2026

Conflicts between farmers and herders are a persistent problem in the Sahel. In this context, local-level peacebuilding projects conceptualised under the idea of the humanitarian-development-peace ‘triple nexus’ have become more common in recent years, although guidance on how to effectively address the ‘peace’ component is scarce. This paper presents new evidence on the effects of […]

Conflicts between farmers and herders are a growing source of violence across West Africa, yet rigorous evidence on effective peacebuilding interventions in such settings remains limited. This paper examines whether a brief, one-off exposure to a peace-oriented radio narrative can shift intergroup attitudes and cooperative behaviour in Sierra Leone’s Falaba District, where farmer–herder tensions are […]

Light touch peacebuilding interventions have the capacity to reach a large number of people cheaply, particularly in remote settings where access is otherwise difficult. These interventions are often observed to change short-term behaviours but questions arise about their capacity to shift underlying attitudes and preferences in the long term, let alone to influence aggregate indicators […]

Land conflicts in low-income countries often do not lend themselves to top-down, externally driven peacebuilding. We therefore study how bottom-up, community-based peacebuilding can instead help resolve such violence. This paper evaluates an intervention in Guatemala’s Polochic Valley that aimed to improve access to and attitudes towards local mediation mechanisms. Using the synthetic control method, we […]

In the last decade, calls have been made, and heeded, to advance rigorous learning of peacebuilding interventions, yet knowledge gaps about some of the most common approaches remain. As well as reflecting the difficulty of working in peacebuilding settings, this captures that the complexity of the concept of peacebuilding might be at odds with the […]

Background: Syrian farmers continue to face pressures from conflict legacies, economic instability, climate shocks, and the resultant food insecurity. Disrupted markets, damaged infrastructure and shifts in governance and policies, including the suspension of wheat subsidies over the past years, have constrained agricultural production and reduced farm profits. Prolonged hyperinflation and the overall weak Syrian Pound […]

Background To strengthen the resilience of communities devastated by the 2023 earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye, the GIZ Regional Project “Crisis Response in Earthquake-Affected Areas” (CREA) delivers multisectoral support, for example, training teachers in trauma-sensitive teaching and psychosocial support; establishing savings groups, digital bootcamps, and microcredits; training health staff and providing direct medical services; and […]

In this new midline analysis report, we evaluate the impacts of the Lisungi Project on refugees and host populations in Likouala, northern Republic of Congo, where refugees make up approximately 60 percent of the population. Produced with technical and financial support from the World Bank–UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement (JDC), the report draws […]

Based on the data collected, the medium-term evaluation of the peace radio project in Niger’s Tillabéri region demonstrates that radio-based peacebuilding interventions can successfully shape key attitudinal outcomes and rebuild social fabric over time. Four years after the intervention, individuals living within the broadcasting coverage areas who were exposed to peace messaging exhibited significant gains […]

WFP’s Office of Evaluation and ISDC conducted a large-scale impact evaluation from January 2024 to February 2025 comparing the performance of four different targeting methods in Lebanon. The evaluation compares three targeting methods based on proxy means tests (PMT) which predict household vulnerability, and one on categorical scoring which selects households based on whether they match pre-identified vulnerability criteria. […]

Evidence and lessons from the Building Local Resilience in Syria Violence Against Women and Girls prevention pilots Executive Summary Syria’s prolonged conflict has deepened poverty, food insecurity, and social strain. Women play a critical role in agriculture and household welfare but face persistent barriers to accessing resources and exercising their agency. Economic hardship, shifting gender […]

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is an Andean grain crop introduced as a novel crop to many parts of the world in recent years. Recognized for nutritious seeds and high abiotic stress tolerance, it has been promoted as an element of climate-resilient agriculture, particularly in marginal environments. Successfully introducing new crops to sustainably increase and diversify […]

Invisible mental strain affects women and men, especially in rural areas. The effects of this strain can influence collective and economic decisions, impacting resilience in low-resource agricultural communities. Using qualitative data collected from focus group discussions with smallholder farmers in Western Kenya, we explored gendered strains of women and men, their social and psychological consequences, […]

Final Impact Report of FAO’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) pilot interventions Executive Summary Background: Since the onset of the Syrian conflict, women have faced heightened risks of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), particularly Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). In Phase 1 of the Building Local Resilience in Syria (BLRS) programme, the Food and Agricultural Organization of […]

Final Impact Report of the Syria Resilience Initiative’s (SRI) Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Intervention Executive Summary Background: Women in Syria face heightened risks of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), including Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), partly due to the conflict. The Building Local Resilience in Syria (BLRS) programme is testing different strategies to transform harmful gender […]

Political violence (the use of force by groups for political motives) adversely affects children and youth, but there is limited rigorous evidence on whether exposure to political violence is associated with a higher risk of subsequent interpersonal violence against adolescents and young adults. We estimate this association with multi-country micro data from nine African countries, […]

Before, during and after conflict, highly fragile countries face uncertain social and economic futures. Some countries recover, while others fall into conflict traps but all experience the deleterious and costly effects of violence. To support countries to rebuild and towards sustainable social and economic stability, BMZ draws on Transitional Development Assistance (TDA), which is designed […]

Those who seek to make and build peace have a number of tools at their disposal. Since the end of the Cold War, negotiation and mediation between conflicting parties has become an increasingly common part of this toolkit. These approaches avoid the expense of other activities but significant debates have arisen about their effectiveness and […]

Alongside health, peace is a fundamental prerequisite for human development. However, it seems infinitely more difficult to define, measure, or influence peace and its individual experience than to do so for health. What cannot be measured often does not count at all. Therefore, the role of peace in human development is regularly and systematically disregarded […]

The COVID-19 pandemic caused extensive food insecurity in low-income countries. However, most studies rely on aggregate-level exposure measures, overlooking individual-level heterogeneity and introducing measurement errors that limit causal inference. To overcome these gaps, we examine the impact of COVID-19 exposure on food security in four African countries – Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Mozambique – […]

Climate and conflict crises increasingly occur together, creating compounded risks for household food security. This review synthesizes evidence from 37 quantitative studies published 2020–2025 on how climate crises (such as drought, storms, or floods), violent conflict (such as war and institutional fragility), and their interactions affect household food security. Most studies examine either climate crises […]