Socio Economic Research and Analysis (SERA)

2025

Efforts to track welfare trends and spatially target interventions in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been constrained by a lack of recurrent and sufficiently granular data. To address this gap, we examine the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of welfare in the SSA using a new dataset of spatially-explicit welfare indicators (ATLAS AI) and explore how they have been influenced by different territorial typologies over the last two decades.

2025

This study examines how the gender pay gap in wage employment evolves during structural transformation. Using a multi-country dataset and decomposition analysis, it finds persistent gender gaps in both agrifood and non-agrifood systems. These gaps are driven by differences in characteristics and returns, highlighting the need for gender-responsive policies.

2025

This paper examines the role of natural resources in fostering resilient and inclusive rural transformation. It reviews land and water availability for agriculture, highlighting the reliance of poor and vulnerable rural communities on these resources. As land degradation, climate change, and competition intensify, current agricultural models face limits in supporting inclusive development.

2025

This study examines how climate-adaptive agricultural practices influence perceived resilience and household wellbeing in pastoralist Kenya and rain-fed Zambia. Using a typology of adaptation strategies and a doubly-robust IPWRA approach, findings show capital-intensive practices consistently enhance resilience and wellbeing, while labor-intensive and diversification strategies have more context-dependent effects. Results underscore the need for integrated, context-specific adaptation support.

2025

This policy brief looks at the Livestock Protection Package (LPP) implemented by FAO in Afghanistan, focusing on how it addresses challenges in the country's livestock sector. The programme aims to support communities affected by extreme weather events like cold spells and droughts. By evaluating the outcomes for beneficiary households, the brief offers insights into the effectiveness of winter assistance programmes in helping maintain livelihoods and food security during difficult times.

2025

Latin America is at a strategic point in rural development, as recent shocks have exposed deep-rooted challenges in rural policies, particularly regarding inequality and employment. Slow economic recovery, climate change, food system transitions, and rapid technological change further complicate these issues.

2025

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), efforts to track poverty trends and spatially targeted interventions are constrained by a lack of recurrent and sufficiently granular data. In this paper, we address this lack of information by using a new dataset of spatially explicit welfare indicators (developed by Atlas AI) to examine the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of welfare in the region.

2024

This brief summarizes findings from the report The unjust climate: Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women, and youth, and examines how exposure to climate stressors impacts the livelihoods of impoverished rural households in India. The brief highlights the critical need to address the adverse effects of climate stressors, including long-term temperature changes, to effectively combat poverty in the country and foster equitable opportunities for all.

2024

These annexes are supplementing "The unjust climate - Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women and youth" report, offering in-depth insights into the dataset, methodology and results. It serves to validate our findings through rigorous analysis and provides additional context for understanding the global impact of climate stressors on rural livelihoods.

2024

This baseline report provides insights into the project beneficiaries' socioeconomic status, land use, and agricultural activities. This information helps project implementers guide their activities and identify where possible problems may arise. Additionally, the report establishes whether there are any differences between those beneficiaries selected for treatment and those that, ex-ante, were identified as an appropriate control group. T

2024

This baseline report provides insights into the project beneficiaries' socioeconomic status, land use, and agricultural activities. This information helps project implementers guide their activities and identify where possible problems may arise. Additionally, the report establishes whether there are any differences between those beneficiaries selected for treatment and those that, ex-ante, were identified as an appropriate control group.

2024

This report assembles an impressive set of data from 24 low- and middle-income countries in five world regions to measure the effects of climate change on rural women, youths and people living in poverty. The data enable us to disentangle how different types of climate stressors affect people’s on-farm, off-farm and total incomes, labour allocations and adaptive actions, depending on their wealth, gender and age characteristics.

2024

The brief summarizes the key messages and findings of the "Unjust Climate" report, which measures the impacts of climate change on the rural poor, women, and youths. This report compiles extensive data from 24 low- and middle-income countries across five world regions.

2024

The Government of Zambia has prioritized the scaling up of the Food Security Pack (FSP) to address the economic hardships faced by vulnerable rural households in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The baseline report will provide a snapshot of the current socioeconomic conditions of a random sample of 3000 eligible non-beneficiaries, FSP beneficiaries, and FSP+extension services beneficiaries, and will inform the government about its accuracy in their targeting.

2023

We examine how social protection programs in Ethiopia affect smallholder farmers facing adverse rainfall shocks. Our findings show mixed effects: public works reduce productivity, especially during shocks, while free food recipients see higher sales and profits. Cash transfers have a neutral impact on production but increase farming profitability.

2023

This study uses comparable data collected in a pastoralist setting in Kenya and a rain-fed crop production context in Zambia to examine the relationship between climate-adaptive practices, food security, and households’ perceived resilience against climatic shocks.

2023

This suggests that food security support could be strengthened as part of restoration activities and/or that impacts of opportunity-led diversification may need a longer period to accrue. Larger impacts observed within the early takers of the programme reinforce these conclusions. Overall, the analysis also provides an innovative approach to ex-post evaluation settings.

2023

This article develops a conceptual framework on pathways through which noncontributory social protection can support resilient and inclusive agricultural growth in rural Africa. It draws insights from a review of rigorous empirical evidence on the impacts of cash transfers and multifaceted cash plus programs on a range of relevant productive outcomes.

2023

Agrifood systems are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, while at the same time they are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change could push an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 and result in more than 216 million people migrating within their own region by 2050.