SAPECS News

MASTERS OPPORTUNITY: Exploring stakeholder experiences of power relations in collaborative water resources governance

MASTERS OPPORTUNITY: Exploring stakeholder experiences of power relations in collaborative water resources governance

Join a diverse team committed to excellence, engagement and social justice, working across Africa to address some of the most challenging questions confronting sustainability science and practice. Background to the project: ‘Unlocking Resilient Benefits from African Water Resources’ (RESBEN) Sustainable water resource development remains elusive because development has largely externalized costs to the environment and vulnerable people. Novel research theory, methodologies and practice are needed to meet, for example, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In response, the RESBEN project team has developed the innovative Adaptive Systemic Approach (ASA) . The ASA provides a coherent framework drawing on core concepts, with associated methods: complex social-ecological systems, transdisciplinarity, epistemic justice, and [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00February 15th, 2021|position, SAPECS News|

Prof Oonsie Biggs secures EMS Faculty’s first NRF A-rating

Prof Oonsie Biggs secures EMS Faculty’s first NRF A-rating

Prof Reinette (Oonsie) Biggs, the incumbent of the DST/NRF Research Chair in Social-ecological Systems and Resilience, recently received an A-rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF), a first for the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. An A-rating is awarded to researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs. The rating is primarily based on Biggs’ research outputs over the past eight years and took into consideration the evaluation made by local and international peers. Biggs previously also received a P-rating from [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00February 15th, 2021|People, SAPECS News|

POSTDOC OPPORTUNITIES: Nature-based Solutions in Southern Africa’s Water Towers, ACDI, University of Cape Town

POSTDOC OPPORTUNITIES: Nature-based Solutions in Southern Africa’s Water Towers, ACDI, University of Cape Town

VACANCY 1: POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW – SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONSTRAINTS OF NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS (Closing Date: 31 January 2021) The African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) based at the University of Cape Town (UCT) wishes to appoint a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to support the social, economic and political research component of the TES-NbS (Towards Equitable and Sustainable Nature-based Solutions in Southern Africa’s Water Towers) project. The successful candidate will unpack the social, economic and political processes and trade-offs that shape which Nature-based Solutions are adopted and who benefits in the region. There will be a focus on landscape restoration [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00January 13th, 2021|Cape Town Metropolitan Area, position, SAPECS News|

Resource portal launched for resilience practice in southern Africa

Resource portal launched for resilience practice in southern Africa

The Resilience Hub, an online portal for resilience in practice, launched today. This central information gateway offers users easy access to a variety of resources including webinar recordings, training materials, podcasts, publications and more, aimed at promoting resilience building in the southern African region. “Until now resources like these have been scattered across the internet,” explains Maike Hamann, one of the creators of the portal. “We wanted to create a central platform where resilience practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders could easily and freely access a diversity of resources catered to the southern African context.” “We wanted to ensure that it [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00September 21st, 2020|Related News & Events, SAPECS News|

MASTERS OPPORTUNITY: Exploring community-based approaches for maintaining rural water supply infrastructure in Namibia

MASTERS OPPORTUNITY: Exploring community-based approaches for maintaining rural water supply infrastructure in Namibia

Opportunity for Masters student Closing date for applications: Monday 7 September 2020 Project background Around 275 million people in Africa do not have reliable access to drinking water. Many communities in rural areas depend on handpumps to access groundwater, but at any given time, one in four of those handpumps is broken. Mechanics are often unaware of failures, leaving pumps out of action for weeks or even months, which can drive people to use other distant, dirty, or expensive water sources. The FundiFix model is one response to Africa’s rural water challenge. Led by local entrepreneurs in Kenya and powered [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00August 27th, 2020|position, Related News & Events, SAPECS News|

MASTERS OPPORTUNITY: Exploring sustainable and just food pathways for future Southern African resilience

MASTERS OPPORTUNITY: Exploring sustainable and just food pathways for future Southern African resilience

Closing date for applications: Monday 7 September 2020 Project background All countries have to make decisions about how to manage their natural resources, develop the economy, improve the quality and quantity of food, as well as meet greenhouse emissions goals, among many other policy targets. In southern Africa, these issues are exacerbated by legacies of colonialism, shifting demographics, and changing climates and associated increases in natural hazards (e.g. droughts, floods and storm surges). Increased understanding and evidence of how social-ecological systems behave suggests that a lot of these challenges and policy targets are interlinked and often cannot be solved in [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00August 27th, 2020|position, Related News & Events, SAPECS News|

POSTDOC OPPORTUNITY: Forecasting Climate Change Risks to Wild Food Plants

POSTDOC OPPORTUNITY: Forecasting Climate Change Risks to Wild Food Plants

ACDI Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Forecasting Climate Change Risks to Wild Food Plants Application Deadline: 31 August 2020 or until position is filled Call for Applications A research team from the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) at the University of Cape Town is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDRF) to join a project forecasting climate change risks to wild food plants and the nutritional consequences for the communities that depend on them. The PDRF will be motivated to work as part of a diverse research team, engage with decision-makers in food systems and conservation, and generate peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, there is the opportunity to [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00August 19th, 2020|Cape Town Metropolitan Area, position, SAPECS News|

Future Earth capacity building workshop

Future Earth capacity building workshop

Future Earth is pleased to launch a call for applications for the virtual capacity building workshop on 9&10 September 2020, which will support Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from Africa to join consortium proposals for the Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action (CRA) on Transdisciplinary Research for Pathways to Sustainability. The event is organized by Future Earth in collaboration with the Future Earth Office for Southern Africa (FEROSA), the Program for Early-stage Grants Advancing Sustainability Science (PEGASuS), the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF), the African Future Earth Committee (AFEC), and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). For more [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00July 29th, 2020|Related News & Events, SAPECS News|

CALL FOR DST/NRF SARChI-funded PhD APPLICATIONS

CALL FOR DST/NRF SARChI-funded PhD APPLICATIONS

We seek motivated individuals interested to pursue a PhD linked to two projects, namely the Seeds of Good Anthropocenes initiative and the Social‐ecological regime shifts in the Anthropocene project. Applicants should have a keen interest in sustainability and sustainability transitions, an interest and ability to integrate across the social and natural sciences, and enjoy collaboration and working in teams. Interested individuals should have a strong academic track‐record, participate in the events and activities of the CST, and be interested in developing a career around topics such as social‐ecological systems, resilience and risk, complexity thinking, social innovation and sustainability transformations. For more information on the following PhD bursaries [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00June 19th, 2020|Multiple Areas, position, Related News & Events, SAPECS News|

SAVE THE DATE: WEBINAR ON DEAGRARIANIZATION

SAVE THE DATE: WEBINAR ON DEAGRARIANIZATION

Deagrarianisation: What are the underlying reasons and effects with focus on livelihoods, poverty reduction and climate change According to a newly released FAO report, food insecurity is increasing in the world. An alarming reversal of a previous opposite trend. Planting your own food might be an important adaptation strategy in face of climate change. At the same time, across Africa, and in other parts of the world, many farmers stop farming. This webinar unites researchers working on the broad theme of deagrarianisation across contexts in Africa and Europe. We will present and discuss research and build new networks – forging [...]

SAPECS2024-06-19T13:54:35+02:00April 7th, 2020|SAPECS News, Working Groups|