In recent years, microfinance institutions are seen as beacons of hope to help eradicate poverty through, among others, providing credit to poor rural households. Availability of small but repeated loans is, in the long-term, expected to impact on poverty. However, decades after the introduction of microfinance institutions into many rural areas, there are still questions as to what extent such long-term benefits are realized.

The purpose of this paper is to understand to what extent such a strategy is appropriate for the low income rice-based countries of the Indochina-Myanmar Region1 (IMR). On the one hand, the arguments in favor of agricultural diversification and agrofood based rural industrialization seem even more pressing than for the lower-middle income countries of Southeast Asia.

This study presents an approach to analyzing decentralized forestry and natural resource management and land property rights issues, and catalyzing collective action among villages and district governments. It focuses on understanding the current policies governing local people's access to property rights and decision making processes, and learning how collective action among community groups and interaction among stakeholders can enhance local people's rights over lands, resources, and policy processes for development.

"Over the past two decades, Uganda has experienced strong economic growth. However, agriculture has not performed as well as the rest of the economy in recent years, and while the incidence of poverty has declined, it is still substantially higher in rural rather than urban areas.

Millions of the rural poor now participate in collaborative forest management schemes under a variety of tenurial and organizational arrangements.We examine those arrangements and ask whether local people have indeed gained more access to benefits from and control over forests. Our findings suggest that most co-management projects actually maintain and even extend central government control. -- from Text.

This report identifies the links among economic growth, poverty alleviation, and natural resource degradation in Brazil. It examines the effects of (1) a major devaluation of the Brazilian real (R$); (2) improvements of infrastructure in the Amazon to link it with the rest of Brazil and bordering countries; (3) modification of land tenure regimes in the Amazon agricultural frontier; (4) adoption of technological change in agriculture both inside and outside the Amazon; and (5) fiscal mechanisms to reduce deforestation." -- from Author's Abstract

Der Welthunger-Index (WHI) 2014 stellt die nationale, regionale und weltweite Hungersituation zum neunten Mal in jahrlicher Folge multidimensional dar. Er zeigt, dass bei der globalen Hungerbekampfung seit 1990 Fortschritte erzielt werden konnten, jedoch angesichts sehr ernster oder gar gravierender Hungerwerte in 16 Landern noch immer groser Handlungsbedarf besteht. Der Schwerpunkt dieses Berichts liegt auf einem entscheidenden Aspekt des Hungers, der haufig ubersehen wird, dem verborgenen Hunger.

Las instituciones de acción colectiva y los sistemas de derechos de propiedad moldean la forma en que la gente usa los recursos naturales.A su vez, estos patrones de uso afectan los resultados de los sistemas de producción agrícola de la gente. Juntos, los mecanismos de acción colectiva y los sistemas de derechos de propiedad definen los incentivos a los que la gente accede por llevar a cabo estrategias de gestión sostenible y productiva, y afectan el nivel y distribución de los beneficios de los recursos naturales.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is based on three equally weighted indicators: > Undernourishment: the proportion of undernourished people as a percentage of the population (reflecting the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake); > Child underweight: the proportion of children younger than age five who are underweight (that is, have low weight for their age, reflecting wasting, stunted growth, or both), which is one indicator of child undernutrition; and > Child mortality: the mortality rate of children younger than age five (partially reflecting the fatal synergy o

Le rapport de l’Indice de la faim dans le monde 2014 – neuvieme edition – propose une mesure multidimensionnelle de la faim au niveau national, regional et mondial. Le GHI 2014 montre les progres effectues en matiere de reduction de la faim depuis 1990, mais des efforts restent a faire, le niveau de la faim restant alarmant voire extremement alarmant dans 16 pays. Cette annee, le GHI se concentre sur un aspect particulier de la faim souvent neglige : la faim invisible.