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Advancing the Implementation of Connectivity Conservation in Canada: A Case Study of the Policy and Management Environment of the Chignecto Isthmus Region
Get PDFConnectivity conservation is a means to enable the unimpeded movement of species and the flow of natural processes to sustain life. Understanding how connectivity conservation functions between parks and protected and conserved areas is a key component of addressing the global biodiversity crisis. The governance and associated policy environment of protected and conserved areas is often complex, and it is challenging for practitioners to understand how connectivity conservation practices can function. In this case study, protected and conserved areas practitioners working in the Chignecto Isthmus region of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada were interviewed assist in better understanding the successes and challenges of implementing connectivity conservation in a complex interprovincial conservation management environment. Using an organizational readiness framework to analyze implementation of connectivity conservation in the region by understanding the significance of place and time perspectives, community-empowered conditions, and how knowledge is used and shared, the effectiveness of connectivity conservation in the Chignecto Isthmus region was assessed for the successes and challenges that protected and conserved areas practitioners and those associated with connectivity in the region face. This study determined some of the key features of a functioning connectivity conservation system include knowledgeable and committed conservation staff, effective and impactful public outreach and education, and collaborative knowledge sharing among practitioners. Challenges in implementing connectivity conservation included limitation of funding for long-term management strategies and lack of explicit connectivity policy and legislation. This research may serve as a starting point for researchers to understand the diversity of actors and required collaboration that is involved in conservation policy and practices on lands both within and beyond protected areas limits
Better Equipped ? Examining The Role of Social Work in Clinical Countering Violent Extremism
Get PDFHate and violent extremism persist in communities, online environments, and societies across the globe. In addition to their most violent expressions, including hate crimes, extremist and terrorist violence, these phenomena wield severe negative, detrimental, traumatic, and intergenerational impacts. Grounded in evidenced-based policy, comprehensive prevention and intervention efforts, as well as the transfer of knowledge across scientific disciplines, a whole-of-society approach is fundamental to prevent and counter hatred, violence, and extremism. Although violent radicalization and associated societal problems are advancing at unprecedented speeds, preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) is an emerging intervention field in behavioural health and social sciences. While multi-sectoral collaboration, interdisciplinary scholarship and research has significantly increased in recent decades, the role of social work in clinical countering violent extremism intervention services is currently unclear and has not yet been studied systematically. Informed by grounded theory methods, this study deployed a narrative literature review to examine the nexus between social work and clinical countering violent extremism secondary and tertiary interventions. Findings of this study illustrate various themes in social work research and practice, which put forth a critical examination of securitization and multi-agency collaboration, as well as stronger emphasis on social work theories and ethics in clinical countering violent extremism efforts. This thesis contributes to the development of a nuanced understanding of clinical countering violent extremism as social work scholarship and practice. It furthermore informs multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary P/CVE efforts while discerning the importance of including social work scholarship and practice in broader P/CVE research, program development, as well as clinical practice
No. 20: Informal Cross-Border Traders and Food Trade during the Pandemic in Zimbabwe
No full textThe collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy in the 2000s resulted in the country relying largely on food imports from other countries, especially from South Africa. Informal cross-border traders have become crucial players in the country’s food economy, playing an important role in the importation of food as well as its retail across the country. Cross-border trading also provides employment opportunities to a large number of people in the country, especially women in an environment of depressed economic opportunities. The paper first uses data from a survey conducted by the Southern African Migration Program (SAMP) in 1997, 2007 and 2014 to document the role of informal food traders in not only improving the availability of food on the market but also in creating employment opportunities in the country. It then uses document analysis to investigate how informal cross-border trading and food trading was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns and assesses its current role in Zimbabwe’s economy. Finally, it discusses how informal cross-border trading and informal food trading in Zimbabwe have changed in the post-COVID-19 period and sets a research agenda on understanding the role of informal cross-border trade in the economies of countries in the global South
No. 32: Narratives of Food Consumption and Food Insecurity: Zimbabwean Migrants in Windhoek, Namibia
No full textDecades of interlocking economic and political crisis have generated significant out-migration from Zimbabwe to other countries. Neighbouring countries with relative political stability and better livelihood opportunities, such as Namibia, have witnessed increased inflows of Zimbabweans. While there are studies documenting these movements, far less attention has been paid to the food security of Zimbabwean migrants in other countries. This paper investigates the changing dietary and food consumption patterns of recent Zimbabwean migrants in Windhoek, Namibia, and the impacts of these changes on household food security. The narratives of 35 Zimbabwean migrant households in Windhoek show that they face numerous food security challenges, including an inability to access desirable foods, the high cost of traditional foods, and reliance on ultra-processed foods, with negative consequences for their households
No. 24: Food and Health Security among Burmese Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore amid Myanmar’s ‘Triple Crisis’
No full textMigrating overseas to work as domestic workers is an increasingly important livelihood strategy for capital-poor women in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest in Myanmar has highlighted the entrenched precarities and uncertainties attached to this migration strategy. The health crisis has further heightened the importance of remittances and food security for migrants and their sending households. Food production, food systems and access to food supplies in the country have been especially hit by political instability, the energy crisis and inflation. This paper explores issues concerning the food and health security of female migrant domestic workers (MDWs) from Myanmar in Singapore, as well as the food and health concerns of their families left in Myanmar. Drawing on the findings of in-depth interviews with 24 Burmese MDWs in Singapore, the paper first focuses on the women’s access to food and healthcare as low-waged live-in domestic workers whose lives and needs are highly dependent on their employers’ generosity and goodwill. Next, the paper employs a transnational lens to understand how these women, who are also mothers, become active participants in the larger network of global (food/health) care chains as they continue to deliver care both materially and ideologically to their left-behind families. Finally, it analyzes the food security and health concerns of their left-behind families in Myanmar through this volatile period
No. 02: Leveraging Food Remittances for Enhanced Food Security in Urban Africa
No full textThis policy brief highlights the critical yet underexplored role of food remittances in enhancing food security across Africa. While global attention has predominantly focused on cash remittances and their economic impacts, food remittances – defined as the transfer of foodstuffs by migrants to their home regions – play a vital role in ensuring the availability, accessibility, and stability of food supplies for both rural and urban households. These remittances help bridge the food security gap between urban and rural areas, with food produced in rural regions supporting the nutritional needs of family members in cities. The reciprocal flow of resources, where urban households may send cash or other goods back to rural areas, strengthens food security across the continent. Given the increasing urbanization and food insecurity challenges in Africa, it is essential for policymakers to recognize and integrate food remittances into national food security strategies. Ultimately, food remittances should be recognized as a vital component of sustainable development efforts, particularly in the context of Africa’s ongoing urbanization and the challenges posed by climate change and economic instability
Historical to Contemporary: Afro-Indigenous Experiences of Public Education and Gendered Violence in Colonial Canada
No full textMy name is Ann Marie. I am a Two-Spirit L’nu’k, that is African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq from the territory of Mi’kma’ki, and the West Coast of Afrika. I am Indigenous to both Turtle Island and the Motherland. In this dissertation, I discuss at length current public education in the settler nation-state known as Canada and how European man’s idea of education promotes gendered violence against Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous Peoples. In this dissertation, for Chapter One, titled, “The Conceptualization of Liberatory Curriculum from the Proclaiming Our Roots Project,” I articulate my vision for future research by conceptualizing a curriculum grounded in pedagogies of hope and liberation, emphasizing the curriculum as a means of resistance and community care praxis. In the ground-breaking Proclaiming Our Roots project, community members shared insights through their oral digital stories in understanding identity and connection to the land, colonialism and the reversal of the white man’s gaze, and their eurocentric educational experiences. Community members come to comprehend how family and kin can support each other and our communities, while critically engaging in understanding the influence of colonial internalized racism. In “The Intersections of Mixed-Blood Indigenous-Black Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, and Transgender People: Identity, Violence, Trauma, and Healing,” I investigate the underlying causes of the persistent issue of disproportionate gendered violence experienced by Afro-Indigenous, Black, and Indigenous Peoples within this colonial nation-state. Using sharing circles and semi-structured interviews from the Proclaiming Our Roots project, I discuss the effects of gendered violence on identity and healing. Within a critical Indigenous research paradigm based in theoretical thinking of decoloniality, Black feminism, intersectionality, and critical race theory, I connect how public education can play a central role in addressing gendered violence by raising awareness, understanding historical root causes, providing support as opportunities for collective healing, and nurturing community care. By integrating discussions on gender equality and respectful relationships into educational settings within a critical Indigenous lens that reverses the colonial gaze, we can work towards raising critical consciousness that supports a more just and equitable society
World Class Supply Chain 2024: Thriving in Volatile Times
Get PDFThe Eighth Annual World Class Supply Chain Summit was convened on May 1st, 2024 under the theme of Thriving in volatile times. The theme, which embodies the expressed interests of attendees in last year’s post-summit survey, underscored the supply chain community’s focus on how to succeed in a supply chain world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). The summit’s deliberations on the theme featured two keynote addresses (one each by an industry executive and a research scholar), an industry panel, a student panel, and an intergenerational fireside chat by a panel comprising individuals with experiences ranging from a few months of internships through to several decades in the supply chain field. In these deliberations, a pervasive message was that supply chain professionals must accept that VUCA is a more likely future reality than the normalcy that might have existed in the past. Therefore, VUCA must be embraced as an opportunity for success instead of a reason for despair. In addition to this central message, attendees reported gaining valuable insights on:
(i) Sustainability (ii) Operational agility (iii) Equity, diversity, inclusivity (EDI) (iv) Ongoing professional development (v) Best practices from various industries (vi) Youth engagement, talent acquisition, and retention (vii) The role of clean energy in SCM and logistics management
The audience’s diversity fueled rich and multifaceted dialogue with the speakers to probe the insights listed above. Figure 1 below portrays the diversity: attendees represented organizations that make, sell, and move the supply chain’s products (manufacturers, retailers, transportation companies, warehouses, etc.) and organizations that support supply chains with services such as education and consulting