropower may impact the hydropower plant operation in the basin. The Kunhar River’s hydrology may change from snow-fed to a rainfall–runoff river.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040048
Authors: Céline Delacroix Nkechi S. Owoo
While high fertility levels in sub-Saharan Africa pose multiple challenges for economic, social, and environmental prospects, the perspectives of actors from this region have not been well documented. We offer a selection of viewpoints from 42 countries in sub-Saharan Africa along four main dimensions: perceptions of the role of population growth for broader societal implications; the representation of sub-Saharan Africa in discussions of population growth; the integration of population dynamics and reproductive health and rights in environmental considerations and instruments; and the sensitive nature of the topic of population growth. A mixed-methods qualitative project was conducted, using an online survey of 402 participants followed by 18 in-depth interviews, to collect the views of policy makers, researchers, and activists in sub-Saharan Africa. We find overwhelming agreement that population growth has negative implications for environmental sustainability and other social welfare outcomes. We find broad support for the integration of population dynamics and reproductive health and rights dimensions at international environmental meetings and in environmental sustainability instruments. Participants also stressed the under-representation of sub-Saharan Africa in discussions of population dynamics and in international environmental governance. Overall, this paper contributes to a better understanding of sub-Saharan African perspectives and attitudes on the interconnectedness of reproductive health, population dynamics, and environmental sustainability.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040047
Authors: Deasy Arisanty Ismi Rajiani Mutiani Mutiani Karunia Puji Hastuti Ersis Warmansyah Abbas Dedi Rosadi Muhammad Muhaimin
Repeated fires cause peatlands to degrade. Fire management has been carried out, but fires continue to occur, especially during the dry season. Through social capital that exists in the community based on the local wisdom of the Banjar people in environmental management, it is hoped that peatland fires can be overcome in this area. This research aims to analyze the social capital of the Banjar people in mitigating land fires based on local wisdom and the environment. The sample in this study was 250 people who live in an area prone to fires on peatlands in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. There are three variables in this study, namely Trust (T), Network (N), and Norm (N). There are 33 Likert scale questions (1–4, strongly agree-strongly disagree). We also conducted interviews with 20 members of the Fire Care Community (MPA) to obtain information about the social capital of the Banjar community in mitigating land fires. The analysis used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The study results show norms have the greatest influence on disaster mitigation of peatland fires compared to trust and social networks. Norms in the community in the form of values from peatlands, rules, norms, and sanctions regulate the community more to deal with the problem of peatland fires than trust and social networks
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040046
Authors: Brian L. Ott Carrisa S. Hoelscher
Employing a critical approach typical of humanities-based research, this article investigates the changing nature of toxic leadership in our digital world. Drawing on the perspective of media ecology, which asserts that the prevailing communication technologies at a given moment create the social conditions that, in turn, condition us, the authors illustrate how the digital logics of publicity, intransigence, impertinence, and impulsivity remake the contours of leadership. Based on a critical case study of Elon Musk’s public management of Twitter, which has subsequently been rebranded as “X”, it is argued that the four digital logics transform toxic leadership into digital authoritarianism, an unabashed form of authoritarian rule. A concluding section of the essay explores the implications of this evolution for traditional categories of leadership; the importance of attending to communication technologies in leadership research; and the individual, institutional, and social harms of digital authoritarianism.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040045
Authors: Gabriel da Silva Medina Rosana Rotondo Gustavo Rubén Rodríguez
Technology-based innovations in the bio-economy are expected to provide new market opportunities for agro-industrial growth in developing countries. This study explores how domestic entrepreneurs have been benefiting from the growing global demand for sustainable agribusiness by establishing themselves in the agricultural bio-inputs sector. Aiming to explore how developing countries can build agro-industrial capabilities that go beyond farming, a case study was conducted in Argentina giving the country’s large domestic market for agricultural inputs. The assessment was based on official data and a survey conducted with a sample of 14 Argentinean companies. Results revealed a growing number of domestic companies in the bio-inputs market, which accounted for 74% of the total number of companies by 2022. Contextual aspects that favored domestic players include private investments by local entrepreneurs, the use of locally available technologies, support from public innovation centers and assertive market strategies. Principal component analysis revealed different business models, which include companies focusing on the development of new products, companies with professional industrial plants for large-scale production and companies with a strong marketing component reaching out to farmers. The global growth of sustainable bio-based agricultural production offers areas of opportunities for domestic investments in cleaner agro-industrial sectors that go beyond the primary production of commodities and can build industrial capabilities in developing countries.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040044
Authors: Hamza Ahmed Erika E. Miller
The adoption of agricultural machinery in countries with a developing economy can have a significant impact on improving well-being and pro-poor growth. However, this requires farmers to buy into mechanized farming, which is more likely to happen if the machinery meets their needs. The objective of this paper is to identify deciding factors for traditional farmers to adopt machinery and identify design requirements. Payback models were developed based on these design requirements, willingness to pay, and expected returns. Thirty-six farmers in Sudan were interviewed throughout 2019–2021. Six of these farmers were provided tractors during 2020 and 2021. Differences in net-profits between the 30 control and 6 treatment farms during the mechanized farming seasons were used in the models for expected profits. There were no significant differences in tractor design preferences between the treatment and control groups. Two cost models were estimated using a 95% confidence interval: entire Δ profit (entire additional profit from mechanized farming above nonmechanized) and percentage of total profit (percentage of total net-profits willing to spend). For the average farm size in this study (44.39 acres) and a market available tractor that satisfied all farmer needs, payback was 3.92 years [2.34, 8.54] and 4.57 years [3.39, 6.38] for the models, respectively.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040043
Authors: Karl-Erik Norrman
The challenge posed by global population growth has been clear to most scientists since at least the 1950s. In the 1970s, it became conventional wisdom that “the population explosion” constituted a threat to humanity and to sound social, economic and ecological development. This conviction was clearly demonstrated at UN conferences on the environment (1972) and population (1974). It was also confirmed in the important UN report Our Common Future, presented by the Brundtland Commission in 1987. Since the 1990s, international interest in population issues has decreased dramatically and has even become a taboo in certain academic and political discourses. This paper will try to analyze some of the reasons for these changes in attitudes and will present proposals on how to push the population issue back on to the international agenda.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040042
Authors: Thomas C. Kinnaman
Early papers found empirical support for a natural resource curse—the notion that exporting natural resources is detrimental to economic growth. Later papers, using reportedly improved econometric models and data, largely reversed these early findings by estimating that natural resources improve economic performance. However, this changing coefficient on natural resource dependence over time may not only be a function of model or data quality. Masked by this evolution in the economics literature is the possibility that the fundamental relationship between natural resources and economic performance has changed over the past several decades. This paper sheds a new perspective on the substantial resource curse literature by repeatedly estimating a single econometric model on data that evolve over time. The coefficient on natural resource dependence is estimated to steadily increases with the passage of time from a value that is negative and significant (for 1970, the basis for much of the early literature) to a positive and significant value a few decades later. Whatever natural resource estimated initially with data from 1970 seems to have evolved into a resource blessing over time.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040041
Authors: Diah Ardiani Lalu Muhamad Jaelani Septianto Aldiansyah Mangapul Parlindungan Tambunan Mochamad Indrawan Andri A. Wibowo
The Anoa is a wild animal endemic to Sulawesi that looks like a small cow. Anoa are categorized as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN red list. There are two species of Anoa, namely Lowland Anoa (Bubalus depressicornis) and Mountain Anoa (Bubalus quarlesi). In this study, a comparison of potential habitat models for Anoa species was conducted using Machine Learning algorithms with the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and Random Forest (RF) methods. This modeling uses eight environmental variables. Where based on the results of Bubalus quarlesi potential habitat modeling, the RF 75:25 model is the best algorithm with the highest variable contribution, namely humidity of 82.444% and a potential area of 5% of Sulawesi Island, with an Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.987. Meanwhile, the best Bubalus depressicornis habitat potential model is the RF 70:30 algorithm, with the highest variable contribution, namely population of 88.891% and potential area of 36% of Sulawesi Island, with AUC 0.967. This indicates that Anoa extinction is very sensitive to the presence of humidity and human population levels.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4040040
Authors: Natália Pezzi Fachinelli Amaro Olímpio Pereira
Vegetation cover and land use are important factors related to the capacity of ecosystems to provide soil loss regulation and sediment retention services, which are highly relevant for sediment management in watersheds draining into reservoirs with multiple water uses. One way to ensure the protection and recovery of vegetation by landowners in Brazil is the implementation of the federal Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL), which designates environmentally sensitive areas as Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs), aiming to conserve water resources and prevent soil erosion. The benefits of riparian vegetation in the catchment of Corumbá IV Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), located in the Brazilian Cerrado, were analyzed considering landscape reconfigurations from a baseline condition (year 2011) in order to account for the recovery of riparian vegetation by the agricultural sector, as foreseen in the NVPL. The Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) model from the InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs) package was used to map and quantify variations in sediment export and sediment retention throughout the catchment. The reduction in annual sediment export in the drainage basin of the Corumbá IV reservoir reached −27% in the scenario where the total deficit of riparian APPs occupied by pasture or agriculture in the baseline map (41.000 ha) are recovered. While 14% of riparian APP are occupied by crops versus 86% occupied by pasture in the drainage basin of the Corumbá IV HPP, the recovery of riparian zones occupied by agricultural activities resulted in the greatest benefits in sediment retention for the reservoir. The methodology employed in this study can support the prioritization of sectoral efforts for the restoration and conservation of native vegetation, considering the highest returns in benefits perceived by water users affected by sediment input in reservoirs. The study’s results reinforce the importance of conserving vegetation in riparian areas and their surroundings for sediment retention, highlighting the role of these areas as assets in providing water-related ecosystem services. For future developments, it is suggested to assess the interconnections among the energy, water, and food sectors to better understand the barriers and challenges to the maintenance and improvement of water-related ecosystem services in the catchment area of Corumbá IV HPP.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030039
Authors: Miriam Martín-Moreno Katia Hueso-Kortekaas Jose C. Romero
This paper presents an exploratory qualitative Social Life Cycle Analysis (S-LCA) of intensive greenhouse tomato farming in Almeria, Spain, with a specific focus on the social impacts on migrant workers. By setting as a functional unit the production of 10 kg of greenhouse tomato, the study investigates the social dynamics and challenges faced by migrant workers within the industry. The research sheds light on the negative aspects of intensive greenhouse farming for migrants, i.e., labor conditions, health and safety risks, social inequality, and exploitation of migrant labor. Utilizing document analysis, this study contributes to the field of S-LCA by providing a nuanced understanding of the social dimensions surrounding tomato production and migrant workers’ experiences. It emphasizes the need for sustainable practices, improved labor conditions, and ethical considerations to ensure a socially responsible tomato farming industry. The findings have implications for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and consumers, providing insights for informed decision-making and the promotion of socially sustainable agricultural practices that prioritize the well-being and rights of migrant workers in the context of intensive greenhouse farming in Almeria.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030038
Authors: Michel Garenne
This paper reviews the concept of the demographic dividend and the empirical evidence therefor. The demographic dividend is mainly the result of fertility decline (lower number of births, lower population growth) which translates into a population age structure with a larger work force (age 15–64) and a smaller proportion of children (age 0–14), together with initially few elderly persons (age 65+). In turn, this favors economic growth, but it also has many consequences for households and for state budgets, as well as long-term consequences for population size and the environment. The first part of this paper shows the small correlations at the national macro-economic level between dependency ratios and economic growth. The second part shows the strong correlations at the household level between levels of fertility, child mortality and modern education. The third part discusses the many other correlates of the demographic dividend. The often-cited and controversial focus of the demographic dividend on economic growth hides many other positive effects of fertility control on households, on state budgets, and, in the long-run, on societies and the environment.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030037
Authors: Usman Mehmood Muhammad Umar Aslam Muhammad Adil Javed
The ecological footprint (EF) has been used as an environmental indicator in most of the past research. Due to the complex linkages between economic growth and human development, EF has been inadequately understood in policy making. This research attempts to investigate the impacts of economic growth, human capital, biocapacity, and urbanization on the factors affecting the ecological footprint (EF) of five South Asian countries. To provide empirical evidence, this study utilizes the annual data from 1990 to 2022 for Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The findings confirm the positive contribution of GDP, human capital, biocapacity, and urbanization to EF. The causality analysis shows feedback association between GDP and EF, human capital and EF, and biocapacity and EF.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030036
Authors: Jan Greguš John Guillebaud
The human population reached 8 billion in 2022 and is still growing, and will possibly peak at 10.4 billion in 2086. Environmental science mandates that continued growth of the human enterprise on a finite planet is unsustainable and already in overshoot. Indeed, 3 billion is an evidence-based target number, for our species in competition with all non-human life-forms. We must achieve zero population growth and, ultimately, a massive decrease. Commonly, even among environmentalists who are not “population-deniers”, human numbers are seen as a given, to be adapted to rather than influenced or managed. Yet, just and appropriate interventions exist. The fundamental requirement is the empowerment of women, removing the barriers in many settings to their education (including environmental education, and the reproductive ethics of smaller families) and to realistic, voluntary access to contraception. Wherever “reproductive health” includes access to rights-based family planning, this not only promotes the health of the planet but also women’s health through, inter alia, their choice to have fewer and better-spaced children. This is ethical, pragmatic, and cost-effective—a prime example of preventive medicine. Politicians (mostly men) everywhere must embrace this long-term thinking and significantly increase the currently inadequate funding of contraceptive care. Herein is another Scientists’ Warning: there is just one planet for all life.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030035
Authors: Carina Mueller Christopher West Mairon G. Bastos Lima Bob Doherty
Agricultural supply chains of forest-risk commodities such as soy, palm oil, and cocoa have risen to the top of the global sustainability agenda. Demand-side actors, including consumer-goods companies, retailers, and civil society organizations have coalesced around a growing number of sustainable supply chain policies. However, despite rapid advances in tools and methods to convert data into useful information about impacts and policy effectiveness, and their implementation for decision-making is lagging. There is an urgent need to examine such demand-led action and understand how to accelerate progress towards agricultural supply chain sustainability. Here, we explore how demand-side actors within globalized supply chains see limitations in knowledge and barriers to progress in the context of forest-risk commodities. We draw from 20 semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, and data providers. Our findings show that civil society pressure in consumer regions is perceived as a key driver guiding action, that certification is commonly sought to reduce detrimental impacts, but that collaboration to tackle systemic issues remains a gap. Companies also highlight the need for simple, timely, and meaningful metrics to assess impacts—practical usability concerns that need to be considered in the search for ever-greater accuracy in capturing complex phenomena.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030034
Authors: Jane N. O’Sullivan
The size of the world’s population has profound implications for demand for food, energy and resources, land use change and greenhouse gas emissions. This study examines why most population projections have underestimated world population growth, and the implications for actions required to achieve sustainable societies. The main determinant of future population is family size choices. Population projections by different research groups embed different assumptions about drivers of fertility decline. The common assumptions that fertility decline is driven by economic betterment, urbanisation or education levels are not well supported in historical evidence. In contrast, voluntary family planning provision and promotion achieved rapid fertility decline, even in poor, rural and illiterate communities. Projections based on education and income as drivers of fertility decline ignore the reverse causation, that lowering fertility through family planning interventions enabled economic advancement and improved women’s education access. In recent decades, support for family planning has waned, and global fertility decline has decelerated as a result. Projections calibrated across the decades of strong family planning support have not acknowledged this change and are consequently underestimating global population growth. Scenarios used to model sustainable futures have used overly optimistic population projections while inferring these outcomes will happen without targeted measures to bring them about. Unless political will is rapidly restored for voluntary family planning programs, the global population will almost certainly exceed 10 billion, rendering sustainable food security and a safe climate unachievable.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030033
Authors: Md Masum Billah Abahan Majumdar Syed Mohammad Aminur Rahman Mohammad Shah Alam Md Jamal Hossain Joynulalom Talukder Md Mohidul Islam Tahmida Khanam
The erosion of riverbanks has a negative impact on many nations across the world, costing them land, buildings, food, fish, and other living things, which forces people to relocate. Both the frequency and severity of riverbank erosion are alarming in Bangladesh. In Zajira Upazila, a baseline investigation was carried out to evaluate the effects of river erosion on the local availability of food. The results show how erosion threatens the majority of residents in the research territory. Additionally, as a consequence of the depletion of farmland brought on by the disaster and its effects, crop production is steadily dropping. Occasionally, people lose whole properties, leaving them with few employment options and little spending power. As a result, they are always in danger of experiencing a shortage of food. The suffering people use various coping strategies to deal with these challenging circumstances, such as shifting to cheaper or less appealing eating options. Despite the fact that local governing bodies have put in place various programs to help them, including food assistance and social protection programs, these are inadequate because of the government’s constrained organizational assets and competence The study’s findings will aid scientists and decision-makers in Bangladesh and abroad in better comprehending the requirements of vulnerable riverine populations and in designing programs that would increase those societies’ food safety Therefore, these results imply that developing and implementing efficient rural development strategies could increase the food security of those residing in Bangladeshi regions threatened by riverbank erosion.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030032
Authors: William E. Rees
Homo sapiens has evolved to reproduce exponentially, expand geographically, and consume all available resources. For most of humanity’s evolutionary history, such expansionist tendencies have been countered by negative feedback. However, the scientific revolution and the use of fossil fuels reduced many forms of negative feedback, enabling us to realize our full potential for exponential growth. This natural capacity is being reinforced by growth-oriented neoliberal economics—nurture complements nature. Problem: the human enterprise is a ‘dissipative structure’ and sub-system of the ecosphere—it can grow and maintain itself only by consuming and dissipating available energy and resources extracted from its host system, the ecosphere, and discharging waste back into its host. The population increase from one to eight billion, and >100-fold expansion of real GWP in just two centuries on a finite planet, has thus propelled modern techno-industrial society into a state of advanced overshoot. We are consuming and polluting the biophysical basis of our own existence. Climate change is the best-known symptom of overshoot, but mainstream ‘solutions’ will actually accelerate climate disruption and worsen overshoot. Humanity is exhibiting the characteristic dynamics of a one-off population boom–bust cycle. The global economy will inevitably contract and humanity will suffer a major population ‘correction’ in this century.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030031
Authors: Wai Ming To Andy W. L. Chung
Carbon neutrality is a key human endeavor to deal with global climate while China is the country producing the most publications on carbon neutrality. However, what are the focuses of carbon-neutrality research in China? To answer such an important question, this study adopts a bibliometric approach to analyze carbon-neutrality journal publications from China-based researchers during the period of 2008–2022 using CNKI and Scopus. Results showed that carbon-neutrality publications in Chinese and English journals by Chinese-based researchers increased from 4 in 2008 to 2879 in 2022. In Chinese journals, X.D. Hao was the most productive author with 10 publications. In English journals, Y.K. Zhou was the most productive author with 14 publications. As a whole, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the most productive institution with 376 publications. Co-occurrence of keywords analysis revealed seven themes in Chinese journal articles, namely, “carbon neutrality and climate change”, “energy transformation”, “peak carbon emission”, “carbon emission and low carbon economy”, “realization path in China”, “hydrogen energy and clean energy”, and “green finance and sustainable development”. In English journals, three major clusters were formed—“carbon, carbon neutralities, emission control, and energy utilization”, “carbon dioxide, carbon neutrals, biomass, and electrocatalysts”, and “China, carbon neutrality, sustainable development, and economic development.” Most extant publications focused on policy and technological development. Emphasis shall be paid to social change and changes in people’s behavior, sectoral carbon emissions, and carbon leakage in future research.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030030
Authors: Ine Hugaerts Holger Schunk Thomas Könecke
Environmental sustainability (ES) has generally become an important topic in recent years. In this context, interest in the environmental impact of sport events has also considerably grown. However, not much is known about how people currently perceive ES in mega sport events (MSEs) and if this influences their support to stage a MSE in their home country. To shed light on this question, a survey was conducted in Germany, which resulted in a sample of 917 respondents. The data show that about one-third of them think that ES is adequately implemented in the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup. Around half of the respondents state they are in favour of hosting these events in Germany in the future and multinomial logistic regressions reveal that positive and negative perceptions of the ES of the events are important predictors of support and opposition. The same is true for the perception of the overall brand image of the event. The findings have important implications for future bidding processes because they show that the further development of ES in MSEs might have an influence on the support for hosting these events in Germany and potentially other Western democracies.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030029
Authors: Jack A. Goldstone John F. May
Population issues and population policies have evolved considerably between the 20th and the 21st centuries. In the 1970s, most countries confronted rapid population growth, and this situation was particularly severe in Asia. Today, on the contrary, more than half of the world population is experiencing low fertility and population aging, and several countries with very low fertility are facing the prospect of depopulation. Only one region, i.e., sub-Saharan Africa, still experiences high fertility levels. Similarly, the discussions about whether and how to intervene on population trends have also evolved over the past 70 years. Demographically focused approaches to family planning provision were dominant views in the second half of the 20th century. However, since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, international population policy paradigms have been reframed to stress the freedom of couples and the reproductive rights of individuals. Consequently, policy interventions have favored client-focused and gender-sensitive approaches. Finally, to help chart the way forward, population policies will need to consider several key elements, broadening from a focus on support for family planning to an array of policy instruments including health, education, and culture, all of which shape future populations. This new policy framework includes the prioritization of interventions, policy consensus building, the selection of priority constituencies, the institutionalization and funding of policies, and the promotion of evidence-based and research-driven policies. In addition, in order to adapt their interventions to local contexts, population policies will need to be holistic, to promote integrated interventions, and to align with international development frameworks.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030028
Authors: Saeed Solaymani
Climate change has brought significant changes to the earth and agriculture is the main economic sector that has suffered. The current study aims to assess the impact of climatic factors—measured by precipitation, temperature, and CO2 emissions—on rice production using time series from 1961 to 2019 in Malaysia. This research follows the ARDL bounds test and dynamic ARDL simulations methods to estimate long- and short-term connections of the variables under consideration. Empirical evidence indicates that long-run cointegration exist between variables. The results suggest that the sensitivity of rice production to changes in harvested area and temperature is high, while it is low for other inputs. Due to high humidity, the effect of precipitation on rice production is not significant, while temperature can reduce rice yield in the long and short term. However, the impact of carbon emissions on rice production is insignificant. Among the other determinants of rice production, the impact of agricultural labor is negative, but more area cultivation increases rice production over the long and short term. Results also show that the magnitude of the impact of the 2% increase (decrease) in temperature on rice production is greater than the changes in rainfall and carbon emissions. The results for the frequency domain causality test show that a one-way causality exists between temperature and rice production and between carbon emissions and rice production in the short and long run. Hence, the findings of this study can help policy makers to formulate appropriate adaptation methods and mitigation policies to reduce the negative effects of climate change on Malaysian rice production.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030027
Authors: Mohammad Said El Halimi Alberto Zanelli Francesca Soavi Tarik Chafik
The growing interest in energy storage devices, both batteries and capacitors, could lead to the improvement of electrochemical properties such as extended charge/discharge cycles, high specific capacitance, and power density. Furthermore, the use of easily available raw materials for the production of carbon electrodes has attracted interest due to the criticality of the resources related to the current technologies of high-performance capacitors. The present article reviews carbon-based materials for supercapacitors derived from affordable coal deposits or crop waste with appropriate characteristics in terms of specific surface area, electrical conductivity, and charge/discharge stability. In addition, the substitution of organic liquids electrolytes with less dangerous solutions, such as aqueous electrolytes containing high concentrations of salt, is a valuable strategy for the design of green devices that is discussed in this review. Finally, the present article reviews the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors based on carbon electrodes obtained from various natural resources and their compatibility with safer and cheaper electrolytes.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030026
Authors: Thulani Mandiriza David Johannes Fourie
South Africa receives insufficient rainfall to meet citizens’ water needs and this is compounded by deficiencies in infrastructure for water services because of inadequate investment and a lack of maintenance. Municipal public–private partnerships (PPPs) for water infrastructure are rarely utilised for several reasons. Central to this paper is the evaluation of the role played by various stakeholders in influencing the adoption and subsequent approval of municipal water PPP projects. This study critically examined the role of each stakeholder and how other stakeholders perceive their effectiveness during the approval process of water PPP projects. The conceptualisation and implementation of PPPs involves managing both the public and private stakeholders to achieve the desired outcomes. These diverse stakeholders have different values, anchored by the need for rent extraction (profit maximisation motive) or self-interest, as advanced by stakeholder theory. By means of structured interviews, participants highlighted the limitations of each stakeholder and how these contribute to the negative perception of future PPPs. The obtained data were triangulated with secondary sources. The findings confirmed the pursuit of self-interest by various stakeholders, impacting the pace of PPP adoption of municipal water projects.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030025
Authors: Shashidhar Kumar Jha Ajeet Kumar Negi Rajendra Singh Negi Juha Mikael Alatalo Mani Bhushan Jha
Socio-ecological systems have increasingly faced climate-change impacts, which have adversely affected the lives and property of inhabitants. The present study aims to prioritize adaptation actions along an altitudinal gradient (<1200 m asl (Zone A), 1201–1800 m asl (Zone B), and >1801 m asl (Zone C)) in Pauri District, Uttarakhand. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to prioritize adaptation action from 545 randomly selected households in 91 villages. A multi-disciplinary bottom-up indicator-based approach was applied to identify and normalize sectoral indicators, and PCA was used to prioritize sectoral indicators. Adaptation actions were designed with prioritized sectoral indicators along the altitude and stakeholder consultations. The prioritized indicators varied along the altitudinal gradient, and more than 50% of the indicators for the same sector were different along an altitudinal gradient. Sectoral adaptation planning along the altitude is pertinent in the mountain because they contribute to adaptation planning differently. Additionally, the mainstreaming of adaptation strategies with national and regional development measures is also required. Finally, cross-sectoral resource management that combines users, planners, scientists, and policymakers should be formulated along the altitude within the district. These findings contribute to minimizing the gap between policy/program fabrication and local requirements. The evidence-based valuable knowledge for decision-makers could enable Himalayan communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change effectively. Adaptation planning is also critical for designing adaptation projects for the Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, and funds from multilateral and bilateral agencies. It will facilitate Nationally Determined Contributions, which aims to adapt better to climate change by enhancing investments in development programs in vulnerable sectors.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4030024
Authors: Samuel Fritschi Thomas Decker Sven Sängerlaub
Since, according to many scientific studies, price is a very important factor when buying fruits and vegetables, it is interesting to study whether price differences between them occur in retail markets. Because of the discussion regarding sustainability, we performed an observational, orienting study on the retail prices of frequently bought packaged and unpackaged fruits and vegetables (apples, tomatoes, and bell peppers) in the Munich area in February and March 2022. We also differentiated between organic and non-organic produce. The relationship between the type of packaging (packaged versus unpackaged) and the retail price (EUR/kg) was determined by means of correlation coefficients, and we examined whether unpackaged products were more expensive than the packaged variants. The results differed for the organic and non-organic variants of the products, as well as among the individual fruit and vegetable varieties. We found a tendency towards unpackaged products being more expensive than packaged fruits and vegetables, in three out of four cases for the non-organic and two out of three cases for the organic products. For all cases, single products and single cost values were observed where the opposite was found.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020023
Authors: Thomas Dax Andrew Copus Dazhuan Ge
What does rural development policy aim to achieve, and how does it go about it [...]
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020022
Authors: Hamza Ahmed Erika E. Miller
The adoption of agricultural technologies in developing economy countries has the potential to reduce poverty through sustainable intensification. Mechanized farming can also improve perceptions of farming and mitigate rural out-migration. However, many traditional farmers do not have access to machinery and/or machinery is cost prohibitive. The objective of this paper is to quantify how the use of machinery affects costs, revenue, net-profits, and returns on investment for a case study of farmers in Sudan, Africa. A treatment control study (N = 36) was performed across the 2019 (baseline), 2020, and 2021 farming seasons, where the treatment group was provided tractors. ANOVAs and t-tests were used to compare financial values between these groups across the farming seasons, to quantify economic differences associated with farming machinery. We show that all farmers had similar net-profits when farming without machinery, while mechanized farming yielded significantly higher net-profits (USD 16.61/acre more in 2020, USD 27.10/acre more in 2021). Our study also finds that the volatility of the black-market exchange rate and labor shortages have a significant impact on farming net-profits. These results provide a quantified difference between farming with and without machinery, which can provide a financial basis for purchasing and borrowing models, machinery design requirements, and educational value to farmers.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020021
Authors: Shaoyu Yuan
The Health Silk Road (HSR) of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China aims to enhance public health and foster international cooperation in the healthcare sector. HSR objectives include strengthening healthcare infrastructure, expanding China’s global health leadership, and enhancing international health cooperation. The aim of this study was to examine the HSR and its implications for global health and international relations by using expert opinion analysis on known major HSR initiatives. We analyzed the objectives of HSR, including improving healthcare infrastructure, enhancing global health cooperation, and expanding China’s global health leadership. Additionally, as a case study, an in-depth analysis of the China-Pakistan collaboration on healthcare under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was conducted. This research posits that the HSR has a mix of positive and negative implications. Positive impacts of HSR include improved healthcare services, infrastructure, and capacity-building in participating countries. The main challenges include the quality and sustainability of the infrastructure and services provided, debt sustainability, transparency of projects, and China’s geopolitical influence. This research identified five motives behind China’s HSR: economic interests, diplomatic influence, reputation building, regional stability, and health security. The summary centers on CPEC and the WHO/Global collaboration. This research contributes to a nuanced understanding of the HSR’s multifaceted impacts and underscores the importance of open dialogue, cooperation, and the sharing of best practices among stakeholders. By assessing the motives, implications, and concerns of the HSR, this study offers valuable insights for policymakers, global health practitioners, and scholars, highlighting the significance of international collaboration.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020020
Authors: Eti-Obong Simeon Ema Jude Ejikeme Obidiegwu Cynthia Adaku Chilaka Emmanuel Matthew Akpabio
Yam production, processing, distribution, and marketing processes are underpinned by socio-cultural beliefs shaped by ritual practices and indigenous wisdom. We used semi-structured interviews, public meetings, keen observation, local informants, and a review of secondary materials to assess local indigenous understanding of interconnected perspectives of yam farming processes, socio-cultural perspectives, and livelihood practices in communities in southern Nigeria. Our findings revealed that over 90% of farmers depend on experiences of adjusting to seasonal challenges, storage practices, and fertility enhancement. Cultural beliefs and spiritual practices pervade farmers’ social attitudes to improving farming operations. Almost 70% of yam producers are aged 60 years and above and depend on crude tools and traditional methods of land management and production process, even though the modern and innovative farming methods and practices are limited. Farmers respond to the poor public support system of extension services by informal networking and local associational relationships with diverse schemes to support and encourage members. Government and organizations should take advantage of these informal structures to empower farmers through micro-credits, education, information, training, supervision, and mechanization. Different groups of actors organized into formal social structures like cooperatives will take advantage of bulk buying, selling, transportation, access fundings, information, education, and training from public and non-governmental institutions. The study findings have demonstrated that the socio-economic structure of the Obudu community has developed extensively on account of decades of yam production and processing, supporting chains of a livelihood network, entrepreneurship, and relationships of mutual cooperation and co-existence.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020019
Authors: Joyce de Souza Zanirato Maia Ana Paula Arantes Bueno Joao Ricardo Sato
Education plays a critical role in society as it promotes economic development through human capital, reduces crime, and improves general well-being. In any country, especially in the developing ones, its presence on the political agenda is necessary. Despite recent educational advances, those developing countries have increased enrollments, but academic performance has fallen far short of expectations. According to international evaluations, Latin American countries have made little progress in recent years, considering the level of investment in education. Thus, Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, which deal with data differently from traditional analysis methods, can be an option to better understand educational dynamics and detect patterns. Through a literature review using the PRISMA methodology, we investigated how AI has been used to evaluate educational performance in basic education (elementary and high school) in several countries. We searched five platforms, resulting in a total of 19,114 works retrieved, and 70 articles included in the review. Among the main findings of this study, we can mention: (i) low adherence to the use of AI methodology in education for practical actions; (ii) restriction of analyzes to specific datasets; (iii) most studies focus on computational methodology and not on the meaning of the results for education; and (iv) a less trend to use AI methods, especially in Latin America. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated educational challenges, highlighting the need for innovative solutions. Given the gap in the use of AI in education, we propose its methods for global academic evaluation as a means of supporting public policy-making and resource allocation. We estimate that these methods may yield better results more quickly, enabling us to better address the urgent needs of students and educators worldwide.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020018
Authors: J. Joseph Speidel Jane N. O’Sullivan
Driven by increasing consumption and population numbers, human demands are depleting natural resources essential to support human life, causing damage to crop lands, fresh water supplies, fisheries, and forests, and driving climate change. Within this century, world population could increase by as little as 15% or by more than 50%, depending largely on how we respond. We must face the challenge of accommodating these additional people at the same time as virtually eliminating the use of fossil fuels and other activities that generate greenhouse gases, reversing environmental degradation and supporting improved living standards for billions of impoverished people. The response to this challenge is handicapped by a lack of common understanding and an integrated agenda among those contributing to the response. This report offers a strategy to protect natural systems and improve welfare through expansion of reproductive justice, a concept that includes family planning, reproductive health, and gender equity, and preservation of the environment and climate.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020017
Authors: Raveena Kargwal Yadvika Vijay Kumar Singh Anil Kumar
Pearl millet (Pennisetumglaucum (L.)) is the fifth most important cereal crop in the world after rice, wheat, maize and sorghum. A resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 3 March 2021 decided to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Millet has been promoted due to its nutritional value and low irrigation requirement. In this study, pearl millet was selected for energy auditing, and its production amount is a direct function of energy input. The production of pearl millet needs to be augmented to fulfill an increasing demand. Pearl millet is produced using various sources of energy. This study was conducted to examine the energy use pattern of different categories of farmers, such as small, medium and large, for pearl millet production in Hisar district, Haryana, India. The energy was distributed in different operations, including preparatory tillage, sowing, interculture, fertilizer, irrigation, pesticide, harvesting, threshing and transportation. The source-wise energy (direct and indirect) and operation-wise energy consumption were calculated for all categories of farmers. The average energy input of small, medium and large farmers was 2849.09 MJ.ha−1, 3027.21 MJ.ha−1 and 4021.50 MJ.ha−1, respectively. The highest energy was consumed in fertilizer application (52%), with the lowest in seed (2%). The energy ratios of small, medium and large farmers were 3.92, 9.40 and 13.80, respectively. This study could improve the agricultural production systems of pearl millet regarding the energy values of the inputs and outputs.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020016
Authors: Andrea Marcello Bassi Georg Pallaske Richard Bridle Kavya Bajaj
The removal of fossil fuel subsidies and the introduction of carbon pricing have been discussed for more than a decade, but their potential contribution to emission reduction is still uncertain, especially in relation to the potential indirect impact of revenue recycling. We have created a simulation model, GSI-IF, designed to assess the emission reduction potential resulting from removing fossil fuel subsidies and recycling part of the avoided subsidy and additional revenue from carbon pricing to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Our results show that emissions could decline by 7.1% in 2030 and up to 19.8% in 2050 compared to a baseline scenario. We find that subsidy removal is most effective in reducing emissions in countries with a high incidence of fossil fuel subsidies and it has stronger impact in the short term. The recycling of carbon pricing is most relevant for larger economies and its impact accumulates over time, generating growing GHG reductions year after year. In the current context (year 2022) with high energy prices, heavy stress on fiscal balances, and the renewed ambition of most governments to reduce emissions toward Net Zero in 2050, subsidy removal and carbon pricing hold promise in the toolbox of decarbonization options while improving fiscal sustainability.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4020015
Authors: Anne E. Goodenough Lynne MacTavish Dougal MacTavish Adam G. Hart
Engaging people with controversial and emotive issues that are inherently complex is challenging, especially when those issues are multifaceted or multidisciplinary, span environmental, economic, social, and political contexts, are global in scope, or where circumstances and implications differ spatially. Teaching such issues requires teachers and learners to navigate a challenging landscape of nuance and conflicting perspectives; immersive place-based learning might facilitate more meaningful exploration of such issues, but this has not previously been studied. In a multi-institution international study, we surveyed 164 participants (12 groups; 9 institutions) before and after an immersive fieldtrip in South Africa to assess perceptions on contentious issues. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed that participants had statistically significant opinion shifts for 17 of 18 statements, including those where change was likely due to improved knowledge or indicative of deeper attitude shifts. Generalised Linear Modelling revealed that propensity for opinion shifts was not influenced by demographics (age, gender), location (country of origin) or trip type (formal or informal). We conclude that in an increasingly complex world, context-relevant immersive experiences that facilitate deep learning by providing opportunities to explore contentious issues in situ are an ever-more valuable tool, not just for attainment but also for developing personal perspectives and as a catalyst for societal transitions.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010014
Authors: Usman Mehmood Salman Tariq Zia Ul Haq Muhammad Umar Aslam Ali Imran
Many nations made pledges at the Paris climate conference to eventually become carbon neutral. As a result, the effects of eco-innovations (ECO), globalization (GLO), and economic growth (GDP) on CO2 emissions in a panel comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan are assessed in this work. This study employs a unique panel (QARDL) methodology to data from 1980Q1 to 2018Q4 for analysis. The purpose of this study is to find the relation between GDP, GLO, ECO and CO2. The results show that environmental quality is being harmed because of GLO and GDP. Climate-change-causing CO2 emissions are decreasing globally thanks to ECO. Furthermore, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory in developing nations has been confirmed by this work. This study implies that the selected South Asian countries should switch to renewable energy sources to improve environmental quality. In addition, governments will need to rethink their approach to global trade. Importing effective technologies for producing renewable energy should be a priority. The future looks bright for these nations, as rising environmental consciousness will likely lead to the adoption of stringent environmental rules.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010013
Authors: Vasileios Kyriazis Theodore Metaxas
The phenomenon of firms grouping together has been extensively researched and is commonly known as industrial clusters. There are various ways to categorize these clusters, and in this paper, we adopt Markusen’s classification, which identifies four distinct types of industrial districts: the Marshallian/Italianate type, the hub-and-spoke type, the satellite industrial platforms, and the state-anchored clusters. Adding to Markusen’s typology, we will also try to delineate these two clusters’ “European Aspects”. We will examine if they have developed any “inter-European” synergy/ies with other entities (clusters, companies, E.U. institutions, etc.) of the E.U. ecosystem. The creation of such synergies includes the creation of technology innovation and interpersonal networks to serve as conduits for the diffusion of knowledge and exchange of information, the development of innovation initiatives between the entities of the technological ecosystem of the E.U. defense industry, and the creation of tangible “knowledge links”. The aim of this study is to investigate which of the four types of industrial clusters described by Markusen the French Aerospace Valley cluster of the Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine regions and the Andalucia Aerospace cluster belong to.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010012
Authors: Siti Hasnah Hassan Thurasamy Ramayah Muhammad Imran Qureshi
The holistic conceptions of multi-dimensional well-being that synergize the constructs that capture all elements of the well-being of travelers are lacking in current literature. This study aims to develop an instrument to measure religious travelers’ well-being based on multi-dimensional well-being from the perspective of Muslim travelers who traveled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah to gauge their level of well-being. The scale development technique was employed by creating, refining, and validating the instrument. The final survey instrument, which was administered using a purposive snowball sampling procedure, featured 30 items representing six dimensions of well-being. The final dataset included 202 Muslims who traveled to perform Umrah and were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 21.0 software. Four low-loading items were removed, leaving 26 items with a satisfactory model fit that covered six wellness dimensions: physical, spiritual, emotional, social, intellectual, and financial well-being. The findings contribute to the literature on religious tourism by providing an in-depth description of the experience of a religious pilgrimage for Muslims and their subsequent sense of fulfillment. The newly constructed instrument is believed to provide a more comprehensive view on well-being, allowing for a more nuanced assessment of a traveler’s well-being upon return.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010011
Authors: Gabriel da Silva Medina Claudio Wilson Soares Barbosa
The productive inclusion of local communities is one of the main challenges to sustainable rural development in the Amazon. Existing development initiatives often prioritize projects with exogenous production systems; thus, local systems are overlooked, despite their large coverage. Based on surveys conducted in 107 riparian communities and detailed case studies in eight communities doing ranching, logging, and fishing, this study describes local management systems developed by rural communities in the confluence between the Amazon and Xingu Rivers. The study showed that (1) local management systems for buffalo ranching, logging, and fishing agreements were found in 61%, 60%, and 21% of the 107 riparian communities, respectively; (2) these systems are based on local know-how and on technological solutions that are locally available; and (3) the improvement and consolidation of these local systems require governmental support. The study reveals that local and traditional farming practices may underpin sustainable development in the Amazon.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010010
Authors: Stephen Okumu Ombere Agnetta Adiedo Nyabundi
The COVID-19 pandemic overstretched health systems in developed and developing nations. Like other African nations, Kenya has a frail health system, making responding to the pandemic a problem. Recent studies during COVID-19 have shown that Kenya’s health systems were either strained to their maximum capability or worse in handling patients. Therefore, citizens were advised not to go to the hospital unless necessary. This advice applies to all, including pregnant mothers. This article utilized the anthropological description of the healthcare system, viewed as a cultural system attached to particular provisions of social institutions and forms of social connections. It is a social and cultural system in origin, structure, function, and significance. In every society, healthcare systems are forms of social reality in which they embody specific social roles and relationships between these roles. There is a dearth of information on how healthcare providers experienced the effects of COVID-19 on Kenya’s healthcare system, which this study addresses for those in Coastal Kenya. This rapid qualitative study utilized data from sixteen purposefully selected healthcare providers in charge of various departments in Kilifi County of Coastal Kenya. We utilized thematic analysis and textual description to present our findings. It emerged that there was a diversion in resources allocated for maternal health programs, health facilities were temporarily shut down due to inadequate resources and equipment for health workers, there was a lack of preparation by health workers, there was a reduced flow of pregnant mothers and missing scheduled appointments for ante- and postnatal clinics, maternal mortality increased, and mothers resorted to traditional midwives for deliveries. These findings show that maternal health services were negatively affected. Thus, the government needs to institute alternative measures for continued access to maternal health services during pandemics. We recommend expanding and supporting the existing community midwifery model (CMM). For instance, incorporating community health workers (CHWs) and other local health institutions in the community, such as traditional birth attendants (TBAs), and creating midwifery centers managed by trained midwives in communities.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010009
Authors: Stefan Kah Haris Martinos Urszula Budzich-Tabor
This paper presents an overview of how the Community-led Local Development (CLLD) instrument has been used in the EU in the 2014–2020 programming period. It provides a typology of countries applying the options offered by CLLD and illustrates the various ways in which the different eligible EU funds were contributing financially. The article discusses the experiences made with CLLD implementation, focusing on the purpose for which CLLD was implemented, the barriers encountered, and the achievements so far. A particular look is taken at the urban dimension of CLLD as one of the innovative elements of the 2014–2020 programming period. Overall, CLLD can bring significant added value for the targeted territories and can foster an increased policy integration. However, challenges remain, particularly around administrative complexities, and these impact on the willingness of policy-makers to make use of the full range of options offered by CLLD. Indeed, looking into 2021–2027, there are countries discontinuing CLLD, but, at the same time, the CLLD model is being expanded where experiences have been predominantly positive.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010008
Authors: Michael Ekholuenetale Anthony Ike Wegbom Clement Kevin Edet Charity Ehimwenma Joshua Amadou Barrow Chimezie Igwegbe Nzoputam
The impact of chronic diseases on labour force participation is not frequently examined or considered as part of cost-of-illness studies. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of chronic diseases on labour force participation among South African women. This study included 6126 women from the 2016 South African Demographic and Health Survey. Labour force participation/employment was the outcome variable. Data were analyzed in percentage and multivariable binary logistic regression. Results showed that approximately 28.7% of women participated in the labour force and about 5.0% had diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes among women who are not in the labour force was 5.5%, whereas those in the labour force reported 3.8% prevalence of diabetes. The diabetic women had 35% reduction in labour force participation when compared with non-diabetic women (aOR = 0.65; 95% CI: 0.48 to 0.89). Geographical region was associated with labour force participation. Rural women and those currently in union/living with a man had 35% (aOR = 0.65; 95% CI: 0.56 to 0.76) and 27% (aOR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.64 to 0.85) reduction in labour force participation, respectively, when compared with their urban and single counterparts. The findings of this study revealed that diabetes was significantly associated with reduction in labour force participation among women.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010007
Authors: Roderick J. Lawrence
We should rethink individual and collective positions that promote and sustain the health of the planet and people in an era of increasing uncertainty and unpredictability concerning various threats to our lives and the livelihoods of all living species on Earth. This fundamental rethink is a prerequisite before radical societal change is implemented to respond more effectively to persistent global problems than numerous ineffective responses during the last 50 years. Our positionality, which defines and is mutually defined by fundamental values and worldviews, will influence how we anticipate or discount the risk and threats to our common future. This contribution follows a period of documentary research and personal reflections at the Ecumenical Institute at the Château de Bossey, in Switzerland. The aim was to reconsider a global, conceptual framework that acknowledges pluralism and includes an ecumenic and ecological interpretation of people–environment interrelations. Given that ecumene, economy, and ecology have the same linguistic roots in ancient Greek philosophy, combining them with core principles of human ecology creates an inclusive and wholistic framework for repositioning ourselves using eco-ethical principles and equitable and just values in a world of persistent problems that threaten life on Earth. This repositioning can begin by reconnecting children and adults with natural ecosystems, and three approaches currently applied are included.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010006
Authors: Ruining Jin Tam-Tri Le Thu-Trang Vuong Thi-Phuong Nguyen Giang Hoang Minh-Hoang Nguyen Quan-Hoang Vuong
Acculturative stress can be a big problem for international students. Among the adaptation difficulties they may face, adjusting to new foods in a new environment is crucial to their well-being. Existing studies related to dietary acculturation point to gender differences, mostly on objective health impacts. Using the information processing approach, this study aims to examine the subjective perception of dietary acculturation difficulties, with a focus on the influence of social connectedness. Using the Bayesian inference approach with the Hamiltonian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique on a sample of 268 students from a Japanese international university, we found that female students are more likely to have perceived difficulties in the process of adjusting to new foods, but social connectedness lessens this effect. We also found no significant differences between domestic and international students regarding perceived difficulties of food adjustment in this study site, likely due to its highly multicultural environment. We suggest international universities provide better information about the food situations on campuses, especially for female students, and organize more cultural exchange events and food-related social activities to help students overcome barriers of food stress.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010005
Authors: Franziska Lengerer Tialda Haartsen Annett Steinführer
After its first funding period from 1991 to 1994, LEADER was positively evaluated as a successful strategy to empower actors at the regional level, enable regional development and contribute to territorial cohesion within the European Union. Critical studies, however, have highlighted elitist tendencies in LEADER processes and asked whether the proclaimed goal of strengthening ‘the local’ contributes to new or other forms of social and spatial injustice. Our research focus lies in how representation, distribution, and recognition—as the three interrelated dimensions of justice according to Nancy Fraser—are featured in the discourse related to redesigning a local development strategy (LDS). During this process, which is conceived as the most open and inclusive phase in each LEADER funding period, we conducted expert interviews and participatory observations in a case study region and gathered media reports, documents, and official regulations. In our analysis of issues of representation, distribution, and recognition, we also focus on the spatial scales that are referred to and the ways in which the involved actors challenge and justify the status quo. Our analysis explicates the actors’ implicit normative understandings as well as their different perspectives and positions considering perceived injustice. Even though the LDS process provides opportunities to negotiate these positions and to work towards more just representation, distribution, and recognition, they are partly constrained by structural and individual dependencies.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010004
Authors: Edison D. Macusi Andre Chagas da Costa-Neves Christian Dave Tipudan Ricardo P. Babaran
The Davao Gulf supports various livelihoods and activities for small-scale and commercial fisheries. However, facing a declining catch, a closed season was implemented to arrest the decline. This study aimed to describe the Davao Gulf fisheries, determine the movement patterns of fishing boats during closed and open seasons, and quantify and compare their catch and their fishing distances. Boat tracking was combined with catch logbook monitoring of fishers and supplemented with interview surveys (N = 35) and mapping surveys (N = 167), including the use of secondary catch data. Results from the interviews showed that the average age of the fishers was 45 years old, with 27 years of fishing experience using motorized boats with 8 HP engines. Their average catch was 7 kg per trip dominated by big-eyed scad (Selar crumenophthalmus), frigate tuna (Auxis thazard), roundscad (Decapterus spp.), skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares). There were highly significant differences between the volume of catch of small-scale fishers and commercial fishers after the closure in 2014 (278 t vs. 80 t; p < 0.001) and between the species caught (p < 0.001). Fishing activities were associated with a speed class of 0–1 km/h, while the average moving speed was 5.28 km/h. Fishing ground overlap was common among fishers from the same port of origin but not fishers of different ports. Some fishers move farther away from their port during the closure period. Our study provided a better understanding of fishing effort distribution in the Davao Gulf.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010003
Authors: World Editorial Office World Editorial Office
High-quality academic publishing is built on rigorous peer review [...]
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010002
Authors: Alberto Matenhauer Urbinatti Simone Ley Omori-Honda Carolina Monteiro de Carvalho Klaus Frey Pedro Roberto Jacobi Leandro Luiz Giatti
In recent years, the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus approach has been widely used as a framework in the context of urban Sustainability. However, some elements of the approach are normative, leading to a technical view of resources and technocratic policy implementation. To avoid such tendencies, this study uses the framework of ‘nexus of humility’. We used insights from the Science and Technology Studies to better assess the interactions between water, energy, and food, and consider the social construction aspects of the nexus itself. The approach of Pathways to Sustainability is combined with this framework to analyze two government programs in the cities of São Paulo and Guarulhos, Brazil; namely, the Green and Healthy Environments Program and the Environmental Health Program, respectively. We interviewed 20 individuals linked to these policies and analyzed narratives inductively and deductively. The results showed six groups of narratives, namely: environmental and social determinants of health, health prevention and promotion, intersectorality, politics and economy, territory, learning, and participation. Moreover, we concluded that narratives related to the WEF nexus, even if not explicitly part of the government guidelines, are present within the existing axes of action. Public health was understood as an important support pillar for the development of synergies related to Sustainability in urban areas. Finally, we sought to contribute to the literature by showing how this new framework can ‘open up’ avenues for sustainability within the contexts of high urban vulnerability and social inequality.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world4010001
Authors: David Markantonis G.-Fivos Sargentis Panayiotis Dimitriadis Theano Iliopoulou Aimilia Siganou Konstantina Moraiti Maria Nikolinakou Ilias Taygetos Meletopoulos Nikos Mamassis Demetris Koutsoyiannis
Social structure is based on the availability of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. To cover these needs of society, several solutions of different scales of infrastructures coexist. The construction of infrastructure is capital-intensive; therefore, investment risk is always a consideration. In this paper, we try to evaluate the investment risk by interest rates (IR). We show that IR is a key indicator, which includes multiple parameters of prosperity expressing the political and economic status quo of the society. The selection of a particular scale influences the required capital and is thus one of the most critical decisions. Water supply infrastructure is one of the foundations of society, and the selection of the optimal scale of such infrastructure is often a great challenge in civil engineering. As a case study, we analyse three different scales of water supply infrastructures for the area of West Mani (Greece), i.e., dam, water ponds, and seawater desalination. We evaluate each case by the capital intensity by performing stochastic simulations of interest rates and identify the optimal solution as the one with the smallest median unit cost, in this case, the water ponds. In order to assess the impact of the development level of a country on the resulting unit cost stochastic properties we apply the optimal solution to various countries with different development levels and IR. We show that IR in the least developed countries, being generally higher and more variable, increases the unit cost, including its variability, which ultimately indicates higher investment risk.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040061
Authors: Edison D. Macusi Lizel L. Sabino Erna S. Macusi
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) make a critical contribution in terms of employment and food security to coastal communities. Fish serves multiple purposes, mainly as a cheap source of protein and minerals for lower-income families. In order to help sustain this demand and to protect fishing resources, the closed season policy, temporal closure, and spatial closure were adopted to protect fish stocks and avoid fishery collapse. To assess the agreement and compliance of the three municipalities (Cortes, Lanuza, and Lianga) in Surigao del Sur to this policy, we surveyed their responses regarding this policy. We used focus group discussions, two focus groups per municipality (N = 80), followed by member checking to gather and clarify the data from six barangays with small-scale fishers (N = 192). The findings indicate that each community in the three municipalities studied have a different method of implementing the fishery closure or closed fishing season policy which resulted in a limited conservation impact on fish stocks. In the municipality of Cortes, 92% agreed with the policy, provided there would be enough money to comply with the policy. In Lanuza, 60% agreed to implement the policy, provided there would be alternative jobs available. In contrast, the municipality of Lianga, which did not implement this policy, had only 4% that agreed to impose the policy to restore depleted fish stocks. Other reasons for not implementing a closed season policy include lack of community organization, poor fishery management, and lack of strong government support for the policy. Moreover, fishers were only willing to stop fishing if they were given a subsidy of PHP 15,000 per month. In the long term, fishers who provide fish protein needs for the nation also need help and attention from policy and decision makers to realize sustainable fisheries.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040060
Authors: Janestic Twikirize Helmut Spitzer
The community plays a significant role in everyday life in rural African contexts, particularly in terms of coping and in times of crisis. In the East African region, rural communities are diverse and complex, yet most share similar vulnerabilities such as widespread poverty, lack of infrastructure and basic services, and exclusion from broader economic and political developments. They are also highly affected by processes of modernization, globalization, and rural-urban migration. Social work as a profession that deals with social problems is deemed suitable to support rural communities in their struggle for survival. In order to understand the link between community-based forms of problem solving and social work practice, a qualitative study was conducted in five countries (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda). A total of 155 qualitative interviews and 55 focus group discussions with key informants were conducted. The research revealed a variety of indigenous knowledge systems and innovative coping mechanisms. For rural social work to be relevant and effective, such models should be thoroughly analyzed and integrated into its professional concepts and practice. In this article, some case examples are presented and critically discussed against the background of the African philosophical concept of ubuntu, which is regarded as the ethical backbone of communal life.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040059
Authors: Dismas Said Shija Okeyo A. Mwai Julie M. K. Ojango Daniel M. Komwihangilo Bockline Omedo Bebe
The ability of smallholder dairy farming systems (SHDFS) to achieve desirable lactation-curve characteristics is constrained or reduced by environmental stresses. Under stressful production environments in the tropics, the better lactation-curve characteristics in smallholder dairy farms are a result of improved dairy genetics and husbandry practices. Better husbandry practices improve animal health and welfare status, which is important to sustain SHDFS in the tropics where dairy cattle are constantly exposed to multiple environmental stresses of feed scarcity, disease infections and heat load. In this case, lactating cows in smallholder dairy farms labelled positive deviants are expected to express lactation curve characteristics differently from typical farms, regardless of the stress levels confronted. Thus, this study tested this hypothesis with Holstein–Friesian and Ayrshire cows in two milksheds in Tanzania classified them into low-and high-stress environments. A two-factor nested research design was used, with farm (positive deviant and typical) nested within the environment. Positive deviant farms were farms that performed above the population average, attaining ≥0.35 Mcal NEL/d energy balance, ≥6.32 L/cow/day milk yield, ≤1153.28 days age at first calving, ≤633.68 days calving interval and ≤12.75 per 100 animal-years at risk disease-incidence density. In this study, a total of 3262 test-day milk production records from 524 complete lactations of 397 cows in 332 farms were fitted to the Jenkins and Ferrell model to estimate lactation curve parameters. In turn, the outcome parameters a and k were used to estimate lactation curve characteristics. The lactation curve characteristic estimates proved the study hypothesis. Regardless of the stress levels, cows in positive deviant farms expressed lactation curve characteristics differently from cows managed in typical farms. The scale (a) and shape (k) parameters together with peak yield and time to peak yield indicated higher lactation performance in positive deviant farms than in typical farms under low- and high-stress environments (p < 0.05). Lactation persistency was higher in positive deviants than typical farms by 14.37 g/day and 2.33 g/day for Holstein–Friesian cows and by 9.91 g/day and 2.16 g/day for Ayrshire cows in low- and high-stress environments. Compared to cows managed in typical farms, cows in positive deviant farms attained higher lactation performance under low- and high-stress; Holstein–Friesian produced 50.2% and 36.2% more milk, respectively, while Ayrshire produced 52.4% and 46.0% more milk, respectively. The higher milk productivity in positive deviant farms can be associated with the deployment of husbandry practices that more effectively ameliorated feed scarcity, heat load and disease infections stresses, which are prevalent in tropical smallholder dairy farms.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040058
Authors: Anthony Michael Fuller
Reflections on research can take many forms. They inevitably contain positive memories of research that advanced our knowledge on issues of the day. They can also reflect dead ends and disappointments. Although research in rural development is generally a public endeavor (government, university and NGO supported projects), the effects felt by the researcher are often personal. Meeting peasants in the field, listening to abused farm women, and tracing livelihood transitions are all challenging for the researcher. Above all, making sense of research results for policy development is a daunting task, as there are many layers of dilution and deflection between researcher and policy maker. With these impediments and opportunities in mind, I offer some of my own reflections, in the form of an opinion piece, on rural development research over the past 50 years. The paper is organized into three parts: macro and micro level observations about the evolution and prevailing trends in rural development, and a third section on contemporary and future issues.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040057
Authors: Haydn Washington Helen Kopnina
Academia and government often ignore or deny the impact of population growth on the environment. However, key scientific institutions and reports confirm that population growth is a major driver of climate disruption and other environmental crises. We review the environmental science of population growth. Issues that block dialogue are discussed, such as growthism, anthropocentrism, denial, religious and cultural taboos, fear of being called a racist, the issue of rights claims, seeking political power through numbers, the framing of social justice issues, and sophistical claims regarding ‘racism’. We examine examples of denial about population in academia and government. We explore ways forward to gain dialogue, and we also consider success stories. We conclude that population growth, like overconsumption, must be foregrounded to create ecologocally sustainable economies and a sustainable future.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040056
Authors: Voicu D. Dragomir
The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences between developed countries in terms of corporate governance outcomes at aggregate and granular levels. The population of companies was collected from the database curated by Refinitiv. The sample was selected according to two criteria: the existence of governance scores for the financial year 2021 and the registration of a company in any of the G20 countries or the European Union. The results are presented by ranking the G20 countries based on four aggregate indicators and four granular indicators of corporate governance quality. While the differences regarding the aggregate indicators are not statistically strong, the intercountry differences on board independence, board gender diversity, board skills, and auditor tenure are especially relevant. The present article opens an avenue of research on international corporate governance linked to cultural dimensions, comparative legal systems, national approach to corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance principles.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040055
Authors: Muhammad Asef Shaiq Ali Akbar Barati Khalil Kalantari Ali Asadi
Afghanistan is a vulnerable country, and various challenges have led to widespread poverty. This study measured the different dimensions of poverty in rural and urban areas to help policymakers with poverty alleviation in the Kunduz province of Afghanistan. The data were collected from 360 rural and urban households. According to the findings, the MPI index in the Kunduz province’s rural and urban areas was found to be 0.483 and 0.445, respectively. The results indicate that Kunduz faces both rural and urban poverty, but that rural poverty is more severe than urban poverty. The intensity and headcount ratio of poverty in rural areas is more significant than in urban areas. It also is clear that all dimensions of poverty in Kunduz are very serious. Thus, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive program to reduce all aspects of poverty.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040054
Authors: Fatemeh Hamedanian
Economic crises and instability during the COVID pandemic have led to a significant additional workload and uncertainty for women. The COVID virus has spread extremely rapidly, and mobility and migration are severely limited, at least in the short term. The virus has a significant impact on the health of people from those considered to be migrants and refugees and their access to the labor market. According to Eurostat, 1.4 million people who previously resided in an EU Member State migrated to another Member State, and almost half of this population are women. Migrating women are particularly exposed to a number of specific consequences of the pandemic. Migrant women are disproportionately the first to be laid off and the last to be rehired. This is due to gender discrimination and precarious working conditions, such as low wages, the greater burden of care work, and alternative employment costs, especially given the gender wage gap and the difficulty of accessing the formal economy. This study examines the challenges many migrant women experienced in accessing the Eurozone labor market during the COVID pandemic. Based on this primary objective, the theoretical perspective of this research relies on the segmented labor market theory. Within the framework of documentary research, this work has chosen the path of descriptive analysis to achieve the study’s objectives. The findings presented in an intersectional framework suggest that the impact on migrant women workers during the COVID pandemic is exacerbated by a segmented labor market rooted in a capitalist context and by gendered structures of racism in the European labor market. In a capitalist context, migrant women would be over-represented in the informal economy due to segmented labor market policies and the effects of gendered racism. As a result, they would be at the forefront of redundancies during the pandemic because of their difficulty accessing the European labor market.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040053
Authors: Thomas Dax Andrew Copus
The European Commission’s Long-term Vision for Rural Areas, published in June 2021 and building on a previous report on the Impact of Demographic Change and a Green Paper on Ageing, underlines the importance of population trends as a key issue for EU rural policy. The increasing concern about demographic issues, especially in rural Europe, has been accompanied, and in some cases preceded, by the publication of national population strategies. This renewed interest within the European policy community probably has roots in politics rather than new research or fresh evidence. Rural depopulation is not a new phenomenon, nor is it a new research topic. Nevertheless, to better understand this renewed interest, it is instructive to review recent scholarship and consider whether there is any evidence that the processes and systems of rural and regional (demographic) development are delivering new kinds of challenges, requiring refreshed policy approaches. Having established this context, we present a comparative review of a selection of national strategies, identifying shifting perspectives on goals, the instruments proposed, and implied intervention logics. Arguably, cumulative evidence points to an incremental shift of the policy discourse away from neoliberal, Lisbon-inspired visions of rural competitiveness and cost-effectiveness and towards a quest for rural well-being, rights to basic services, and more (spatially) inclusive rural development. This increasing emphasis on qualitative change may be symptomatic of a wider shift in the zeitgeist of rural policy, reflecting a number of globalised trends, including an awareness of the potentials and limitations associated with changing patterns of inter and intra-regional mobility.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040052
Authors: Ibraheem M. Karaye Nadia Koyratty Stephanie Rogus Lauren Clay
This study aimed to assess the association between food worry and self-rated anxiety and depression during the early phase of COVID-19. We recruited a cross-sectional proportional quota sample of 415 respondents from 15 May through July 2020 in New York State. A validated food access survey instrument was administered to the respondents, capturing demographic information and data on food access issues and self-rated mental health. Multiple logistic regression models were fitted to examine the relationship between food worry, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Of the respondents included in the study, 43.4% were male, and 55.4% were female. Forty-three percent reported high food worry, and 39.5% and 41.2% reported symptoms suggestive of anxiety and depression, respectively. Respondents with high food worry were more likely than respondents with low or no food worry to experience anxiety symptoms (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 4.80; 95% CI: 3.02, 7.62). Likewise, respondents with high food worry had higher odds of reporting depressive symptoms than respondents with low or no food worry (aOR = 3.89; 95% CI: 2.45, 6.18). Identifying the personal and contextual drivers of food worry and mental health outcomes would guide public mental health intervention efforts.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040051
Authors: Zacharias Papanikolaou Fani Kefala Christos Karelakis George Theodosiou Apostolos Goulas
Cities operate in a competitive social environment requiring local authorities to adopt marketing strategies with significant economic ratings. City marketing that is related to the meaning of a city’s name encourages activities in the city or region. The present study adopted a quantitative survey on a sample of 152 employees in companies to explore how important marketing is perceived for a city’s development. The research was done in Trikala, a city in Greece. The key conclusion was that the more critical the participants consider the interventions in the city’s natural environment, the more they believe that the city can benefit from corporate sponsorships. Subsequently, it appeared that the more they support the interventions in the structured environment of the city, the less they consider that corporate sponsorships can benefit it. It was explained that structured interventions usually involve very high investments that require funding from the central government, as sponsorships are not enough. The most substantial positive relationship was found between the importance of interventions in employment, entrepreneurship and tourism, and the importance of business sponsorships.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040050
Authors: Antony Aparecido Pavarin Tiago F. A. C. Sigahi Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes Walter Leal Filho Izabela Simon Rampasso Rosley Anholon
This paper aims to present aspects related to corporate governance, organisational resilience and sustainable practices developed by Brazilian companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodological strategy included documentary research to identify sustainability reports published by companies listed on the Ibovespa index, which were examined through the content analysis technique. The results allowed light to be shed on opportunities for improvement concerning sustainability and corporate governance. Regarding organisational resilience, risk management is central for the development of sustainability practices by organisations. The support to society related to the COVID-19 pandemic was evidenced mainly through the donation of financial resources, equipment and hospital supplies. Practices related to reducing energy consumption and minimising waste generation were those most associated with environmental aspects. The actions identified were mapped according to their relations with the SDGs. Managers can benefit from the information presented in this study to enhance organisational sustainability and resilience, while researchers can use it as a starting point for future studies.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040049
Authors: Sudhanshu Joshi Manu Sharma
This review aims to evaluate the existing literature on Vaccine Supply Chain Management (VSCM). All relevant articles between 2002 and 2022 were systematically collected. The retrieved articles were further analyzed using bibliometric data analysis techniques. The unit of analysis is research papers published from 2002 to 2022. Vaccine Supply Chain Management (VSCM) literature has gained prominence since early 2000 and has now become voluminous. A review is the first endeavor to provide a unified body of literature. This study contributes to the existing research through insights from the bibliometric analysis and critical measurement of the literature. The results show 4288 papers on VSCM in the last 20 years. The top five countries contributing to VSCM literature are the USA, France, China, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Supply chain, vaccine, immunization, and Vaccine Supply Chain Management are the high-frequency keywords in the area of VSCM. The research hotspots mainly focus on healthcare, drugs, and manufacturers. In light of the COVID-19 era, this review paper indicates the area of VSCM is diversified. This study is useful for policymakers and other stakeholders to understand the existing issues in VSCM. The research trends and patterns from the literature review of VSCM will help in designing AAA (agile, adaptive, and aligned) VSCM in the future from the viewpoint of public health. This study attempts to analyze existing works, trends, developments, and potential research directions.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040048
Authors: Michael Ekholuenetale Olah Uloko Owobi Benedict Terfa Shishi
Women’s socioeconomic position has a significant effect on health services use. With the nature of the socioeconomic empowerment process in relation to improvements in sexual and reproductive health, population-based contraceptive use is key to determining the growth in the human development index of every country. We looked into the effects of women’s socioeconomic position on modern approaches to birth control in sub-Saharan African (SSA) women of childbearing age. A sample of 496,082 respondents was analyzed from 2006–2021 Demographic and Health Surveys data. From the analysis, Southern SSA (46.0%), Eastern SSA (27.0%), Central SSA (16.0%), and Western SSA (15.0%) have decreasing prevalence of any modern methods of contraceptive uptake among all women. Similarly, Southern SSA (57.0%), Eastern SSA (37.0%), Western SSA (16.0%), and Central SSA (14.0%) have decreasing prevalence of married women currently using any modern methods of contraception. Furthermore, Southern SSA (76.0%), Eastern SSA (56.0%), Western SSA (36.0%), and Central SSA (26.0%) have decreasing prevalence of demand for family planning satisfied by modern contraceptives. While Southern SSA reported a total fertility rate of 3.0%, other sub-regions have a pooled rate of 5.0%. Our results indicated that increasing women’s socioeconomic position can increase contraceptive use and, thus, maternal healthcare service utilization.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040047
Authors: Vineet Kapoor William Flavin Peter Ochs Thomas Matyók Essam Fahim
UN peacekeepers face new conditions of conflict today, which call for expanded peacekeeping strategies. Among these new conditions is the increasing localization of violent conflict, especially among extra-state forces that are mobilized by ideological and religious passions. Responding to such challenges, the UN and its multinational partners attend increasingly to regional and local settings of intergroup tension and conflict. Among the consequences are greater emphasis on relations between UN peacekeeping and local police forces and on community policing. In this essay, we argue that these new peacekeeping directions are promising but lack one key dimension: attention to unique behavioral features of local, religion-on-religion conflict. Because such conflict plays an increasing role in location-specific tension and violence, it is increasingly important for peacekeepers to learn how to identify and analyze these unique features in real time and then reshape peacekeeping strategies accordingly. To illustrate how it is possible to do so, we introduce a detailed case study of successful community policing of religion-on-religion conflict: Muslim-Hindu intergroup conflict in Madhya Pradesh India.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040046
Authors: Dismas Said Shija Okeyo A. Mwai Perminus K. Migwi Raphael Mrode Bockline Omedo Bebe
This study characterized breeding, housing, feeding and health management practices in positive deviants and typical average performing smallholder dairy farms in Tanzania. The objective was to distinguish management practices that positive deviant farms deploy differently from typical farms to ameliorate local prevalent environmental stresses. In a sample of 794 farms, positive deviants were classified on criteria of consistently outperforming typical farms (p < 0.05) in five production performance indicators: energy balance ≥ 0.35 Mcal NEL/d; disease-incidence density ≤ 12.75 per 100 animal-years at risk; daily milk yield ≥ 6.32 L/cow/day; age at first calving ≤ 1153.28 days; and calving interval ≤ 633.68 days. The study was a two-factor nested research design, with farms nested within the production environment, classified into low- and high-stress. Compared to typical farms, positive deviant farms had larger landholdings, as well as larger herds comprising more high-grade cattle housed in better quality zero-grazing stall units with larger floor spacing per animal. Positive deviants spent more on purchased fodder and water, and sourced professional veterinary services (p < 0.001) more frequently. These results show that management practices distinguishing positive deviants from typical farms were cattle upgrading, provision of larger animal floor spacing and investing more in cattle housing, fodder, watering, and professional veterinary services. These distinguishing practices can be associated with amelioration of feed scarcity, heat load stresses, and disease infections, as well as better animal welfare in positive deviant farms. Nutritional quality of the diet was not analyzed, for which research is recommended to ascertain whether the investments made by positive deviants are in quality of feeds.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040045
Authors: José Manuel Saiz-Alvarez
Using the SCOPUS database and VOSviewer, this paper aims to analyze the bibliographic information on three keywords (entrepreneurial intention (EI), human flourishing (HF), and unicorns) to identify relevant areas for current and future research on entrepreneurship by applying a bibliometric and content review approach to 2434 documents for the BMA (business, management, and accounting) and EEF (economics, econometrics, and finance) subject areas to construct and visualize bibliometric networks on the basis of co-citation and co-authorship relations in these items. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) the number of documents published in the European Union on EI (600) almost doubles those published on this topic in the United States (354); the United States leads the number of papers (113) published on HF, and the number of documents published on Unicorns by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries (22) almost equals the number of documents published on this issue in the United States (25); (2) research on EI during the core years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019–2022) is of growing interest linked to entrepreneurship education and psychological traits; (3) ethics-related entrepreneurial behavior has historically supported current HF-related research; (4) entrepreneurial ecosystems, leadership, and innovation are critical success factors for born globals to be unicorns; (5) there is a geographic disparity (Spain, India, and the US) in the most cited authors for EI, HF, and unicorns, respectively.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040044
Authors: Sabine O’Hara Sigamoney Naicker
Universities play a crucial role in building the economic development capacity for their communities and regions. Their capacity building role is typically defined by contributions to the economic bottom line of the community and region where a university is located. This kind of capacity building may find itself in conflict with the long-term sustainable development needs of the region and with the responsibility of the university itself. Sustainable capacity building may require strategies that focus on the specific social, cultural, environmental, and physical context of a university’s location beyond purely economic capacity goals. To achieve sustainable development outcomes, universities must advance an understanding of the context conditions within which they are located. At least three context systems are relevant to this view of development: the economy, society and culture, and the environment with its physical, biological, and ecological context conditions. Each of these context systems is characterized by distinct time frames, spatial configurations, rules, and success measures. A focus on economic development outcomes reflects only one subsystem’s rules, behaviors, and success measures. By analyzing two case study examples from the United States and South Africa, we offer a framework for universities to advance sustainability objectives that correspond to their broader responsibilities. We argue that in order to meet these broader responsibilities, universities must first commit to giving expression to their own local context through the voices and lived realities of students and residents. Since universities build the brain trust of communities and regions around the world, they play an essential role in strengthening global sustainability goals by building the local capacity of their communities and regions.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040043
Authors: Nikolaos Apostolopoulos Marios Psychalis Panagiotis Liargovas
This paper discusses the effectiveness of EU economic measures towards the pandemic crisis in the case of Greece. As the pandemic crisis was an exogenous and symmetric crisis, EU member states decided to take supply and demand side measures to tackle economic recession. Not only the Recovery plan for Europe (NGEU), but also the Escape Clause, as well as non-standard monetary measures, were implemented in order to achieve growth. Furthermore, fiscal expansion, as well as common debt extraction, using green and social bonds led to higher government spending and sovereign debt. The paper’s research question is “Could fiscal expansion mitigate the economic consequences of pandemic crisis?” In other worlds, the research gap which this paper tries to fill is that for the contemporary EU response to two different crises, the economic and the pandemic. Our analysis, by using a comparative approach, shows that government spending and fiscal expansion is effective in the short-run, as the temporary measures led to higher GDP growth rates and lower unemployment rates, but in the long-run demand side measures led to higher inflation and higher sovereign debt.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3040042
Authors: Carlos Rosano-Peña João Vitor Borges Silva André Luiz Marques Serrano José Eustáquio Ribeiro Vieira Filho Herbert Kimura
This study analyzes the municipal agriculture eco-efficiency in the Amazon biome and the influence of exogenous factors. We use a two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) method with bootstrap. The results indicate that: (i) the density curve of the corrected eco-efficiency indices is statistically different from the deterministic score curves, suggesting the presence of bias in the latter; (ii) there is evidence of constant returns, demonstrating that small, medium and large municipalities can be equally eco-efficient; (iii) there are relevant eco-inefficient behaviors, showing that it is possible to increase the products (gross revenue and preserved area) and simultaneously reduce environmental damage (impact on biodiversity and greenhouse gas emission indices) with the same inputs, by replicating the best practices; and (iv) eco-efficiency scores are also substantially affected by exogenous factors. Based on the results, strategies can be defined by decision-makers to harmonize economic growth and environmental preservation; in addition, adaptive policies and actions can be adopted to optimize the sustainability of regional agriculture.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030041
Authors: Mahyuddin K. M. Nasution
It is not simple to consider the world from only one side, but analyzing all sides can cloud comprehension without reaching deep insight found at the core. In a word as a whole, there is potential for telling the whole world in one word, i.e., data, leading to interpretations as phenomena and paradigms at the core of this review. The tug of war between the two sides explains that data represent the world, or vice versa, and present a fundamental view that systems or subsystems frame the world, even though they are encoded and composed of culture, rules, or approaches such as the threshold of democracy. When the COVID-19 pandemic posed a threat, human efforts contributed to finding potentially answers to questions presented by the world: what, who, where, when, why, and how (5 wh); a calling in the form of a challenge, where facts show something. All these questions resulted in research, education, and service activities, with their respective data frameworks producing results. This paper aims to reveal the meaning of the outcomes through an observation from an outside perspective. Therefore, like COVID-19 and its vaccines, the assertion of convexity and concave contradictions in the treatment of data leads to a mutually conjugate treatment of data. In this regard, statistics and artificial intelligence play separate and complementary roles.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030040
Authors: Hamza El Ghmari Rachid Harbouze Hamid El Bilali
Agriculture is a vital sector in Morocco through its contribution to the gross domestic product (13%) and workforce (30%). However, the sector faces important sustainability challenges due to Morocco’s dependence on rain-fed crops for 90% of the production and its vulnerability to climate change. In this context, organic agriculture presents itself as a promising alternative to valorize production and mitigate climate change effects. This article describes the dynamics and development of the organic agriculture niche in Morocco through the lens of the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions. The MLP is a widely used framework that bases its analysis on transitions being the result of the interaction of niches, socio-technical regimes, and socio-technical landscape. Results of the literature review and semi-structured interviews show that, although the organic niche is relatively well established (11,000 ha of organic land area in 2019), it is still developing at a slower rate than expected due to multiple setbacks. While organic farming does solve many sustainability challenges that Moroccan agriculture faces, it still lacks the infrastructure and human capital to succeed as a niche. All in all, organic farming is still in the first transition stages and can follow a multitude of pathways before becoming relevant in the current agri-food system.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030039
Authors: Zahir Barahmand Marianne S. Eikeland
Today, life cycle assessment (LCA) is the most widely used approach to model and calculate the environmental impacts of products and processes. The results of LCAs are often said to be deterministic, even though the real-life applications are uncertain and vague. The uncertainty, which may be simply ignored, is one of the key factors influencing the reliability of LCA outcomes. Numerous sources of uncertainty in LCA are classified in various ways, such as parameter and model uncertainty, choices, spatial variability, temporal variability, variability between sources and objects, etc. Through a scoping review, the present study aims to identify and assess the frequency with which LCA studies reflect the uncertainty and what are the tools to cope with the uncertainty to map the knowledge gaps in the field to reveal the challenges and opportunities to have a robust LCA model. It is also investigated which database, methodology, software, etc., have been used in the life cycle assessment process. The results indicate that the most significant sources of uncertainty were in the model and process parameters, data variability, and the use of different methodologies and databases. The probabilistic approach or stochastic modeling, using numerical methods such as Monte Carlo simulation, was the dominating tool to cope with the uncertainty. There were four dominant LCA methodologies: CML, ReCiPe, IMPACT 2002+, and TRACI. The most commonly used LCA software and databases were SimaPro® and Ecoinvent®, respectively.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030038
Authors: Liyaning (Maggie) Tang Shaleeza Sohail Emma Shorthouse Larissa Sullivan Matthew Williams
Australia’s construction industry throughout the last two decades has seen an increase in the number of women pursuing careers. The percentage it has increased by between 1998 and 2020 is a disappointing 0.2% despite the research, strategies, and initiatives the Australian Government has implemented during the interval. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and support the legislative notion of required gender percentages on tendering documents and how this change could increase the number of women in public projects. A systematic literature review of scholarly sources from the database Scopus was applied to develop a thematic analysis of women in the industry. The results found four themes: underrepresentation, barriers to career, education pathways, and opportunities for employment. These themes reinforced the need to introduce legislation such as gender requirements for public projects. Connections made were that gender legislation would increase the number of job opportunities, more jobs would encourage all levels of education to promote women in construction, more women in construction would improve their underrepresentation, and thus make women-centric problems in the workforce a more common issue and more likely to improve. The paper concludes that to see an increase in the number of women in Australia’s construction industry, the government must take enforceable legislative change. This change must start by creating legislation that requires organisations that want to tender with the government to have a minimum percentage of women in any proposed public works submission before it can be awarded.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030037
Authors: Henrieta Pavolová Katarína Čulková Zuzana Šimková
The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the worst global crisis, having a considerable influence on the economy of individual states and whole regions. The present paper focuses on the evaluation of macroeconomic indicators influencing the economic development of selected EU countries due to the pandemic situation. The evaluation focuses on the Visegrad group countries through the TOPSIS method, providing a way to find out the best and the worst economic situation of the evaluated countries. Based on the results of the selected indicators in the countries, we found the trend of the economic development in the analyzed period, characterized by development disparities. According to the analyzed data, we constructed the order of the economic development in the countries. The results serve for the prediction of the economic development in the EU due to the pandemic situation from the perspective of the GDP and employment trend, as well as for the creation of future monetary and fiscal policies in the states. The results could also serve for possible scenarios of future pandemic impacts on the economies.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030036
Authors: Kateryna Andriushchenko Anastasiia Liezina Oksana Kuchai Helena Petukhova
Corporate training is currently more flexible and acts as an accelerator in the field of training. The object of the current research is the system of education in corporate universities. The purpose of the work is to analyze the possibilities and experience of evaluating the effectiveness of training at a corporate university in order to identify tools that can be used to evaluate various performance indicators and to determine which of them can be transferred to other educational organizations. Possible shortcomings of the implementation of corporate training in the format of a corporate university as a separate legal entity are shown. To achieve this goal, we have identified suitable tools for evaluating the effectiveness of corporate training and evaluating its applicability in practice. As a result, the authors determined that the assessment of the effectiveness of corporate training in terms of indicators of the 1st and 2nd levels of the Kirkpatrick methodology can be easily carried out using various tools. Corporate universities usually use the necessary surveys during and after training for this purpose. The authors proposed to apply various methods of post-program support using appropriate educational technologies and mandatory assessment of participants sometime after training.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030035
Authors: Dismas Said Shija Okeyo A. Mwai Perminus Karubiu Migwi Daniel M. Komwihangilo Bockline Omedo Bebe
In smallholder dairy-cattle farming, identifying positive deviants that attain outstanding performance can inform targeted improvements in typical, comparable farms under similar environmental stresses. Mostly, positive deviants are identified subjectively, introducing bias and limiting generalisation. The aim of the study was to objectively identify positive deviant farms using the Pareto-optimality ranking technique in a sample of smallholder dairy farms under contrasting stressful environments in Tanzania to test the hypothesis that positive deviant farms that simultaneously outperform typical farms in multiple performance indicators also outperform in yield gap, productivity and livelihood benefits. The selection criteria set five performance indicators: energy balance ≥ 0.35 Mcal NEL/d, disease-incidence density ≤ 12.75 per 100 animal-years at risk, daily milk yield ≥ 6.32 L/cow/day, age at first calving ≤ 1153.28 days and calving interval ≤ 633.68 days. Findings proved the hypothesis. A few farms (27: 3.4%) emerged as positive deviants, outperforming typical farms in yield gap, productivity and livelihood benefits. The estimated yield gap in typical farms was 76.88% under low-stress environments and 48.04% under high-stress environments. On average, total cash income, gross margins and total benefits in dairy farming were higher in positive deviants than in typical farms in both low- and high-stress environments. These results show that the Pareto-optimality ranking technique applied in a large population objectively identified a few positive deviant farms that attained higher productivity and livelihood benefits in both low- and high-stress environments. However, positive deviants invested more in inputs. With positive deviant farms objectively identified, it is possible to characterise management practices that they deploy differently from typical farms and learn lessons to inform the uptake of best practices and extension messages to be directed to improving dairy management.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030034
Authors: Wai-Ming To
Globalization has taken place for several decades and the world has become a connected place. As researchers are on the frontline to explore world (or global) issues, it is crucial to understand what research has been done and what the emerging topics relating to social, political, economic, and environmental dimensions are. This study investigates the trend and emerging topics of world (or global) issues using a bibliometric approach. A literature search using Scopus identified 1201 related documents, including journal articles, review articles, conference articles, books, and book chapters published during the period 1975–2022. Bibliometric data were analyzed using Scopus tools and VOSviewer software. Results show that the number of publications on world (or global) issues has increased over the last five decades, particularly after 2001. Two major streams of research were identified based on co-occurrence of keywords. They were “sustainable development and climate change”, and “environmental protection, economics, and politics”. Additionally, corporate social responsibility, governance approach, and COVID-19 were identified as emerging keywords in recent years.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030033
Authors: Mohsen Salimi Majid Amidpour
With the changes that have taken place in energy-related technologies, the United States has been less affected by the geopolitical risks associated with the supply of fossil fuel energy resources, especially crude oil. When the price of oil is low, the geopolitical situation of U.S. energy contrasts with that of other oil-producing countries, which are facing financial pressure due to low oil prices and a high domestic energy demand. Many other countries have been supplying crude oil compared to half a century ago, reducing the strategic importance of major oil exporters, such as key OPEC members in the Persian Gulf. The shale oil revolution in the United States and the transition of energy in countries around the world to more sustainable energy sources, especially renewable energy, have reduced the importance of security in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf for U.S. politicians, which will be intensified in the future. Especially from the middle of the Carter administration period, U.S. politicians saw the security of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf as a prerequisite for securing energy supplies for the U.S. economy, but that has changed. Despite the disruption of Russia’s fossil fuel energy supply, as one of the main energy suppliers, due to sanctions from February 2022, the global energy carriers’ prices are relatively under control. Energy transition is one of the main contributors to lowering the impact of fossil fuel energy supply disruptions on the global economy.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030032
Authors: Kedar Mehta Mathias Ehrenwirth Christoph Trinkl Wilfried Zörner
Energy is a pivotal element for overall development. Therefore, affordable and clean energy for all (Sustainable Development Goal 7) is one of the important elements. Despite a suitable approach, Kyrgyzstan lags behind to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Improving access to energy can significantly impact the progress of many other sustainable development targets. However, access to reliable, sustainable, and adequate energy is a crucial task in rural Kyrgyzstan. Taking into consideration the energy situation and the importance of the availability of energy services, the overarching aim of the presented article is to map the potential of improving rural energy services to foster overall sustainable development goals. The article presents the most relevant information about rural energy usage behaviour based on three primary pillars: energy demand, energy carrier, and energy sources. In addition, the presented research article synthesises the key driving factors which have a direct or indirect impact on the energy services in rural areas. The summarised data displays a deep insight into a variety of complex and dynamic household energy consumption patterns. The article provides a potential solution nexus to foster improved energy services in rural Kyrgyzstan and therefore to foster the overall sustainable development in Kyrgyzstan. The findings of the article help to formulate a strategy to design rural energy services for policy makers and stockholders.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030031
Authors: Danbi Chung Jaehee Hwang
This study identifies how aid has contributed to economic and social development in recipient African countries. Spatial panel models were employed for the analysis, considering spatial autocorrelation of panel data between 42 countries and nine years from 2005 to 2013. Based on the regression results, the aid itself had a weak impact on recipients’ GDP per capita and Human Development Index. On the other hand, according to the interaction term, aid promoted economic and social development along with affirmative government efficiency. The efficient and centralized administrative system and civic accountability also improved the aggregated well-being level in Africa.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030030
Authors: Bhubaneswor Dhakal Narendra Chand Him Lal Shrestha Anita Shrestha Nischal Dhakal Bikash Adhikari Shyam Krishna Shrestha Krishna Bahadur Karki Padam Bhandari
Many measures of international policies and support have dictated developing countries to upscale land areas of intact forestry, special biodiversity conservation site, and other wild reserves to half the land territory of the nation by 2050 for resulting environmental, and other benefits to global societies. The international initiations and work urged scholars to assess the potential impacts of the aggressive policy on forest-based communities and especially those living in institutionally and geo ecologically vulnerable areas. This study compiled the impacts of such international policy interventions on diverse affairs of the local community and national economies in Nepal and drew some conclusions on the well-being future of such forest-based communities. It explained that the international interventions in managing community-based resources induced serious disturbances in many local systems and resulted in vicious circles of emigration, income losses, social problems, psychological stresses, and food insecurities. The interventions have placed some communities and especially indigenous ethnic groups in the position either to be displaced from their ancestors’ homelands or suffer for generations. This study also explained some reinforcing phenomena that emerged from the external interventions which have placed situations of the resource impacting local communities adversely for years. It also investigated whether support of international agencies in policy formation and implementation for resource management safeguards the well-being of the resource-based communities. The agencies resulted in the best environmental and other benefits to foreign societies which have aggravated the misery of local communities, particularly the poor people, women, and indigenous ethnic communities. The adverse impacts on the local societies are not repercussions (accidentally or unknowingly happened). All these findings infer that the international policies of upscaling forests and wilderness areas or making conservation areas in half of their land territory, especially in developing societies for the global benefit, may place the lives of the forest-based communities in peril of suffering for generations or extirpating.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030029
Authors: Dimitris Zavras
The confinement measures implemented to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 disrupted daily life and increased the risk of poor mental and physical health. The COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in unprecedented disruptions to healthcare access due to both supply and demand factors, creating barriers to disease management. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the factors that influenced views on coping with confinement measures. For this study, we used data from the Eurobarometer 93.1. The sample consisted of 1016 individuals aged 15 years and over. The sample design was multi-staged and random (probability). For the purpose of the study, a multinomial logistic regression model was fitted and used views on the experience of coping with confinement measures as the outcome variable. Several demographic, health-related, and economic factors were used as independent variables. According to the results, residents of more densely populated areas, females, and individuals who consider their personal health an important issue had more negative views of their experience during confinement measures. This was also true for individuals from financially worse-off households. The study results indicate a direct influence of economic and health-related factors on the experience of coping with the implemented confinement measures.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030028
Authors: Isaac Khambule
Governments played an essential role in mitigating the social, political, health and economic impact and outcomes of COVID-19. Most literature limits the role of the state at the national level by focusing on the pandemic’s impact on economic growth, unemployment, poverty and state responses. This approach neglects the role played by subnational governments in managing the pandemic. In response to this predicament, this article explores the territorial socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and the responses adopted by subnational governments through the case studies of eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and KwaDukuza Local Municipality in South Africa. A territorial understanding of the pandemic and responses is important because of the spatial dimensions of the pandemic. Methodologically, the article utilises data from a survey conducted with informal workers in the two municipalities. The article shows the diverging impact and responses from the two municipalities, and how pre-existing socio-economic structures reinforced prevailing challenges. The article argues that a territorial understanding of the pandemic allows governments to adopt targeted interventions to enhance the effectiveness of responses to the different spatial dimensions of the pandemic.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030027
Authors: Marco Taliento
We explore the interplay between the three missions of the modern university (teaching, research, and ‘third mission’: education, scientific productivity, and socio-economic interaction with non-academic environments), with a focus on the Italian public university. We execute a path analysis compliant with the isomorphic ‘one-size-fits-all’ university management framework, revisited under a stakeholder approach in light of students’ needs and expectations. We investigate the impact of the university’s knowledge-based missions on student outcome: student satisfaction and early job placement (data from nearly 400,000 respondents per year from 2011–2014) epitomizing both educational effectiveness/attractiveness and competitiveness. Although performances do not appear to all be correlated with each other, there is a positive relationship between research and third mission quality, and finally between the socio-economic mission and student satisfaction. This kind of mission-related evaluation can shape the institutional decisions (government policy and funding) and influence management priorities or behavior by revealing the way the quality of academic productivity and knowledge transfer to communities can create value from the point of view of the core stakeholder (university students). Our findings across missions offer a new perspective, while the innovative structural method helps to reconcile the three institutional goals in one big picture.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030026
Authors: Veronica Perius de Brito Alice Mirane Malta Carrijo Marcos Vinicius Teixeira Martins Stefan Vilges de Oliveira
The authors would like to make the following correction to the published paper [...]
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030025
Authors: Gerrit van der Waldt David Fourie
Ease of doing business with municipalities and within municipal areas refers to the simplicity, effortlessness, and extent to which private enterprises can establish and conduct their business. It is influenced by multiple factors such as the conduciveness of the statutory and regulatory framework and the effectiveness of municipal structures and processes, in order to reduce bureaucratic red tape for the simplification of administrative processes such as the registration of business property, the issuing of permits, and access to electricity. Municipalities thus play a significant role in attracting and retaining business investment by establishing a conducive climate for business growth and local economic development. The aim of this article was to analyze the findings of a survey that was conducted to pinpoint business investment pull and push factors in selected municipalities in South Africa. By means of semi-structured interviews, a survey was undertaken with seven target groups. The obtained data were then triangulated with a desktop analysis of sampled businesses (i.e., case studies) that had relocated, mainly due to municipal service delivery failures. The survey revealed the underlying factors that lead to ease of doing business weaknesses, uncovered winning strategies to attract business investment, and proposed measures to enhance municipal business retention praxis.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030024
Authors: Ockert Rudolf Pretorius Johannes Ernst Drewes Trynos Gumbo
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its member countries are potentially vulnerable to external disturbances, including environmental, economic, and social shocks. Regional policy emphasizes interventions to ensure long-term growth and development in the face of potential disturbance. Current emphasis is placed on mitigating the impact of climate change, including the creation of the SADC Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. However, the need for long-term adaptation and associated policy is evident to reduce regional vulnerabilities. Research is an important source of evidence to support policymaking, with specific importance to institutions in developing regions such as the SADC and during times of global change and disruption. SADC development policy related to resilience outcomes ought to be informed by research. This paper investigates the extent to which existing research supports regional resilience policymaking. Objectives include investigating available research on resilience in the SADC, identifying potential limitations, and delineating areas of future research to be considered by researchers that contribute to knowledge and evidence creation. A bibliometric review and selective content review of existing research were utilized. Relevant publications for the aforesaid analysis were delineated using the source concepts “resilience”, “adaptation”, “adaptability”, and “Southern African Development Community” (or “SADC”). Using the SCOPUS database, bibliometric data of 65 publications were imported into the VOSviewer application (v.1.6.17). Keyword occurrences and network and overlay visualizations were applied to identify the research themes underlying current research. The findings, which were supported by the selective content review, indicate that existing research focuses primarily on environmental and social disturbances, while the applicable regional planning scale and development policy are considered to a limited extent. Areas of future research ought to create evidence that is thematically relevant to policy areas and applicable to policy interventions, which necessitates increased research on economic disturbances, a broadening of existing themes to the appropriate regional planning scale, and consideration of explicit regional development objectives and policy. Transdisciplinarity ought to be central to future research on the diverse disturbances facing the region, while researchers ought to leverage knowledge-creation opportunities catalyzed by SDG implementation.
]]>World doi: 10.3390/world3030023
Authors: Felipe Seabra d’Almeida Roberto Bentes de Carvalho Felipe Sombra dos Santos Rodrigo Fernandes Magalhães de Souza
With a generation of more than 2 million metric tons per year, Brazil is the largest producer of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Latin America. However, Brazil does not have its own way for treating printed circuit boards, a key component present in this type of waste. In this context, the processing of these components would allow the extraction of metals with high added value, mainly copper, silver, gold, and palladium. The purpose of this research is to design a conceptual treatment route, based on the integration of technologies described in the literature. After creating the route design, a mass and energy balances were performed, considering two printed circuit board source as raw material: (Case A) Wasted equipment in general; (Case B) Using only cell phones. For both cases, the treatment of 2 t·h−1 was considered. In addition, cost estimates and plant sensitivity analysis were carried out. For 15 years of plant production, the calculated Capex was USD 2,002,682, where an internal return rate of 140.1% and 3933.0% was obtained for Case A and B, respectively, and a net present value of USD 44,403,373 and USD 3,210,393,496 for Case A and B, respectively. Additionally, it was observed that Case A has a great sensitivity to the variation of the processing volume. Based on the present findings, this theoretical research has the potential to be a nucleation point in the design of a future industrial plant dedicated to the recycling of printed circuit boards, as well as to understand the key variables for the processing these components, based on Brazilian circumstances. Additionally, the project presents the hypothetical investment required for the creation of such conceptual plant, which is a crucial piece of information for potential investors.
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