Clear all

53 results found

reorder grid_view

Global Nutrition Report 2017: Nourishing the SDGs

October 1, 2017

A better nourished world is a better world. Yet the 2017 Global Nutrition Report shows that, despite the significant steps the world has taken towards improving nutrition and associated health burdens over recent decades, nutrition is still a large-scale and universal problem. Too many people are being left behind from the benefits of improved nutrition. Yet when we look at the wider context, the opportunity for change has never been greater. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by 193 countries in 2015, offer a tremendous window of opportunity to reverse or stop these trends.The 2017 Global Nutrition Report shows there are five core areas of development that run through the SDGs which nutrition can contribute to, and in turn, benefit from:sustainable food productioninfrastructurehealth systemsequity and inclusionpeace and stability.Through these areas, the report finds that improving nutrition can have a powerful multiplier effect across the SDGs. Indeed, it indicates that it will be a challenge to achieve any SDG without addressing nutrition. The report shows that there is an exciting opportunity to achieving global nutrition targets while catalysing other development goals through 'double duty' actions, which tackle more than one form of malnutrition at once. Likewise, potential 'triple duty actions', which tackle malnutrition and other development challenges, could yield multiple benefits across the SDGs.If readers take away one message from this report, it should be that ending malnutrition in all its forms will catalyse improved outcomes across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The challenge is huge, but it is dwarfed by the opportunity.The 2016 Report was funded through the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition & Health, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, the European Commission, the Governments of Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, Irish Aid, UK Department for International Development (DFID), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and 1,000 Days.The Report is delivered by an Independent Expert Group and guided at a strategic level by a Stakeholder Group, whose members also reviewed the Report. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) oversees the production and dissemination of the Report, with the support of a virtual Secretariat. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition managed the blind external review process for the Report, which was launched on June 14, 2016. Check our events page throughout the year for news on follow-up events.

Towards a More Equal City: Framing the Challenges and Opportunities

October 1, 2016

Cities are growing differently today than before. As much as 70 percent of people in emerging cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America is under-served. Furthermore, cities face challenges in four areas:Highest rates of urbanization are in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast AsiaUrbanization is now happening in more low-income countries than in the pastThe share of poor people living in urban areas is on the rise worldwideCities in the Global South have the fewest public resources per capitaWe need a new approach that will benefit all urban residents and create sustainable, productive cities for the 21st century. The World Resources Report (WRR) examines if prioritizing access to core urban services, we can create cities that are prosperous and sustainable for all people.This first installment of the WRR developed a new categorization of cities into emerging, struggling, thriving, and stabilizing cities. It focuses on solutions for struggling and emerging cities—over half the cities included in the analysis—because they have the greatest opportunity to alter their development trajectory.

Consumer Goods and Deforestation: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture and Timber Plantations

September 16, 2014

A comprehensive new analysis released earlier this month says that nearly half (49%) of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal clearing for commercial agriculture. The study also finds that around half of this illegal destruction was driven by overseas demand for agricultural commodities including palm oil, beef, soy, and wood products. In addition to devastating impacts on forest-dependent people and biodiversity, the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial agriculture is estimated to produce 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon each year -- equivalent to 25% of the EU's annual fossil fuel-based emissions. The world must wake up to the scale of how much of this agricultural production is taking place on land that has been illegally cleared. According to the study 90% of the deforestation in Brazil from 2000 to 2012 was illegal, primarily due to the failure to conserve a percentage of natural forests in large-scale cattle and soy plantations, as required by Brazilian law. (Much of this occurred prior to 2004, when the Brazilian government took steps to successfully reduce deforestation.) And in the forests of Indonesia, 80% of deforestation was illegal -- mostly for large-scale plantations producing palm oil and timber, 75% of which is exported. While other countries also experience high levels of illegal deforestation, Brazil and Indonesia produce the highest level of agricultural commodities destined for global markets, many of which wind up in cosmetics or household goods (palm oil), animal feed (soy), and packaging (wood products).

Women and Natural Resources Unlocking the Peacebuilding Potential

November 14, 2013

This report focuses on the relationship between women and natural resources in conflict-affected settings, and discusses how the management of natural resources can be used to enhance women's engagement and empowerment in peacebuilding processes. Part I of the report examines the relationship between women and natural resources in peacebuilding contexts, reviewing key issues across three main categories of resources: land, renewable and extractive resources. Part II discusses entry points for peacebuilding practitioners to address risks and opportunities related to women and natural resource management, focusing on political participation, protection and economic empowerment.

Growth and economic opportunities for women: literature review to inform the DFID-IDRC-Hewlett Foundation research program on women's economic empowerment, gender equality and growth in low income countries

July 1, 2013

This is a background paper for a new research programme on women's economic empowerment. It is a comprehensive literature review on the state of the field. Section 1 briefly discusses the global evidence on existing gender disparities in employment, wages, business opportunities, and the care economy. Sections 2, 3 and 4 describe the existing knowledge in the programme's central themes - constraints to women's economic empowerment, and the links between economic empowerment and growth - followed by research gaps and questions.

Fisheries and Aquaculture and Their Potential Roles in Development: An Assessment of the Current Evidence

June 15, 2013

Commissioned by the International Sustainability Unity, this report investigates a number of innovative solutions that have been developed to deal with five key challenges that are impeding progress in achieving sustainable fisheries: overcapacity; perverse subsidies; poor governance; lack of data; and by-catch and discards. These key challenges are interlinked and affect the sustainability of fisheries both directly as well as indirectly by undermining instances of good management. Through 22 case studies demonstrating good practice, we explore how these challenges have been addressed around the world and how these approaches might be scaled up and applied in other fisheries. Each case study draws on published material and interviews with key people involved in the fishery. The main report draws lessons from these case studies.

Investments in Adolescent Girl's Physical and Financial Assets: Issues and Review of Evidence

February 1, 2013

This issues paper focuses on strengthening poor adolescent girls' ability to invest in and accumulate physical (including land) and financial assets. The paper begins by presenting a conceptual framework showing the relationship between the gendered distribution of assets, empowerment, and well-being. It then discusses why assets are important for adolescent girls, and then moves on to elucidating the ways through which girls acquire assets across the life course. It continues by reviewing the existing evidence on programs and interventions that have attempted to increase girls' physical and financial assets, emphasizing "bundled" interventions or integrated programs that combine efforts to build stocks of physical and financial assets with education, training, or programming to attain other development objectives, such as delayed marriage or prevention of risky sexual behavior. We end by summarizing "lessons learned," identifying new opportunities, and suggesting steps for future research and implementation. This paper is accompanied by a mapping document which contains the results in more detail.

Financial Education Curriculum for the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP)

January 1, 2013

This document presents financial education learning sessions, collectively titled Dream Big! Kwacha for Our Future, were developed as part of the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program, funded by a grant from the UK Department of International Development. The overall goal of the program is to help vulnerable adolescent girls in Zambia build their social, health and economic assets. Specifically, in order to build girls' economic assets, they participate in training sessions on financial education, as well as have the opportunity to open savings accounts. The project is led by the Population Council, in partnership with the Young Women's Christian Association of Zambia (YWCA Zambia), the National Savings and Credit Bank (NatSave), Making Cents International, and the Government of the Republic of Zambia.

Providing access to economic assets for girls and young women in low-and-lower middle-income countries: A systematic review of the evidence

November 29, 2012

The aim of this review is to identify interventions which attempt to address the economic barriers faced by girls and young women, in low- and lower-middle income countries, and fragile states. The hypothesis is that if interventions both provide direct access to economic assets for young girls and tackle the wider social issues which impede girls and young women's opportunities to access, build and protect economic assets, this will (i) support their immediate economic, social and psychological well-being (ii) improve their chances of economic success through the accumulation and control of economic assets and (iii) potentially help girls and young women to reframe/change wider social/societal relations. This review addresses the following questions: (i) what is the impact of economic asset-building and/or protecting programmes for girls in low- and lower-middle income countries, and fragile states? and (ii) what are girls and young women's views and experiences of participating in asset-building and/or protecting programmes in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and fragile states?

Ready or Not: Assessing National Institutional Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation

February 23, 2012

Presents the National Adaptive Capacity framework, a tool to help governments assess national institutions' strengths and weaknesses in the areas of assessment, prioritization, coordination, information management, and climate risk management.

UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS): The Challenge of Extending and Sustaining Services

January 1, 2012

UN-Water GLAAS reports on the capacity of countries to make progress towards the MDG water and sanitation target and on the effectiveness of external support agencies to facilitate this process. This 2012 edition notes that resources are neither targeted nor sufficient to sustain routine operation and maintenance requirements. Thus, there is a serious risk of slipping backwards on gains already made. The report highlights immediate steps that can be taken to sustain services already in place, while extending sanitation and drinking water provisioning.

A Hidden Resource: Household-led Rural Water Supply in Ethiopia

January 1, 2012

Self supply as a strategy for WASH is defined as "improvement to water supplies delivered largely or wholly through user investment usually at household level." The two research studies reported on in this paper examined self supply in rural Ethiopia, gaining insights on the performance of existing family wells, factors that affect the decision of families to build their own wells and the way they use them, and elements of the enabling environment that can be targeted to promote self supply.