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In Mozambique, analysing how and why food prices change is crucial. Understanding the dynamics of price formation is fundamental to mitigate the adverse effects of price volatility to the economy. Detailed data on the prices of key food items in Mozambique is, however, limited in both quantity...
![LDC Future Forum in Helsinki 2024. Image: UN-OHRLLS](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_150x200/public/Blog/Image/LDC-Future-Forum-2024-blog-cover-image.jpg?itok=MQtu9l2M)
The share of the least developed countries (LDCs) in global foreign investments is less than one percent. But positive developments have taken place—for example, the number of startup companies has increased. This information emerged at a forum held by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and...
Blog
– Report from the 2023 IGM Annual Conference
More than 70% of the Mozambican population depends on subsistence agriculture. As such, the agriculture sector is undoubtedly of fundamental importance to the country’s wellbeing. It has enormous potential to reduce poverty, promote food security, and generate income and employment. Despite its...
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– What Zambia is doing right
Over half of Zambia’s population lived below the national poverty line in 2015. In rural areas, where 89% of households are engaged in agriculture, the poverty rate was even higher, at 77% of the population. The government runs several programmes of financial support for farmers. Some provide...
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Researchers and policymakers have long asked whether rural households in Africa diversify their income to spread risk or by seizing opportunities to increase their earning potential. Long-term research in Tanzania shows that diversification is more often a choice rather than a necessity, with the...
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Investments in infrastructure – such as roads – typically aim to reduce transport costs, stimulate trade, and make new production activities viable. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the need for such investments is widely acknowledged. The argument for more and better infrastructure seems fairly...
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Agriculture and agro-processing value chains have been under pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been particularly marked where they remain underdeveloped, as is the case in South Africa and the rest of the region. Regulatory responses to the pandemic disrupted agriculture and agro...
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Economics researcher Aimable Nsabimana shares the relevance and inspiration behind his recent work with UNU-WIDER on climate change and human development in Tanzania. How can research contribute to the wellbeing in Africa? In 2019, I spent some months at UNU-WIDER in Helsinki as a Visiting Scholar...
Blog
Several large-scale efforts have been made to combat malaria in the last decade under the Millennium Development Goals, and while these have led to a rapid decline in cases, malaria continues to exact a heavy toll on sub-Saharan Africa, both in terms of human life and economic cost. Given the...
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– Evidence from a 2016 rural household survey in 12 provinces of Viet Nam
Following the successful implementation of the Doi Moi reform programme, Viet Nam has experienced outstanding economic progress, for example in aggregate output and poverty reduction. For many years, Viet Nam developed much faster than the typical developing country; and since 2014 the difference in...
Blog
Viet Nam has seen major economic shifts which started in the 1980s and continue today. Many strides have been made as the country goes through structural transformation, not least a significant reduction in poverty. Tracking progress, however, relies on the continued availability of high-quality...
Blog
Malawi’s farm input subsidy benefits the poor and can be part of a viable national development strategy. Agriculture is Malawi’s main economic sector. It generates one-third of GDP, half of total export earnings and two-thirds of employment. The farm input subsidy programme is a prime example of a...
Blog
In the more than two decades since democratic elections signalled a new era in Mozambique, a great deal has been accomplished. Nearly all development indicators have improved – often substantially – relative to the miserable levels posted in the 1980s and 1990s. Headline economic growth has been...
Blog
In this interview, Per Pinstrup-Andersen talks about the international project which has culminated in the book Food Price Policy in an Era of Market Instability. (Oxford University Press, 2015) More about the project. PART 1 - The political economy of food price policy - an interview with Per...
Blog
Much of UNU-WIDER’s research in the last few years was initiated under the 2010-13 work programme on the triple crisis of finance, food, and climate change. The financial crisis from 2008 onwards has received massive worldwide attention. This year, efforts will be made to negotiate an...
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2015 marks the 30th anniversary of UNU-WIDER. The Institute opened its doors in 1985. It has been quite a ride ever since. We have had thousands of economists and other social scientists through those Helsinki doors since 1985. Not only some of the most famous figures in the business, but many...
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Large food price fluctuations—caused primarily by extreme weather events, market disruptions, investor behaviour and government policy—began in the world market in 2007 and presented serious challenges for governments, private traders, farmers and consumers. A collaborative project between Cornell...
Blog
– Managing Structural Transformation
18 December 2014 Roger Williamson At the UN headquarters in New York on 18 November 2014, Peter Timmer, emeritus professor from Harvard, showed how the three transformations (structural, agricultural, and dietary) relate to development. He commented on the challenges of food security in Asia and...
Blog
25 June 2014 Malokele Nanivazo After a long series of conflicts and apparent macroeconomic mismanagement, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seems to be breaking from its thorny history. It is implementing a series of economic and political reforms aimed at improving its weak institutions and...
Blog
25 June 2014In this interview Dr Margaret McMillan outlined the theory of structural transformation, which analyzes the underlying structure of the economy by employment shares in agriculture, manufacturing and the service sector. The aspiration in development is to move workers out of low...
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– Findings and Policy Suggestions
27 May 2014 Wisdom Akpalu The number of fishers and fishing vessels in the capture fishery sector, especially the artisanal marine fishery sub-sector, in Ghana has grown significantly over the past two decades leading to declining catches per trip. In addition to having too many fishers and boats...
Blog
23 April 2014 Wisdom Akpalu joined UNU-WIDER as a Research Fellow based in Ghana in the beginning of 2014. Prior to joining the Institute he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the State University of New York at Farmingdale as well as Chair in the Department of Economics. He is originally...
Blog
– Findings from Melanesia
9 December 2013 Simon Feeny Vulnerability and resilience are very closely related terms. Vulnerability is usually referred to as the likelihood of falling into poverty in the future. It depends upon the likelihood of experiencing unexpected shocks as well as to the ability to cope with these shocks...
Blog
4 July 2013 Roger Williamson On 4 June 2013 I attended an interesting effort on the part of UNU-WIDER to communicate research results to development policy makers and practitioners. Top academics and researchers from around the world (see event site here) took to the stage, followed by the Swedish...
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– What did we Learn?
24 June 2013 Tony Addison The Stockholm ReCom results meeting at Sida on 4 June was a lively exchange on all aspects of foreign aid and climate change finance (including the role of private finance). Roger Williamson provides his perspective on the day, elsewhere in this issue of Angle. For myself...
Blog
– Is an Agriculture-led Developmental Model the Way Forward for sub-Saharan Africa?
9 May 2013 Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen and Roger Williamson Pathways to Industrialization in the Twenty-First Century, (edited by Adam Szirmai, Wim Naudé, and Ludovico Alcorta) a new book with important messages on industrial policy, particularly for successfully developing economies, was launched in...
Blog
Christian Friis Bach We need to unite the world in a strong effort to eradicate extreme poverty, promote sustainable development and ensure the right to a better life for everyone. Drawing up a future development framework from 2015 onwards is a main priority in the international development...
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– Evidence from a 2010 rural household survey in 12 provinces of Vietnam
Research report prepared under Component 5 of the Business Sector Development Programme (BSPS), Hanoi, Vietnam and the Agricultural Sector Programme Support (ASPS), 2013. With DERG, CIEM and IPSARD research teams.The origin of this report dates back to 2002, when the first Vietnam Access to...
Report
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– Evidence from a 2010 rural household survey in 12 provinces of Vietnam
Research report prepared under Component 5 of the Business Sector Development Programme (BSPS), Hanoi, Vietnam and the Agricultural Sector Programme Support (ASPS), 2013. With DERG, CIEM and IPSARD research teams.The origin of this report dates back to 2002, when the first Vietnam Access to...
Blog
– The Case of Rwanda, DFID, and the Good Aid Debate
Omar Shahabudin McDoom What should donors do when confronted with regimes that violate important normative standards of state behavior and commit human rights abuses, war crimes or other grave ethical transgressions? During the Cold War, instrumental use of aid to support strategic foreign policy...
Blog
– The Second Edition of ‘From Poverty to Power’
Duncan Green Updating a book on contemporary events can be unnerving. In the intervening years, events and new thinking combine to expose the weaknesses of any text. Even more so with a book like ‘From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States Can Change the World’ (henceforward...
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This report on the 'Implications of Climate Change for Economic Growth and Development in Vietnam' was prepared within the framework of phase IV of the Danida funded Poverty Reduction Grant (PRG) project entitled 'Strengthening the Development Research and Policy Analysis Capacity of the Central...
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