1- Context

Mankind is confronted today with global problems stemming from the interactions between population dynamics, economic development and the environment (in short, the population-environment-development or PED framework). The effects of population growth and poverty on the of interrelations between societies and the environment involve major risks since they can have serious adverse effects on the renewal of natural resources and the ecological foundations of development. In particular, continued population growth will inevitably lead to further degradation of the environment if measures for generalizing the increased productivity of natural resources are not implemented in the respect the laws of sustainable development.

Countries must therefore implement development policies integrating population growth and economic production, as well as the preservation of natural resources. However, the scientific community is neither addressing this fundamental problem in a coordinated fashion nor is it contributing to political debate on the issue. It must therefore be mobilized to initiate global reflection able to inform and enlighten governments, economic players and civil society.

2- Objectives

The first objective of this programme is to encourage research initiatives from researchers in developing countries on the PED interactions. In view of a rapidly degrading situation in many areas of the population-environment inter-linkages, there is an urgent need for capacity building activities in a field poorly covered by research organisations in the South.

Pripode is also intended to produce a knowledge base to help decision-makers implement measures compatible with the emergence of new forms of global governance. The analysis will often combine the methods and tools derived from both social and natural sciences. Therefore, a further objective of the programme is to contribute to sustainable development at various scales, from the local or urban level to the regional level.

3- Geographic Coverage

The PRIPODE Program concerns research centres from the special solidarity zone (Zone de Solidarité Prioritaire, ZSP) as defined by the French Government. The ZSP is composed of 54 countries among the less developed in terms of income, access to the capital market and with whom France intends to build up a special relationship of partnership in the perspective of solidarity and sustainable development.

It includes the following countries:

 Middle East: Lebanon, Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Yemen.
 Northern Africa: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.
 Sub-Saharan Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania , Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe.
 Indian Ocean: Comoros, Madagascar.
 South-East Asia: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam.
 Caribbean: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti.
 Latin America: Suriname.
 Pacific: Vanuatu.

4- Sequence of events

The Research programme on the interactions between population, development and environment (PRIPODE) was established on 5 July 2002 with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris. Cicred acts the institutional platform for the programme.

PRIPODE was initially launched and coordinated by Francis Gendreau, former Chairman of CICRED Council for a three-year period. Since Francis resigned in December 2004, the new CICRED director, CZ Guilmoto, has been the acting programme coordinator since this date. CICRED staff members are also actively involved in the activities of the programme.

The call for research proposals was issued in November 2002 under the aegis of Pripode’s Scientific Committee and met with a large success as projects were received from all over the world. The committee first met on 27-30 April 2003 to review the proposal. It selected 20 out of the 70 projects presented. The final selection of the projects followed by the signature of the related agreements with each centre took place in April-June 2003.

The first instalment of the grant was sent to a first batch of 13 teams initially selected in October 2003. Due to financial difficulties in early 2004 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, another batch of seven teams had to wait till July 2004 for their first instalments. As a result, Pripode teams follow two different time tables.

Teams have to submit a first midterm progress report after a year along with a financial report. After review, the scientific committee prepares an evaluation report to each team containing a detailed assessment of the work accomplished. The report also includes recommendations formulated by the scientific committee for the next one-year period. At the same time, CICRED will proceed to release the second instalment of the grant. Pripode will set up technical assistance missions to specific teams to assist them in the completion of their research objectives or in response to specific needs.

At the end of the two-year period, teams submit a final report to the scientific committee. Each final report is then reviewed and recommendations for transformations are issued by the committee. The last instalment of the grant is then released. In the following months, a final conference will be held in Paris and CICRED will release a first joint publication of the major research findings.

Analysis and audit of the financial reports will be carried out by the Committee’s permanent team, under the control of the programme coordinator.

5- Timetable

Call for proposal and selection round

 November 2002 : Call for project proposals.
 February 2003 : Deadline for submission of project proposals.
 March, 2003 : pre-selection of projects by the scientific committee.
 April-June 2003: final selection of projects

Research Phase

 October 2003-March 2006: research operations (first batch)
 July 2004-September 2006: research operations (second batch)
 October 2004- July 2005: Evaluation of midterm progress reports

Final report

 mid 2006 : Final report (see link for details on the final report) .
— submission date: 30 April (Batch 1)
— submission date: 30 August (Batch 2)
 end 2006 : Revised report (after evaluation by the Scientific Committee).
— submission date: 30 September (Batch 1)
— submission date: 30 November (Batch 2)

Conference and publications

 2007 : publications and meeting
— International PRIPODE conference (21-23 March, UNESCO, Paris)
— Publication of research findings
— CICRED scientific seminar