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Socio Economic Research and Analysis (SERA)

Projects
The ongoing projects respond to the needs and demands of countries, and thus vary in thematic focus, scope and scale.  
Title Ecosystems-based adaptation for resilient watersheds and communities in Malawi
Introduction The Ecosystems-based Adaptation for resilient Watersheds and Communities in Malawi (EbAM) project aims to enhance the climate resilience of rural communities in Malawi by promoting an ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approach integrated with landscape-level watershed management.
Start date 09/03/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Malawi
Budget Green Climate Fund (GCF)
Project Code GCP/MLW/082/GCF
Title Evidence on the impacts of extreme weather events on youth employment in sub-Saharan Africa
Introduction Climate change is a global challenge, but its effects are unequal. This study uses data from six sub-Saharan countries, combining socio-economic surveys with daily weather information. Regression analysis reveals that heat stress increases reliance on youth labour in rural areas, while floods or droughts show no such effect. Young women are particularly affected, often pushed out of employment or into household labour. These findings highlight their heightened vulnerability to climate change.
Start date 09/06/2023
End date 08/03/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Africa
Title Evidence on the impacts of extreme weather on wellbeing dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa
Introduction Analysing climatic events is essential to understanding their impact on welfare in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Leveraging the detailed ATLAS-AI welfare dataset, the study aims to investigate how natural hazards such as droughts, floods, and heat stress influence welfare over time.
Start date 14/02/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Africa
Title Impacts of the hostilities in Gaza on the incomes of agricultural producers
Introduction The 2023 conflict in Gaza triggered severe disruptions to agricultural livelihoods, exacerbating food insecurity and economic instability. This study quantifies the immediate impacts of the conflict on Gaza’s agricultural sector during its first three months, focusing on the impact of bombing, disruption of irrigation systems, and livestock losses.
Start date 03/11/2023
End date 31/12/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Gaza Strip
Title Impact evaluation of project promoting linkages between social protection, agriculture, and food security
Introduction The Productive Social Action Program (PASP) in Mozambique, part of the National Basic Social Security Strategy, supports vulnerable households through public works (TPI) and income-generating initiatives (ADAGR). The SERA team is evaluating ADAGR’s effectiveness in enabling participants to shift to sustainable livelihoods and reduce dependency on public works.
Start date 15/04/2023
Recipient / Target Areas Mozambique
Project Code TCP/MOZ/3802
Title Evaluating the impact of input transfers and extension advice through Farmer Field Schools
Introduction This project evaluates the socio-economic impacts of input transfers provided through the Food Security Pack (FSP) program and Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in rural Zambia. The study examines the effectiveness of these interventions in enhancing agricultural productivity, food security, and resilience. The findings aim to inform strategies for inclusive and sustainable rural development.
Start date 25/07/2022
Recipient / Target Areas Zambia
Project Code FVC/GLO/203/MUL
Title Evidence on the impacts of Women-Empowerment Farmer Business Schools
Introduction The Women's Empowerment Farmer Business School (WE-FBS), developed by FAO in collaboration with KIT and CARE USA, is a gender-transformative approach designed to empowering women in commercial farming. By integrating gender concepts into business skills training, the programme promotes family farming as a business and addresses barriers like low literacy, language limitations, and traditional gender norms. This research investigates the impact of this approach on women empowerment and income.
Start date 01/01/2025
End date 01/06/2026
Recipient / Target Areas Kenya
Project Code FVC/GLO/MUL/203
Title Poultry package evaluation
Introduction In a country where many women are illiterate, rarely leave their homes, and have limited access to education, FAO’s poultry support package offers essential training and inputs to empower women. This project evaluates the socio-economic impacts of FAO’s poultry support package, with a primary focus on enhancing women’s role in income generating activities, poultry production, nutrition.
Start date 10/07/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Afghanistan
Title Wheat Package Evaluation
Introduction The project focuses on a crop-cutting survey designed to evaluate the impact of FAO’s wheat package on agricultural productivity.
Start date 09/03/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Afghanistan
Title Livestock Package Evaluation
Introduction This project evaluates the socio-economic impacts of FAO’s livestock protection package, distributed during the winter season to support livestock-dependent households, in Afghanistan.
Start date 15/12/2023
Recipient / Target Areas Afghanistan
Title Impact evaluation of Dimitra clubs in Uganda
Introduction This project assesses the transformative impact of Dimitra clubs, informal groups that enable women, men and young people to tackle common challenges and foster social cohesion using local resources.
Start date 01/02/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Uganda
Project Code FVC/GLO/203/MUL
Title Smallholder Agricultural Competitiveness Project (SACP)
Introduction Empowering smallholder farmers for increased incomes and food security: The Smallholder Agricultural Competitiveness Project (SACP) is set to revolutionize agricultural practices in Southern Bangladesh, enhancing competitiveness and resilience for rural households.
Start date 01/11/2018
End date 27/06/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Bangladesh
Donor Bangladesh
Title The Ouémé Basin Climate Resilience Initiative (OCRI)
Introduction The Ouémé Basin Climate-Resilience Initiative (OCRI) in Benin focuses on expanding climate-resilient agricultural practices, enhancing land and water management, and lowering the vulnerability of small-scale farmers to the growing challenges posed by climate change in the targeted regions.
Start date 01/08/2023
Recipient / Target Areas Benin
Donor Benin
Project Code GCP/BEN/060/GCF
Title Local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE)
Introduction Local economy-wide impact evaluation (LEWIE) links models of treated and non-treated individual actors (traders, farmers, other producers and households, schools, firms, etc.) to general equilibrium models of local economies, explicitly capturing interactions among actors while evaluating the total economic impacts of development programmes.
Start date 29/09/2019
Recipient / Target Areas Senegal, United Republic of Tanzania
Donor Italy
Title Sustaining school enrolment when rains fail
Introduction In this paper, we use four waves of household and community panel survey data, merged with long-term, spatially explicit rainfall data to investigate whether access to school feeding programmes (SFP) in Malawi supports primary school enrolment when weather shocks occur. We find that access to SFP increases enrolment of children in older age when households experience anomalously low rainfall conditions compared to those without a SFP.
Start date 02/08/2020
End date 01/04/2022
Recipient / Target Areas Malawi
Title The Unjust Climate
Introduction The FAO SERA team, with partners, developed a report that consolidates evidence on the distributional effects of climate change and extreme weather events on inclusive rural transformation processes.
Start date 01/01/2021
End date 05/03/2024
Recipient / Target Areas Armenia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Malawi, Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam
Title Evidence on the impacts of cash and in-kind transfers combined with farmer fields schools on the wellbeing and climate resilience
Introduction This study evaluates the impact of the intervention, combining tailored training on climate-smart agricultural practices and predictive livestock early warning systems (PLEWS) with individual or community-level grants, using a clustered randomized control trial to assess the effects on food security, income diversification, collective action, and resilience, contributing to strategies for sustainable rural development in arid and semi-arid regions.
Start date 31/05/2020
Recipient / Target Areas Kenya
Project Code FVC/GLO/203/MUL
Title Integration social protection and agricultural interventions to enable the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture
Introduction This project uses an experimental impact evaluation design to assess whether providing beneficiaries of farmer field schools in southern Malawi with cash or in-kind transfers supports greater sustained adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, and how the impacts vary between cash recipients and in-kind recipients.
Start date 31/12/2019
Recipient / Target Areas Malawi
Title A value chain approach for economic integration and self-reliance of refugees and host communities in East Africa
Introduction In Uganda, a three-year project funded by IKEA Foundation aimed at providing sustainable, long-term solutions that go beyond humanitarian aid and help refugees and host communities alike. By creating opportunities for both groups, the project seeks to enable refugees to contribute to the local economy without causing social tensions. This research generates evidence on the impact of these interventions.
Start date 31/12/2019
End date 31/03/2025
Recipient / Target Areas Uganda