Features in_focus: COMPETITION AND DEVELOPMENT The Power of Competitive Markets Susan Joekes and Phil Evans in_focus: FIXING HEALTH SYSTEMS (2nd edition) Don de Savigny, Harun Kasale, Conrad Mbuya, and Graham Reid in_focus: GROWING BETTER CITIES Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Development Luc J.A. Mougeot

The in_focus collection presents special thematic Web sites on selected IDRC activities. Each tackles a pressing issue in sustainable international development. IDRC's experience is distilled and organized in such as way as to draw out important lessons, observations, and recommendations for decision-makers and policy advisors.

• Competition and Development: The Power of Competitive Markets
  True and fair competition is needed for sustainable development and an effective marketplace. IDRC-funded research provides examples from around the globe.

• Comanagement of Natural Resources: Local Learning for Poverty Reduction
  Tapping into the knowledge, action, and learning of local users ensures effective and lasting solutions to problems of natural resource management.

• Growing Better Cities: Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Development
  Lessons and recommendations on how urban agriculture could transform cities of the near future.

• Fixing Health Systems
  Linking research, development, systems, and partnership to reduce mortality.

• Health: An Ecosystem Approach
  Exploring the link between the environment and human health.

• Seeds that Give: Participatory Plant Breeding
  Agricultural research, seed diversity, and the fight against genetic erosion.  

• Water: Local-level Management
  Some of the most powerful responses to water scarcities have been mounted at the community or local level. These are presented in this special dossier on IDRC-supported research.