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In a context of rapid technological innovation and expensive new products, the paper calls for the generation of real-world data to inform decision-making and an international discussion on the affordability of new medicines, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. Without these, the challenges of health judicialization will continue to grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Disasters continue to be most prevalent and severe for marginalised communities. To reach those furthest behind first, as the global community pledges in the 2030 Agenda, a critical assessment of equity in disaster risk governance is necessary. Yet, the understanding of factors that mediate the capacity of the governance processes to achieve equity ambitions is limited. This paper addresses this gap by proposing and testing a conceptual framework to assess equity in disaster risk governance. Design/methodology/approach: The framework analyses the extent to which institutional relationships and data in risk governance support inclusion and diversity of voice and enable the equitable engagement of communities. The study applied the framework to key risk policies across governance levels in Brazil and Colombia. Findings: The study finds that institutional awareness of cross-sectoral and -scalar coordination clearly exists. Yet, the engagement of actors further down the governance scale is framed reactively at all scales in both countries. The analysis of the risk data practices indicates that although data integration and sharing are key policy priorities, the policies frame the relations of disaster risk data actors as hierarchical, with data needs determined from the top down. Originality/value: A key contribution of this framework is that its equity view results in a nuanced analysis, thus pointing to the differences between the two countries concerning the factors that mediate these challenges and providing specific entry points for strengthening equity in risk governance policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to report on the status and the development of education for sustainable development (ESD) and sustainability literacy (SL) in three Latin American (LA) higher education institutions (HEIs) business programs in Peru, Brazil and Colombia. The paper examines institutional efforts to both introduce and implement ESD curricula and provide SL. Design/methodology/approach: The methods used in this paper included reviews of university Web pages and course materials. Structured interviews were also conducted with program leaders, to examine the level of ESD, as input affecting the business programs curricula of the universities concerned. Findings: Initial findings suggest that, in the three HEIs surveyed, there is still a tendency to talk about issues related to ESD but actions that confirm this interest are not sufficiently advanced. The authors surveys a sample of business programs curricula and interviewed its leaders and a mixed and dated picture emerged. When compared to other regions particularly the USA and Europe, the findings show that the HEIs surveyed still have not developed enough work to distinguish conceptually between sustainable development, ESD and SL making the embedment of these concepts in the curriculum not fully developed. Originality/value: In LA HEIs, the ESD message seems to be slowly taking ground, equipping HEIs to respond to SL concerns. Implementation and practice in some HEIs are still at an embryonic and conceptually confused stage with regard to LA HEIs SL. This paper sheds light to help ESD delivery. It offers some strategies for moving on from this inception phase to a more structured SL provision and ESD outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the effects of subordinate financial integration on workers in peripheral countries. The objective is to link the financial, productive and social reproduction spheres, taking into account the centre-periphery dynamic in the global process of capital valorisation. In this sense, the main contribution is the proposition of an analytical framework on the subject, based on Marxist and post-Keynesian inspired literature. Considering the asymmetric international relations within the hierarchical monetary system, the dynamics of capital cycles and the external imbalances of peripheral economies, five transmission channels are proposed concerning: (i) the burden of wealth transfer, (ii) the rise in household indebtedness, (iii) the effects of exchange rate volatility on real wages, (iv) the increased pressure for fiscal discipline which contributes to labour and social security reforms, and (v) the regressive specialisation of the productive structure and its impacts on employment. The secondary contribution refers to the comparative analysis of the cases of subordinate financialisation of Brazil and Colombia. The results of this analysis reveal the relevance of the proposed channels in terms of the dynamics of workers' social reproduction in a contemporary context, particularly with regard to wages, employment, household indebtedness and labour and social security rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Urban mobility is one of the most relevant themes in discussions regarding quality of life in large urban centers worldwide. It is a challenge that local governments have been facing due to a significant growth in the urban population. The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes in public transport made by the local government in the city of Bogotá, Colombia Design/methodology/approach - It is an in-depth case study of a qualitative nature, based upon primary (interviews and observation) and secondary data. Data was collected in Brazil and Colômbia. Findings - The case signaled a significant change process by improving urban mobility through the implementation of successful public policies and strategies. The findings indicated that transforming a chaotic public transport system into a point of reference in this field is a notable effort. Practical implications - This study provides insights to public administrators that manage organizations that operate complex systems and pluralistic contexts Originality/value - This paper contributes to the field by discussing a unique case study in which the administration of a large capital of a South American country promoted a substantial change in the urban mobility system, tackling obstacles and developing an efficient approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Coffee is a highly mycotrophic plant, its interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi has been studied among different tropical countries. The majority of the published works indicates that coffee is benefited from the mycorrhizal association, where the AMF confers protection against pathogens and diseases, increases water absorption, as well as it increases the adaptation of the plant at transplant from nurseries to the main plantation. Objective: A review was made where we summarized and analyze the research reports of AMF with coffee from at least the past 10 years, focused on AMF global species distribution, nutritional benefits of the association and interaction with pathogens. Methods: We retrieved available bibliographic data from coffee producer countries in public databases. We considered published works from 2000 to 2019, nevertheless, we included classic papers on the topic, outside that period, mainly the ones performed in Brazil since 1986. We organized the number of reported species per country, we look for synonyms, grouped them by family, genera and species. The reports that only reported genera or where ambiguous were used as reference but not considered for the final analysis. We summarized the reports of the benefits of the AMF interaction in coffee, as well as pathogen tolerance. Results: The collected data shows that there are more than 100 AMF species associated with coffee, which represents more than a third part of the total of reported species worldwide. We found that Colombia has the highest richness, but it also has the highest number of published reports. Conclusions: This information shows the benefits of the incorporation of AMF to coffee plantation programs, because these fungi are a key element in coffee plant nutrition, nevertheless, the coffee variety should be considered when introducing AMF, as not all associations has been efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society engagement around health care and population health improvement is an important driver towards Health for All. Research can improve the effectiveness of health activism by examining the resources, structures and strategies of civil society engagement. However, research to support such engagement faces epistemological and methodological challenges which call for specific research strategies. A four year multi-country study was undertaken by the People's Health Movement, a global network working for health for all. The research took place in six countries (Brazil, Colombia, DR Congo, India, Italy, South Africa) and globally, and was directed to understanding five domains of civil society engagement: movement building; campaigning and advocacy; capacity building; knowledge generation, access and use; and engaging with governance. The research plan and methods of data collection and analysis were tailored to address the objective of improving activist practice, while negotiating research challenges identified during the design phase. Results include insights into the practice of civil society engagement in relation to the five domains of activist practice, as well as experience gained in managing six methodological challenges which we describe as: making meaning, aligning research and action, managing power relations, valuing experiential knowledges, chaos and contingency, challenging preconceptions. Researching activism can produce useful insights into practice as well as support continuous improvement in the effectiveness of such activism. However, there are significant methodological challenges that can be addressed through appropriate strategies. More research, building on the approach described in this paper, can contribute to more effective civil society activism for health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a preliminary study that aims to analyze the Covid-19 pandemic in the Amazonian border between Brazil and Colombia, more specifically in the twin cities of Tabatinga and Leticia. To this end, it seeks to identify the main decrees issued by the public authorities, both municipal, state and national, and verify their impact on the circulation of people and air traffic and the results in the number of those infected and killed by this disease. The results show that Tabatinga and Letícia show considerable growth in the number of infected by Covid-19. It is concluded that the integration of these spaces with other regional centers made possible by the air and river transport network ended up contributing to the entry of the new Coronavirus, confirming the insertion of these cities in the globalization process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the financial instability generated by shortterm capital flows in the absence of control mechanisms and the restrictions facing the implementation of counter-cyclical fiscal policies in the inflation-targeting regime, using as a springboard the recent financial crises in, specifically, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, showing how an increase in the issuance of public bonds to, via interventions in the exchange rate market, sterilize the effects of short-term capital flows on the monetary base is a source of endogenous instability, because this mechanism entails risks for the exchange rate and interest rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, the representatives of Latin American countries, gathered in Mexico City, devised a multilateral Plan of Action (MPA) in order to foster an improvement on refugee protection mechanisms in the region. Among its many proposals, the document advanced the idea of borders of solidarity. The proposal calls attention to new forms of thinking about border zones and border lives and how different actors might dialogue to improve the reception, assistance, and protection of displaced groups in a region marked by deep social inequalities and political violence. This paper is an attempt to make sense of these assumed new modes of governance of borders, trying to elucidate multiple perspectives and mechanisms of dealing with life in displacement in border contexts. The paper follows the narratives stemming from national and international officials, NGO and assistance workers, and displaced families' associations, in the context of the Tri-Border area between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. The paper aims to unveil how each discourse deals with the (dis)connections between borders, displacement, and protection. I argue that perceptions of the role of borders, as both bridges and barriers, and as spaces of life, vary according to how each group appropriates and interferes in the political dialogue. Some focus on the management of mobility; others on the improvement of life conditions for marginal groups; still others try to interrupt the political processes that make such marginalization possible in the first place. I propose three varying understandings of solidarity that speak to each of these perspectives—managerial, faith-based, and autonomous—stressing the problems and also the positive aspects that might be learned from approaching borders through the lenses of solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses nominal classification in the languages found in the Amazon Region and the history of the description of their existence by scholars. The article also provides brief summaries of the papers in this volume of "International Journal of American Linguistics." The papers describe nominal classification in the Witotoan, Peba-Yaguan, and Eastern Tucanoan languages of Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. Classifiers in the languages are discussed and the papers address questions of how structurally homogeneous patterns across language families came about and how these systems related typologically to other systems throughout the world.

In recent years, the border shared by Peru, Colombia and Brazil has become an enclave of drug production and trafficking for the international markets. It is a territory whose control is disputed by non-state actors and where state security forces suffer from severe material and transport limitations. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to explain the limitations of border security and the institutional challenges of controlling drug and wood trafficking in this context. It places the ideas of reproduction and social change at the centre of the discussion on drugs and borders, as key ways of thinking about the dynamics of growing and processing coca-derived drugs in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fungal disease epidemics have the potential to bring about drastic innovations. However, in the case of the Black Sigatoka ( Mycosphaerella fijiensis) fungus in bananas, producers and international traders are still awaiting a breakthrough in crop protection research. Using the cases of Brazil and Colombia, this paper examines different agricultural research responses to the disease. Brazil opted to replace susceptible varieties with resistant ones, whereas in Colombia chemical control by private actors dominated. We argue that these different responses result from at least three interrelated factors. First, producer type-smallholder farmers or larger export-oriented plantations-influences the setting of crop protection research priorities. Second, a central, state-led role versus a private sector response influences the size and time perspective of research activities. Third, domestic markets with multiple crop varieties versus Cavendish-only export markets leads to differences in control practices and research responses. From this case study, we argue that the currently proposed innovation systems approaches in international agricultural research should adopt a broader perspective that assesses how research is interwoven with agrarian dynamics, commodity chains and particular state roles to elucidate how state-producer-researcher networks perform disease control and where and how to find new solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: There are few comprehensive studies available on barriers encountered from the initial seeking of healthcare through to the resolution of the health problem; in other words, on access in its broad domain. For Colombia and Brazil, countries with different healthcare systems but common stated principles, there have been no such analyses to date. This paper compares factors that influence access in its broad domain in two municipalities of each country, by means of a cross-sectional study based on a survey of a multistage probability sample of people who had had at least one health problem within the last three months (2163 in Colombia and 2155 in Brazil). The results reveal important barriers to healthcare access in both samples, with notable differences between and within countries, once differences in sociodemographic characteristics and health needs are accounted for. In the Colombian study areas, the greatest barriers were encountered in initial access to healthcare and in resolving the problem, and similarly when entering the health service in the Brazilian study areas. Differences can also be detected in the use of services: in Colombia greater geographical and economic barriers and the need for authorization from insurers are more relevant, whereas in Brazil, it is the limited availability of health centres, doctors and drugs that leads to longer waiting times. There are also differences according to enrolment status and insurance scheme in Colombia, and between areas in Brazil. The barriers appear to be related to the Colombian system's segmented, non-universal nature, and to the involvement of insurance companies, and to chronic underfunding of the public system in Brazil. Further research is required, but the results obtained reveal critical points to be tackled by health policies in both countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reports on the position of Brazil and Colombia against infrastructure integration processes, understood as part of the process of regionalization in the South American territory. The study begins placing each of the countries within the regional system and the relationship of this with its deployment within the international system. After this, we analyze the way Colombia has addressed infrastructural integration inside its foreign policy agendas, oriented towards the relations with its neighbors, realizing the lack of a strategic perspective by the State on the potential subregional which could assume leadership within the South American infrastructure integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micrurus isozonus is a triadal coralsnake occurring in northern Venezuela, eastern Colombia, southern Guyana, and in the extreme northern Brazil. In this paper we firstly publish vouchers to Brazil, and report additional records from three localities in the mountainous region of Taião and Apiaú, state of Roraima. We also extend its known range to the Trans-Andean region in the Atlantic coast of northern South America, municipality of Cartagena at the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Additionally, we present meristic and morphometric data, including the species sintypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a long and intensive debate within the scientific community about the role of international trade in the development of countries. During the last decades, the focus of attention has moved from the pure economic level to the environmental aspects of international trade. Establishing a simplified system of North–South trade for one reference period (2003), this paper attempts to test empirically the extent of potential asymmetries with regard to extracted material flows, and contrasts the results with the economic benefits from trade (in terms of value-added). The South is thereby represented by a selection of Latin American countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico), the North comprises one of their main commercial partners, the United States. At the methodological level, a multi-regional input–output analysis is used as the tool of investigation. Results generally support the hypothesis that the South was feeding the North's societal metabolism. South–North material exports were 1.6 times larger than North–South material exports, resulting in a net deficit for the South of 324 million tons. Moreover, material intensity of exported commodities from the South was twice as high as that from the North. It is worth highlighting, however, that part of the North-South hypothesis fails for the sample of countries since the larger part of the economic surplus has remained in the South, contrarily to what would have been expected. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyses the implementation of Terrestrial Digital Technology (TDT) standards in Latin America. The analysis suggests that while some governments have chosen the standard attending to their industrial objectives, others have been influenced by the relevance of network externalities and scale economies and by the political and commercial relationship with their neighbours. The discussion about the technical characteristics of the systems was only relevant in the first years of the process, when the leading countries of the region had still not made their selection. Brazil decided to create its own version of the Japanese ISDB standard in 2006, and in the following years it has persuaded a significant part of the continent to choose it. Another block of countries has adopted the US ATSC standard. The most prominent case is that of Mexico, which has a preferential access to the US market. Only three countries have chosen the European DVB standard, the most widely used standard in the world. Colombia has tried to lead its introduction in the continent, but the results so far have been meagre. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper the Amazon Basin is presented and its hydrology and natural environment are described. Monitoring this large river basin is necessary and becomes more and more important when different scientific institutions show alarming forecasts of increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation in the basin as a result of climate change. The monitoring scheme developed by Brazil and its neighbours shows the importance of this activity and its role as a mechanism to improve co-operation among countries in the basin. The institutional mechanism for transboundary river basin management is the Amazon Basin Co-operation Treaty, signed by the nine countries of the basin. This treaty is described and can serve as a good example of how this type of problem can be tackled in other regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper's objective is to present an overview of the Venezuelan management of transboundary basins. It covers Venezuelan agreements with three neighbouring countries: Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. The Venezuelan management of the transboundary basins is based on equity. Nevertheless, this concept will depend on three main aspects: territorial sovereignty, inland waterways, and environmental conservation. Each of these factors will depend on the scenario of the country in which it is been considered. The main developments, in terms of international law, are under the framework of the Colombian relations. In the case of Brazil, it is under the framework of the multilateral agreement on the Amazon River. Guyana's agenda concerning river basins is more complex, as a result of the territorial dispute under UN Secretary General's supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To provide an empirical contribution to analyse the dynamics of research groups in knowledge production in an interdisciplinary research field in two scientifically peripheral countries (Colombia and Brazil). Design/methodology/approach - This dynamic is analysed in the interdisciplinary area of immunology through a comparative study of Brazilian and Colombian research groups. The practices of publication, collaborative links and patterns of acknowledgements provided the framework for this study. Quantitative and qualitative tools were used; in particular a bibliometric study was complemented with information derived from semi-structured interviews with members of the research communities selected. Findings - The bibliometric study allowed the construction of some indicators: channels of publication, impact of the research outputs, citations and patterns of collaboration. Also, a database with acknowledgements was created to identify the different actors who take part in the process of knowledge production. These indicators, interpreted in the light of qualitative analysis, throw considerable light on how the different groups work on the cognitive and social aspects of knowledge production. Research limitations/implications - This study is limited to 31 leading research groups from Colombia and Brazil. Originality/value - This paper starts to redress the situation of a lack of empirical studies in developing countries in the use of acknowledgements as a tool to examine formal and informal scientific collaboration and as indicator of accountability to funding bodies. This work provides an empirical contribution to policy-makers and scientific communities in the task of understanding the dynamics of knowledge production in an interdisciplinary area combining different approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper refers to the relationship between child work and education in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru. These countries aspire balanced, equitable, and sustainable development, with benefits that should be widely shared. Unfortunately, economic growth in the region has resulted too often in maldistribution of means and fruits of development between and among classes, cities and countrysides, and the indispensable natural resource base has been damaged or pilfered. Only too late is it recognized that the stability arising from a more balanced and equitable development is important for general social progress. Lack of attention to education by most Latin American governments has limited capacity to compete in the international markets, where the comparative advantages are increasingly defined by a productivity based on scientific and technological advances. As is known, the high concentration of income in this region of the world is a result of combining traditional discriminatory patterns of property with the decline of the labor market and levels of remuneration, the regressive nature of the tax structure, and the rapid impairment and elimination of social services. Social polarization has increased with the middle classes suffering heavy losses.

In the 1960's, various Latin American countries began to implement an external sector development strategy by utilizing policies that would increase their amount of exported goods. The success that is encountered with such policies is dependent upon several key factors and instruments, including financial, import, and commercial policies. The goal of the paper is to review the success that varying countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, after the policy has been implemented.