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Designed to empower orphans and other vulnerable children aged 12 to 18 years who live in communities where HIV/AIDS has had a strong impact on food security.

This analytical tool illustrates the concept of social welfare and the possible ways to define social welfare functions. In particular, it deals with how to pass from inequality to social welfare analysis and how social welfare analysis may embody different attitudes with regard to inequality aversion. A step-by-step procedure and numerical examples are also discussed to give operational content to the tool. For more information, see also: Charting Income Inequality. The Lorenz Curve. EASYPol Series 000 Social Welfare Analysis of Income Distributions: Ranking Income Distributions with Lorenz Curves. EASYPol Series 001 Social Welfare Analysis of Income Distributions: Ranking Income Distributions with Generalised Lorenz Curves. [...]

Sustainable use, development and conservation of the world’s livestock genetic resources are of vital importance to agriculture, food production, rural development and the environment. In recognition of the need to develop an effective framework for the management of these resources and to address the threat of genetic erosion, 109 countries came together in September 2007 at the first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture held in Interlaken, Switzerland. The Conference adopted the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources – which includes 23 strategic priorities for action to promote the wise management of these [...]

The purpose of this document is to provide greater insight into the possible implications of soybean expansion for food security, rural development and agricultural policies in these countries for the period 2005-2014. Based on country studies carried out for the investigation, this document summarizes the causes of soybean expansion in the last ten years and presents the main changes that have accompanied the process. It also quantifies in approximate terms, the growth of soybean and its products (meal and oil) between 2005 and 2014, explores the main implications of this expansion and offers a number of analytical conclusions.

La situation mondiale de l’alimentation et de l’agriculture 2007 tente de déterminer comment l’agriculture pourrait fournir davantage de services environnementaux, en plus de la production de denrées alimentaires et de fibres. La conclusion qui s’en dégage est que la demande de services environnementaux fournis par le secteur agricole – notamment l’atténuation des effets du changement climatique, l’amélioration de la gestion des bassins versants et la préservation de la diversité biologique – continuera d’augmenter à l’avenir, et qu’il faut par conséquent prendre des mesures incitatives plus adaptées pour encourager les agriculteurs à modifi er leurs pratiques agricoles, de sorte que le secteur agricole puisse répondre à [...]

This analytical tool illustrates the concept of weighting samples in survey analysis. In particular, it deals with: a) the concept of weights and inflation factors; b) why weights are important in calculating statistical measures; c) how disregarding weights may lead to misleading results in empirical analysis. This paper is part of the FAO Policy series: EASYPol-Resources for policy making (in agriculture, rural development and food security). You can find other EASYPol series' resources in the Resources section of this website, typing "EASYPol" in the free text search.

This analytical tool illustrates how to carry out cost-benefit calculations of investment projects in WinDASI, after data are entered in the database. It explains, by means of a step-by step procedure, how to calculate flows of physical quantities of outputs, inputs and investment items; flows of current, discounted and cumulative costs, benefits, and net benefits; flows of incremental (With-Without project) current, discounted and cumulative net benefits; and project indicators such as the Net Present Value (NPV), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), the Benefit/Cost Ratio, (BCR), the Switching Values (SVs) and Sensitivity Analysis. Instructions are provided on how to carry out [...]

This module illustrates the simplest ways to measure inequality drawing on the statistical concepts of location, shape and variability. In particular, the following measures will be addressed: a) the range; b) the relative mean deviation; c) the variance; d) the coefficient of variation; and e) the standard deviation of logharitms. For all these measures, step-by-step procedures and numerical examples are also discussed. For more information, see also: Charting Income Inequality. The Lorenz Curve. EASYPol Series 000 Social Welfare Analysis of Income Distributions: Ranking Income Distributions with Lorenz Curves. EASYPol Series 001 Policy Impacts on Inequality: Inequality and Axioms for its Measurement. EASYPol Series 054 This [...]

This tool illustrates the concept of desirable properties any inequality index should respect. In particular, it introduces the distinction between a positive and a normative approach to inequality analysis. Then, it discusses the role of axioms in inequality measurement and their conceptual meaning. Finally, using the Gini Index and the variance, a step-by-step procedure and numerical examples are introduced for operational purposes. For further information, see also: Charting Income Inequality. The Lorenz Curve. EASYPol Series 000 Social Welfare Analysis of Income Distributions: Ranking Income Distributions with Lorenz Curves. EASYPol Series 001 Inequality Analysis: The Gini Index. EASYPol Series 040 Social Welfare Analysis of Income Distributions: [...]

This analytical tool illustrates how to decompose inequality measures by income sources. In particular, it discusses this decomposition in the context of the Gini and the Theil Indexes. A step-by-step procedure and numerical examples give operational content to the tool. For further information, see also: Charting Income Inequality. The Lorenz Curve. EASYPol Series 000 Social Welfare Analysis of Income Distributions: Ranking Income Distributions with Lorenz Curves. EASYPol Series 001 Inequality Analysis: The Gini Index. EASYPol Series 040 Describing Income Inequality. Theil Index and Entropy Class Indexes. EASYPol Series 051 Policy Impacts on Inequality: Decomposition of Income Inequality by Subgroups. EASYPol Series 052 This paper is part of [...]