The World Bank (2015) classifies Kenya as a lower middle income country and one of East Africa‘s fastest growing economies. According to Society for International Development (SID) however, Kenya remains one of the most unequal societies when compared to of Uganda and Tanzania (SID, 2004). Inequality therefore remains a key challenge to Kenya. In order to respond to this challenge, there is need for a clear understanding of the causes, nature, effects and manifestations of socio-economic inequalities (SID, 2006).

Woman and her children in Timor-Leste. In a country where historic conflict has drastically impacted the environment and community dynamics, CI is helping to spark dialogue between local community members and government officials to promote peace through conservation agreements. (© Conservation International/photo by Lynn Tang)

This is the second blog in our series on environmental peacebuilding, which chronicles CI’s growing role in this emerging field of research. Today’s post focuses on our case study in Timor-Leste.

This study aims to achieve a better understanding of the agricultural risk and risk management situation in Tanzania with a view to identifying key solutions to reduce current gross domestic product (GDP) growth volatility. For the purpose of this assessment, risk is defined as the probability that an uncertain event will occur that can potentially produce losses to participants along the supply chain.

After several years of strong economic
performance, Zambia now confronts several important
challenges that must be managed carefully to ensure
sustained and inclusive growth in the future. On the one
hand, the economy grew by an estimated 5.5–6.0 percent in
2014, somewhat above the average for African economies.
Monthly copper production increased by an average of 8
percent during the second half of 2014, reversing the sharp

Costa Rica stands out for being among the most politically stable, progressive, prosperous, and environmentally conscious nations in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. Its development model has brought important economic, social, and environmental dividends, with sustained growth, upward mobility for a large share of the population, important gains in social indicators, and significant achievements in reforestation and conservation. However, there are a number of development challenges that need to be addressed to maintain the country’s successful development path.

Since the early 2000s, Tanzania has seen
remarkable economic growth and strong resilience to external
shocks. Yet these achievements were overshadowed by the slow
response of poverty to the growing economy. Until 2007, the
poverty rate in Tanzania remained stagnant at around 34
percent despite a robust growth at an annualized rate of
approximately 7 percent. This apparent disconnect between
growth and poverty reduction has raised concerns among

In conflict-prone situations, access to
markets is necessary to restore economic growth and generate
the preconditions for peace and reconstruction. Hence, the
rehabilitation of damaged transport infrastructure has
emerged as an overarching investment priority among donors
and governments. This paper brings together two distinct
strands of literature on the effects of conflict on welfare
and on the economic impact of transport infrastructure. The

Women comprise 50 percent of the
agricultural labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa, but manage
plots that are reportedly on average 20 to 30 percent less
productive. As a source of income inequality and aggregate
productivity loss, the country-specific magnitude and
drivers of this gender gap are of great interest. Using
national data from the Uganda National Panel Survey for
2009/10 and 2010/11, the gap before controlling for

 
Para continuar aportando al diálogo sobre el estado actual de la Agricultura familiar, difundimos en esta oportunidad el presente artículo, que mereció una mención entre los resultados del Concurso Alimentos y pensamientos, siempre en agenda, en la versión del año pasado. El autor nos propone una mirada actual al tema a partir de la construcción de su concepto, de algunos hechos de escala internacional y de experiencias de políticas públicas en Brasil que están contribuyendo a reinstalarlo, definitivamente, en las agendas del momento.  

Short summary of an event with over 1000 participants and nearly 550 papers. Presented a paper with former FAO colleagues in Mozambique on community level legal empowerment programme to encourage local people to more effectively defend their rights under the progressive 1997 Land Law.

Includes ProSavana strategy plan published: increased government role and fertiliser subsidies, but no word on land grabs. Claim $4.2 bn farm plan for Rio Lurio. Argues that neither new plantations nor outside investment in large farms have succeeded since independence in 1975. So time for the elite and key donors to realise that plantation or industrial farming does not work in Mozambique and encouraging giant foreign-owned farms will not end poverty. Instead need to encourage foreign investment elsewhere in the value chain and let Mozambicans do the farming.

The Chairperson went through the A-List and verified that the amendments had been effected in the Agrément South Africa Bill [B3B-2015]. Members moved to adopt the Bill, and it was adopted.