Why do some people fall into the trap of chronic poverty and others are able to escape it? IFPRI convened a panel of experts yesterday to shed some light on factors that lead to chronic poverty, and policy actions that may help pull households out of it.

The panel included Bob Baulch from the Chronic Poverty Research Center, IFPRI’s Agnes Quisumbing, and Catherine Porter from Oxford University, and was moderated by IFPRI’s John Hoddinott.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries has grown in importance in recent years, with increasing attention being paid to the potential impacts on agricultural development and food security for the developing world. In May, the FAO Committee on World Food Security endorsed the establishment of global guidelines on land tenure and access to natural resources, addressing the issue of "land-grabbing". However, while such efforts mark growing global attention to FDI, strong data and research on this subject are still lacking.

Following democratization in 1994, the Malawi government put great emphasis on reducing poverty. The predominantly agrarian economy has had little rural-urban migration and Malawi’s current level of industrialization and urbanization is low by world standards. A recent paper analyzes Malawi’s dependence on an agriculture-based development strategy. The authors find that the country currently does not place sufficient focus on economic and agricultural diversification to ensure continued growth.

The role of bioenergy in a green economy, a subject of heated debate and concern among members of the international community, will be a topic of discussion at the Rio+20 negotiations. As IFPRI’s Global Food Policy Report reveals, biofuels were once viewed as a means to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, whose carbon emissions contribute to climate change. Now, however, it appears that some biofuels have a damaging effect on the environment—and large impacts on agricultural markets.