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Using climate financing wisely to address multiple crises
No full textA convergence of several risk drivers creates the compound crises we see across the globe today. At the same time, the global humanitarian community and national institutions in affected countries are increasingly resource constrained. In this context, existing financing mechanisms should be evaluated for their potential to create synergies between social protection, peace, and inclusion objectives on the one hand and climate resilience outcomes on the other. The existing international architecture of climate change mitigation and adaptation policy and financing holds, in principle, the potential to address not only its main purpose of climate action, but also to contribute to development outcomes and address multiple risk drivers. Examples of this exist, but for these mutual benefits to emerge, and for climate finance to contribute more significantly to crises prevention, the agendas must become more aligned. Aligning several factors may enable coherence: i) Timeframes, from short-term response to multi-year programming; ii) Planning and targeting, moving towards conflict-sensitive area-based approaches and universal access to services; iii) Institutional arrangements and partnerships, coordinated national planning and jointly implemented local action.Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI); Food and Nutrition Polic
Welfare and vulnerability in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015–2023 [in Tajik]
No full textHousehold survey data from February-March 2023 and February-March 2015 were analyzed to document changes in welfare of households in twelve districts of Khatlon Province, USAID’s Zone of Influence (ZOI), over the last eight years.
Key findings
• Housing conditions improved, indicating improved living conditions. Only 1 percent of households had improved sanitation in 2015, but nearly half (49 percent) of all households did so in 2023.
• Total consumption expenditures on food, non-food, and durables increased nearly 10 percent (in real terms) between 2015 and 2023.
• Expenditures on food increased, but these were used to purchase more expensive food rather than improving dietary quality. This led to a stagnation in diet diversity among women of which 70 percent have inadequate dietary diversity. Household consumption patterns do show improvements over time.
• Poverty declined by about 10.4 percent, but movements of households in and out of poverty between 2015 and 2023 suggest that a significant share of households are at risk of falling back into poverty in the face of adversity.
• Correlates with consumption expenditures and poverty demonstrate that households with more household members, with fewer livelihood sources, and in more remote locations are worse off. Households with more women are more likely to be poor given women’s limited income generating opportunities.
• Households that participated in agricultural development activities were approximately 12.7 percent less likely to be poor than other households.
Recommended actions
The findings underscore the importance of the priorities specified in the Government of Tajikistan’s Agri-Food System and Sustainable Development Program (ASDP), specifically strategic priority 4 on food security and safety, and motivate the following policy recommendations:
• Continue to support healthy diets through improved access to food as well as behavior change communication related to dietary diversity and consuming healthy food.
• Further research should serve to understand pathways to lifting farmers out of poverty, including analyzing what works and why when implementing agricultural interventions.
• Continued efforts are needed to mitigate women's disproportionate susceptibility to poverty and their vulnerability to poverty-induced outcomes.Non-PRIFPRI1; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; TEAADevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Transformation Strategie
Feed the Future Guatemala Value Chains Project: Summary of impact evaluation study
No full textGuatemala experiences high and continued chronic malnutrition and poverty rates, with a particular concentration around predominantly rural and indigenous areas in the Western Highlands. Agricultural development is similarly low in the region, with farmers generally cultivating small landholdings, showing low agricultural productivity, and having limited ability for capital investment and an overall lack of market opportunities, combined with a relatively weak government support.
This brief presents the main findings of the impact evaluation of USAID’s Feed the Future (FTF) Guatemala Value Chains Project that aimed to increase agricultural incomes, strengthen resilience, and improve nutritional outcomes of small farmers and their families in the Western Highlands of the country. The Project was created in 2017, building on the successes and lessons learned from the previous five years of implementation of the FTF Initiative in Guatemala, and relying on four expected results: improving agricultural productivity and diversifying income generation alternatives; expanding access to markets; increasing resilience through implementation of climate-smart and nutrition sensitive agriculture; and strengthening the agriculture and food security enabling environment.Non-PRIFPRI1; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food IndustryMarkets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Polic
Evaluation of a livestock financing project in Bangladesh: Navigating operational, environmental, and behavioral challenges
No full textSmallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries have limited access to finance, due to the pau city of banks and other financial institutions in rural areas. As a result, banks and other formal financial institutions tend not to know much about farming as a business, and therefore they hesitate to extend credit to farmers. Such reluctance is often attributed to the elevated costs and risks linked with small, geographically dispersed farms, as well as the farmers' lack of collateral.
Microfinance has emerged as a crucial intervention in bridging this gap. However, the fixed and rigid repayment structures of microfinance institutions (MFIs) often clash with the seasonal nature of agricul tural production. This mismatch creates financial strain for farmers, who must manage cash flows that are inherently unpredictable due to factors like weather variability and market fluctuations. These challenges underscore the need for more flexible and tailored financial solutions.Non-PRIFPRI1; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; G Cross-cutting gender themeMarkets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy; Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI
Challenges and opportunities in implementing video-based extension approaches targeting women farmers: An implementer’s perspective
No full textAgricultural extension services play an important role in agricultural development. Timely and reliable information services are key to improving farmers’ knowledge of strategies to increase agricultural productivity, assisting them in accessing inputs and credit, providing early warning against pests and other shocks, and offering them critical advice on climate action. However, equitable access to knowledge, information, and technology remains challeng ing in most countries. This inequity is even more pronounced among farmers from marginalized groups, including women farmers, resulting in their limited access to climate resilience-enhancing technologies and practices. This note summarizes findings from implementers of participatory video-based extension interventions in India, Kenya, and Uganda. The findings suggest that videos targeting women farmers can reach them effectively. Still, participa tory video-based extension should be accompanied by group discussions, providing complementary inputs, and dismantling other barriers that impede women’s agency and achievements in agriculture.Non-PRIFPRI1; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; Reaching Smallholder WomenNatural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategie
Proceedings from the grand inauguration of the project Consortium for Scaling-Up Climate-Smart Agriculture in South Asia (C-SUCSeS)
No full textDriven by the need to produce more food for an ever-increasing population that is further marred with declining and degrading natural resource base, adapting to and mitigating climate change have posed a big challenge. It is an established fact that in agriculture, fertilizers, flooded rice cultivation, energy use in irrigation, tillage, and enteric emissions from ruminant animals are the main contributors of greenhouse gases, which accounts to about one-fourth of the total emissions. The evolution of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) emerged as a scientific response to this multi-headed hydra, which helps achieve higher production with reduced emission. The fact remains that the small farm holders of South Asia, who are already facing several non-climatic stresses, have limited capacity to adopt new technologies. There are a host of barriers in the form of limited access to natural resources, information, finance, and above all, low human capital that limit the adoption of technology. The global community is aware of these climate change challenges and has initiated programs to overcome these challenges across the world. In this context, and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, there is a need for evidence-based research that have the potential to bring about transformative change in agriculture and food systems.Non-PRIFPRI1; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; G Cross-cutting gender theme; CSUCSeSSA
Tanzania’s agrifood system structure and drivers of transformation
No full textTanzania experienced strong annual economic growth of 6.2 percent between 2009 and 2019 (NBS 2020). Despite the country’s relatively less restrictive domestic COVID-19 measures, the adverse effects of the global commodity market disruptions during the pandemic led to a slowdown in GDP growth to 4.8 percent in 2020 and 4.9 percent in 2021 (NBS 2021). Growth is expected to reach 5.3 percent in 2023 and 6.1 percent in 2024 (World Bank 2023), suggesting that Tanzania is returning to its pre-pandemic growth trajectory. While the economy has been going through a process of structural transformation with rapid growth, agriculture continues to play an important role in both output and employment, accounting for about 30 percent of total GDP and 70 percent of employment in 2019. The agriculture sector performed well over the pre-pandemic decade, with agricultural growth accelerating from 3.8 percent per year in the 2009–2014 period to 5 percent in the 2014–2019 period (NBS 2020). The agriculture sector has also been playing an important role in weathering the global commodity market shocks in 2022 and 2023, thanks to some export crops that benefit from the negative terms of trade shock (Diao and Thurlow 2023). In this brief, we unpack the historical and projected economic growth trajectory further to better understand the role of agriculture as well as the broader agrifood system (AFS) in the performance and transformation of the economy of Tanzania.Non-PRIFPRI1; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; Capacity Strengthening; AFSdiagnosticsDevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM); Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS); Transformation Strategie
Transformation of Sudan's agrifood system structure and drivers
No full textSince the secession of South Sudan in 2011, the Sudanese economy has faced an unprecedented economic downturn caused by the loss of around 75 percent of oil revenue, civil strife, and political instability (Alhelo, Siddig, and Kirui 2023), and more recently, by the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war (Abay et al. 2023). The political conflict between the civilians and military entities after the fall of the Inghaz regime and the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are driving further deterioration of the economy (Abushama et al. 2023).Non-PRIFPRI1; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; Capacity Strengthening; AFSdiagnosticsDevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM); Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS); Transformation Strategie
Burkina Faso’s agrifood system structure and drivers of transformation
No full textBurkina Faso experienced strong annual economic growth of 6.0 percent between 2009 and 2019 (NISD 2021). However, the global COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant slowdown in economic growth in 2020, while an increase in armed insurgencies by domestic terrorist groups also had an adverse effect on the economy. Burkina Faso’s GDP growth is projected to reach 5.0 percent in 2023 and 5.3 percent in 2024 (World Bank 2023), suggesting the economy is unlikely to return to its pre-pandemic growth trajectory. Agriculture remains an important sector, accounting for one-fifth of GDP and nearly half of employment in Burkina Faso. The agriculture sector also performed well, growing at around 5 percent annually in the 2009 to 2019 period (NISD 2021). In this brief, we look beyond primary agriculture to understand how Burkina Faso’s broader agrifood system (AFS) is contributing to growth and transformation in the country.Non-PRIFPRI1; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; Capacity Strengthening; AFSdiagnosticsDevelopment Strategies and Governance (DSG); Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM); Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS); Transformation Strategie
Closing the gendered energy technology gap in rural Ethiopia: A qualitative study
No full textMuch has been written about energy poverty, but there is relatively limited evidence of what determines the gender gap in energy poverty and how it can be overcome in rural areas. This study used Focus Group Discussions, in-depth interviews with farmers and Key Informant Interviews to analyze gendered information, access, adoption and use of rural energy technologies in the domestic and productive spheres. We find striking differences in how men and women adopt and use energy technologies in both spheres. Substantial asymmetries exist between women and men regarding knowledge of energy technologies, as most information about them is directed to men in the household. Even so, women are typically the primary decision-makers regarding energy technology adoption for domestic use, while men dominate decision-processes in the productive energy technology space. Women remain largely excluded from the adoption and use of agricultural energy technologies, even though they are heavily engaged in agricultural production systems. Our study highlights the need for tailored mechanisms that reach women with information on and means to acquire energy technologies as well as changes in gendered norms to ensure that women benefit equally from their use.Non-PRIFPRI1; DCA; G Cross-cutting gender theme; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food SupplyNatural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategie