Planning for Institutional Development and Developing Budgets and Financial Management Systems

This section lays out issues related to strategic planning by the Foundation for Community Development (FDC) and illustrates the development of budgets and financial management systems by the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). Also explored here is the financial reporting system set up by the Esquel Ecuador Foundation (FEE) for their grantees

Resilient Funders: How Funders Are Adapting to the Closing Space for Civil Society

The closing space of civil society around the world over the last decades has created profound challenges for funders. Many analyses of how to respond to this reality focus on advocacy and promoting enabling policy environments. Few consider key practices of resilient funders that enable them to continue to operate under shifting political circumstances. Increased adaptive capacity along three dimensions – varied procedures, multiple strategies, and an adaptive environment – promotes the flexibility to weather the shocks and stresses of tightening restrictions and increasing violence. Within those dimensions, funders are finding that three characteristics of resilience are especially critical: flexibility; diversity and redundancy; and resourcefulness and ability to learn. Drawing on lessons from the experience of those working in countries of concern, this article proposes a conceptual framework for weathering threats from changing conditions, with the aim of providing a simple yet powerful way of assessing and improving current practices

Global Digital Libraries: A Historical Perspective and Architectural Considerations

Digital libraries will replicate many of the features of traditional libraries, but they may also draw on techniques developed by video rental companies and bookstores in making information both readily accessible and attractively presented. A generalized schema for global information systems of this type is essential; it must address issues of data structure and system interoperability so that information of all types can be freely exchanged across whatever platforms may develop in the future. The ability to search, identify, and retrieve not only text but recorded sound and complex images depends on a systematic approach to handles and metadata. The mode of access to data will be partly determined by economic and social forces and could require additional tagging. The global digital library may well be an inevitable next stage in the evolution of information sharing, but its implementation requires a plan that addresses the complexities of these issues on a broadly conceived and coherent basis

What We Have Learned About Grassroots Philanthropy: Lessons From Mexico

Mexico is going through a transition from traditions of authoritarian, top-down social and political management that have tended to marginalize the efforts of community groups in addressing social and environmental challenges. While there are many important questions about strengthening civil society organizations in general, grassroots groups in particular are challenged by the weak enabling environment for social action. Despite this, the Action in Solidarity Fund has found that it is very possible for philanthropists to reach small grassroots groups with the support they need and to begin to strengthen the social fabric for communities to act on their own behalf. This article shares lessons from the fund’s experience in grassroots philanthropy. Effective support must go back to the basics and build trust, networks, and collaboration as key elements of solidarity. Financial support must be built around the objectives, knowledge, and understanding of grassroots groups in order to lay a foundation for them to learn and act on their own initiatives. This financial support needs to be accessible to these groups and to incorporate philanthropic approaches that promote a self-sustaining social capacity to act on issues and priorities

Withholding Political Authority: Civil Society and People\u27s Power in Zimbabwe

The relationship of civil society to the state is rarely antagonistic and at most times supportive. The political regime and civil society are taken to be interdependent social structures that interact through hegemonic, supportive and socially constructed dimensions. Given this interdependency, when does civil society challenge authority or does its efforts rise to the level of a people\u27s power revolution? When does it act to dismantle the political regime or seek to reconstruct it? This project attempts to shed light on how civil society mobilizes a people\u27s power capable of challenging political authority through the story of its ongoing struggles to pursue social objectives in Zimbabwe in the 1990s. Since 1980, the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) controlled the only post-colonial government Zimbabwe has known. Drawing from its revolutionary credentials it set out to finish the interrupted war for Zimbabwean Independence. This objective resonated with civil society less and less over time as groups began to see Zanu\u27s promises as hollow and its corruption and patronage systems as the primary obstacle in accomplishing their objectives. This development is explored through a grassroots empowerment movement, the Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress, the widespread protests in 1997 catalyzed by the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions and the efforts to rebuild the constitutional order spearheaded by the National Constitutional Assembly. The story points to at least three civil society strategies to locate power within the people and counter political power: 1) constructing political alternatives within the existing regime, 2) mass withdrawal of support for the authority of the regime and 3) reconstruction of the social contract. Nevertheless, civil society did not succeed in dismantling the political regime, hampered by the continuing capacity of the state to exert hegemonic control, remove the pillars of civil society support and exploit polarized values within civil society. Despite the terrible destruction of social and economic fabric of the country by the political struggles of the 2000s, the ongoing development of democratic values and the diminishing importance of the interrupted revolution can provide a glimmer of hope for the future transformation of the country

Novaluron: Prospects and Limitations in Insect Pest Management

Biorational insecticides are a valuable insect pest management option for growers and pest management practitioners. Novaluron is a recently developed benzoylphenyl urea insecticide with excellent activity against several important insect pests. Through inhibition of chitin synthesis, larval insect stages are targeted with death from abnormal endocuticular deposition and abortive molting. This physiological specificity lends novaluron well to integrated pest management (IPM)programs, as toxicity to mammals, birds and other vertebrates is low, and adult beneficial insects, including predators, parasitoids and pollinators, are generally unaffected. Foliar applications have demonstrated prolonged persistence, providing long-lasting control for growers, and the mode of action of novaluron, completely different from that of commonly used neurotoxic insecticides, makes it a useful alternative insecticide for resistance management. However, there are several obstacles, many inherent to IPM, which may hinder the utility of novaluron. While its narrow spectrum of activity is a key attribute, paradoxically this may be a significant detractor for growers who prefer broad-spectrum control of multiple pests. As an insect growth regulator, timing of novaluron applications is often more restrictive and delayed insecticidal activity usually occurs. The purchase price of benzoylphenyl ureas is generally greater than that of conventional insecticides, which may limit the appeal of novaluron. Further, studies have shown that some beneficial organisms are susceptible to novaluron. Knowledge reviewed here will facilitate continued development and use of biorational compounds for IPM

Larval exposure to field-realistic concentrations of clothianidin has no effect on development rate, over-winter survival or adult metabolic rate in a solitary bee, Osmia bicornis

There is widespread concern regarding the effects of agro-chemical exposure on bee health, of which neonicotinoids, systemic insecticides detected in the pollen and nectar of both crops and wildflowers, have been the most strongly debated. The majority of studies examining the effect of neonicotinoids on bees have focussed on social species, namely honey bees and bumble bees. However, most bee species are solitary, their life histories differing considerably from these social species, and thus it is possible that their susceptibility to pesticides may be quite different. Studies that have included solitary bees have produced mixed results regarding the impact of neonicotinoid exposure on survival and reproductive success. While the majority of studies have focused on the effects of adult exposure, bees are also likely to be exposed as larvae via the consumption of contaminated pollen. Here we examined the effect of exposure of Osmia bicornis larvae to a range of field-realistic concentrations (0–10 ppb) of the neonicotinoid clothianidin, observing no effect on larval development time, overwintering survival or adult weight. Flow-through respirometry was used to test for latent effects of larval exposure on adult physiological function. We observed differences between male and female bees in the propensity to engage in discontinuous gas exchange; however, no effect of larval clothianidin exposure was observed. Our results suggest that previously reported adverse effects of neonicotinoids on O. bicornis are most likely mediated by impacts on adults

GENE EXPRESSION DURING IMIDACLOPRID-INDUCED HORMESIS IN GREEN PEACH APHID

Imidacloprid-induced hormesis in the form of stimulated reproduction has previously been reported in green peach aphid, Myzus persicae. Changes in gene expression accompanying this hormetic response have not been previously investigated. In this study, expression of stress response (Hsp60), dispersal (OSD, TOL and ANT), and developmental (FPPS I) genes were examined for two generations during imidacloprid-induced reproductive stimulation in M. persicae. Global DNA methylation was also measured to test the hypothesis that changes in gene expression are heritable. At hormetic concentrations, down-regulation of Hsp60 was followed by up-regulation of this gene in the subsequent generation. Likewise, expression of dispersal-related genes and FPPS I varied with concentration, life stage, and generation. These results indicate that reproductive hormesis in M. persicae is accompanied by a complex transgenerational pattern of up- and down-regulation of genes that likely reflects trade-offs in gene expression and related physiological processes during the phenotypic dose-response. Moreover, DNA methylation in second generation M. persicae occurred at higher doses than in first-generation aphids, suggesting that heritable adaptability to low doses of the stressor might have occurred

Population dynamics and susceptibility to insecticides of variegated cutworm attacking tomatoes in Southwestern Ontario

This report summarizes the results of population dynamics and susceptibility to insecticides of variegated cutworm attacking tomatoes in southwestern Ontario. The objectives of the study were to: acquire information on the biology of variegated cutworm on tomatoes in southwestern Ontario, assess the toxicity of currently registered and novel control products to different VCW larval instars, and to determine whether VCW has developed resistance to presently registered control products. In preparation for the study, comprehensive literature reviews comprising several hundred reports published from 1886-2006 were compiled and are included in this report.Fresh Vegetable Growers of CanadaAgricultural Adaptation Counci