Resilience

Leveraging social protection to strengthen women’s and girls’ climate-resilience in agrifood systems

Women and girls (WGs) have important roles in making agrifood systems more climate resilient. However, systemic inequalities in access to resources, technologies, information, services, and networks, alongside limited agency and restrictive gender norms, reduce their capacity to adapt to and mitigate climate change. WGs’ constraints on adaptation bear implications on the wellbeing of WGs, their households, and the sustainability of agrifood systems. With growing recognition that social protection helps promote WGs’ resilience in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) at large scale, stakeholders are interested in developing social protection programs that are responsive to both climate change and gender inequality. However, little is known about effective approaches. We develop a conceptual framework on how social assistance – the most prevalent type of social protection programming in many LMICs – affects WGs’ coping, adaptive, and mitigative responses to climate hazards. We reflect on the emerging evidence and propose recommendations on program design features that may more effectively promote WGs’ climate resilience in agrifood systems. We additionally highlight important directions for future research to guide practice.

Repairing the mosaic: The political economy of landscape-level agroecological transitions in India

War and resilience: The multifaceted impacts of Sudan’s conflict and pathways to recovery

Sudan is facing one of the most severe humanitarian and economic crises in its modern history. The current civil war has displaced millions and severely damaged livelihoods, markets, and institutions, causing a rapid deterioration in the economy, agrifood systems, and population welfare. War and Resilience: The Multifaceted Impacts of Sudan’s Conflict and Pathways to Recovery situates the current conflict within Sudan’s longer historical trajectory, explaining how structural factors contributed to the war’s progression and scale. Drawing on recent household and enterprise surveys, satellite indicators, market price data, and economywide modeling, the book documents the crisis’s impacts and identifies realistic entry points for stabilization and recovery. Written by leading IFPRI researchers and colleagues, War and Resilience highlights how Sudan’s population has shown remarkable resilience through social networks, remittances, informal support systems, and adaptation across rural and urban settings. Its final chapters offer decision-makers a forward-looking assessment of pathways toward recovery.