News archive

Drohnen im Einsatz für den Regenwald

27 February 2012 – ETH Life article about a low-cost drone for forest monitoring developed by Lian Pin Koh et al. “My dream is that in the future, every field ecologist will have a drone as part of their toolkit, since it doesn’t cost more than a good pair of binoculars!“ (in German) »»

Wissen aktuell – Handys und Computer für Afrika

11 November 2011 – Gerhard Tröster, Mitglied des Nord-Süd-Zentrums, spricht auf Radio DRS2 über unsere Jahreskonferenz zu Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien für Entwicklung (ICT4D) »»

Was darf uns Solidarität kosten? Das Engagement der Schweiz in der Welt

2 November 2011 – Podcast der Podiumsdiskussion unter der Leitung des Tages-Anzeigers mit Barbara Bleisch, Gerold Bührer, Martin Dahinden und Rolf Kappel »»

Rolle der ETH in der Geschichte der Schweizer Entwicklungszusammenarbeit

29 September 2011 – Interview mit Martin Menzi, ehemaliger Leiter des Nachdiplomstudiums für Entwicklungsländer NADEL, zur Rolle der ETH Zürich in der Geschichte der Schweizer Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. »»

Winner of SFIAR Award 2011

September 2011 – The Cassava Research Team at the ETH Zurich, led by Dr Hervé Vanderschuren who is a member of the North-South Centre, has won the SFIAR Award 2011 for their submission: „Cassava research team. Technology transfer and capacity building: Making tropical crop technologies available where it can have an impact” »»

Die ETH Zürich als Teil der GlobalTech Alliance engagiert sich in Afrika

27 May 2011 – Sieben führende Universitäten der Welt, vereint in der «GlobalTech Alliance», haben an ihrem Jahrestreffen in Äthiopien dem afrikanischen Kontinent Unterstützung für die zukünftige wissenschaftliche und technologische Entwicklung zugesagt. Das Treffen und der wissenschaftliche Workshop wurden vom Nord-Süd Zentrum und International Institutional Affairs organisiert. »»

IED Working Paper on Adaptation to Climate Change and Risk Exposure in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia

28 March 2011 - Marcella Veronesi, member of the North-South Centre, and Salvatore Di Falco published the IED Working Paper #15 “On Adaptation to Climate Change 
and Risk Exposure 
in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia”. »»

Zeit günstiger Preise für Grundnahrungsmittel ist vorbei

6 January 2011 – “Tagesschau”, the news broadcast of Swiss Television, is featuring Barbara Becker, Managing Director of the North-South Centre, on record high food prices (in German). »»

Otto Jaag Water Protection Prize

20 November 2010 – Linda Roberts (Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics ETH Zurich / Eawag and member of the North-South Centre) was awarded the Otto Jaag Water Protection Prize for her thesis “Arsenic dynamics in groundwater-irrigated and seasonally flooded paddy fields in Bangladesh”. »»

Conditional cooperation and costly monitoring explain success in forest commons management

12 November 2010 – Devesh Rustagi, together with Stefanie Engel and Michael Kosfeld, published a paper in Science 330, 961 (2010), doi:10.1126/science.1193649. In addition, Björn Vollan and Elinor Ostrom wrote a perspective on the paper. Perspectives are solicited contributions by Science editors to reflect opinions on ‘exciting research’.

The work of Devesh Rustagi was continuously funded by the North-South Centre.

Migration als Chance

2 November 2010 – ETH Life article about migration and development, discussed at the 40th NADEL anniversary celebration (in German) »»

Palmöl nachhaltiger produzieren

16 September 2010 – ETH Life article about the research on palm oil production by SFIAR Award winner Lian Pin Koh (in German) »»

Neue Wege für die Landwirtschaft in den Tropen

16 September 2010 – Interview with Michel Bernhardt, one of the student reporters at the Tropentag 2010, on the internetradio detektor.fm (in German) »»

Wasser: das blaue Gold - Der Umweltphysiker Wolfgang Kinzelbach im Gespräch mit Norbert Bischofberger

20 December 2009 – Sternstunde Philosophie. Die Uno-Klimakonferenz in Kopenhagen will die hauptsächlich vom Menschen verursachte globale Erderwärmung limitieren. Dabei geht es immer auch um die Ressource Wasser. Wolfgang Kinzelbach ist Professor für Hydromechanik an der ETH Zürich und engagiert sich für Wasserprojekte in China und Afrika. In der «Sternstunde Philosophie» plädiert Wolfgang Kinzelbach für mehr Nachhaltigkeit im Umgang mit Wasser und zeigt, dass die Ressourcen der Erde gerecht auf alle Menschen verteilt werden müssten. »»

International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD)

8 December 2009 – Follow-up news
Weltagrarbericht
Diese Webseite präsentiert die wichtigsten Ergebnisse des Weltagrarberichts, macht alle seine Berichte zugänglich und liefert Hintergründe und Detailinformationen.  »»

Journal of Peasant Studies
The politics of global assessments: the case of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) by Ian Scoones »»

Cooperating for success. Benefits of research partnerships with developing countries

11 November 2009 – This latest publication of the KFPE presents 12 successful projects. The 12 practical examples show the advantages of cross-border research – also for Switzerland. Moreover, they underscore the continually evolving challenges of such efforts. This publication can be ordered (bilingual: German-French) or downloaded (English or German-French). »»

Globale Herausforderung mit lokalen Lösungen

20 October 2009 – Bundesrätin Doris Leuthard sprach im gefüllten ETH-Auditorium über globale Ernährungssicherheit und Schweizer Agrarpolitik (Rede und Video). In der anschliessenden Podiumsdiskussion suchten Experten zwischen offenen Märkten, Schutzzöllen, nachhaltiger Produktion und Klimawandel nach Lösungen für zukünftige landwirtschaftliche Herausforderungen. »»

Swiss research helping farmers to keep their harvest – SFIAR Award recognises contribution of ETH research team to food security in developing countries

7 October 2009 – Prof. Silvia Dorn (ETH Zurich) and her team working on a post-harvest project with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia have won the SFIAR (Swiss Forum for International Agriculture) Award 2009. The project, which has been supported by the North-South Centre (ZIL), aimed at preventing post-harvest losses in dry beans by a combination of a parasitoid and host plant resistance. The research team has found an effective solution to reduce the big losses farmers incurred while storing their harvested dry beans.  CIAT’s international network will be instrumental for the implementation of the findings to the benefit of small-scale farmers in the tropic belt. »»

swissinfo.ch: “Preis für ETH-Forscherin: Bohnenernte sichern” »»

More energy for the world’s poorest

October 2009 – Energy demand is rapidly increasing in developing countries too. The challenge of the coming years is to provide poorer populations improved access to energy while avoiding serious economic and ecological side effects.

Read the article in the ESC-News »»

ETH Life – Kolumnen

April-August 2009 – Barbara Becker, Managing Director of the North-South Centre
Neue Federn, frische Brise (Einführung) »»
Wende in der Wahrnehmung »»
Gender and diversity »»
Another piece of sad news »»
Vertrauensvolle Zusammenarbeit »»
Die grossen Fragen »»
Der Tag hat keine Ereignisse »»

”Das WEF, die Wirtschaftskrise und die Armen dieser Welt”

28 January 2009 – Swiss Radio DRS2 broadcasted “Kontext” featuring Barbara Becker, Managing Director of the North-South Centre. »»

“World in Transition – Future Bioenergy and Sustainable Land Use”

12 January 2009 – Renate Schubert, Vice-President of the North-South Centre, and Nina Buchmann, member of the North-South Centre, are both council members of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). The council recently published the WBGU flagship report 2008 “World in Transition – Future Bioenergy and Sustainable Land Use”. »»

”Auszeichnung für Wasserforscher”

4 December 2008 –  An ETH Life article about Wolfgang Kinzelbach, Professor of Hydromechanics and President of the North-South Centre who was awarded the “Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water” (in German) »»

Science offers hope to developing countries

2 November 2008 – An article about the Sawiris Scholarships, published on the platform swissinfo.ch »»

”Stipendien mit Mehrwert”

29 October 2008 – An ETH Life article about the Sawiris Scholarships (in German) »»

ETH Globe, Nr. 3

September 2008 – Nahrungsmittelkrise: Was alles dahintersteckt, warum Agrarforschung wichtig ist, wie die ETH für die Welternährung forscht »»

Agricultural research

April and May 2008 – Agriculture is back on the international agenda. After a couple of decades of public neglect, there is a new awareness for the role of agriculture for food security and the need for agricultural research. »»

”Erdapfel für Welternährung”

29 February 2008 – An ETH Life article about the symposium on potato research and its role for society (in German).

”Unser Ökosystem – ein teures Gut”

18 February 2008 – An ETH Life article about the 1st North-South Forum on payments for ecosystem services and their contribution to poverty alleviation (in German).