This 2012 Global Food Policy Report is the second in an annual series that provides an in-depth look at major food policy developments and events. Initiated in response to resurgent interest in food security, the series offers a yearly overview of the food policy developments that have contributed to or hindered progress in food and nutrition security. It reviews what happened in food policy and why, examines key challenges and opportunities, shares new evidence and knowledge, and highlights emerging issues.

The main purpose of the Guidelines is to provide a holistic approach to addressing land issues from the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster through early recovery and reconstruction phases. It is targeted at humanitarians and land professionals, as well as government officials. The Guidelines take an inter-disciplinary approach to land, one that also brings together humanitarian emergency relief and early recovery perspectives.

This publication provides an overview of the findings of a review of land tenure security in Asia and the Pacific region in collaboration with key partners. It highlights the major land challenges, barriers and opportunities as the basis for future decisions about partnerships and engagement in the land sector at sub-regional and country level. The findings are based on an extensive literature review, interviews, a questionnaire, validation at several multi-stakeholder meetings and peer review.

This situational analysis of metropolitan Port-au-Prince gives in-depth background to the city’s condition in terms of urban development and planning. The report maps a way forward for future planning of the metropolitan area. It argues that the main stakeholder for any urban development intervention should be the state, and more precisely the municipalities. The municipalities in Port-au-Prince need support in planning and delivering basic services.

Author: Robyn Pharoah/ActionAid

The population of Africa’s cities is growing rapidly. But as poor people cram into towns and cities characterised by limited, weak and often under-resourced infrastructure, they are increasingly relegated to marginal, inadequately serviced, informal settlements and low-cost housing areas, leaving them vulnerable to numerous livelihood, health and security risks.

According to the Climate Risk Index, less developed countries are generally more affected than industrialised countries. The countries affected most in 2013 were the Philippines, Cambodia and India. For the period from 1994 to 2013 Honduras, Myanmar and Haiti rank highest. Regarding future climate change, the Climate Risk Index may serve as a red flag for already existing vulnerability that may further increase in regions where extreme events will become more frequent or more severe due to climate change.

Rapid population growth in many
developing countries has raised concerns regarding food
security and household welfare. To understand the
consequences of population growth in a general equilibrium
setting, this paper examines the dynamics of population
density and its impacts on household outcomes. The analysis
uses panel data from Indonesia combined with district-level
demographic data. Historically, Indonesia has adapted to

The objectives of the study are to
assess the impact of operational efforts in farmland
restructuring and sustainable agricultural land management
on vulnerability amongst rural households in Tajikistan; and
to provide context and improve strategies for current
operations in land reform, rural growth and sustainable land
management given the challenges of economic transition,
institutional, economic and environmental fragility, and the

A decade ago in Mozambique, a stakeholder workshop where the need to improve access to industrial and commercial land as a means to encourage investment was a topic of discussion, a government official came up to. In order to create new jobs, generate more income, and modernize the economy, many countries see an urgent need to encourage industrial and commercial investment, both domestic and foreign. However, investment in many sectors cannot take place unless land, along with other basic factors of production, is available.

In 2013 the World Bank set itself two
ambitious goals: to end extreme poverty within a generation
and to boost the prosperity of the bottom 40 percent of the
population worldwide. In Latin America, the significance of
both goals cannot be overstated. Indigenous people account
for about 8 percent of the population, but represent 14
percent of the poor and over 17 percent of all Latin
Americans living on less than United States (U.S.) $2.50 a

This paper addresses the question
whether and how co-benefits, through disaster resilience
building, can be further promoted. Co-benefits are defined
as positive externalities that arise deliberately as a
result of a joint strategy that pursues several objectives
synergistically at the same time, such as disaster risk
management and development goals, or disaster risk
management and climate change adaptation. Of particular

Since 2013 The World Bank Group has
partnered with the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction
and Recovery and the U.K. Department for International
Development to address some of these gaps in evidence and
methodologies. The Disaster Risk Finance Impact Analytics
Project has made significant contributions to the
understanding of how to monitor and evaluate existing or
potential investments in disaster risk finance from a