The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
THE history of economics has been, among other things, a story of learning to care less about land. The physiocrats of 18th-century France saw it as the primary guarantor of wealth. Adam Smith included it alongside labour and capital as one of the three factors of production that combined to …
A flagship annual document of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Economic Survey 2014–15 reviews the developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months, summarizes the performance on major development programmes, and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the prospects of the economy in the …
Reducing consumer food waste could save between US$120 and 300 billion per year by 2030 according to a new report by WRAP (The Waste & Resources Action Programme) and the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. To achieve this would require a 20-50% reduction in consumer food waste. One …
Natural disasters have enormous impacts on human society, especially on the development of the economy. To support decision making in mitigation and adaption to natural disasters, assessment of economic impacts is fundamental and of great significance. Based on a review of the literature of economic impact evaluation, this paper proposes …
Global fertilizer use is likely to rise above 200.5 million tonnes in 2018, 25 percent higher than recorded in 2008. World fertilizer consumption will grow by 1.8 percent a year through 2018, according to FAO's new report "World fertilizer trends and outlook to 2018." At the same time the global …
The world food crisis in 2008 highlighted the susceptibility of the global food system to price shocks. Here we use annual staple food production and trade data from 1992–2009 to analyse the changing properties of the global food system. Over the 18 year study period, we show that the global …
This study applies a survey matching technique to match the income and expenditure survey (IES) of 2005/06 and the Community Survey (CS) of 2007 to produce a food (in)security map for South Africa at various levels of disaggregation - province, District Municipality, and Local Municipality. In addition, the results are …
Climate change exacerbates global food price volatility risks, but this is seldom recognized in national adaptation plans. This discussion brief examines the nature of this risk and offers ideas for how import-dependent countries might begin to address it. Many countries are highly dependent on food imports. It is important to …
In 2000 Ethiopia had one of the highest poverty rates in the world, with 56 percent of the population living on less than United States (U.S.) $1.25 purchasing power parity (PPP) a day. Ethiopian households experienced a decade of remarkable progress in wellbeing since then and by the start of …
Latest available figures indicate that close to 40 per cent of the world’s population suffering from hunger and malnutrition belongs to South Asia. Remarkable strides towards enhancing food production in the recent decades in the region seem to have limited impact on undernourishment that remains pervasive. While recognizing the multidimensionality …
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has today published a comprehensive pocketbook of nutrition-related data covering all regions of the world ahead of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) taking place in Rome this week. Food and Nutrition in Numbers- a pocket-seized compendium dedicated to the state …
Based on forecasts of global population growth, food security will remain an important economic development issue over the next several decades. Real food prices have risen in recent years after decades of decline, bringing the issue of food security even further into the public spotlight. However, there is no global …
With the world’s population expected to reach 8.2 billion people by 2030, and with 842 million people estimated as having been undernourished in the period 2011–13, food supply will present a growing challenge in the next two decades. With increases in income along with demographic changes related to family size, …
This report has been prepared in response to growing concerns about the impacts of climate change on Latin American economies, agriculture, and people. Findings suggest that because of the climate change impacts on agricultural production (yield change) and international food prices, unless proper mitigation measures are implemented, by 2050 Brazil …
This report synthesises the findings from the four country case studies produced for the project. It is intended as a summary introduction to the main findings of the research, and a preliminary comparative analysis across the four cases. The green revolution and the global integration of food markets were supposed …
Can popular mobilisation activate accountability for hunger? In 2012, a group of researchers set out to explore this question through field research in four countries: Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Mozambique. The research was framed in ideas about a contemporary ‘moral economy’ – which when breached, would lead people to mobilise …
In 2010 Kenya enacted a new constitution that brought into law a range of progressive economic and social rights including the legal entitlement of its citizens ‘to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality’ (Republic of Kenya 2010). Hunger is widespread in Kenya and, despite …
In February 2008 and September 2010, the cities of Maputo and Matola were the scene of violent protests against the rise in the cost of living, undertaken by groups of ordinary citizens. Immediately afterwards, these protests were replicated in some other Mozambican cities, but on a much smaller scale, and …
