Core problems and negative impacts of global change have not decreased in recent years during the first phase (2001-2005) of implementation of the NCCR N-S research programme. On the contrary, they continue to particularly affect people and the environment in developing and transition countries. Poverty, insecurity of livelihoods, conflicts, land degradation, insufficient social infrastructure and the problems of economic integration are but a few of these negative processes, which are particularly persistent in the three ‘syndrome contexts’ addressed by the programme, i.e. semi-arid, highland-lowland, and urban contexts. On the other hand, vital signs and innovative potentials for mitigation of some of the problems in the syndrome contexts are emerging from the local to international levels. These include local innovative initiatives, national policy action, and growing international support. In short, the framework of global conditions in which the research programme is embedded has not substantially changed since 2001, while within the NCCR N-S network knowledge was enhanced for understanding and action in development-oriented research, and capacities and skills in the South and North were built up.
The second phase of the NCCR N-S (2005-2009) can thus build on the scientific, institutional and action-oriented achievements of the first Phase. It will maintain the core elements of the framework and methodological approach as developed during the first four years, and continue to pursue research in line with other international research programmes. The programme fully subscribes to the principles for research partnerships promoted by the Swiss Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE), and will continue to be committed to their application and their monitoring. The core focus remains: ‘Research partnerships for mitigating syndromes of global change’; the programme thus pursues (i) research aimed at mitigating the negative effects of global change and enhancing potentials for sustainable development; (ii) training and support for individuals as well as institutional competence development, and (iii) partnership actions for societal empowerment, adaptation and innovation. In Phase 1, over 120 research projects were installed, out of which 90 were PhD studies that will be finalised in Phase 2 in order to give room for thematic reorientation and readjustment of their numbers to a lower level.
The research set-up has been newly arranged for achieving the programme’s objectives in Phase 2. In Switzerland, it continues collaboration with all of its eight Institutional Partners (IPs), each covering its own, distinct scientific realm, from bio-physical to political, and working jointly with other IPs in newly introduced Work Packages (WPs). These IPs will continue their cooperation with institutions in the regions of the ‘Joint Areas of Case Study’ (JACS), where selected issues in one or more of the three syndrome contexts are addressed mainly through the above-mentioned PhD, MSc/MA and senior researcher projects. New projects will be launched between WPs through a new Transversal Package (TP), created to achieve a more comprehensive approach to syndrome mitigation in three major syndrome contexts, and to further the theoretical, conceptual and methodological foundations of syndrome mitigation and sustainable development research. At the same time, selected post-doc researchers will be further strengthened in their careers. In these TP projects, there will be a focus in Phase 2 on the themes: ‘actor orientation, state and decentralisation’; ‘vulnerability, human security and resilience’; ‘trans-contextual issues relevant to livelihoods and natural resources’; ‘societies and natural resources in semi-arid contexts’; the interface between ‘planning and household-centred approaches in urban-periurban contexts’, as well as the issue of ‘governance and global public goods in highland-lowland contexts’. The programme will also continue to test the applicability of innovative knowledge in the ‘Partnership Actions for Mitigating Syndromes’ (PAMS).
The programme’s overarching research questions with a potential to help mitigate the negative and enhance the positive effects of global change in the three syndrome contexts include:
- On core problems and syndromes of global change: What core problems of non-sustainable development form persistent clusters in the three contexts observed? What is the status and importance of their key determinants, what are their impacts, and what are their dynamics? Which are the typical patterns in each context?
- On potentials for sustainable development: Which conditions and processes in the different syndrome contexts show potential for sustainable development? Do these form specific patterns for each context chosen, and what determines these patterns? What innovative possibilities do endogenous (local) actors have to exploit these potentials?
- On strategies for mitigating syndromes: How can local efforts to enhance sustainable development and achieve the Millennium Development Goals be supported in different contexts? What partnership actions can reinforce these efforts? What positive effect on people’s livelihoods and natural environments do these actions have? How can they be adapted to achieve replication and broader impact, e.g. through generalisation?
Through these WPs and TP projects, the programme will continue collaboration with its nine JACS networks on all four continents, by maintaining the current administrative and thematic links to the respective IPs, while creating more direct communication links among all partners. These adjustments of the programme are based on the recommendations by the Review Panel during its third Site Visit held in September 2004, as well as on an intensive internal review process, which took place from January 2004 to March 2005, and involved all staff of the programme in over 20 international and national workshops, as well as responses to an individual questionnaire.
The NCCR N-S will continue to produce added value, particularly in the following ten fields: (i) inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches for syndrome mitigation and sustainable development; (ii) firm concretisation and regional anchoring to favour local development processes; (iii) a focus on selected syndrome contexts in different social, economic, political and ecological settings; (iv) joint research on themes and topics of transversal or integrative value; (v) capacity and competence development of local research institutions, (vi) integrated training for post-graduate research, including a new, specialised inter-university Master’s course in sustainable development research; (vii) effective knowledge and technology management, particularly through applying PAMS, producing publications and/or organising conferences; (viii) a continued emphasis on the Advancement of Women (AoW), (ix) a Swiss network of excellence in research for sustainable development that is closely related to its partnership network, and (x) a Centre of Excellence at the University of Berne, designed in support of Research on Sustainable Development and to host the NCCR N-S and other programmes pursuing similar research.
