2024

Complex humanitarian emergencies are a main driver of food and nutritional insecurity. Agricultural interventions are key to improving nutrition and food security, and their positive impacts are well-documented in stable developing countries. However, it is unclear if their positive effects on food security hold in complex emergency settings, too. In this paper, we systematically review […]

We study how the stringency of policy measures to counter the COVID-19 pandemic affects individuals’ trust in formal institutions. Drawing on micro-level panel data from Germany spanning an 18-month period from the onset of the pandemic, we show that, on average, there is a pronounced negative relationship between the stringency level of COVID-19 countermeasures and […]

Mental health risks are high in conflict settings, but mental health research mostly focuses on non-conflict settings. Survey data from active conflict settings often suffer from low response rates, unrepresentative samples, and a lack of detailed information on the roots and implications of poor mental health. We overcome these challenges by analyzing nationally representative evidence […]

This brief is a policy-focused summary of our research on the complexities of financing peace agreements.

Our research on the complexities of financing peace agreements delves into the understudied intersection of funding and peacebuilding processes.

This report contains findings from an impact assessment of SPARK’s programme LEAD 2, focussing on its success in supporting new entrepreneurs.

The burden of poverty is caused by both material deprivation and the psychological threat associated with it. Poverty has been found to diminish cognitive ability and cause the poor to forego beneficial programs. In the present study, we examined how exacerbating the psychological burden of poverty through an intervention that asked participants to recall a […]

This paper provides empirical microlevel evidence on the gendered impacts of armed conflict on economic activity in agriculture and other sectors, combining large-N sex-disaggregated survey data with temporally and spatially disaggregated conflict event data from 29 African countries.

Background High ambient air temperatures in Africa pose significant health and behavioral challenges in populations with limited access to cooling adaptations. The built environment can exacerbate heat exposure, making passive home cooling adaptations a potential method for protecting occupants against indoor heat exposure. Methods We are conducting a 2-year community-based stratified cluster randomized controlled trial […]

Objective Providing country-level estimates for prevalence rates of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), COVID-19 exposure and food insecurity (FI) and assessing the role of persistent threats to survival—exemplified by exposure to COVID-19 and FI—for the mental health crisis in Africa. Methods Original phone-based survey data from Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda (12 consecutive cross-sections in […]