News Overview

BY SURESH BABU, NANDITA SRIVASTAVA, VALERIA PIÑEIRO, AND BRIAN MCNAMARA OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Asia is home to 55% of the people in the world affected by hunger—more than 400 million—and faces continuing threats to food security. The crises of recent years—including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and climate-related shocks—have disrupted Asia’s food supply chains as they have around

BY SALAUDDIN TAUSEEF AND FARHA DEBA SUFIAN OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Early marriage remains a pervasive issue in developing countries, with an estimated 650 million women globally married before the age of 18. This is a particular challenge in South Asia, where the prevalence of child marriage is significantly higher than in other parts of the world, with one

BY JOSEPH GLAUBER AND ABDULLAH MAMUN JANUARY 17, 2024 OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 The recent attacks of Yemen-based Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea have paralyzed shipping through the Suez Canal, forcing exporters in the Black Sea region and elsewhere to consider alternative—and more costly—shipping routes. In early January, A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s second-largest container ship company, announced it

JANUARY 16, 2024 BY KIBROM A. ABAY, THOMAS W. ASSEFA, GUUSH BERHANE, GASHAW T. ABATE, AND CHARLOTTE HEBEBRAND OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Global fertilizer markets experienced significant price surges beginning in 2020 and through 2022 due to a combination of factors, including higher natural gas prices, supply chain disruptions triggered by COVID-19, trade disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine war,

The collaboration between research and policymaking must be a two-way street. Effective policy needs to be evidence-based and data-driven. At the same time, impactful research must be dynamic and relevant to address the ever-changing country context.  The Republic of Rwanda is in the process of developing their six-year strategic plan for agricultural transformation (PSTA5) aimed to boost food security, nutrition

BY JESSICA LEIGHT OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Households living in extreme poverty face a complex set of constraints that are difficult to escape. Existing resources often must go to meet immediate needs, leaving little or no money for investments with longer-term benefits; households may not own assets that could be used to generate a sustainable income stream, or have

JANUARY 8, 2024–The past few years have seen Kenya, along with many other countries, confronted with multifaceted and compounding challenges. The disruptions caused by COVID-19, high levels of food price inflation, and environmental crises, such as locust infestations and droughts, have severely tested the resilience of Kenya’s food systems and the affordability of food for its citizens. Against this backdrop

BY BJORN VAN CAMPENHOUT AND LEOCARDIA NABWIRE OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 In developing countries, haggling over prices of goods and services is common practice. A range of personal, economic, social and cultural factors influence strategies used during the bargaining process—and ultimately its outcome. For example, bargaining between a government official who pulls up in an expensive SUV and a poor woman