More work still needs to be done to dispel confusion surrounding social enterprises in Vietnam and help promote sustainable growth
It’s not charity: the rise of social enterprise in Vietnam
Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng
I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam.
I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC.
I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam.
I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation.
I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University.
I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University.
My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/.
I play table tennis as a hobby.
Food foolish: Waste, hunger and climate change
Saturday, September 5, 2015 – 1:20am
The following is an excerpt from the book Food Foolish.
GreenBiz – One-third or more of the food we produce each year is never eaten.
More than 1 billion metric tons of food is lost or wasted, never making it from the farm to our fork.
Often in developing countries it decays in fields before harvest or spoils while being transported. Some is lost in retail markets before consumers can buy it. Meanwhile, in developed countries people buy too much and then throw it away. They reject perfectly nutritious food that is cosmetically imperfect. Tiếp tục đọc “Food foolish: Waste, hunger and climate change”
Does Full-day Schooling Reduce Educational Inequality in Vietnam?
- Date: 14 Sep 2015
- Series: PERI ESP Working Paper Series 2015 No. 72
- Author: Tran Ngo Thi Minh Tam and Laure Pasquier-Doumer
- Download the file ( English, 1402 KB, PDF document )
Privatization of the education sector has recently emerged in many low- and middle- income countries. This paper contributes empirical evidence to the ongoing discourses by looking into full-day schooling and educational inequality in Vietnam. Full-day schooling was implemented initially to deal with deficiencies in primary instructional time in Vietnam. Using data from the Vietnam Young Lives School Survey (2011), this paper examines whether full-day schooling decreases educational inequality. Specifically we examine how the transition from private extra classes to full-day schooling and accompanied school resources affect the gap in learning achievement between children from different social backgrounds.
Analysis results show that full-day schooling improves student learning progress. However full-day schooling does not narrow the inequality in education, and appears to associate with the rising gap in learning progress. Among students that attend full-day schooling, those from more-advantaged backgrounds have more instruction, better resources and obtain higher learning progress in comparison with those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. Higher attendance in full-day schooling magnifies the effect of social background on learning progress.
Global Consumption Trends Break New Records
Follow GLOBE-Net
Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs exposes latest global peaks of production and consumption, as well as associated impacts
Global – net: Washington, D.C.—- From coal to cars to coffee, consumption levels are breaking records.
According to the Worldwatch Institute’s latest report, Vital Signs, Volume 22: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future, the acceleration of resource depletion, pollution, and climate change may come with underappreciated social and environmental costs (www.worldwatch.org).
Drawing on a wide range of sources, Vital Signs shows trends related to today’s often record-breaking levels of consumption by providing data and concise analyses of significant global trends in food and agriculture, population and society, and energy and climate. Tiếp tục đọc “Global Consumption Trends Break New Records”
Policy: Four gaps in China’s new environmental law
21 January 2015
Implementation and accountability will remain challenging, especially at the local level, warn Bo Zhang and Cong Cao.
Article tools PDF Rights & Permissions
Subject terms:Law Government Conservation biology
STR/AFP/Getty
Nature – A resident of China’s Hubei province clears the Fuhe river of dead fish, thought to have been poisoned by high levels of ammonia.
On 1 January, a new environmental protection law (EPL) took effect in China. It is the nation’s first attempt to harmonize economic and social development with environmental protection.
The EPL is perceived as the most progressive and stringent law in the history of environmental protection in China. It details harsher penalties for environmental offences — for example, for acts of tampering and falsifying data, discharging pollutants covertly and evading supervision. It contains provisions for tackling pollution, raising public awareness and protecting whistle-blowers. It places more responsibility and accountability on local governments and law-enforcement agencies and sets higher standards for enterprises. Tiếp tục đọc “Policy: Four gaps in China’s new environmental law”
Sustainable cities: The changing role of businesses
Corporate Citizenship senior researcher Jayesh Shah explores some of the trends in the development of cities, focusing on how this changes the role of businesses.
Eco-business: Songdo, South Korea. Buildings here have automatic climate control and computerised access. Furthermore, roads, water, waste and electricity systems are built with electronic sensors to enable the city’s brain to track and respond to the movement of residents.Image: Panya K / Shutterstock.com
By Trends in urban development
Cities have for some time been recognised as the frontier for global development. This is due first and foremost to over half the global population now living in urban areas, but also to them harbouring most of the world’s economic activity. Tiếp tục đọc “Sustainable cities: The changing role of businesses”
“Local Start-ups Hold the Key to Transforming Africa’s Seed Industry”
September 2, 2015
Author: Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Agricultural Innovation in Africa; Science, Technology, and Globalization; Science, Technology, and Public Policy
The seed industry in sub-Saharan Africa is informal in nature, with approximately 80% of farmers saving and replanting seeds from year to year. This gives them security of access. But improved varieties — including high-yielding and hybrid crops — will increase productivity and income.
To get these seeds into the hands of farmers, a better marketing and distribution system is needed. Local small and medium-sized seed enterprises have a comparative advantage in reaching this underserved market due to their size and market reach.
There has been considerable concern over the potential control of Africa’s seed sector by large corporations. While such firms continue to operate in most countries, it notable that Africa’s seed sector is currently dominated by local start-ups.
The firms are well positioned to promote food security and improve livelihoods among marginalised rural communities. They could help grow the fledgling seed industry, but need better access to credit, research facilities and human resources to achieve their full potential.
What’s holding back the sector in Africa Tiếp tục đọc ““Local Start-ups Hold the Key to Transforming Africa’s Seed Industry””
Google lays bare overlooked deforestation ‘hotspots’
Last updated on 2 September 2015, 1:25 pm
Search giant and researchers map emerging clusters of tropical forest loss in Southeast Asia, South America and Africa
By Alex Pashley
Forests are being cut down at a rapid clip in previously spared territories, data from the University of Maryland and Google reveals.
RCCT – New hotspots are appearing in Southeast Asia’s Mekong Basin, South America’s Gran Chaco region and Madagascar, high-resolution satellite mapping released by Global Forest Watch shows.
The world lost more than 18 million hectares of forest in 2014, an area twice the size of Portugal.
Over 2012-14, the three-year average was the worst since records began in 2001, in a troubling trend as rates reverse after years of decline.
Carbon-rich forests hacked down for cash crops, such as beef, soy and palm oil, together with weak governance, are the main drivers of tree cover loss, said Nigel Sizer at the World Resources Institute. Tiếp tục đọc “Google lays bare overlooked deforestation ‘hotspots’”
Large-scale illegal trade in hundreds of wild-collected ornamental plants in Southeast Asia
Date:September 14, 2015
Source:National University of Singapore
Sciencedaily – Southeast Asia is a widely recognised centre of illegal wildlife trade — both as the source region for species ranging from seahorses to tigers, and as a global consumer of ivory carvings, wild pets, and traditional Chinese medicinal products.
While there are mounting efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade, including within Singapore to reduce demand for wildlife products, the illegal trade in some species still remains undocumented.
Associate Professor Edward L. Webb, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and NUS PhD graduate Dr Jacob Phelps, have uncovered a previously little recognised Southeast Asian wildlife trade — the illegal sale of wild-collected ornamental plants, especially orchids.
Their findings were recently published in the journal Biological Conservation in June 2015.
Uncovering the “invisible” orchid trade
The researchers conducted extensive surveys of wildlife markets across Thailand, including border markets with Laos and Myanmar, and identified more than 400 species of ornamental plants in illegal trade — species widely prized by plant enthusiasts for their beauty, fragrance and/or rarity. Over 80% of these plants traded at the markets are wild orchids. Some of these were even listed in published literature as threatened. Tiếp tục đọc “Large-scale illegal trade in hundreds of wild-collected ornamental plants in Southeast Asia”
Professionalism and Ethics in the Public Service: Issues and Practices in Selected Regions
Executive Summary
Scandals involving public officials have captured world attention these days. Precipitated by shady privatization deals, the diversion of aid, wide- spread public sector patronage, crony capitalism, and campaign financing abuses, people are debating outright corruption and unprofessional behaviour in government. Are public officials held to higher standards of performance and conduct than others? If so, why? With the advent of the modern state, government officials have been and are seen as stewards of public resources and guardians of a special trust that citizens have placed in them. In return for this confidence, they are expected to put public interest above self- interest.
The public service, made up of those employees of the state who are covered by national and sub- national civil service laws, plays an indispensable role in the sustainable development and good governance of a nation. It is an integral part of democracy because it serves as the neutral administrative structure which carries out the decisions of elected representatives of the people. It not only serves as the backbone of the state in implementing a strategy for economic growth of a nation but also runs the programmes that function as the safety net for the most vulnerable segments of a society. Given these crucial roles, a country expects its public service to demonstrate high standards of professionalism and ethics. Tiếp tục đọc “Professionalism and Ethics in the Public Service: Issues and Practices in Selected Regions”
Sustainable Consumption and Production: a Handbook for Policymakers
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has published a new guidebook entitled, ‘Sustainable Consumption and Production: A Handbook for Policy Makers’, containing data on both the impact of unsustainable consumption and production, and the efficiency gains to be made by mainstreaming Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) patterns.
Extreme Weather and Food Shocks
Tim Benton Professor of Population Ecology, University of LeedsTaking smart and practical steps to ease the impact of the changing climate on food supplies is vital to ride out the droughts and storms that will impact food prices.
The US midwest was hit by its worst drought in over 50 years in 2012. Photo via Getty Images.chathamhouse – Recent events highlight concerns about the risks to global food security posed by changing patterns of extreme weather affecting the world’s ‘breadbasket’ regions such as the American midwest, South America’s southern cone, the Black Sea and the Yangtze River valley. In 2012, the worst drought to hit the US midwest in half a century sent international maize and soybean prices to record levels. In 2011, wheat prices nearly doubled after an unprecedented heat wave devastated the Russian harvest. The global food price crisis of 2007-08 had its roots in a run of poor harvests in previous years.
The BRICs Hit the Wall: Emerging economies are a long way from eclipsing the West.
GUY SORMAN
Summer 2015
Getty Images
City-journal – At the beginning of the new millennium, it became fashionable to proclaim the West’s economic decline and the rise of a new global leadership. In 2001, Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O’Neill captured the trend by coining the soon-to-be-famous acronym BRIC, referring to the leading economically emerging nations—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—that would constitute that new leadership. Eventually, South Africa was added to the group, making them the BRICS, but many people still think first of the original four, and refer to them as the BRICs. Tiếp tục đọc “The BRICs Hit the Wall: Emerging economies are a long way from eclipsing the West.”
World must avert devastating flood of climate refugees
A senior British politician says we face a humanitarian crisis on an immense scale if millions of people have to flee the impacts of global warming.
By Alex Kirby
Global-net – LONDON, 8 September, 2015 – The former leader of one of the UK’s main political parties says the world will undergo more resource wars and huge movements of desperate people unless it tackles climate change effectively.
Lord Ashdown, who was leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats for 11 years, describes the present flight of refugees from Syria and other conflict areas as a “rehearsal” for the vast humanitarian disaster he believes will soon unfold. Tiếp tục đọc “World must avert devastating flood of climate refugees”
Germany claims success for elite universities drive
Report praises US$5-billion scheme for making leading universities more competitive — but some smaller institutions have done just as well.
04 September 2015 Article tools
Heike Zappe/ Humboldt University
Humboldt University in Berlin, one of the ‘elite’ institutions favoured by Germany’s Excellence Initiative.
Nature – For a decade, Germany’s government has tried to explode the myth that all the country’s universities are equal. In 2006, it launched an 11-year, €4.6-billion (US$5-billion) programme that aimed to make the best German universities more competitive with the likes of Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. The campaign, called the Excellence Initiative, led to 14 institutions gaining the common — although unofficial — label of ‘elite’. Tiếp tục đọc “Germany claims success for elite universities drive”
CVD 