Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies
Volume 14, Issue 4, 2016
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wimm20/current

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Articles
Visibilities and the Politics of Space: Refugee Activism in Berlin
Fazila Bhimji
Pages 432-450 | Published online: 19 Apr 2016
Abstract
This article examines the ways in which refugee activists attained visibility within the public sphere while they contested, resisted, and helped transform multiple spaitials as part of their movement in Berlin, Germany. Scholarship on refugee and immigrant protests has focused on demonstrations and every day acts of resistance in refugee camps or accommodation. However, there has been less focus on the ways in which refugees engage in spatial politics. This article focuses on urban resistance in Berlin where refugee activists in alliance with supporters occupied several spaces and transformed them to political sites.

Journal of Medical Ethics
December 2016, Volume 42, Issue 12
http://jme.bmj.com/content/current

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Extended essay
Victims, vectors and villains: are those who opt out of vaccination morally responsible for the deaths of others?
Euzebiusz Jamrozik, Toby Handfield, Michael J Selgelid
J Med Ethics 2016;42:762-768 Published Online First: 3 October 2016 doi:10.1136/medethics-2015-103327
Abstract
Mass vaccination has been a successful public health strategy for many contagious diseases. The immunity of the vaccinated also protects others who cannot be safely or effectively vaccinated—including infants and the immunosuppressed. When vaccination rates fall, diseases like measles can rapidly resurge in a population. Those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons are at the highest risk of severe disease and death. They thus may bear the burden of others’ freedom to opt out of vaccination. It is often asked whether it is legitimate for states to adopt and enforce mandatory universal vaccination. Yet this neglects a related question: are those who opt out, where it is permitted, morally responsible when others are harmed or die as a result of their decision? In this article, we argue that individuals who opt out of vaccination are morally responsible for resultant harms to others. Using measles as our main example, we demonstrate the ways in which opting out of vaccination can result in a significant risk of harm and death to others, especially infants and the immunosuppressed. We argue that imposing these risks without good justification is blameworthy and examine ways of reaching a coherent understanding of individual moral responsibility for harms in the context of the collective action required for disease transmission. Finally, we consider several objections to this view, provide counterarguments and suggest morally permissible alternatives to mandatory universal vaccination including controlled infection, self-imposed social isolation and financial penalties for refusal to vaccinate.

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Research ethics
Paper: Deciphering assumptions about stepped wedge designs: the case of Ebola vaccine research
Adélaïde Doussau, Christine Grady
J Med Ethics 2016;42:797-804 Published Online First: 17 October 2016 doi:10.1136/medethics-2015-103292
Abstract
Ethical concerns about randomising persons to a no-treatment arm in the context of Ebola epidemic led to consideration of alternative designs. The stepped wedge (SW) design, in which participants or clusters are randomised to receive an intervention at different time points, gained popularity. Common arguments in favour of using this design are (1) when an intervention is likely to do more good than harm, (2) all participants should receive the experimental intervention at some time point during the study and (3) the design might be preferable for practical reasons. We examine these assumptions when considering Ebola vaccine research. First, based on the claim that a stepped wedge design is indicated when it is likely that the intervention will do more good than harm, we reviewed published and ongoing SW trials to explore previous use of this design to test experimental drugs or vaccines, and found that SW design has never been used for trials of experimental drugs or vaccines. Given that Ebola vaccines were all experimental with no prior efficacy data, the use of a stepped wedge design would have been unprecedented. Second, we show that it is rarely true that all participants receive the intervention in SW studies, but rather, depending on certain design features, all clusters receive the intervention. Third, we explore whether the SW design is appealing for feasibility reasons and point out that there is significant complexity. In the setting of the Ebola epidemic, spatiotemporal variation may have posed problematic challenge

The Lancet
Nov 26, 2016 Volume 388 Number 10060 p2565-2712 e15
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

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Articles
Mortality decrease according to socioeconomic groups during the economic crisis in Spain: a cohort study of 36 million people
Enrique Regidor, Fernando Vallejo, José A Tapia Granados, Francisco J Viciana-Fernández, Luis de la Fuente, Gregorio Barrio
Summary
Background
Studies of the effect of macroeconomic fluctuations on mortality in different socioeconomic groups are scarce and have yielded mixed findings. We analyse mortality trends in Spain before and during the Great Recession in different socioeconomic groups, quantifying the change within each group.
Methods
We did a nationwide prospective study, in which we took data from the 2001 Census. All people living in Spain on Nov 1, 2001, were followed up until Dec 31, 2011. We included 35 951 354 people alive in 2001 who were aged between 10 and 74 years in each one of the four calendar years before the economic crisis (from 2004 to 2007) and in each one of the first four calendar years of the crisis (from 2008 to 2011), and analysed all-cause and cause-specific mortality in those people. We classified individuals by socioeconomic status (low, medium, or high) using two indicators of household wealth: household floor space (104 m2) and number of cars owned by the residents of the household (none, one, and two or more). We used Poisson regression to calculate the annual percentage reduction (APR) in mortality rates during 2004–07 (pre-crisis) and 2008–11 (crisis) in each socioeconomic group, as well as the effect size, measured by the APR difference between the pre-crisis and crisis period.
Findings
The annual decline in all-cause mortality in the three socioeconomic groups was 1·7% (95% CI 1·2 to 2·1) for the low group, 1·7% (1·3 to 2·1) for the medium group, and 2·0% (1·4 to 2·5) for the high group in 2004–07, and 3·0% (2·5 to 3·5) for the low group, 2·8% (2·5 to 3·2) for the medium group, and 2·1% (1·6 to 2·7) for the high group in 2008–11 when individuals were classified by household floor space. The annual decline in all-cause mortality when people were classified by number of cars owned by the household was 0·3% (–0·1 to 0·8) for the low group, 1·6% (1·2 to 2·0) for the medium group, and 2·2% (1·6 to 2·8) for the high group in 2004–07, and 2·3% (1·8 to 2·8) for the low group, 2·4% (2·0 to 2·7) for the medium group and 2·5% (1·9 to 3·0) for the high group in 2008–11. The low socioeconomic group showed the largest effect size for both wealth indicators.
Interpretation
In Spain, probably due to the decrease in exposure to risk factors, all-cause mortality decreased more during the economic crisis than before the economic crisis, especially in low socioeconomic groups.
Funding
None.

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The Lancet Commissions
A call to action and a lifecourse strategy to address the global burden of raised blood pressure on current and future generations: the Lancet Commission on hypertension
Michael H Olsen, Sonia Y Angell, Samira Asma, Pierre Boutouyrie, Dylan Burger, Julio A Chirinos, Albertino Damasceno, Christian Delles, Anne-Paule Gimenez-Roqueplo, Dagmara Hering, Patricio López-Jaramillo, Fernando Martinez, Vlado Perkovic, Ernst R Rietzschel, Giuseppe Schillaci, Aletta E Schutte, Angelo Scuteri, James E Sharman, Kristian Wachtell, Ji Guang Wang

Nature
Volume 539 Number 7630 pp467-602 24 November 2016
http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue.html

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Editorials
The power of big data must be harnessed for medical progress
But grave challenges remain before the promise of individually tailored medicine becomes reality.
There is art in ‘big data’ — in the poetic claims that it competes in volume with all the stars in the firmament. And in the seductive potential of its exponential, uncontrolled, ungraspable growth to improve our lives: by allowing medical treatments to be developed and approved more quickly — and, ultimately, truly personal medicine.
But at a workshop held in London by the European Medicines Agency earlier this month, just how much science has to happen to make this beautiful future a reality was apparent to all. Patient groups and research scientists attended, alongside computational heavyweights from IBM Watson Health and Google Cloud Platform. Together, they tackled chewy questions to which there are few answers.
How many data are ‘enough’ to reliably predict clinical effect? Which data sets can be useful? How can they be managed? What’s the best way to win the confidence of public and regulators? And, crucially, is academia training enough mathematicians and medical-data scientists, who will have to develop and harness all this new potential? The last of these questions at least has a clear answer: no…

PLoS Medicine
http://www.plosmedicine.org/
(Accessed 26 November 2106)

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Research Article
Effectiveness of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in Children under Ten Years of Age in Senegal: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster-Randomised Trial
Badara Cissé, El Hadj Ba, Cheikh Sokhna, Jean Louis NDiaye, Jules F. Gomis, Yankhoba Dial, Catherine Pitt, Mouhamed NDiaye, Matthew Cairns, Ernest Faye, Magatte NDiaye, Aminata Lo, Roger Tine, Sylvain Faye, Babacar Faye, Ousmane Sy, Lansana Konate, Ekoue Kouevijdin, Clare Flach, Ousmane Faye, Jean-Francois Trape, Colin Sutherland, Fatou Ba Fall, Pape M. Thior, Oumar K. Faye, Brian Greenwood, Oumar Gaye, Paul Milligan
Research Article | published 22 Nov 2016 PLOS Medicine
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002175

PLoS One
http://www.plosone.org/
[Accessed 26 November 2106]

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Research Article
National Survey Indicates that Individual Vaccination Decisions Respond Positively to Community Vaccination Rates
John Romley, Prodyumna Goutam, Neeraj Sood
Research Article | published 21 Nov 2016 PLOS ONE
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166858
Abstract
Some models of vaccination behavior imply that an individual’s willingness to vaccinate could be negatively correlated with the vaccination rate in her community. The rationale is that a higher community vaccination rate reduces the risk of contracting the vaccine-preventable disease and thus reduces the individual’s incentive to vaccinate. At the same time, as for many health-related behaviors, individuals may want to conform to the vaccination behavior of peers, counteracting a reduced incentive to vaccinate due to herd immunity. Currently there is limited empirical evidence on how individual vaccination decisions respond to the vaccination decisions of peers. In the fall of 2014, we used a rapid survey technology to ask a large sample of U.S. adults about their willingness to use a vaccine for Ebola. Respondents expressed a greater inclination to use the vaccine in a hypothetical scenario with a high community vaccination rate. In particular, an increase in the community vaccination rate from 10% to 90% had the same impact on reported utilization as a nearly 50% reduction in out-of-pocket cost. These findings are consistent with a tendency to conform with vaccination among peers, and suggest that policies promoting vaccination could be more effective than has been recognized.

PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/

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Biological Sciences – Microbiology:
Armed conflict and population displacement as drivers of the evolution and dispersal of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Vegard Eldholm, John H.-O. Pettersson, Ola B. Brynildsrud, Andrew Kitchen, Erik Michael Rasmussen, Troels Lillebaek, Janne O. Rønning, Valeriu Crudu, Anne Torunn Mengshoel, Nadia Debech, Kristian Alfsnes, Jon Bohlin, Caitlin S. Pepperell, and Francois Balloux
PNAS 2016 ; published ahead of print November 21, 2016, doi:10.1073/pnas.1611283113
Significance
We used population genomic analyses to reconstruct the recent history and dispersal of a major clade of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in central Asia and beyond. Our results indicate that the fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing collapse of public health systems led to a rise in M. tuberculosis drug resistance. We also show that armed conflict and population displacement is likely to have aided the export of this clade from central Asia to war-torn Afghanistan and beyond.
Abstract
The “Beijing” Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) lineage 2 (L2) is spreading globally and has been associated with accelerated disease progression and increased antibiotic resistance. Here we performed a phylodynamic reconstruction of one of the L2 sublineages, the central Asian clade (CAC), which has recently spread to western Europe. We find that recent historical events have contributed to the evolution and dispersal of the CAC. Our timing estimates indicate that the clade was likely introduced to Afghanistan during the 1979–1989 Soviet–Afghan war and spread further after population displacement in the wake of the American invasion in 2001. We also find that drug resistance mutations accumulated on a massive scale in Mtb isolates from former Soviet republics after the fall of the Soviet Union, a pattern that was not observed in CAC isolates from Afghanistan. Our results underscore the detrimental effects of political instability and population displacement on tuberculosis control and demonstrate the power of phylodynamic methods in exploring bacterial evolution in space and time.

Prehospital & Disaster Medicine
Volume 31 – Issue 6 – December 2016
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/latest-issue

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Editorial
Access to Essential Medications During Disaster Events
Samuel J. Stratton
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X16001035
Published online: 26 September 2016, pp. 579-580
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A Systematic Review of Health Outcomes Among Disaster and Humanitarian Responders
Published online: 19 September 2016, pp. 635-642
Stephanie C. Garbern, Laura G. Ebbeling, Susan A. Bartels
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X16000832
Abstract
Disaster and humanitarian responders are at-risk of experiencing a wide range of physical and psychological health conditions, from minor injuries to chronic mental health problems and fatalities. This article reviews the current literature on the major health outcomes of responders to various disasters and conflicts in order to better inform individuals of the risks and to inform deploying agencies of the health care needs of responders.

In March 2014, an EMBASE search was conducted using pre-defined search criteria. Two reviewers screened the resultant 2,849 abstracts and the 66 full-length manuscripts which are included in the review.

The majority of research on health outcomes of responders focused on mental health (57 of 66 articles). Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression were the most studied diagnoses with prevalence of PTSD ranging from 0%-34% and depression from 21%-53%. Physical health outcomes were much less well-studied and included a wide range of environmental, infectious, and traumatic conditions such as heat stroke, insect bites, dermatologic, gastrointestinal, and respiratory diseases, as well as burns, fractures, falls, and other traumatic injuries.

The prevalence of mental health disorders in responders may vary more and be higher than previously suggested. Overall health outcomes of responders are likely poorly monitored and under-reported. Improved surveillance systems and risk mitigation strategies should be employed in all disaster and conflict responses to better protect individual responders.

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Comprehensive Reviews
Preparing Emergency Physicians for Acute Disaster Response: A Review of Current Training Opportunities in the US
Published online: 19 September 2016, pp. 643-647
Bhakti Hansoti, Dylan S. Kellogg, Sara J. Aberle, Morgan C. Broccoli, Jeffrey Feden, Arthur French, Charles M. Little, Brooks Moore, Joseph Sabato, Tara Sheets, R. Weinberg, Pat Elmes, Christopher Kang
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X16000820

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Article
Women’s Mental Health and Intimate Partner Violence Following Natural Disaster: A Scoping Review
Published online: 19 September 2016, pp. 648-657
Sue Anne Bell, Lisa A. Folkerth
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X16000911

Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health (RPSP/PAJPH)
Recently Published Articles – November
http://www.paho.org/journal/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=101

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Special report | Published 22 November |
Determinantes sociales de la salud y convergencias en agendas de salud de organismos regionales de América del Sur [Social determinants of health and convergence in health agendas of regional agencies in South America]
Ximena Pamela Díaz-Bermúdez, Flavia Bueno, Luis Francisco Sánchez Otero, y Annela Jean Auer

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Special Report | Published 22 November |
Prioridades da pesquisa clínica com medicamentos no Brasil e as doenças da pobreza [Priorities of clinical drug trials in Brazil and neglected diseases of poverty]
Rafael Santos Santana e Silvana Nair Leite

Science
25 November 2016 Vol 354, Issue 6315
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
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Policy Forum
Ten policies for pollinators
By Lynn V. Dicks, Blandina Viana, Riccardo Bommarco, Berry Brosi, María del Coro Arizmendi, Saul A. Cunningham, Leonardo Galetto, Rosemary Hill, Ariadna V. Lopes, Carmen Pires, Hisatomo Taki, Simon G. Potts
Science25 Nov 2016 : 975-976 Restricted Access
What governments can do to safeguard pollination services

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The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 19 November 2016

This weekly digest is intended to aggregate and distill key content from a broad spectrum of practice domains and organization types including key agencies/IGOs, NGOs, governments, academic and research institutions, consortia and collaborations, foundations, and commercial organizations. We also monitor a spectrum of peer-reviewed journals and general media channels. The Sentinel’s geographic scope is global/regional but selected country-level content is included. We recognize that this spectrum/scope yields an indicative and not an exhaustive product. Comments and suggestions should be directed to:

David R. Curry
Editor &
Founding Managing Director
GE2P2 Global Foundation – Center for Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

pdf version: the-sentinel_-week-ending-19-november-2016

Contents
:: Week in Review
:: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch – Selected Updates from 30+ entities
:: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch – Media Releases, Major Initiatives, Research
:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch -Selected Updates
:: Journal Watch – Key articles and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals

The Sentinel

Human Rights Action :: Humanitarian Response :: Health :: Education :: Heritage Stewardship ::
Sustainable Development
__________________________________________________
Week ending 12 November 2016

This weekly digest is intended to aggregate and distill key content from a broad spectrum of practice domains and organization types including key agencies/IGOs, NGOs, governments, academic and research institutions, consortia and collaborations, foundations, and commercial organizations. We also monitor a spectrum of peer-reviewed journals and general media channels. The Sentinel’s geographic scope is global/regional but selected country-level content is included. We recognize that this spectrum/scope yields an indicative and not an exhaustive product. Comments and suggestions should be directed to:

David R. Curry
Editor &
Founding Managing Director
GE2P2 Global Foundation – Center for Governance, Evidence, Ethics, Policy, Practice
david.r.curry@ge2p2center.net

pdf version: the-sentinel_-week-ending-12-november-2016-docx

Contents
:: Week in Review
:: Key Agency/IGO/Governments Watch – Selected Updates from 30+ entities
:: INGO/Consortia/Joint Initiatives Watch – Media Releases, Major Initiatives, Research
:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch -Selected Updates
:: Journal Watch – Key articles and abstracts from 100+ peer-reviewed journals

ODI [to 12 November 2016]
https://www.odi.org/media-hub/press-room
Working and discussion papers
Trade in services and economic transformation
Research reports and studies | November 2016 | Neil Balchin, Bernard Hoekman, Hope Martin, Maximiliano Mendez-Parra, Phyllis Papadavid, David Primack and Dirk Willem te Velde
Current debate on economic transformation mostly focuses on agriculture and manufacturing. This report highlights the contribution services can make to economic development.

10 things to know about climate finance in 2016
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Smita Nakhooda, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
These infographics break down the numbers on climate finance, analysing data from the world’s only comprehensive climate finance commitment tracker, Climate Funds Update.

Climate finance briefing: gender and climate finance
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Liane Schalatek with Smita Nakhooda
This briefing outlines some key principles and actions for making climate-financing instruments more responsive to the needs of women.

Climate finance regional briefing: Middle East and North Africa
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Sejal Patel, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing explores what climate finance has been made available to countries within the MENA region, and to what extent it will meet countries’ needs.

Climate finance regional briefing: Asia
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Alice Caravani, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing explores what climate finance has been provided to countries in Asia, and to what extent this meets countries’ needs.

Climate finance regional briefing: sub-Saharan Africa
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Sam Barnard, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing explores what climate finance has been provided to countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and to what extent this meets countries’ needs.

Climate finance regional briefing: Latin America
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Sam Barnard, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing examines what climate finance has been made available to Latin American countries, and to what extent this meets countries’ needs.

Climate finance fundamentals 2016
Publication Series | November 2016
This publication series provides an update on global climate change financing for 2016.

Climate finance briefing: Small Island Developing States
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Charlene Watson, Sejal Patel, Alexis Durand and Liane Schalatek
This briefing explores the amount the of climate finance granted to the SIDS, and whether this will meet countries’ needs.

Climate finance briefing: the Green Climate Fund
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Liane Schalatek, Smita Nakhooda and Charlene Watson
This briefing analyses the role of the Green Climate Fund, the newest actor in the multilateral climate finance architecture.

Climate finance thematic briefing: REDD+ finance
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Charlene Watson, Sejal Patel and Liane Schalatek
This briefing analyses the role that REDD+ can play in the global climate finance architecture.

Climate finance thematic briefing: mitigation finance
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Sejal Patel, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing explores how climate finance can help to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Climate finance thematic briefing: adaptation finance
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Alice Caravani, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing examines what role climate finance can play in efforts to mitigate climate change and to assist developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Climate finance briefing: the global climate finance architecture
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Smita Nakhooda, Charlene Watson and Liane Schalatek
This briefing outlines the global climate finance architecture as it is now, in November 2016.

The principles and criteria of public climate finance: a normative framework
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Liane Schalatek and Neil Bird
This briefing looks at the principles and criteria applicable to climate change funding.

Pathways in the Paris Agreement for ending fossil fuel subsidies
Briefing papers | November 2016 | Maeve McLynn, Laurie van der Burg and Shelagh Whitley
The Paris Agreement sets the framework for preventing climate change. This briefing outlines the pathways that it provides to end government subsidies to fossil fuels.

World Economic Forum [to 12 November 2016]
https://agenda.weforum.org/news/

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News 12 Nov 2016
Forward Thinking: 700 Global Experts Converge on Dubai to Shape a New Global Future
:: World Economic Forum brings together over 700 world-leading experts in Dubai for its first-ever Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils
:: Purpose of the meeting is to develop ideas and strategies to prepare the world for the Fourth Industrial Revolution; topics include smart cities, robotics and the future of mobility
:: The meeting is co-chaired by Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future of the United Arab Emirates

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News 12 Nov 2016
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics Top List of Technologies in Need of Better Governance
:: While technology holds great promise of improving quality of life and addressing global challenges, action is needed to put in place governance that enables them to achieve their full potential
:: A new survey by the World Economic Forum feeding into its Global Risks research finds artificial intelligence and robotics to be the emerging technology most in need of better governance, followed by biotechnologies and energy capture, storage and transmission.

:: Foundation/Major Donor Watch
We will primarily monitor press/media releases announcing key initiatives and new research from a growing number of global foundations and donors engaged in the human rights, humanitarian response and development spheres of action. This Watch section is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative.

Kellogg Foundation [to 12 November 2016]
http://www.wkkf.org/news-and-media#pp=10&p=1&f1=news

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Nov. 10, 2016
WKKF, Kresge launch community engagement effort to create vision for early childhood in Detroit
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and The Kresge Foundation have joined forces to launch Hope Starts Here, a partnership to strengthen and improve access to Detroit’s existing early childhood systems and to elevate the voices of families. The bold community engagement and strategic planning initiative, unveiled Thursday, Nov. 10, at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit, supports ensuring high-quality, accessible and responsive early childhood systems that meet the needs of the more than 80,000 children under age 8 and their families.

Hope Starts Here is co-chaired by WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron and The Kresge Foundation President and CEO Rip Rapson.

“Detroit’s residents have told us their hope for this city starts with the success of their children,” said Tabron. “Hope Starts Here will engage the community to build high quality, early childhood experiences for all 80,000 of Detroit’s children. Today, one in three of our children in Detroit lacks access to quality early learning care and only one out of 10 of our third graders are proficient readers. So, the time to act is now.”

“Detroit’s children cannot be left behind as the city rebounds. We’ve seen tremendous public/private partnerships over the last decade to support Detroit’s cultural and social revitalization,” said Rapson. “Without building systems that support and prepare our young citizens, Detroit cannot reap a full return on all that has been invested. The more that we can do, collectively, to prioritize children, the more Detroit will see our various efforts create the kind of hope that lasts for generations.”…

MacArthur Foundation [to 12 November 2016]
http://www.macfound.org/

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Publication
Pathways to Urban Sustainability
Published November 7, 2016
A report by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a road map and recommendations to help U.S. cities become more sustainable, measurably improving their residents’ economic, social, and environmental well-being. The report recommends that every U.S. city develop a sustainability plan that not only accounts for its own unique characteristics but also adapts strategies that have led to measurable improvements in other cities with similar economic, environmental, and social contexts.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [to 12 November 2016]
https://www.moore.org/news

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November 11, 2016
New global investor collaboration aims to tackle tropical deforestation
Today, Ceres and the PRI announced a new partnership to tackle the widespread issue of deforestation driven by escalating production of beef, soy and timber. The new partnership will initially focus on South America.

Through its Conservation and Financial Markets Initiative, the foundation is working iwth Ceres and other organizations to use the power of mainstream financial markets to help drive the food sector away from production practices that degrade natural ecosystems…

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November 7, 2016
New report on best practices in protected areas management
To help improve the conservation effectiveness of Brazil’s protected areas, the Moore Foundation’s Andes-Amazon Initiative has supported Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (IPÊ) in their work to consolidate and scale the Brazilian National Program for Biodiversity Monitoring in Protected Areas.

This funding helped IPÊ and ICMBio research best practices in protected areas management and publish a report that offers case examples of solutions that improve outcomes in conservation units. Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment will be sharing this report at the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 13) in Mexico next month…

David and Lucile Packard Foundation [to 12 November 2016]
http://www.packard.org/news/

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November 8, 2016
Understanding the Role and Value of Foundation Communications
The Packard Foundation’s Communications Director, Felicia Madsen, Reflects on New Grantee Research
Communications can support grantmaking in many different ways, and foundations vary widely in how they use communications to support grantees and advance their work. How loud a voice should foundations have? How should they use it? We wanted to know what our grantees had to say about this, and partnered with the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Planning and Evaluation Program to help answer these questions.

The results of this study, grounded in a survey and interviews with our grantees, indicate the unique role and value of foundation communications—beyond grantmaking or provision of communications technical assistance to grantees. Here, our Communications Director, Felicia Madsen, reflects on what we learned from this research and how these findings are informing the Foundation’s approach to communications…

Wellcome Trust [to 12 November 2016]
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2016/index.htm

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News
7 November 2016
Syncona to join forces with leading investment trust
A proposal to combine Syncona – an independent subsidiary of Wellcome – with a leading investment company is announced today. If approved, it will create an up to £1bn investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The enlarged entity, which is expected to take the Syncona name, would invest approximately £100m a year in promising early and late-stage healthcare companies with the aim of capturing the full value of UK science.

Wellcome set up Syncona in 2012 with an initial investment of £200m (subsequently increased to £250m) to help address the lack of long-term funding for UK biotech. The aim was to create an expert team to establish and operate healthcare companies built around innovative life science technology.

Syncona operates independently, but like Wellcome it takes a long-term approach to its investments. Syncona currently has investments in seven companies, and in May 2016 achieved its first US product licence – for a novel prostate cancer detection tool.

The proposed transaction would see Syncona combine with BACIT, a listed investment company with approximately £500m of assets. Cancer Research UK will also invest in BACIT and work closely with it in future, bringing access to a range of oncology opportunities…