In sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of detailed data had hindered efforts to track poverty trends spatially. The authors used the ATLAS-AI dataset to analyze welfare dynamics, taking into account factors such as proximity to markets. A webinar was held to present the findings and discuss their policy implications for poverty reduction strategies in the region.

The 4th IEO-EED Conference focused on how evaluation practice has increasingly integrated the cross-pollination of environmental, socioeconomic, and policy domains. Conference panelists brought a wealth of knowledge on active efforts to develop evaluation approaches and methods that better reflect the varied and complex relationships of the natural world and the larger systems in which evaluands are measured.

The CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program held a discussion on Friday, March 8 at 11:00 AM EST to address the unequal impacts of climate change on rural women in agriculture and the critical investments needed to address these disparities.

Climate change disproportionately impacts women farmers in low- and middle-income countries, causing billions of dollars of losses among female-headed farming households. This is the main finding of FAO's "The Unjust Climate" report, explains in this interview Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director of the Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The unequal impacts of climate change on countries, communities, and individuals undeniably pose a critical global challenge. Despite contributing minimally to the climate crisis, low- and middle-income countries bear the brunt of the consequences, particularly in rural areas where people heavily rely on agrifood systems and natural resources for their livelihoods.

The groundbreaking FAO report the Unjust Climate: Measuring the impacts of climate change on the rural poor, women and youth shows that climate change disproportionately impacts women farmers in low- and middle-income countries. In this interview, Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director of the Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), says this gender gap causes billions of dollars of losses among female-headed farming households and widens the income gap among the rural poor.

Watch the launch of the new FAO report Unjust Climate - Measuring the impacts of climate change on the rural poor, women and youth.

December 27, 1980 - September 25, 2023

In May, FAO conducted the midline data collection for the impact evaluation of the Refugee Agricultural Value Chains for Economic Self-reliance (RAVES) project, in Uganda to assess its impact on the well-being of refugees and host communities.

FAO recently contributed its expertise to the Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) programme of the Green Climate Fund Independent Evaluation Unit during a workshop in the Republic of Korea.

On September 12-14, 2023, participants experienced the GeoField Convening. This event, which featured both in-person and hybrid participation, delved into geospatial data visualization, remote sensing, and agricultural impact evaluations. Attendees explored presentations such as "Wellbeing Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Spatial Perspective Across Territorial Typologies" within the subpart on "Using Geospatial Data for Targeting and Guiding Agricultural Investments." They were part of advancing geospatial methods in agriculture and development research.

FAO participated in the “working & networking on climate change and innovation for sustainable agrifood systems" workshop. It was organized by IFAD and the University of Palermo. It took place on June 26 in Palermo.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched the Four-Year project on “Promoting coherence between disaster risk reduction, climate action and social protection in sub-Saharan Africa”, targeting 2 400 farmers residing in the Neno and Mwanza districts of southern Malawi. 

Under the theme of "Promoting equity and resilience: Cash transfer evidence for action in a poly-crisis world," this workshop reflected on the invaluable lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, shedding light on the capacity of national cash transfer and social protection systems to respond to diverse crises.

If financial assistance to address climate change is used more for the social protection of rural communities, it will facilitate more equitable adaptation – and ultimately strengthen climate protection.

The event presented and debated concrete options and examples on what practical implementation means in terms of adoptions of adaptation options, of impacts of adoptions on production and resilience and on the role of behavioural and subjective perception versus what institutions can do to support or facilitate adoption and adaptation choices.

In collaboration with FAO Kenya, FAO HQ successfully conducted a comprehensive training program for enumerators in Isiolo, Kenya, aimed at facilitating effective data collection. The data collection initiative covered Chari, Cherab, Oldonyiro, and Sericho wards within the Isiolo district.

This event brought together policy-makers, practitioners, and researchers for an interactive dialogue on how and why social protection can be leveraged to make climate actions in agrifood systems more inclusive and effective. It provided a forum to share recent evidence on the impacts of social protection in building adaptive capacity in rural areas.

People in poverty contribute least to climate change yet also benefit least from policies that either try to mitigate climate change or help people adapt to it. Social protection can help vulnerable populations to adopt strategies that make them more resilient.