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, […]
The Welfare Research Program at ISDC focuses on the intersection between humanitarian emergencies, fragility, and conflict on one hand and economic and nutritional well being on the other. Food and nutritional security remains one of the main challenges hindering the achievement of zero hunger. It is becoming increasingly clear that countries that are affected by multiple […]
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 […]
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Florena Montoya is a Junior Researcher in the Welfare Research Program at ISDC. Her research interests lie on the intersection between economic development, agriculture, migration, conflict, and gender. She recently completed her Master’s degree in Development Economics at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from El Rosario University, Colombia. […]
Climate change and violent conflict are defining challenges of our time. However, it is not yet understood how they interact in shaping human welfare and food security, how their interaction shapes gendered outcomes, or how social protection systems can mitigate their impact. To address these knowledge gaps, we first examine how household food insecurity relates […]
Governments worldwide responded to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic with various lockdown measures. Restrictions curb the spread of a virus but also cause serious economic challenges. Evidence on how the severity of lockdown policies impacts the economic behaviour of households in low- and middle-income countries over time remains absent. To close this knowledge gap, […]
Project Background Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, and Niger are highly vulnerable to drought, a challenge that is recently intensifying due to climate change. Combined with other shocks such as political instability, security threats, and insurgent activities, these countries face a complex interplay of crises that severely impact lives and livelihoods. Anticipatory Action approaches are aimed […]
The detrimental impacts of wars on human development are well documented across research domains, from public health to micro-economics. However, these impacts are studied in compartmentalized silos, which limits a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of conflicts, hampering our ability to effectively sustain human development. This article takes a first step in addressing this gap […]
Project Background Syria is facing multiple overlapping crises, including the prolonged effects of war, recurrent droughts, soaring inflation and political instability. These challenges have severely disrupted agricultural production and local livelihoods, leaving many farming communities struggling to recover. In response, ILRS is implementing targeted agricultural interventions aimed at strengthening local resilience and enhancing farmers’ capacity […]
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 […]
We are happy to announce that ISDC has become a member of the Anticipation Hub – a platform to facilitate knowledge exchange, learning, guidance, and advocacy around anticipatory action. Anticipatory action is an important tool in the toolbox of humanitarian response. Through our work, we generate evidence around what works, and we look forward to […]
Viola Convertito a Communications Assistant at ISDC, working primarily on the ‘Building Local Resilience in Syria impact evaluation project. Her research interests focus on welfare policies in conflict-affected areas, with particular attention to food security and agricultural resilience. In the past, Viola has held various roles, including conference organizer and social media manager. Additionally, she […]
Background South Sudan continues to face severe levels of violent conflict and climatic disasters, and households rely heavily on humanitarian assistance. In Bentiu, IOM and six other UN organizations have provided early action support under the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to prepare households against the risks of future floods and to mitigate their […]
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 […]
ISDC is pleased to announce the publication of a new research article titled “Short- and Medium-Term Impacts of Small-Scale Vegetable Support on Food Security: Evidence from Syria.” Written by Ghassan Baliki, Melodie Al Daccache, Hala Ghattas, and Tilman Brück, this article provides critical insights into the effectiveness of small-scale agricultural interventions in conflict settings. Key […]
Small-scale agricultural and horticultural interventions play a critical role in improving nutrition and food security of vulnerable households in peaceful settings. However, scant rigorous evidence exists on the impacts and sustainability of such interventions in conflict settings. In this paper, we address this knowledge gap by analyzing the short- and medium-term impacts of a small-scale […]
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.
As part of the ANH Academy Week, ISDC is hosting a Learning Lab on ‘Conducting Rigorous Impact Evaluations of Food Systems Interventions in Humanitarian Emergencies and Conflict-Affected Settings.’ Session Description Many consider Rigorous Impact Evaluations (RIEs) to be the gold standard in evaluating interventions. We agree. However, various methodological, ethical, and practical challenges to conducting […]
The goal of ISDC’s work in Bentiu is to measure the development of behavioral and welfare outcomes of internally displaced households in light of shocks and humanitarian assistance, specifically anticipatory one-off cash transfers (in anticipation of floods), by regularly following up with the same 1,200 households.
As part of the ANH Academy Week, ISDC is hosting a Learning Lab on ‘Conducting Rigorous Impact Evaluations of Food Systems Interventions in Humanitarian Emergencies and Conflict-Affected Settings.’ Session Description Many consider Rigorous Impact Evaluations (RIEs) to be the gold standard in evaluating interventions. We agree. However, various methodological, ethical, and practical challenges to conducting […]
