About the conference Fragile Lives 2025 is the second edition of an annual international expert conference focused on using rigorous, scientific evidence to inform policy interventions in fragile, conflict-affected, and underdeveloped settings. It will take place on 30 September and 1 October 2025 at Humboldt University in Berlin. This year’s central theme is: Gender, Institutions, […]
ISDC’s Behavior Research Program analyses how people, households and groups cope with major shocks to lives and livelihoods. We study how experiencing these shocks shapes choices, preferences and coping strategies, and contributes to wellbeing at the individual and household levels, as well as how they aggregate through society as a whole. Human development faces its […]
Project Background In February 2023, parts of Syria and Türkiye were struck by two of the most destructive earthquakes in recent history, causing widespread destruction to infrastructure and directly affecting the lives and livelihoods of more than 15 million people. In Syria, different governance systems and contested territorial control at the time limited the ability […]
When refugees flee violent conflict, they carry the legacies of their experiences across borders. Using representative survey data from refugees living in Jordan, we examine how pre-displacement exposure to violent conflict shapes the long-term social well-being of refugees.
With over 43 million refugees worldwide, the long-term effects of conflict exposure on their social well-being remain underexplored. This is your chance to uncover the hidden legacies of conflict and understand how they shape the lives of refugees. Join us for a thought-provoking webinar that examines how pre-displacement exposure to violent conflict affects the long-term […]
With over 43 million refugees worldwide, the long-term effects of conflict exposure on their social well-being remain underexplored. This is your chance to uncover the hidden legacies of conflict and understand how they shape the lives of refugees. Join us for a thought-provoking webinar that examines how pre-displacement exposure to violent conflict affects the long-term […]
Valentyna Lapa is a Junior Researcher in the Behavior Research Program at ISDC. Her research interests lie in development economics and political economy, focusing on inequality, development assistance, and sustainable development. She completed her Master’s degree in Development Economics at the University of Göttingen in Germany. Before joining ISDC, Valentyna worked as a Research Assistant […]
Timur Cipa is a Researcher in ISDC’s Behavior Research Program. His research interests lie in political economy and development economics, with a particular focus on the intersection of climate change, conflict, and development. At ISDC, Timur’s current work explores how multidimensional crises in Sudan affect livelihoods and how interventions can support affected populations. Before joining […]
This paper studies the social protection of refugees during a pandemic. A pandemic adds to the many existing challenges refugees face, creating a dangerous polycrisis. Drawing on detailed household-level data collected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees just before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, we analyse the economic impacts of granting work permits […]
This paper provides empirical micro-level 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. We find that local conflict exposure is only weakly related to labour-force participation, but strongly reduces the […]
Polycrises created by violent conflict and climate change are ubiquitous. Yet, the impacts of conflict and climatic shocks on human behavior and welfare have largely been studied in isolation. This paper studies the joint impact of conflict and climatic shocks on households’ social safety nets in fragile settings. Drawing on unique panel survey data from […]
This paper provides novel evidence on the impacts of agricultural support programs in acute emergency settings, by studying resilience in mostly rural areas in the context of a multi-package intervention in conflict-affected Borno State, North-east Nigeria. We account for the challenging research environment in this insecure setting by carefully adapting our research design, thus generating […]
Project Background Sudan is facing a severe humanitarian crisis as ongoing violent conflict has led to widespread food insecurity, limited access to essential services, and displacement. The situation is especially serious in Darfur, where half the population depended on humanitarian aid even before the war. The joint programme by WFP and UNICEF aims to provide […]
During protracted displacement, women and girls often face serious gender-specific challenges and vulnerabilities, including adverse norms and institutional barriers. Using survey data from 18,533 displaced and non-displaced individuals in El Fasher, Sudan, we document that livelihoods are significantly shaped by a strong and complex intersectionality between long-term displacement and gender. IDP women work more (including […]
Fragile Lives 2024 was the first edition of a new annual expert conference aimed at discussing the role of scientific evidence in shaping policies for fragile and conflict-affected areas. Throughout the event, held on 1 and 2 October 2024 at Humboldt University of Berlin, representatives from academia, policy, and practice explored how poly-crises, where violent […]
Project Background In 2022, the World Bank Group launched the Invest in Childcare initiative to drive investments in high-quality and affordable childcare. Expanding access to such childcare is among the most important investments countries can make to build human capital, accelerate gender equality, and place women and children at the center of economic growth. Over […]
Project Background Climate change poses a serious threat to food security in the Kyrgyz Republic, particularly for poor and vulnerable households. Specifically, effective adaptation in the agricultural sector is increasingly recognized as a critical policy component for reducing vulnerability and mitigating adverse climatic impacts. Improvements in smallholder agricultural systems have the potential to address food […]
Registration is now open for the international expert conference ‘Fragile Lives 2024‘! The conference, which will take place on 1-2 October 2024, will host a unique mix of experts from academia, policy, and practice speaking on the cutting edge of research and programming on three themes: Key speakers include: Beyond that, the conference will include […]
The Vulnerability Assessment Framework (VAF) is a tool developed by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Jordan to track changes in refugees’ living situation over time. In 2023, ISDC was tasked with supporting the development of a new module to this framework that can measure climate vulnerability: the climate change vulnerability index. This index would […]
Strengthening social protection in complex humanitarian settings is a top priority for policy-makers and practitioners. This project will generate relevant evidence from two reseach studies.
Dr. Francisca Castro is a postdoctoral researcher in ISDC’s Behavior Research Program. She obtained her PhD in Political Science from Humboldt University of Berlin, where her dissertation focused on the intersection between protest movements and electoral behavior in Latin America. Her research interests include intrastate conflict, state repression, and democratic backsliding. Her work has been […]
