NADEL Newsletter December 2020

If this newsletter is not displayed properly, please click here to go to the website showing its full content.

Dear NADEL Friends and Alumni

Christmas time is chocolate time – but often not responsibly produced chocolate, despite good intentions of the majority, as our study on the buying behavior of Swiss consumers illustrates. Cacao farmers remain mostly poor and over 1.5 million children still work on cocoa farms, according to the International Cocoa Initiative. A couple of weeks ago, the Swiss electorate rejected the Responsible Business Initiative, and with it, binding regulation and accountability mechanisms for any multinational companies. Now, the ball is back in the companies’ and consumers’ court to self-regulate compliance with human rights. To transition to sustainability, companies and consumers must move from good intentions to good practice and take their responsibility seriously, now: a small Christmas wish.

Stay safe, and enjoy some chocolate: one of many joyous moments we wish you for the holiday season and 2021.

Fritz Brugger, Isabel Günther and the NADEL team

Contents

•	Fair Trade Chocolate
•	Congratulations Selina Bezzola!
•	CAS ETH in Development and Cooperation
•	MAS cohort 2020
•	Using Sensors to Measure Technology Adoption
•	Ethiopia’s pathway towards reconciliation

Photo: Mwangi Kirubi / Farmerline / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Why Don’t Swiss Buy More Fair Trade Chocolate?

When it comes to improving working conditions in the cocoa industry, the industry is called upon to take action. But consumers also can exert their influence, as Isabel Günther and Erwin Lefoll from NADEL write in a Policy Brief. Today half the chocolate produced under “fair” conditions is not sold at higher prices, because global consumers do not buy it. In an online experiment, the authors find that Swiss want to buy fair trade chocolate and are willing to pay more for it, but are easily distracted when buying chocolate. Moreover, fair trade labels do not necessarily increase consumer awareness of production conditions. The results suggest that production standards should be made more salient, and may need to be supplemented by government regulations to improve the welfare of producers in low-income countries as well as consumers in high-income countries, enabling them to make the choice they want.

Read the Policy Brief

Congratulations to Selina Bezzola for an excellent PhD defense!

Why has violent and non-violent conflict around mines increased over the last years despite increasing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by many mining companies? In her PhD dissertation, Selina Bezzola examines the socio-political effects of CSR on state legitimacy and conflict dynamics. Selina’s impressive journey took her not only to Burkina Faso for research in a challenging environment and made her experiment with traditional storytelling, but it also takes her now to the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) where she will have the opportunity to bridge science with actions for sustainable development. We wish her all the best!

Selina Bezzola on LinkedIn

Obtain the CAS ETH in Development and Cooperation within six weeks

Do you want to deepen your expertise in sustainable development and global project management? With the CAS ETH Development and Cooperation program, NADEL equips decision-makers with the knowledge and skills needed to implement the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The part-time program employs a modular structure that allows you to put together your own curricula from over 20 courses. In spring semester 2021, you also have the opportunity to complete the CAS full-time within six weeks when attending a predefined selection of courses. All CAS courses can also be taken individually.

Learn more about the CAS ETH DC


We are grateful for the MAS cohort 2020. An inspirational group of 24 young leaders.
It has been a challenging semester for both MAS students and teaching staff – with unusual amounts of screen-time and few arenas to meet and exchange informally. However, demanding times can bring with them unexpected positive learnings. For example, we offered an online cooking event to learn about sustainable food supply chains and had students work on an impact evaluation for an NGO throughout the semester. We are truly grateful for having had the opportunity to learn together with 24 flexible and self-driven students. Students not only adapted quickly and kept their motivation high throughout the semester, but also cared for each other - initiating extra activities to keep the group together and in good spirits. We hope that our MAS students will be able to conduct their project assignments as planned in 2021 and make a change in all corners of the world.

Using Sensors to Measure Technology Adoption

Solar-powered electricity has the potential to become a more affordable, better quality, and less polluting alternative to kerosene. Despite these high hopes, there is still little empirical evidence on solar light adoption and impact. As part of a randomized field experiment with 1400 households in western Kenya, Adina Rom, Isabel Günther, and Yael Borofsky used novel sensor technology developed by the ETH spinoff, Bonsai Systems, to study solar light adoption and to find out whether sensors could provide a more accurate measure of technology use than household survey data. The results of the study are promising.

Read the article in Development Engineering

Ethiopia’s pathway towards reconciliation.

Ethiopia is at a pivotal moment. Its liberalization under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed opened political space for hitherto excluded groups, yet simultaneously gave way to major outbreaks of ethnic violence. The federal government's military interventions in its northern region of Tigray in November 2020 risk further deepening divisions with profound implications for Ethiopia's future. In her MAS thesis and a policy brief, NADEL ‘20 alumna Simone Zurschmitten emphasizes that working towards reconciliation must be a priority to help achieve and maintain the political stability of Ethiopia and the region. With a suitable approach to transitional justice, attempts can be made to overcome some of the current obstacles.

Read the Policy Brief

Read the Policy Brief

NADEL in the Social Media

NADEL Podcast

Contact

NADEL - Center for Development and Cooperation
Clausiusstrasse 37
8092 Zurich
Switzerland

+41 44 632 42 40

info@nadel.ethz.ch