Data: Face-to-face data collection in humanitarian settings can be challenging. However, the availability of big data promises to bring new innovations for conducting impact evaluations. The theme will discuss the potential, and the pitfalls, of drawing on low-cost remote surveys, geo-referenced data, administrative data, and remotely-sensed data.
Designing evaluations: Conflict requires researchers to adapt existing approaches such as experimental, quasi-experimental, adaptive-iterative, or phase-in research designs in humanitarian context. The theme will discuss what elements of such approaches work and how challenges in implementing them can be overcome without losing rigour.
Measurement: In emergency settings we may need to adapt what and how we measure intended and unintended outcomes, often resulting in multi-disciplinary survey instruments. The theme will address how to adapt measurement outcomes related to food security, nutrition, welfare, behaviour, social cohesion, stability, and peacebuilding.
Methods: Machine learning tools are increasingly becoming more accessible to researchers and practitioners. The theme will address how new methods in machine learning can be applied for not just assessing impact evaluation but also for targeting and deriving missing data.
Evaluation of UNHCR’s Engagement in Humanitarian-Development Cooperation
Displacement trends show that developing countries host most of the world’s refugees and are dealing with displacement that lasts longer today than in the past. UNHCR sees an opportunity to improve outcomes for both refugees and host communities by combining humanitarian and development strategies. In most cases, increased humanitarian-development cooperation had primarily positive effects on […]
Syria: Do complex agricultural interventions strengthen food security? (Evidence brief)
Agricultural interventions in crises and conflict settings have a notable and significant impact in improving the food security status of households in the short-term. However, such programmes require more precise targeting and intervention clustering if they aim to strengthen resilience. The evidence brief discusses these findings and draws recommendations based on an impact evaluation in […]
Supporting Emergency Needs, Early Recovery and Longer-term Resilience in Syria’s Agriculture Sector (Endline Report 2021)
Endline Report of the Impact Assessment of the FCDO- funded FAO Programme in Syria The “Supporting emergency needs, early recovery and longer-term resilience in Syria’s agriculture sector” project is a FAO programme in Syria, funded by FCDO (previously DFID). FAO Syria implemented the programme between October 2017 and May 2021 in nine Governorates across Syria, […]
Drivers of food choice among children and caregivers in post-earthquake Nepal
Food systems in many countries are experiencing a shift from traditional foods towards processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt, but low in dietary fiber and micronutrients. There is an urgent need to better understand drivers of changing food behavior, particularly for lower- income countries. This study analyzes drivers of food choice among children […]
Inter-relationships between Fragility and Poverty: A Micro-level Analysis in Kenya
The relationship between fragility and poverty remains unexplored due to a number of factors. First, the concept of fragility and its measures have overlooked heterogeneity at the micro-level while focusing on fragility at the macro- or state-level. Second, due to plausible endogeneity in the relationship between fragility and poverty, as wellas the lack of viable […]
HG4RR Webinar Series – Nutrition from Garden to Plate: Improving diets through sustainable access to safe and diverse food
HG4RR Webinar Series on May 18th, 14:00-15:00 CEST. We will be joined by nutrition specialist Sweta Banerjee and food activist Anshuman Das from Welthungerhilfe (WHH) India Country programme. They will be presenting “Nutrition from garden to plate: improving diets through sustainable access to safe and diverse food.” Dr. Tilman Brück of ISDC/IGZ will moderate a […]
Effects of poverty on fragility: A micro-level analysis in Kenya
The relationship between fragility and poverty remains unexplored due to a number of factors and its associated complexities. First, the concept of fragility and its measures have overlooked heterogeneity at the micro level while focusing on fragility at the macro or state level. Second, due to plausible endogeneity in the relationship between fragility and poverty, […]
Monitoring and Impact Analysis of the BMZ and EU-funded FAO Resilience Programme in Syria
The objective of this report is to present insights of a statistical analysis of recent survey data from Syria to support FAO Syria in building knowledge, learning and capacity. Our analyses reveal a set of very clear results, which have important policy implications. Our empirical analysis con rms that food security in Syria has been […]
Supporting Emergency Needs, Early Recovery and Longer-term Resilience in Syria’s Agriculture Sector
Funded by DFID, FAO Syria is implementing the “Supporting emergency needs, early recovery and longer-term resilience in Syria’s agriculture sector” programme, which delivers “emergency” and “recovery” support to rural households across Syria. The programme has two principal stages: a “baseline stage” taking place in 2018/2019 and a “midline and endline stage” taking place in 2019/2020. […]
The Wisdom Of Seeking Crowd Wisdom. Reflections on the ethics of using crowdsourcing and crowdseeding to collect data in conflict zones
This paper reflects on the ethical implications of using crowd-based methods to collect information in situations of violent conflict. These methods involve obtaining information directly from individuals in conflict areas, who can choose when or how frequently to report, via some communication technology. Such methods have become mainstream in the humanitarian sector, and present a […]
New Report: Life with Corona – Shared Global Sentiments and Stark Generational Divides
Six findings from six months of Life with Corona, a global research project to collect real-time data on the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. Key findings of the report include: Young adults actively perform many behaviours to counter the pandemic. Stress on families during the pandemic fall disproportionately on women who live with more […]
Addressing the challenges of the forcibly displaced and their host communities in the ESCWA region
This project will address the long-term development challenges associated with the forced displacement that is a result, particularly, of the Syrian conflict, but also of other conflicts that have occurred or are on-going in the ESCWA region. In doing so, the project will support a track-II style process led by ESCWA with intellectual inputs. The […]
SEEDS: Long-term Impacts of a Complex Agricultural Intervention on Welfare, Behaviour and Stability in Syria
In this project, we study a complex agricultural intervention in a protracted crisis setting. We use innovative quantitative methods to analyse impact magnitudes, pathways and interactions of different intervention components across multiple local contexts and on multiple outcomes.
“Rural youth in the context of fragility and conflict” published as part of IFAD Research Series
Research by Ghassan Baliki, Tilman Brück, Neil Ferguson and Wolfgang Stojetz on rural youth in the context of fragility and conflict has been published as 54 IFAD Research Series Issue. The paper was originally commissioned as a background paper for the 2019 Rural Development Report: Creating opportunities for rural youth. While conflicts are often defined […]
Agricultural Transformation in Syria: Impact Evaluation of FAO’s Smallholder Support Program
An impact evaluation to study the economic, behavioural and institutional impacts of FAO’s smallholder support programme in Syria.
2020 HG4RR Exchange Programme
Call for Applications for the 2020 HG4RR Exchange Programme is now open. The main objective of the Home Gardens for Recovery and Resilience (HG4RR) Network is to establish an international network of experts (researchers and practitioners) to advance our knowledge on topics related to home gardens, resilience, food security, emergencies and interventions. In facilitating research […]
Call for Papers – HG4RR Workshop in Berlin “Home Gardens as a Coping Strategy in Crises and Humanitarian Emergencies”
The 3rd HG4RR Network workshop will be held in Berlin at Humboldt University on 27-28 April 2020 in partnership with IGZ and ISDC. We are accepting papers for the workshop, titled “Home Gardens as a Coping Strategy in Crises and Humanitarian Emergencies”, until 15 January 2020. We encourage you to submit your research and extend […]
Long-term behavioural impact of an integrated home garden intervention: evidence from Bangladesh
Integrated home garden interventions combine training in gardening practices with education about nutrition knowledge. Such interventions have been shown to improve nutrition behaviour in low income countries. However, to date rigorous evidence is lacking for their long-term impact. We test the impact of an integrated home garden intervention on vegetable production and consumption three years […]
ISDC Research Featured in 2019 Rural Development Report
New research on how rural youth experience political violence, conducted by Ghassan Baliki (Senior Researcher at ISDC), Tilman Brück (Director at ISDC), Neil Ferguson (Senior Researcher at ISDC) and Wolfgang Stojetz (Senior Researcher at ISDC) has been highlighted in the 2019 edition of IFAD’s Rural Development Report, “Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth”. The research shows […]