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The report analyzes South Africa's Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) using a 'two-level game' framework to examine the interaction between international diplomacy and domestic politics. While the JETP provided a country-led platform to articulate financial needs and accelerated conversations on NDC implementation, it has faced significant hurdles. These include a lack of transparency from the International Partners Group (IPG), a contested domestic political landscape characterized by ministerial 'turf wars', and a financial package heavily weighted toward loans rather than grants. The study highlights that the JETP's success depends on South Africa's ability to build institutional capacity and deliver on implementation to maintain international credibility, while the IPG must provide more transparent and justice-oriented funding.

The document argues that the 'polycrisis'—a state of complex, compounding environmental risks—requires a new category of leadership capable of managing chaotic conditions. Based on research with approximately thirty senior UK defense personnel, the authors identify three core strengths of military leadership: baseline capabilities (physical/mental resilience, values-based leadership, and storytelling), constant rehearsal (simulations and wargaming), and the 'Mission Command' operational concept. The briefing suggests that civilian leaders can adopt these methods to close the 'imagination gap' and maintain agency during environmental destabilization, while also calling for the defense sector to better integrate sustainability into its own doctrine.

The document explores how ethics functions within peace negotiations, arguing that while often implicit or subordinated to power and strategy, ethical considerations significantly impact the process. Using the 'situated holism framework'—which analyzes positions, participants, practices, procedures, and principles—the author identifies key ethical dilemmas, such as the tradeoff between immediate peace and long-term justice, the legitimacy of including controversial stakeholders, and the tension between a negotiator's mandate and the urgency of reaching an agreement. The findings suggest that ethics in this field is often a matter of 'principled realism,' where normative concerns coexist with realpolitik.

The report examines food wastage at the primary production level in South Africa, identifying environmental factors as the primary cause of food loss and behavioural issues as a key driver of food waste. It highlights a critical lack of baseline data, with fewer than 40% of surveyed farmers measuring their waste. While farmers are motivated by financial viability and moral responsibility to reduce waste, they face significant logistical, financial, and regulatory barriers, including high transport costs and strict export standards. The document recommends the development of centralised redistribution contacts and validated waste-tracking tools to help South Africa meet SDG 12.3.

The document identifies 'The Persuadables' as 69% of the UK population who are neither climate activists nor deniers. Through qualitative research with urban residents in Newcastle, Black and South Asian communities in Birmingham, and rural dwellers in Yorkshire, the report finds that these groups often feel unrepresented by politics and distrust current climate spokespeople, whom they perceive as 'liberal elites' or 'snobs'. The research highlights that the cost of living crisis is a primary concern that overshadows climate change and suggests that trust is higher for messengers like farmers, union representatives, and specific media personalities such as Adam Henson.

The study finds that the Swedish finance sector is cautious regarding risk and unlikely to lead sustainability transitions without significant government intervention, such as CO2 taxes or risk-mitigation mechanisms.

The report documents how permafrost degradation affects Northern Indigenous communities in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut. It identifies critical impacts across five themes: hunting, trapping, and fishing; travel and access; food sovereignty; cultural continuity; and infrastructure. Key findings include the loss of traditional food storage (permafrost lockers), increased travel risks and costs due to slumping and boggy ground, and significant financial burdens on homeowners for building maintenance. The report argues that current policy is too technocentric and fails to account for the social and cultural dimensions of infrastructure and the cumulative effects of colonial history and climate change.

The report finds that while identification and mobile money access for refugees in Uganda improved significantly due to policy changes, formal financial service adoption remains hindered by high transaction costs and long travel distances to agents. Refugees rely heavily on non-employment income and informal savings groups (ASCAs and ROSCAs), with a notable increase in cash kept at home for health emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately reduced refugee incomes and increased expenditures, particularly for food and medicine. The report recommends expanding branchless banking, improving digital and financial literacy, and introducing microinsurance and sustainable energy solutions to enhance refugee financial health.

The study examines the risk management needs of migrants in South Africa sending money to Ghana, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. It finds that senders are primarily concerned with health events, death, and job loss, as these risks threaten their ability to provide financial support to families. While there is interest in insurance for health and funeral costs for both senders and receivers, most currently rely on informal coping mechanisms like savings and borrowing from family. The report suggests that RLIPs should feature clear terms, small discretionary premiums, and a focus on the resilience of loved ones to be successful.

The paper examines stakeholder perceptions of the circular economy (CE) transition in Umeå, Sweden. It finds that current social impact considerations are narrow, focusing primarily on employment shifts and community cohesion, while neglecting health, well-being, and property rights. The authors argue for a broader assessment framework that includes job quality, accessibility for vulnerable groups, and the implications of digitalization.

The TGNR project identifies a symbiotic relationship between corruption and organized crime that drives four main 'motors' of environmental degradation in Colombia: illegal gold mining, timber trafficking, wildlife trafficking, and illegal land appropriation. The report argues that corruption allows criminals to access power, while organized crime provides corrupt officials with illicit services like violence and extortion. To counter this, the project recommends legal reforms (such as classifying environmental crimes as predicate offenses for money laundering), strengthening state institutions, improving technological information systems to reduce official discretion, and empowering local communities to reduce their vulnerability to criminal networks. The document emphasizes that these illegal activities threaten Colombia's national security by funding armed groups and cause significant economic losses through tax evasion and 'criminal dumping'.

The report finds that COVID-19 significantly reduced refugee incomes from employment and self-employment, leaving non-employment income as the primary source of support. While there is openness to digitizing savings groups to improve speed and safety, significant barriers remain, including low smartphone ownership, high transaction costs, and fears that digital tools may undermine group cohesion and meeting attendance.

The report analyzes the intersection of corruption and organized crime within four primary drivers of environmental degradation in Colombia: illegal gold mining, illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, and land grabbing. It identifies systemic institutional weaknesses, such as deficient traceability systems and the instrumentalization of subsistence regimes, which allow 'invisible' economic and political elites to finance illicit activities through proxies and criminal networks. The document provides detailed recommendations for regulatory reform, including amending the Criminal Code to link environmental crimes to money laundering, improving the interoperability of environmental information systems, and implementing a 'traffic light' security risk assessment for territorial interventions.

The report analyzes perspectives from 48 Canadian civil society organizations on the just transition. It finds a broad consensus on the need for employment security, 'good jobs', and equity for marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous Peoples. The document argues that while Canada has a high capacity for transition, there are significant political gaps, including a lack of institutionalized tripartite processes and the influence of corporate interests. It recommends the implementation of a Just Transition Act, the end of fossil fuel subsidies, and increased support for municipal and Indigenous-led projects. Civil society is positioned as a vital complement to official processes through research, capacity building, and public awareness campaigns.

The report presents findings from 80 semi-structured interviews with Polish and Romanian migrants in Barcelona and Oslo. It explores how these individuals perceive democracy, corruption, and social rights in their host and origin countries, and analyzes the motivations and barriers associated with voting from abroad. Key findings indicate that while migration can broaden perspectives, it rarely fundamentally shifts core political alignments. Voting behaviour is influenced by a mix of national identity, tactical goals, and practical accessibility, with mobilisation occurring primarily through personal networks rather than state-led campaigns.

The research explores the concept of 'active citizenship' as a differentiating norm in Denmark and Norway, rather than just a descriptive term for civic engagement. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Oslo and Copenhagen, the author finds that while many people align with official policy goals—such as volunteering in local, child-centred, and secular arenas—marginalized individuals often resist these narrow definitions. The study argues that active citizenship is frequently used to create boundaries between 'good citizens' (who are typically imagined as middle-class, able-bodied, and culturally similar) and 'failed' or 'tolerated' citizens. The author advocates for a 'differentiated universalism' that recognizes informal care, faith-based engagement, and transnational activities as valid forms of societal contribution, moving beyond the binary of active versus passive citizenship.

The report examines community resilience and dialogue as tools to prevent violent extremism in three Kenyan counties. It identifies key risk factors, such as police brutality and socio-economic marginalisation, while highlighting existing strengths like inter-group collaboration. The authors argue for a shift from specific P/CVE interventions to broader, P/CVE-relevant development goals to reduce vulnerability.

The research examines a period of extreme instability in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality following the violent return of ousted mayor Tlhalefi Mashamaite in November 2014. Using a Foucauldian framework, the author argues that the new leadership employed 'regimes of visibility, exclusion, and truth' to discipline and co-opt municipal officials who had been loyal to the previous municipal manager, Willy Kekana. The study details how techniques such as strategic surveillance, irregular HR practices, and forced public narratives were used to create a toxic environment of fear and uncertainty, effectively subjugating the professional bureaucracy to the new political regime.

The study finds that Ghana's fiscal decentralization is undermined by a heavy reliance on unpredictable central government transfers, fragmented allocation mechanisms, and weak local capacity to mobilize Internally Generated Funds (IGF). It recommends synchronizing fund release cycles with local budget preparation, reviewing laws governing the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and Stool Lands revenue, and investing in revenue management technology and staff training.

The document examines the rise of the AUB Secular Club (ASC) as a case study for the broader secular student movement in Lebanon. It argues that while partisan clubs rely on material resources and clientelist patronage from national political parties, the ASC has leveraged a potent anti-establishment frame and immaterial resources—such as human and cultural capital—to win student council seats. The study highlights the contrast between the 'vertical' networks of sectarian loyalty and the 'horizontal' mobilization of the secular movement, suggesting that university campuses serve as laboratories for nonsectarian political representation in a deeply divided society.