Dust storms are capable of transporting sediment over thousands of kilometers, but due to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s proximity to the Sahara Desert, the region is one of the dustiest in the world. While natural sources such as the Sahara are the main contributors to dust storms in MENA, land-use changes and human-induced climate change has added anthropogenic sources as well.

Vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict. The accelerating damage could cost the global economy a staggering $23 trillion by 2050 - and rich countries as well as poor will pay the price.

Interview with Ibrahim Thiaw

Chile has embraced the expansion of monoculture forest plantations of exotic Monterey pine and eucalyptus as part of its development strategy. While forestry is considered financially successful and meets sustainability objectives, the increase in forest plantations across southern Chile has received harsh critiques for exacerbating conflict over Indigenous land rights, producing negative environmental outcomes, and increasing poverty and inequality. There are also claims that forest plantation expansion has led to an abandonment of the countryside.

Unauthorized migration under global regimes of border and immigration enforcement has become more risky and costly than ever. Despite the increasing challenges of reaching, remaining in, and remitting from destination countries, scholarship exploring the implications of migration for agricultural and environmental change in migrant-sending regions has largely overlooked the prevalent experiences and consequences of “failed” migration.

This assessment reviews ADB’s experiences in implementing gender mainstreaming in its portfolio in recent years. The assessment method has two main components. The first is a review of the status of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the country, based on a literature review, key statistics, policy documents, and key informant interviews. The second analyzes the achievements and challenges in mainstreaming gender equality in ADB’s programs and operations, and recommends the way forward to improve outcomes.

This article uses data from household income surveys to look at income structures amongst households in three mountainous regions of Tajikistan: Gorno-Badakhshan, the Rasht Valley and Eastern Khatlon. The structure of incomes demonstrates the dominant role of subsistence agriculture in all three regions although commercial agriculture is important amongst better-off households in Rasht. Relationships between poverty and household characteristics including access to capital, demographic variables and income-generating activities were examined.

Over the past two decades, policymakers have expressed considerable optimism about the capacity of international development to curb transnational migration, yet there is a dearth of research examining how and under what conditions development interventions impact migration decisions. Enlisting a case study approach in the Maya-K’iche’ community of Almolonga, this article examines divergent meanings and practices of “development” and its impact on the migratory aspirations and outcomes of Indigenous families in Guatemala.