Global

This article published on International Women's Day 2017, shines a light on the issue of forced labour, as 55% of people who are estimated to be in forced labour are women and girls. It also discusses modern slavery legislation changes and discussions in France and Australia. This legislation could contribute to the goal of SDG target 8.7 which is to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
Advancing human rights is at the heart of goal 16. This report identifies good practices that businesses can use to prevent and mitigate risks of being involved with adverse human rights impacts.
Giving the World Access to Water - Elsevier Atlas
Despite the increased attention the sixth Sustainable Development Goal (clean water and sanitation) has brought, access to water in Sub-Saharan Africa is worse than ever: there are more people without access to water now than there were in 1990. In order to fix the problem we need to understand what’s going wrong with our current approaches. That was the aim of an Atlas Award-winning study published in Water Resources and Rural Development, by researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, the University of Malawi in Malawi and the University of Lusaka in Zambia. Interestingly enough, since women and school aged girls are typically tasked with water fetching, by providing water access and sanitation authors feel there is an effect on others SDG like SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender equality)
Elsevier's Gender Report importantly supports SDG 5 - gender equality - by applying a gender lens to the field of science and research. It examines the proportion of female researchers and inventors in twelve countries, the fields women tend to specialise in and whether women or men publish more articles. This report provides sound data for understanding the role of gender within the structure of the global research landscape.
Elsevier,

Methods in Stream Ecology: Third Edition, Volume 1, 20 February 2017

This book chapter advances SDG 14 by providing an overview of the methods for monitoring stream temperature, characterization of thermal profiles, and modeling approaches to stream temperature prediction. The development of spatially explicit predictive models provides a framework for simulating natural and anthropogenic effects on thermal regimes, which is integral for the sustainable management of freshwater systems.
Elsevier,

Methods in Stream Ecology: Third Edition, Volume 1, 20 February 2017

This book chapter advances SDG 14 by outlining the use of behavioral observations, gut content and fecal analyses, morphological measurements, and stable isotopes for drawing inferences about the trophic ecology of stream fishes. These methods allow insights at the level of individuals, populations, communities, and entire food webs. Using multiple methods in concert provides a rich perspective on how dietary differences among fish species affect stream ecology.
Elsevier,

Current Biology, Volume 27, Issue 4, 2017, Pages R123-R125

Caring about humanitarian crises.
Natural World Heritage Sites (NWHS), via their formal designation through the United Nations, are globally recognized as containing some of the Earth's most valuable natural assets. Understanding changes in their ecological condition is essential for their ongoing preservation. Here we use two newly available globally consistent data sets that assess changes in human pressure (Human Footprint) and forest loss (Global Forest Watch) over time across the global network of terrestrial NWHS.
Every year, more than 2 million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer, yet where a woman lives, her socioeconomic status, and agency largely determines whether she will develop one of these cancers and will ultimately survive. In regions with scarce resources, fragile or fragmented health systems, cancer contributes to the cycle of poverty. Proven and cost-effective interventions are available for both these common cancers, yet for so many women access to these is beyond reach.
Massive slums have become major features of cities in many low-income and middle-income countries. Here, in the first in a Series of two papers, we discuss why slums are unhealthy places with especially high risks of infection and injury. We show that children are especially vulnerable, and that the combination of malnutrition and recurrent diarrhoea leads to stunted growth and longer-term effects on cognitive development. We find that the scientific literature on slum health is underdeveloped in comparison to urban health, and poverty and health.

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