Growing inequality has become an important concern in many countries. One of the ways that inequality is perpetuated is through differential market access across regions. This research deals with one of the primary determinants of regional inequality manifested in terms of market access. Nepal is one country where hierarchical geography leads to regional inequality. Differential market access can cause as well as accentuate inequality among farmers.

كان عام 2015 لحظة فارقة لمجتمع التنمية الدولية. فلقد ابرزت نهاية الاهداف
الانمائية للألفية التقدم الملحوظ والمحقق لتلك الاهداف منذ عام 1990 ، حيث
انخفضت معدلات الجوع والفقر المدقع ووفيات الأطفال إلى النصف، ومع ذلك تظل هناك
تحديات جسيمة. يستعرض تقرير السياسة الغذائية العالمية لعام 2016 الاتجاهات والاحداث
والتغيرات الكبرى التى تؤثر على الأمن الغذائي والتغذية في عام 2015 وما بعدها؛ كما
يناقش كيف يمكن للنظام الغذائي العالمي أن يساهم فى المزيد من خفض معدلات حدة الفقر،
والجوع، وسوء التغذية مع ضمان الاستخدام المستدام لموارد العالم. وسوف يكون عام 2016

Soil and land management are essential for a sustainable food supply and ecosystems. Healthy soils can support sustainable agricultural production, mitigation of the impacts of climate change, and other ecosystem services. Interventions that show promise for improving soil health include investment in sustainable intensification technologies, climate-smart agriculture, and ecosystem-level management.

This report is timely input into the ongoing development agenda for Africa South of the Sahara (SSA).

L’année 2015 a marqué un tournant décisif pour la communauté internationale du développement. L’aboutissement des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement a souligné les avancées remarquables enregistrées depuis 1990 : l’extrême pauvreté, la mortalité infantile et la faim ont toutes chuté à peu près de moitié. Toutefois, un défi considérable demeure.

Ce document vise à contribuer au programme d’action en cours pour le développement de l’Afrique au sud du Sahara.

Agricultural growth will prove essential for improving the welfare of the vast majority of Africa’s poor. Roughly 80 percent of the continent’s poor live in rural areas, and even those who do not will depend heavily on increasing agricultural productivity to lift them out of poverty. Seventy percent of all Africans— and nearly 90 percent of the poor—work primarily in agriculture. As consumers, all of Africa’s poor—both urban and rural—count heavily on the efficiency of the continent’s farmers.

Reduction of rural poverty is one of the greatest challenges the Government of Nepal faces. Since most of the country’s agricultural production is semi-subsistence-oriented, increased commercialization of this rural-based economy is essential for poverty reduction and economic growth. Consequently, farm output diversification and productivity improvements are high-priority areas for the government.

Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious problem in developing countries. It is well established that micronutrient requirements are greater for women and children because of their special needs for reproduction and growth. Unfortunately, however, women and children suffer most from micronutrient deficiencies. Micronutrient deficiency impairs the cognitive development of young children, retards physical growth, increases child mortality, and contributes to the problem of maternal death during childbirth.

The early work on intrahousehold allocation alerted researchers and policymakers to the possible policy failures that could arise from neglect of intrahousehold allocation issues (Haddad, Hoddinott, and Alderman 1997). Conversely, what are the policy gains from paying attention to these issues? The new research on intrahousehold issues provides evidence that policies and interventions can be made more effective when differential rights, resources, and responsibilities within the household are explicitly considered.

The bargaining power of men and women crucially shapes the resource allocation decisions households make (Quisumbing and de la Brière 2000). Husbands and wives often use their bargaining power to express different priorities about how resources should be allocated. Understanding these differences and their effects is critical if policymakers are to improve livelihoods. Increasing the bargaining power of one gender group rather than another can mean the difference between policy failure and policy success.

Traditional models of household economic behavior have portrayed households as unified entities. They assume that household members agree about decisions and share resources in the most equitable way possible. More recently, however, economists have come to view households as domains of difference, where multiple decisionmakers may have different preferences and, in many cases, control separate sets of resources. This new approach has greatly improved understanding of household resource allocation behavior.