ENN Africa

How to save energy and money while computing

KMAadmin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:31:31 -0600

Here are some easy ways to save both energy and money while computing:

Turn off your computer and peripherals when you aren't using them
When you're not using your monitor, turn it off instead of using the screensaver
If you're using a CRT monitor, choose dark backgrounds for your screen display since bright-colored backgrounds consume more power. If you're using an LCD monitor, the opposite is true.
Activate the power management feature on your computer system. Power management is a way for your computer to use less power when it's not being used. According to ENERGY STAR, using the power management feature can save up to USD$75 per computer per year
Network and share printers when you can

Access your power management settings

Windows 7: Go to the Start menu, select Control Panel, and choose Power Options. In the subsequent screen, select "Balanced" under "Preferred Plans". Set the "Turn off the display" setting to 10 minutes. Set the "Put the computer to sleep" option to 30 minutes. Click the "Save changes" button.
Windows 2000/XP: Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, and Display. Select the Screen Saver tab. In the "Energy saving features of monitor" section, click the "Settings" or "Power" button to reach the power management settings. Set the "Turn off monitor" to 10 minutes. Set the "Turn off hard disks" to 15 minutes. Click OK or Apply.
Windows Vista: Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Power Options. Select the "My Custom Plan" button, and select "Change Plan Settings". Choose "Turn off the display" and select 10 minutes. Choose "Put the computer to sleep" and select 15 minutes.
Macintosh OS X: Select System Preferences from the Dock. Select Energy Saver. Under the Sleep tab, use the sliders to enable your display and computer to go to sleep mode after 10 minutes of inactivity for the display, and 15 minutes for the computer. For the hard drive, check the "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible" box.

More ways to be green

Reduce paper waste by: printing as little as possible; reviewing document drafts and emails onscreen instead of printing them out; using email instead of paper memos and fax documents when possible; using the double-sided printing functions on your printer.
Recycle your old computers, monitors, batteries, and ink and toner cartridges.
Use less ink by lowering the print quality when you print working or temporary documents.
Use recycled-content paper whenever possible

ENN Africa

KMAfrica.com KnowledgeHub Greetings

KMAadmin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:16:07 -0700

Zulu culture, language & traditions

Generic guidelines for mainstreaming drylands issues into National Development Frameworks

carol — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:59:43 -0600

The Generic Drylands Mainstreaming Guidelines have been developed by the UNDP-DDC in close collaboration with the UNEP and UNDP/Global Environment Facility (GEF) Global Support Unit. This document provides broad generic steps for mainstreaming environment and drylands issues into national development frameworks, as well lessons drawn from various countries on environment and drylands mainstreaming.

It is important for the implementation of poverty reduction strategies and the achievement of the MDGs to take into account drylands issues and challenges, especially how they impact the poorest communities. These communities have the lowest per capita GDP and the highest infant mortality rates. The combination of high variability in environmental conditions and relatively high levels of poverty leads to situations where human populations can be extremely sensitive to changes in the ecosystem. If drylands are not mainstreamed, they will lose out in resource allocation. These guidelines have been developed with the aim of influencing action at several levels of planning and policy engagement, because it is necessary to make drylands visible at all levels.

The guidelines have been informed by lessons drawn from 21 countries on mainstreaming environment into development frameworks with a particular focus on drylands issues, and by a review made of other international organizations’ guidelines on the same subject. This concerted action will create the synergistic and critical pressure needed to put and keep drylands issues at a place of importance on the developmental agenda.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & the Environment

UNFPA Toolkit Focuses on Women, Population and Climate Change

carol — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:11:18 -0600

© UNFPA, WEDO14 October 2009: The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), together with the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), has launched a resource kit on climate change connections, focusing on gender and population and advocating that women are uniquely positioned as innovators, educators, caretakers, leaders and agents of change to address the risks of a changing climate.

The resource kit provides policy guidance, finance and adaptation plans, advocacy tools and best practices related to increasing educational opportunities for girls, economic opportunities for women, and access to reproductive health and family planning, recognizing their role in reducing vulnerability to climate change. Women, population and climate change are the focus of the UNFPA's flagship report, State of World Population, to be released on 18 November 2009. UNFPA Resource Kit: Climate Change Connections - Gender and Population https://www.unfpa.org/public/site/global/lang/en/pid/4028

Climate Change Connections

UNFPA and WEDO have developed a comprehensive resource kit on gender, population and climate change. Learn how gender equality can reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts and how women are uniquely positioned to help curb the harmful consequences of a changing climate.

Climate change is already impacting populations and ecosystems around the globe. Exacerbating poverty and leading to infrastructural breakdown, it threatens to set back development efforts by decades, profoundly affecting all of us.

But the impact won't be felt equally. Those with the fewest resources will be most susceptible to its negative effects - particularly women, the majority of the world's poor. At the same time, women's vulnerability can obscure the fact that they are an untapped resource in efforts to cope with the effects of climate change and reduce the emissions that cause it. As innovators, organizers, leaders, educators and caregivers, women are uniquely positioned to help curb the harmful consequences of a changing climate. Incorporating a gender perspective into climate change policies, projects and funds is crucial in ensuring that women contribute to and benefit from equitable climate solutions.

Overview: Women at the Forefront https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2...
Policy that Supports Gender Equality https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2...
Common Ground: In Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal, Senegal and Trinidad and Tobago https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2...
Making NAPAs Work for Women https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2...
Financing that Makes a Difference https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2...
Educate and Advocate https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2009/climateconnections_6_advocacy.pdf

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & the Environment

Leading the way: A role for regional institutions

carol — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:49:27 -0600

LEAD Africa, supported by the Royal Danish Embassy and COP 15, has just released a new report “Leading the way: A role for regional institutions” around African leadership on climate change that can be downloaded at the LeadInAfrica.org Website

Leadership is critical to addressing the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change. The onset of climate impacts combined with new policy frameworks and funding mechanisms require the building of institutional and human capacity, the strengthening of governance and provision of an enabling environment for climate action. This is especially true for Africa, because of its unique vulnerability to climate impacts, its low resilience and its climate-dependent economic sectors. Whilst Africa is ‘clearly in peril, climate change also provides a unique opportunity to forge a new more sustainable and socially equitable developmental pathway. But this will need strong and visionary leadership, and particularly African leadership as opposed to our historic reliance on external agencies and bi-lateral partners to set the development agenda.

In recognition of this, LEAD Africa and ENDA Energy have begun to look at leadership on climate issues in Africa as part of our wider environment and development agenda. We are especially concerned with looking at the regional and sub-regional levels, as climatic responses by their very nature are trans-national and highly complex. Although this level of leadership in Africa has also historically been the weakest, we believe it can become a critical leverage point for leadership on climate issues in particular.

The potential of African institutions to provide leadership on climate issues, their unique responsibilities and their ability to act as climate response catalysts was the subject of a recent workshop on ‘African Leadership on Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities for Regional Institutions”, held in Tunis in January 2009.

This paper is based on the discussions at the workshop and aims to highlight to a wider audience the urgent need for African Leadership on Climate Change, particularly at the regional level. It begins with an overview of the current situation vis a vis leadership on climate issues in Africa, then highlights opportunities to show leadership on climate issues, before finally summarizing recommendations from the workshop on how regional institutions can become climate leaders.

KM & the Environment

Population and reproductive health in National Adaptation Programmes of Action

carol — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:56:23 -0600

By : Clive Mutunga and Karen Hardee

This paper reviews 41 National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) submitted by Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and identifies the range of interventions included in countries’ priority adaptation actions. The review found near-universal recognition among the NAPAs of the importance of population considerations as a central pillar in climate change adaptation.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & the Environment

Dryland opportunities - A new paradigm for people, ecosystems and development

carol — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:55:06 -0600

Drylands cover 41 percent of the earth’s terrestrial surface. The urgency of and international response to climate change have given a new place to drylands in terms both of their vulnerability to predicted climate change impacts and their potential contribution to climate change mitigation. This book aims to apply the new scientific insights on complex dryland systems to practical options for development. A new dryland paradigm is built on the resources and capacities of dryland peoples, on new and emergent economic opportunities, on inward investment, and on the best support that dryland science can offer.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & the Environment

Africa's Development in a Changing Climate

carol — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:18:19 -0600

Key policy advice from World Development Report 2010 and Making Development Climate Resilient: A World Bank Strategy for
Sub-Saharan Africa - Act Now, Act Together, Act Differently

"Over the past ten years, Sub-Saharan Africa has made a great deal of progress in terms of economic growth. In fact, Africa has the potential to emerge as an exciting new center of growth in the evolving global economy. However, to continue on an accelerated growth path, the region needs to tackle climate variability and climate change, which now pose a daunting risk to growth, development, and poverty reduction. Climate is hardly a new factor in the region's history, but with global warming, Africa's vulnerability is deepening, making it the most exposed region in the world to the impacts of climate change. The hard-won progress of recent years could be reversed with extreme weather, crop failures, and outbreaks of hunger and disease."

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & the Environment