Irrigation projects in Ethiopia: what can be done to enhance effectiveness under ‘challenging contexts’?

Investment in small scale irrigation (SSI) is crucial to sustain food security and livelihoods of smallholders. In Ethiopia, the government and development partners show a growing interest in developing irrigation projects. The success of irrigation projects is determined by governance and socio-cultural contexts. Yet the lack of thorough understanding of the challenging contexts undermines the efforts to achieve sustainability outcomes in irrigation projects. This article identifies the challenging contexts to irrigation projects, examines how the challenging contexts influence the effectiveness of irrigation projects, and indicates ways of improving the effectiveness of irrigation projects under the existing challenging contexts. Data were collected between April and December 2011 in three regional states of Ethiopia using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The lack of governance capacity and accountability are critical challenges for the sustainability of the irrigation projects. In addition, the poor consideration of local knowledge and the use of top-down approaches in planning and implementing the irrigation projects, and lack of equitable access to the irrigation schemes result in poor ownership of projects among farmers. Improving the funding scheme to support long-term capacity building at national and local levels, and in understanding the socio-cultural contexts of the intervention areas; planning irrigation projects with due consideration of the existing challenging contexts, and with active engagement of the local community, are important for the long-term viability and sustainability of irrigation projects.     

An overview of the environmental finance policies in China: retrofitting an integrated mechanism for environmental management

Considering the significant roles of the policies in developing environmental finance, an overview is conducted on the environmental finance policies （EFPs） in China. This paper analyzed the definition, scope, evolution and main instruments of EFPs. The implementation progress of financial activities on each instrument are investigated respectively. Then the experiences learned from and failures discovered in the development of the EFPs are discussed well recommendations for further improvement of the EFPs and their implementation are provided. Our study found that the EFPs have been established in China after a four-phase evolution since the early 1980s. The policies have played a critical role in leading to a rapid development in environmental finance by involving more financial instruments to accomplish the objective-led environmental plans. Driven by the policies, the new green credit （GC）, green security （GS）, and green insurance （GI） instruments have been phased in as supplements to the conventional command and control approaches to improve the environmental governance of financial activities and pollution sources. However, the market mechanism of financial institution is limited due to their defensive and incapable performance on implementation some of EFP instruments. To further strengthen the effectiveness of EFPs in facilitating environmental man- agement, recommendations are made mainly on the aspects including developing more specific policy guidelines, enhancing information sharing and disclosure, providing sufficient economic incentives, establishing environmental liabilities with financial activities, and involving issues related to climate change, and biodiversity and ecosystem service.     

长江中游平原农业水灾风险管理的制度建设

规避农业洪涝巨灾风险是长江中游平原农业生产发展的必然选择。通过剖析我国农地制度和小规模农户经营的风险特征,认识到我国农地制度存在小规模经营缺陷和缺乏产权激励机制,农户在应对洪涝巨灾自然风险时表现为无能为力,并且现有农业分担风险的外部环境更使农户无法承受自然巨灾风险而被迫成为农业生产经营风险的回避者,因此应对农业洪涝巨灾风险必须在政府主导下实现。提出长江中游平原农业水灾风险管理制度建设安排建议：加强长江中上游地区生态环境建设、保持水土和恢复湿地生态系统;发展避洪农业,实现区域农业结构的优化;实施积极的财政政策,增加农业投入;完善农业保险制度安排,以农业政策性保险分担农业水灾风险,增强长江中游地区农户抵御自然灾害的能力。     

新时期环境执法和环境监测联动机制构建探索

如何使环境执法与环境监测有机融合、协同联动,促进环境管理工作高效开展,是现阶段生态环境部门急需解决的问题。通过分析环境执法与环境监测在实际工作中存在的问题及新时期环境执法和环境监测融合发展的意义,提出应积极构建二者协同联动机制,以解决新型生态环境问题。     

工伤保险在社保制度中的排序变化及其内涵

目前我国常见的社会保险制度排序是养老保险、医疗保险、失业保险、工伤保险和生育保险,工伤保险制度位列第四位;而在计划经济时期的劳动保险制度系列中,工伤待遇规定曾位居第一位,尔后才是医疗待遇规定、养老待遇规定和生育待遇规定。上述排序变化的出现不会是立法者的偶然随意之为,而是以实行市场经济体制改革后我国劳动者-企业-国家之"三方关系"出现的根本性变化为背景原因的,与制度本身从一种面向牺牲了个人安全和健康的建设功臣们实施的国家慰谢待遇向以分散风险、损失共担为机理的保险制度发生的转化密切相关。针对近年来极端劳资纠纷事件增多的趋势,我国的劳动安全管理及工伤保险立法决策还应更加注重向弱势劳动者的倾斜。     

Environmental regulatory and policy framework in China: an overview

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在我国建立水权制度的探讨

水权制度是水资源法制化管理的模式,与我国的取水许可制度在管理机制和调度方式上均存在区别。在我国建立水权制度是市场经济发展的需求,是一个长期的、循序渐进的、从理论到实践的过程。取水许可证制度是水权管理的基础,前者向后者的转变需要逐步实施,因地制宜。     

环保科研机构后勤部门企业化管理的思考

随着环保科技体制改革的不断深入，环保科研机构后勤部门走向市场，实行企业化管理，经济上独立核算，已成为今后生存与发展的趋势，环保科研机构后勤部门的生产活动是以提供服务为主，且在满足内部需要的基础上再面向社会、文章针对环保科研机构后勤部门的现状，存在的问题以及所具有的特点，运用企业管理的人本原理，系统原理，经济效益原理以及激励理论和目标管理理论，从思想认识，管理方法，经营理念等方面着手，提出企业化管理的思路。     

建立乡（镇）环境保护所的思考

在乡（镇）建立环境监理所虽然加强了乡（镇）的环境保护工作，但与乡镇经济迅速发展对环境保护的要求仍有一定差距。借鉴公安、税务等乡镇机构建设的成功经验，应建立乡（镇）环境保护所全面负责乡（镇）的环境保护工作，以适应经济发展的需要。     

环境NGO及其制度机理

环境NGO是政府和企业之外参预环境治理的＂第三力量＂,其活动涵盖了环境治理的各个方面。环境NGO的非政府性、非营利性和自发性等特征,使其在环境治理中发挥了不可替代的作用。作为一种具有创新性的制度安排,环境NGO突破了政府主导环境治理的局限,实现了环境治理制度的多样化。其作用机理在于环境利益的诉求主体明确,交易成本较低,治理结构合理等。中国环境NGO制度尚不完善,整体水平较低,亟需加以改进。