Researchers from Canada and Ethiopia are testing, adapting, and promoting practical solutions to grow pulse crops in poor regions of Ethiopia. Pulses — such as chickpeas, lentils, and beans — can fight malnutrition and release the soil’s potential for growing high-yield, healthy pulses.

The opportunity: Locally enhanced pulse seeds

The July 2010 flooding of the Indus River Basin was one of the most devastating natural disasters in recorded history. Researchers are working with communities to help reduce their vulnerability to future extreme weather events.

Research focus

To understand the underlying causes of Pakistan’s 2010 flooding and its impact on marginalized communities in the Indus Basin, and to identify strategies to reduce their vulnerability.

The challenge

Day 1: 14 September 2011

WELCOMING ADDRESS

AMBASSADOR OLUSEGUN AKINSANYA

Aisha Ibrahim is the Director of the Gender Research and Documentation Centre at Fourah Bay College of the University of Sierra Leone. In 2009-2010, she was the Helleiner Visiting Research Fellow at The North-South Institute, an IDRC-funded fellowship.

While at The North-South Institute, Ibrahim’s work focused on affirmative action as a means to overcome barriers that limit women’s entry into politics, which is the topic of today’s conversation.

Joan Baxter

Phase 2 of the Global Health Research Initiative's Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS Prevention Trials in Africa program (2009-2014) is designed to strengthen research capacity for African-led HIV/AIDS prevention trials in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which remains at the centre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Following the launch of the new five year program in 2009, a call for proposals was developed and a merit review competition was held in early 2010. Seven research proposals were selected for funding and will receive grants of up to CAD $1.8 million over four years.

This article first appeared in MediaGlobal, an independent international media organization, based in the United Nations, creating awareness in the global media on social justice and development issues in the world's least developed countries.

Indigenous people in western Kenya have relied on the mystical abilities of the Nganyi rainmakers to predict the weather for generations. However, the erratic weather caused by climate change has made the signs rainmakers need for their forecast opaque. The Nganyi rainmakers have begun collaborating with meteorologists, combining

In recent years, official Lebanese policy towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has undergone major changes. Increasingly, Lebanese officials have voiced their support for improved social and economic conditions for the refugees, while at the same time maintaining staunch opposition to their permanent resettlement (tawteen) in the country.

These policy changes have been marked by the formation of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC), by limited policy reforms in areas ranging from employment to the issuance