Genetically modified crops--playing a positive role in sustainable development in Africa.
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Recent years have seen considerable progress in integrating environmental concerns into the mainstream of development policy and planning. Economic instruments designed explicitly for environmental purposes may help to achieve cost-effective solutions, and generate public revenues. Macroeconomic and sectoral policies may impact heavily upon the environment, and there is much scope for policy reforms that are justified in both economic and environmental terms. Progress in this area has been much more rapid than in the case of health objectives, even though the rationale for environmental improvement is often ultimately related to human health and well-being. It is proposed that lessons from recent experience in the use of economic instruments and policies to achieve environmental objectives are highly relevant for the health sector, which should seek and encourage support for measures that requires consumer and producers of environmentally degrading products to pay for the economic and social costs of the damage resulting from their use. Policy reform at the macroeconomic or sectoral level may yield cost-effective solutions to some health problems, and may even bring about improvements in health status that involve no net cost at all. The countrywide impact of such policies indicate that health agencies, including WHO, should develop the capacity to understand how economic policies and the adjustment process impact upon human health, not only direct through the effect on incomes, but also indirectly, via changes in the natural environment. Ability to conduct rigorous health impact assessment of economic policy reform, which requires a multidisciplinary effort, is a necessary condition if health ministries are to maximize their effectiveness in influencing overall government economic policy.
A programme of comprehensive primary health care in Zambia has been accompanied by the emergence of autonomous, non-profit trading and production companies that sell health-related goods to communities and health institutions and find markets for locally produced good.
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This article is based on "Salud, ambiente y desarrollo humano sostenible: el caso de México," a document prepared in June 1997 by the Comité Técnico Nacional para el Desarrollo Sostenible. It opens with information regarding the epidemiologic and demographic changes that have taken place in Mexico, such as the decrease in communicable diseases, the rise in noncommunicable diseases, and the less conspicuous increase in lesions resulting from accidents or acts of violence. This is followed by a discussion of priority problems and problems of lesser magnitude in environmental health, specifically those relating to water and air quality, as well as disposal of household and dangerous wastes. Finally, it proposes three areas of intervention in light of the structural problems detected: the absence of an integrated information system covering the area of health, environment, and development; the absence of channels of communication within and between institutions and sectors, and the lack of coordination in planning and implementing programs and actions in this field.
Corresponding to the concept of 'Think globally, act locally and plan regionally' of sustainable development, this paper discusses the approach of planning a sustainable community in terms of systems thinking. We apply a systems tool, the sensitivity model (SM), to build a model of the development of the community of Ping-Ding, located adjacent to the Yang-Ming-Shan National Park, Taiwan. The major issue in the development of Ping-Ding is the conflict between environmental conservation and the development of a local tourism industry. With the involvement of local residents, planners, and interest groups, a system model of 26 variables was defined to identify characteristics of Ping-Ding through pattern recognition. Two scenarios concerning the sustainable development of Ping-Ding are simulated with interlinked feedbacks from variables. The results of the analysis indicate that the development of Ping-Ding would be better served by the planning of agriculture and the tourism industry. The advantages and shortfalls of applying SM in the current planning environment of Taiwan are also discussed to conclude this paper.
This article is the report of the Working Group on Sustaining the Development of Academic Primary Care, one of the six subgroups of the Advisory Panel on the Mission and Organization of Medical Schools (APMOMS) sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). To begin, the group draws a distinction between primary care and generalism. Primary care is a core domain of health care and, in the context of emerging integrated systems, will increasingly be a multidisciplinary shared function. Non-subspecialized physicians, or "generalists," are a key element in the provision of primary care, but do not act alone. Core competencies for primary care are central to the education of all physicians. Therefore, irrespective of workforce goals for generalist physicians, primary care should have a strong, central position in the medical school so that graduates can receive a sound general medical education and can be prepared for any specialty and for lifelong learning in an evolving health care system. For primary care to achieve that position, medical schools must integrate primary care into their missions, strategic plans, operation, organization, academic administrative structures, curriculum development, faculty development (both school- and community-based), resource development, alliances with appropriate clinical services networks, financial policy, and evaluation and educational monitoring systems. The group briefly describes the elements of those changes and also proposes ways that the AAMC and medical school leaders could promote the central role of primary care in medical schools.
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Public participation as a means of identifying sustainability indicators for Chongming County, Shanghai, China was evaluated by an international group drawing on established best practice. An initial 'long list' of 86 sustainability indicators, based on previous indicator systems developed in China, was identified. This 'long list' was reduced via consultations with local academics and local-government officers from Shanghai City and Chongming County to a 'short list' of 17 indicators. This short-list was subjected to further community consultation involving 159 local-government officers, teachers, students (aged 12-14 years), farmers and workers. Data from the consultations indicated differences in the understanding of sustainable development among the different sectors. By combining the data from the different sectors it was possible to identify a consensus around 4 core and 7 additional indicators. These are proposed as indicators which could be used to steer local activities directed towards sustainable development. The list of indicators produced by the people of Chongming Island was compared to local indicator systems in Europe. In comparison with European lists the Chongming list was found to have a greater emphasis on economic development but a similar level of concern for environmental matters. This study has special significance as it reports on the implementation of a process involving local resident participation in the process of sustainable development in China.
This study explored how children's sustained attention develops and the effect of manipulating task parameters on sustained attention. The sample comprised 57 children (5-12 years) who completed CogState and Score! (Test of Everyday Attention for Children). Novel variability and traditional indices indicated rapid development from 5-6 to 8-9 years on all measures and a developmental plateau from 8-9 to 11-12, with growth evident on some measures. Findings suggest that sustained attention improves to age 10, then plateaus with only minor improvements. Further, performance was generally poorer on high load tasks compared to low load, with the same developmental pattern uncovered.
A long-term goal of space exploration is the development of a lunar settlement that will not only be largely self-sufficient but also contribute to the economy of the Earth-Moon system. Proposals for lunar mining and materials processing developments, as well as tourism-based applications, have appeared in the literature for many years. However, so great are the technical and financial difficulties associated with sustained lunar development that, more than 30 years after the end of the Apollo programme, there have been no practical advances towards this goal. While this may soon be remedied by a series of proposed unmanned orbiters, landers and rovers, the philosophy of lunar exploration and development remains the same as it has for decades: conquer, exploit, and ignore the consequences. By contrasting the well-recognised problems of Earth orbital debris and the barely recognised issue of intentional spacecraft impacts on the lunar surface, this paper illustrates the need for a new model for lunar exploration and development. This new paradigm would assign a value to the lunar environment and provide a balance between protection and exploitation, creating, in effect, a philosophy of sustainable development for the Moon. It is suggested that this new philosophy should be an integral part of any future strategy for lunar colonisation.