The purpose of this brief is to identify and summarize the critical bottlenecks related to the policy and regulatory environment, infrastructure, and public services that constrain the expansion and diversification of Zambia’s intra-regional trade and value addition. Unlike Africa’s trade with the rest of the world which mainly consists of primary commodities, intra-regional agricultural trade in the continent is heavily dominated by processed products.

While international trade in agricultural commodities can spur economic development especially where governance is strong, there are also concerns about the local impacts of commodity production and their distribution on the environment and on people. The sustainable development goals (SDGs), though seeing trade as a means to support their achievement, recognise the need to address potential negative social and environmental impacts. It is therefore important to assess the contribution of international trade to the SDGs in commodity production areas.

Vietnam is both at risk from and contributing to climate change. The country is the 17th largest emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, with emissions reaching around 300.4 MtCO2eq in 2020, increasing to 344 MtCO2eq in 2022, and is projected to further increase to 515.8 MtCO2eq in 2030. This report provides an overview of GHG emissions, assessment methods, data sources, and reporting processes in Vietnam with a focus on the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sectors.

The purpose of this brief is to identify and summarize the critical bottlenecks related to the policy and regulatory environment, infrastructure, and public services that constrain the intensification and diversification of Tanzania’s intra-regional trade and value addition. Unlike Africa’s trade with the rest of the world, which mainly consists of primary commodities, intra-regional agricultural trade in the continent is heavily dominated by processed products.

The purpose of this brief is to identify and summarize the critical bottlenecks related to the policy and regulatory environment, infrastructure, and public services that constrain the expansion and diversification of Rwanda’s intra-regional trade and value addition. Unlike Africa’s trade with the rest of the world which mainly consists of primary commodities, intra-regional agricultural trade in the continent is heavily dominated by processed products.

The purpose of this brief is to identify and summarize the critical bottlenecks related to the policy and regulatory environment, infrastructure, and public services that constrain the expansion and diversification of Kenya’s intra-regional trade and value addition. Unlike Africa’s trade with the rest of the world which mainly consists of primary commodities, intra-regional agricultural trade on the continent is heavily dominated by processed products.

Bahir Dar Zuria District in the Amhara Region has emerged as a potential milkshed with flourishing market-oriented dairy farms. However, there are several herd health and animal welfare issues affecting milk production and productivity in the district. To address these challenges, a community-based participatory dairy herd health and welfare management training was conducted by ILRI, SAPLING herd health, and HEARD project from 25 July 2023 to 02 Aug 2023 in Bahir Dar Zuria District.

Development efforts have increased women's perceived empowerment and freedom, yet have failed to sustainably alter gender norms. There is a lack of research investigating reasons for this anomaly. This study, departing from the conventional approach, tries to fill this gap by employing an interpretative phenomenological approach to assess how women have managed to achieve expanded agency while living within a constraining normative environment.

The agricultural transformation of Brazil through soybean intensification in the Cerrado biome is the closest model that Africa could follow, given the similarities in land mass, shared biophysical constraints (especially soil), ecological diversity and low population density11. However, a single integrated market and regulatory environment must be created, and African scientists must lead the scientific innovation in Africa.

A food system includes all elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation, and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socioeconomic and environmental outcomes (HLPE 2017). Thus, a food system links society and nature (Blesh and Wittman 2015).

Infrastructure projects in fragile and conflict affected settings are susceptible to numerous operational challenges, which might inadvertently escalate existing socio-economic and political tensions. Infrastructure, being intricately connected to the daily lives and societal needs of communities, often becomes a flashpoint in conflicts. Essential systems like water, energy, and transportation are not just physical assets; they represent broader social, economic, and political structures that can be either symbols of progress or points of contention.

Under the conditions of Moroccan rainfed agricultural areas, wheat cropping systems—the population’s basic staple food—are subject to a set of limitations that seasonally impact crop production and farmers’ incomes, thus national food security. In the last decades, the major constraints were often related to the country’s Mediterranean-type climate, through the intense recurrence of drought events and high inter- and intra-annual rainfall fluctuations.