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• A methodology to assess food, energy, and water security is proposed. • The approach links availability and accessibility on a sub-national scale in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. • The approach can be used to assess multiple development priorities simultaneously. • Application of this method can be at multiple spatial scales and institutional levels. • The results are relevant for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus has emerged over the past decade to build understanding around interlinked resources as a tool for achieving sustainable development. Various frameworks developed to implement nexus thinking however, do not always consider both access and availability of resources in a security perspective. Moreover, indices that calculate FEW measures on a national scale may not adequately describe regional variation within a country. To further understanding of these coupled natural resources and tools for development, this paper presents an approach to quantify FEW security and highlights cases in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia where national statistics leave out important regional variation. The outcome is an integrated approach to quantify security measures that can be implemented at multiple spatial scales and institutional levels. This approach can not only provide insight into FEW security in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia but can also be an effective tool for assessing multiple development priorities simultaneously throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political and academic debates about the distribution of resource rents to producing areas have addressed the issue of whether or not the transfers unleash conflicts. While this kind of debate is valid, the present paper argues that such a discussion is missing the point regarding the processes behind said types of conflicts, as well as how such conflicts are framed at the sub-national political geography of the state. By more deeply exploring these dimensions, the argument of this paper is that the production of uneven development within sub-national areas is crucial for understanding the above-mentioned conflicts and how the central state internalises those conflicts, producing new political geographies of rent distribution. As such, different territorial discourses of autonomy emerge along with uneven development, but their capacity to reach institutional autonomy is grounded on the spatial politics of each state. Empirically, this paper analyses how natural gas rents are distributed to sub-national producing areas in Peru and Bolivia, and how the production of uneven development through natural gas rents at sub-national level re-activated previous territorial demands for autonomy, which were internalised by central states in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the last 50years, theoretical and practical approaches to promoting agricultural innovations have been evolving. Initial innovation diffusion theories led to a linear, top-down approach of technology transfer. However, changes occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the economic structural adjustment which caused a dramatic decrease in governmental agricultural research and extension services in several developing countries. Simultaneously a number of new stakeholders (NGOs, private companies, farmer organizations, local governments, etc.) started to contribute to agricultural innovations more actively in the 1990s and 2000s. As the changes occurred, scholars began proposing new theories, such as the innovation systems approach, to explain how multiple stakeholders interact, exchange information, generate knowledge and develop innovations for solving problems. The paper describes the results of a rapid appraisal of potato innovation systems in Bolivia, Ethiopia, Peru and Uganda. The method was useful for identifying components and limitations in the system at pilot sites. Results indicate that the systems had similar types of components, namely national and local government organizations, NGOs, private companies, farmer organizations and media; another common feature was the limited interaction among organizational components, which reduced farmer access to information, technologies, organizations, markets and services. However, the role of organizational components was different across countries. Farmer organizations played a limited role at the pilot sites in these countries, except in Bolivia. The role of national governments was also limited in Bolivia and Peru, but played a major role in Ethiopia and Uganda at the moment of the study. Local governments were starting to play an important role in the four sites. NGOs played an active role in most countries, and the private companies in charge of input supply were more active in Bolivia and Peru. Media (radio) were present, but they were not contributing significantly to disseminating information for innovation. The International Potato Center (CIP) was present in all the systems, playing a role of innovation brokerage. Results indicate that different types of intervention would be needed for each country to strengthen the roles that components were already playing, but should look for improving interactions among components. In Ethiopia, strengthening innovation capacity of potato-related government organizations would be desirable to start the process, but in Bolivia, Peru and Uganda, enhancing interactions and coordination among government organizations, NGOs, private companies and farmer organizations would be needed, for example, to improve farmer access to quality planting material and markets. The role of farmer organizations and the private companies in charge of input supply need to be strengthened in the potato innovation systems in all places. The rapid appraisal of potato innovation systems has shown to be a method with potential to start understanding the complexity of the innovation systems and identify potential entry points for interventions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to document the evolution of glaciers in the tropical Andes (between 10°N and 16°S) for the last millennium, based on moraines dated by lichenometry and radiocarbon, lake sediment records and historical documents. Viewed collectively, several glacial advances occurred synchronously. The first advance is dated around AD 1200–1350. The maximum glacial extent (MGE), defined as the furthest down-valley extent recorded synchronously by the majority of glaciers, occurred around 1630–1680 in Bolivia and Peru (the outer tropics) and around AD 1730 in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela (the inner tropics). Subsequently, during the 18th and 19th centuries, glaciers retreated continuously with only minor synchronous readvances. In the outer tropics, minor glacial advances occurred around 1730, 1760, 1800, 1850, and 1870. In the inner tropics, synchronous minor advances occurred around 1760, 1820 and 1880. Between the MGE and the early 20th century, glaciers lost about 30% of their total length. The retreat was slow between the 17th and 18th centuries but then became more marked. Use of the accumulation area ratio (AAR) method or historical observations in the different cordilleras revealed an increase in the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of about 300 m from the MGE onward. Palaeoclimatic hypotheses, based on glaciological models run in different countries, suggest a cool and humid period in the 16–18th centuries followed by a colder and drier period in the 19th century. The reduction of glaciers observed from the middle of the 19th century is due to increasingly warmer conditions than before. Here, quantitative estimates are proposed to explain the evolution of the glaciers. In Venezuela, results indicate for the period 1250–1820 that mean air temperatures were 3.2±1.4 °C cooler and precipitation was about 22% higher than at present. In Ecuador, temperatures of between 0.8° and 1.1 °C lower than today, and between 25% and 35% higher accumulation than today, appear to have occurred in the 18th century, followed by a short drier but colder period at the beginning of the 19th century. In Bolivia, the MGE could be a consequence of a decrease in temperature of 1.1 to 1.2 °C, and a 20 to 30% increase in accumulation or an increase in cloudiness of about 1–2/10. We discuss not only external climatic forcing but also the coincidence between glacier expansion and a decrease in solar irradiance. Dating uncertainties, however, have made the role of volcanism in glacier fluctuations impossible to determine. Finally, we discuss the relationships between ENSO and glacier fluctuations in recent centuries, which do not match directly with current knowledge of modern teleconnections between tropical Pacific SSTs and variations in glacier mass balance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]