BY CLAUDIA RINGLER AND RUTH MEINZEN-DICK The theme of World Water Day 2021 (March 22) is “Valuing Water”—recognizing that unless resources are valued, they won’t be used sustainably. But what do we really mean when we talk about water’s value? Water has not one, but many values. Life could not exist without it, and it has profound spiritual, religious, and cultural associations. Water also has
BY DALIA ELSABBAGH Investments in agriculture can have broad economic and social impacts. To help developing countries analyze those effects and promote more evidence-based decision-making, IFPRI, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the IFPRI-led CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) created the Agricultural Investment Data Analyzer (AIDA) tool. AIDA is the first online, user-friendly tool that uses
BY HARPINDER SANDHU, WEI ZHANG, HAGAR ELDIDI AND RUTH MEINZEN-DICK Common lands, whether communal forests, pasturelands, or wetlands located close to villages, provide a range of ecosystem services (ES) to local people and society, benefits also known as nature’s contributions to people. They are sources of clean air and water, food and fuel, livelihoods, cultural inspiration, and spiritual fulfillment. According to one estimate, 2.5-3 billion
As the magnitude, intensity, and frequency of weather extremes increases uncertainty and risks to livelihoods in developing countries, substantial research has been developed on the detrimental effects of weather shocks on the poor and vulnerable facing acute food insecurity. At the same time, empirical evidence on gender-specific impacts of such shocks on labor use in agriculture remains limited, although more studies focus on gender-differentiated experiences and
BY SWATI MALHOTRA AND ROB VOS In recent decades, economic growth in Africa south of the Sahara has proven to be a double-edged sword. Higher incomes have helped increase food consumption and reduced rates of undernutrition, though the gains from growth have been unequal; about 20% of Africans, or more than 250 million people, still go to bed hungry every day. At
Empowered women make their own life choices. About family, finances, farming—and much more. Many development projects say they want to contribute to women’s empowerment. But as we observe International Women’s Day (March 8), important questions remain: How do we know that what we’re doing works? How can we ensure our good intentions translate into good results? These questions guided the development of
BY DALIA ELSABBAGH, SIKANDRA KURDI AND MANFRED WIEBELT The day-to-day hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic are often compared to life during wartime. But Yemenis have it far worse: They are experiencing a pandemic and a war simultaneously. Before 2020, Yemen’s ongoing civil war had cut GDP almost by half; since then COVID-19 has further decimated the economy. Dalia Elsabbagh, Sikandra Kurdi,
BY ELISABETTA AURINO, AULO GELLI, CLEMENT ADAMBA, ISAAC OSEI-AKOTO, HAROLD ALDERMAN AND HONOR DEARLOVE Around the world, 388 million children participate in school meal programs, according to the World Food Programme. In Africa, governments have prioritized these programs as a key safety net; in 2016, the annual Africa Day of School Feeding (March 1) was launched to promote them across the continent.