SDG11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Soil health Improvement Technologies (SITs) to Enhance Drought and Nutrient Resilience in Zimbabwean Soils

Severe food insecurity and hunger have increased in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and this has been partly attributed to climate change and soil degradation. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of agricultural land in SSA is severely degraded and that production of major food crops including maize will decline by more than 30% by 2050 due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns.

Region

Law’s Dynamic Effects: The Case of South Africa

This project investigates the implementation and operation of the National Minimum Wage Act, 9 of 2018 through a qualitative small-scale study of the domestic work and garment sectors in South Africa. The broad research aims are to understand how labour laws apply in informal workplace settings (or spaces where labour law does not commonly operate), and the processes and strategies used by workers and other relevant stakeholders in achieving improved working conditions.

Region

Designing smart functionalised surfaces for water harvesting

The United Nations estimates that over one in ten people across the world do not have access to clean water. Hence, affordable, eco-sustainable methods for water collection are a major global challenge facing society today, especially in developing countries. In this project, we will focus on Indonesia. Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with 260M people, and it is estimated that more than 27M Indonesians still lack access to clean water.

International Day of Clean Air for blue skies

A two-fold problem

Health impact: tiny, invisible particles of pollution penetrate deep into our lungs, bloodstream and bodies. These pollutants are responsible for about one-third of deaths from stroke, chronic respiratory disease, and lung cancer, as well as one quarter of deaths from heart attack. Ground-level ozone, produced from the interaction of many different pollutants in sunlight, is also a cause of asthma and chronic respiratory illnesses.

Pacific Urban Update 2020

All 14 Pacific Developing Member Countries (DMCs) are considered small island developing states (SIDS), of which seven demonstrate the effects of fragility (Table 1). Of the 14 Pacific DMCs, seven (the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, and Tuvalu) have over half of their population living in urban areas. Except for the Cook Islands and Samoa, urbanization rates are increasing in all Pacific DMCs.