![]() | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations .(January 2014) |
The Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET) is a network of organizations committed to the sustainable development of the Greater Mekong Region. [1] Launched in 2005, SUMERNET supports policy-relevant research and outreach activities to inform and engage policy-makers, planners and stakeholders. Within this context, it pursues an evolving agenda in response to questions and policy issues that arise in the region. Current research themes are climate-compatible development, regional economic integration, and ecosystem services and local development. The network works on a range of issues including natural ecosystems governance, floods and natural disasters, climate change and adaptation, and transboundary resource flows. [2]
SUMERNET was launched in 2005, financed by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). Since then, SUMERNET's work has also attracted support from the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and from partner institutes across the region. Membership has grown from the 14 organizations, to more than 50 affiliated organizations now.
SUMERNET was conceived at a time of accelerated development in the region. Major roads and other infrastructure projects were being planned and built; bilateral and multilateral economic and trade agreements were being made, and there was a vigorous debate going on about the future of the Mekong Region. Many development agencies expressed concerns and called for an integrated approach that would incorporate a greater diversity of views and perspectives into regional planning and policy. [3]
SUMERNET was established to help meet that need by supporting and promoting the use of scientific evidence in policy-making, with the overarching goal of contributing to sustainable development in the Mekong Region. In the seven years since its inception, SUMERNET has sponsored a wealth of policy-relevant research and worked to create an "enabling environment" for researchers and decision-makers to engage with one another.
The SUMERNET Secretariat, at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Asia Centre in Bangkok, actively supports the network's activities, drawing on both regional and global intellectual resources.
SUMERNET's mission is to "inform and influence sustainable development in the Mekong Region by supporting credible, collaborative research; stimulating independent discussions on key regional issues, and engaging with decision-makers and stakeholders to foster more effective and sustainable policies and programmes." [4]
A key aspect of SUMERNET's work is to bridge science and policy; SUMERNET does this by choosing research questions that are directly relevant to current policy debates, engaging decision-makers in all aspects of our activities, and building capacity for sustainable development through workshops and other activities. SUMERNET also emphasizes collaboration, networking and knowledge-sharing, connecting partners in different countries through our projects and events, and works to strengthen research capacity across the region.
Since the time of its establishment, SUMERNET has coordinated three implementation phases: Phase I (2005–2008), Phase II (2010–2013) and currently Phase III (2014–2017).
Phase I established SUMERNET as a genuinely independent regionally owned platform and has a "voice" in a way that other comparable networks do not, which are often seen to be activist and essentially foreign-driven and discounted in influence as a result. Sumernet Phase I also had positive impacts for its partners (both individuals and their institutions) in terms of capacity-building through both training and conduct of research and also through the promotion of cross-border linkages.
Phase I supported nine research projects, namely:
By the end of Phase I, SUMERNET is well on in the process of becoming known as a knowledge producer and a focus of research collaborators and development actors. This gives it a place in regional development as a focus of research and a policy forum. SUMERNET aims to make more headway in policy engagement and policy impact in a second phase. Phase I has served as a "testing ground" for this new alliance and its agenda for producing knowledge. [5]
SUMERNET Phase II has been established upon the basis of policy-relevant collaborative research among researchers in Mekong region. SUMERNET, since the beginning of the current phase, has been encouraging researchers to develop collaboration with other researchers in other countries in the Mekong region, therefore typical feature of SUMERNET research project in Phase II is that the researchers originate from more than one country. This cross-country collaboration has strengthened the relevance of SUMERNET research findings beyond the national and sub-national levels into the regional policy level.
In Phase II, SUMERNET has invested its resources to develop capacity of researchers in the region by incorporating mentoring support of research project team. The mentoring support was highly appreciated by partners, as they benefited from the expertise of the mentors in improving the credibility of their research results and quality of the research outputs. Besides the mentoring, SUMERNET supported several workshops to enhance their capacity to generate outputs specifically intended for the academic and specific-interest audience, such as journal articles and book chapters, and working papers. The success of the capacity building support for researchers was illustrated by generation of numerous peer-review publication outputs, on various stages manuscript to accepted, and also a high-quality of book chapters produced for the SUMERNET flagship book publication expected to be published in early 2014. [6]
Supporting and sustaining high quality research remains the key effort in SUMERNET Phase II. From the wide vista of sustainable development challenges in the region, four research areas have been identified as the strategic research themes for Phase II:
These themes are themselves broad in character: they will be refined, prioritised and turned into specific research questions by the network members and in consultation with policy makers to understand what knowledge they need and how decisions on key sustainable development issues can be informed and influenced by better understanding of the immediate and long-term implications of key environmental and development trends in the region.
From those themes, 10 the research projects emerged within SUMERNET Phase II:
These research projects are co-supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN).
After two implementation phases which generated credible research results, SUMERNET has established a successful and expanding regional research network with expertise in several policy areas critical to sustainability. Building upon the foundation of SUMERNET – a collaboration among 50 research and policy-making institutions with a strong track record, SUMERNET Phase III is in a strategic position to inform and influence policy-making in the Mekong Region towards more socially inclusive and gender-responsive sustainable development.
In response to shifting knowledge demands and policy debates in the region, SUMERNET Phase III focused its work on three key issues:
SUMERNET Phase III was supported by Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).
SUMERNET 4 All aimed to reduce water insecurity in the Mekong Region, principally for vulnerable populations. By conducting collaborative research, engaging with the policy process, and promoting scientifically sound research and innovation while considering gender, social equity and human rights, the programme aimed to improve water management policies and practices.
The supported research projects under this phase were categorized into three themes:
In this phase, SUMERNET supported 230 individual grantees through more than 40 grants funded under three focused themes: Water access, rights and allocation in times of scarcity; Governance and management of flood disaster risks; and Transboundary interactions with water systems. To further enhance the engagement of young professionals in the region, SUMERNET Young Professional (SYP) network has been initiated as part of the SUMERNET network through a bottom-up approach led by young researchers from six countries. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, SUMERNET could continue to implement its work programme, which is a credit to its dedicated regional constituents and all network members and supporters.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a multilateral environmental fund that provides grants and blended finance for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mercury, sustainable forest management, food security, and sustainable cities in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. It is the largest source of multilateral funding for biodiversity globally and distributes more than $1 billion a year on average to address inter-related environmental challenges.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an "...inter-governmental organisation that works directly with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to jointly manage the shared water resources and the sustainable development of the Mekong River". Its mission is "To promote and coordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries' mutual benefit and the people's well-being".
The Earth Institute is a research institute at Columbia University created in 1995 for addressing complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, with a focus on sustainable development. With an interdisciplinary approach, this includes research in climate change, geology, global health, economics, management, agriculture, ecosystems, urbanization, energy, hazards, and water. The Earth Institute's activities are guided by the idea that science and technological tools that already exist could be applied to greatly improve conditions for the world's poor, while preserving the natural systems that support life on Earth.
Stockholm Environment Institute, or SEI, is a non-profit, independent research and policy institute specialising in sustainable development and environmental issues, with seven affiliate offices around the world. SEI works on climate change, energy systems, water resources, air quality, land-use, sanitation, food security, and trade issues with the aim to shift policy and practice towards sustainability.
Landscape-scale conservation is a holistic approach to landscape management, aiming to reconcile the competing objectives of nature conservation and economic activities across a given landscape. Landscape-scale conservation may sometimes be attempted because of climate change. It can be seen as an alternative to site based conservation.
Climate Action Network - International (CAN) is a global network of over 1,300 environmental non-governmental organisations in over 130 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
The WISDOM Project is a bilateral research project between Germany and Vietnam, focusing on the creation of a Water related Information System for the Mekong Delta. Initiated by the Vietnamese and the German Government it was started in the year 2007, and is planned to continue until the year 2013. Water-related Information System for the sustainable Development of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam
Environmental governance (EG) consists of a system of laws, norms, rules, policies and practices that dictate how the board members of an environment related regulatory body should manage and oversee the affairs of any environment related regulatory body which is responsible for ensuring sustainability (sustainable development) and manage all human activities—political, social and economic. Environmental governance includes government, business and civil society, and emphasizes whole system management. To capture this diverse range of elements, environmental governance often employs alternative systems of governance, for example watershed-based management. Obviously, in fact the EG arrangements are very diversed and not at all as inclusive as we could wish them to be.
The Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region is a biosphere reserve situated in the north eastern region of South Africa, straddling Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces. In 2001, under the supervision of the then Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region was officially ratified by UNESCO as part of the Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Programme. UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme provides a framework for exploring local solutions to challenges by mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, integrating economic, social and environmental aspects and recognising their vital linkages within specific learning landscapes adjacent to Protected Areas.
Environmental peacebuilding examines and advocates environmental protection and cooperation as a factor in creating more peaceful relations. Peacebuilding is both the theory and practice of identifying the conditions that can lead to a sustainable peace between past, current or potential future adversaries. At the most basic level, warfare devastates ecosystems and the livelihoods of those who depend on natural resources, and the anarchy of conflict situations leads to the uncontrolled, destructive exploitation of natural resources. Preventing these impacts allows for an easier movement to a sustainable peace. From a more positive perspective, environmental cooperation can be one of the places where hostile parties can sustain a dialogue, and sustainable development is a prerequisite for a sustainable peace.
Sustainable land management (SLM) refers to practices and technologies that aim to integrate the management of land, water, and other environmental resources to meet human needs while ensuring long-term sustainability, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and livelihoods. The term is used, for example, in regional planning and soil or environmental protection, as well as in property and estate management.
Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) is a regional program that works with governments and organizations to share knowledge about adapting to climate change and to support implementation of adaptation measures. APAN was set up in October 2009 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as part of the Global Adaptation Network (GAN). APAN is considered a key mobilizer of adaptation knowledge in Asia and the Pacific.
The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) works to enhance the quality of life for the poorest and most vulnerable to climate change. CDKN does this by combining research, advisory services and knowledge management in support of locally owned and managed policy processes. It works in partnership with decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors nationally, regionally and globally.
The Benguela Current Commission, or BCC, is a multi-sectoral inter-governmental, initiative of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. It promotes the sustainable management and protection of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem, or BCLME. The BCC was established in January 2007 through the signing of an Interim Agreement between the governments of Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Then, on 18 March 2013, the three governments signed the Benguela Current Convention, an environmental treaty that entrenches the Benguela Current Commission as a permanent inter-governmental organization.
SERVIR-Mekong project is a joint initiative by the US agency for International Development (USAID), NASA and five other countries which are Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. "Servir" is a Spanish word which means "to serve". The project aims to use the latest technologies to help the Mekong river region protect its vital ecosystem. It helps to connect USAID's development network with NASA's technology and satellite data to provide mapping information and satellite imagery.
Waste management in Kazakhstan is an important concern within the country, considering the billions of tons of industrial waste produced yearly, the currently less-than-optimal state of solid waste management, and existing toxins remaining from both pollutants and Kazakhstan's historical position as the USSR's testing grounds for rockets and nuclear weapons. Kazakhstan has very few services for recycling solid waste, and waste management is currently dealt with using regional programs.
Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. Climate change and climate change education are global challenges that can be anchored in the curriculum in order to provide local learning and widen up mindset shits on how climate change can be mitigated. In such as case CCE is more than climate change literacy but understanding ways of dealing with climate
Ecosystem-based adaptation encompasses a broad set of approaches to adapt to climate change. They all involve the management of ecosystems and their services to reduce the vulnerability of human communities to the impacts of climate change. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines EBA as "the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change".
National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) is a Government of India's programme launched in 2008 to mitigate and adapt to the adverse impact of climate change. The action plan is designed and published under the guidance of Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change (PMCCC). The 8 sub-missions aimed at fulfilling India's developmental objectives with focus on reducing emission intensity of its economy. The plan will rely on the support from the developed countries with the prime focus of keeping its carbon emissions below the developed economies at any point of time. The 8 missions under NAPCC are as follows:
The Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) is an international non-governmental organization, founded in 1989 by professionals and development workers from the Horn of Africa to address pastoral and agro-pastoral development from a regional perspective and provide cross-learning at a global level. With headquarters in London, PENHA has established country offices in Ethiopia and Somaliland, with close organizational partnerships in Eritrea, Sudan and Uganda.