This rapid review synthesises the literature from academic, policy, and knowledge institution sources on the drivers of acute food insecurity and famines with a focus on key FCDO-partner countries. This review builds further on evidence already collected in other K4D helpdesk reports. The main conclusion of this rapid review is that the drivers of acute food insecurity are complex, often involving multiple and interrelated factors. The drivers for chronical food insecurity and acute food insecurity cannot be separated entirely from each other, as the evidence shows that slow-onset determinants of food insecurity could play a critical role during an event (or multiple events) that could trigger a food emergency. The literature shows that the political economy (e.g. food system governance or preparedness of institutions to disasters) and socioeconomic dynamics (e.g. shaping demand and supply of food) have become more relevant factors in any analysis on the drivers of acute food insecurity, acute malnutrition, and famine. This coincides with a shift in the literature away from global drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition toward localised dynamics on the national and sub-national level. The analytical framework of Howe (2018) that captures this complexity distinguishes pressure, hold, and self-reinforcing dynamics as key dimensions that explain potential pathways for famine. These could be political-induced, natural-induced, economical-induced, or socially induced, but most often a combination. Based on this framework and supported by the evidence from the literature, this rapid review assesses conflicts and protracted crises; climate change and pressure on natural resources; social inequalities; and economic shocks and food prices, as the key drivers of acute food insecurity and famine. Importantly, from the literature it seems clear that acute food insecurity is the result of changing vulnerabilities that link with different coping mechanisms of households and communities.
This report is not an in-depth nor exhaustive analysis of the many indirect impacts of the pandemic on LMICs. The content is purely based on the requests from FCDO to the K4D services on this topic, and as such can only give an illustrative overview of the findings from these requests. Furthermore, insights are also taken from the data that K4D collects for each request based on the information provided by advisers and FCDO (e.g. purpose of the request, adviser’s cadre), hence, the data is limited to the information available to the K4D team at the time of the request and the level of details available may vary from one request to the other. The selection of relevant K4D outputs on the pandemic’s indirect impacts was based on an extensive search in the K4D repository on titles and research questions. The Annex shows all K4D outputs included in this report. The purpose of this report is to inform FCDO about some of the specifics of their requests on the indirect impacts of COVID-19, in general. This report will also be used as input for a K4D-FCDO learning event that takes place on the 6th of July 2021. During the event learning and evidence, trends will be discussed and how evidence and learning informed decision-making on policy and programming.
Female entrepreneurship programmes often seek women’s economic empowerment through opportunities and skills to generate higher-paid and more stable jobs. Income and jobs do not automatically empower women but can contribute as they generate the necessary resources that support agency. It is important that sufficient and decent jobs, and other employment and income opportunities, are created and made accessible for women. This paper is part of the MUVA Paper Series on female entrepreneurship. The question that it tries to answer is how to do this through the means of female entrepreneurship programmes within the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It analyses the case of MUVA, a social incubator based in Mozambique that aims to increase female economic empowerment through targeted and tailored innovative human-centred approaches.
The Covid-19 pandemic has re-emphasised the need to ensure equitable access to safe, effective and affordable health services. The very rapid shift to the use of smartphone apps and telephone consultations (telemedicine) has highlighted the potential impact of digital innovations on the capacity of health services to meet this need. It is time to take digital health seriously. In 2021, The Lancet and the Financial Times published a report by a commission of experts entitled Governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world. It describes the many ways that digital technologies are affecting health and access to health services (Kickbusch et al. 2021). The report emphasises the changing inter-relationships between the health and digital technology sectors and makes the case for effective governance of digital health. It outlines measures that can be taken to influence the speed and direction of change, with the aims of building trust and ensuring that the needs of poor and vulnerable people are met. Its focus is on global trends and global responses. This report complements that document by focusing on actions that LMICs can take to ensure that digital innovations contribute to their strategies for improving health and access to health services.
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