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Stem rust, named for the blackening pustules that infect plant stems, caused devastating crop epidemics and famine for centuries before being tamed by fungicides and resistance genes.Since the turn of the century, however, aggressive new strains have emerged – such as 'Ug99', first detected in Uganda in 1999 – that infect widely grown varieties of …

 There are important questions to resolve. How will the new team in Geneva work with regional directors and regional offices? Will the expanded number of priorities and larger executive team create more silos within an organisation that is already partly paralysed by inefficiency? Will the optimism engendered by Dr Tedros's election be backed by do…

The popular conception of fingerprinting often stems from television detective drama, when a perfect print – with clear arches, loops and whorls – emerges from a powder-dusted window to pin the crime on a tricky culprit, perhaps a well-dressed gentleman safecracker. It is TV fiction, after all.In the real, developing world, fingerprints are usually…

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The rains are less reliable. Sudden heat waves create challenging conditions for crops. Poor harvests result not only in debt, but also in malnutrition for smallholder farmers. Farming in India is not an attractive career option.Many Indian farmers are turning their backs on the life altogether. The pull of the city, with the promise of better work…

  Getting started with the SDGs in universities: A guide for universities, higher education institutions, and the academic sectorwas prepared in collaboration with the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS), the global SDSN Secretariat, and Australian and New Zealand universities.The Guide was launched by Universities Australia Chair P…

 If you are an academic based in a UK Higher Education Institution then you are probably bracing yourself for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission in 2021. Details of the next REF were revealed by HEFCE at an OpenForum event in Manchester last week which have implications for all those working in development studies based at univ…

Researchers from ETH Zürich, Princeton, and the University of Cambridge conducted the first global assessment of different intervention policies that could help limit the projected increase of antimicrobial use in food production. Their results, reported in the journal Science, represent an alarming revision from already pessimistic estimates made …

 The idea that development should be seen as universal and not just the transferring of ideas and practice from the Global North to South is not new. This is despite the fact that historically development policy, practice and research have largely adhered to a North–South, geographic and aid-driven view of the world, with approaches of South–South …

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. SDSN mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate …

The importance of the manner in which law enforcement officials police assemblies for the enjoyment of a number of human rights, including the right to life, has long been recognised. CGHR’s study on Unlawful Killings in Africa dedicated a chapter to the question, and former-Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Christof Heyns, partnered …

Conservationists work to save the planet, and few are as knowledgeable when it comes to the environmental pressures of the Anthropocene.However, the first wide-ranging study to compare the environmental footprint of conservationists to those of others – medics and economists, in this case – has found that, while conservationists behave in a margina…

For geoscientists, predicting the timing and magnitude of an earthquake is a fundamental goal. Generally speaking, pinpointing where an earthquake will occur is fairly straightforward: if an earthquake has struck a particular place before, the chances are it will strike there again. The questions that have challenged scientists for decades are how …

At the World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, Ms Patel set out the next step in DFID’s commitment to the growth of CDC, following the passing of the CDC Act earlier this year which increased the total limit of capital which the UK could invest in CDC. This capital increase will average up to £703 million per year for the next five years, enablin…

This includes DFID allocations to over 30 implementing partners (including United Nations agencies, international non-governmental organisations and the Red Cross) and is helping to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable people in Syria and of refugees in the region. It also includes allocations made under the UK Conflict, Stability and Security Fu…