Science for development: IPBES,

development agencies, and the

international science community

Marion Adeney, PhD, AAAS Fellow

Alex Dehgan, PhD, Science Advisor to the USAID Administrator

Office of Science and Technology

US Agency for International Development

ESA, August 2012

The landscape of development is changing…

www.climate.gov

…how do we best leverage science for development?

“While the scope and complexity of the world‘s challenges have

grown … we have never had the technology, resources and global

imperative for action that we have today… We are moving to face

these challenges [by] embracing innovation, science, technology

and research to improve our development cooperation.”

Dr. Rajiv Shah,

USAID Administrator

IPBES, ecosystem science, and development policy?

• Identify and prioritize key scientific information and

catalyse efforts to generate new knowledge

• Perform regular and timely assessments of

knowledge

• Support policy formulation and implementation by

identifying policy-relevant tools and methodologies

• Prioritize key capacity-building needs (Integrate)

Question: How can the work of IPBES inform the

work that we do at USAID?

IPBES Overarching Functions

Source: http://foreignassistance.gov

USAID money for the environment

• Foreign assistance = ~1% of the federal budget.

• Environment/biodiversity = <2% of foreign assistance

But - ecosystem services are integral to development

Prioritize where we work

Integrate with other sectors

Photo: Sean Killian, Chemonics International

Food security, Health, Disasters, Conflict, Water, Climate

“USAID/Mozambique

recognizes that protection of the

environment and wise

management of the natural

resource base are absolute

requirements of any successful

development program, and

seeks to make environmental

conservation a fundamental,

crosscutting theme in its

proposed program.”

Environmental Threats and

Opportunities Assessment, 2002

Biodiversity and Tropical Forest Assessments

mandated in sections 118 and 119 of the Foreign

Assistance Act of 1961 require assessments of:

(1) the actions necessary in that country to achieve

conservation and sustainable management of

tropical forests, OR to conserve biological diversity

and

(2) the extent to which the actions proposed for

support by the Agency meet the needs thus

identified.

7

IPBES – assessments, knowledge, tools

8

IPBES – assessments, knowledge, tools

IPBES – capacity building

• Integrated within the IPBES assessment processes,

not as a parallel activity

• USAID programs incorporate capacity building to

achieve programmatic results and foster sustainability.

www.servirglobal.net

USAID, the science community, and IPBES

• USAID is working to engage universities to solve

development problems.

• While not replacing the need to integrate capacity

building throughout IPBES, existing USAID programs

can facilitate links with the science community.

• Office of Science & Technology

Scientific Partnerships

GeoCenter

Higher Education

Solutions Network

Scientific partnerships

• Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement through

Research (PEER) & PEER Health (with NIH)

• 500 applications, 63 developing

countries.

• 41 projects funded from 25 countries

• 1-3 year projects, $20,000 to $325,000

per award.

• USAID - $4.8 million

• Leveraged >$46 million

• in NSF-funded research.

Country Project

Cambodia Modeling the Tonle Sap ecosystem under global change

India Institutional dynamics of adaptation to climate change and

urbanization: analysis of rain-fed agricultural-urban lake

systems in Bangalore, India

Mongolia Impacts of climate change on freshwater and fisheries

resources of the Lake Hovsgol watershed

Indonesia Enhancements of research for adaptation of wetlands in

Indonesia to projected impacts of sea level rise

Indonesia Assessing degradation of tropical peat domes and

dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export from the Belait,

Mempawah, and Lower Kapuas rivers in Borneo

Indonesia Coral health surveys in COREMAP: building resilience in

climate-impacted coral reefs of Indonesia

Mongolia Impacts of climate change on freshwater and fisheries

resources of the Lake Hovsgol watershed

Asia, ecosystem services PEER recipients

USAID GeoCenter

Building a network of universities to inform development

Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN)

Larger Academic Community

Concept Note Applicants

Existing USAID Partnerships and Full Proposal Applicant

HESN Network Organizations

• Address USAID’s need for development data and analysis;

• Test and scale new models and technologies;

• Engage new solvers and incentivize new solutions and

approaches.

Prototype for

HESN

relationships:

• 3 years, $5,000,000

• $5,000,000 in cost-match from Blum

• Already engaging with USAID on several levels/topics

• Student/faculty developed technologies linking to USAID missions

• Staff exchanges

• Innovation pipeline for student ideas.

• Vietnam example

• Potential to integrate IPBES knowledge directly to USAID

programs.

Blum Center for Developing Economies

http://blumcenter.berkeley.edu/

Conclusions

• The development landscape is changing – biodiversity

and ecosystem services are increasingly recognized as

crucial.

• Integration is key

o Environment integrated into other sectors

o Capacity building integrated throughout

• USAID programs that integrate capacity building can

also serve as models for IPBES

• Existing mechanisms (like PEER and HESN) can link

the science and development communities with IPBES

processes and recommendations.

Questions?