Where are the development actors in protracted crises? Refugee livelihood and food security outcomes in South Sudan demonstrate the potential for fragile settings

Vallet, Maryada E.; Frankenberger, Timothy R.; Presnall, Carrie; Otieno, Lilian; Fu, Christine; Lee, Ellen

doi:10.1016/j.wdp.2021.100366

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The findings are consistent with a study undertaken in conflictaffected Nigeria, investigating the impact of nutrition-sensitive agricultural support on food security and resilience (Baliki et al, 2018). Similarly, another study undertaken in South Sudan demonstrated, using mixed methods approaches, the positive impact of a livelihood support program that includes the provision of vegetable inputs, skill-building, and entrepreneurship intervention on dietary diversity and food security (Vallet et al, 2021). Additional to these studies, we show that livestock and vegetable interventions show differential impact spheres where the agricultural support component particularly improves food security and nutritional self-reliance while livestock support rather addresses household income related outcomes.…”

Section: Long-term Impacts Of Other Agricultural Asset Transfers On F...supporting

confidence: 66%

“…Moreover, impacts on welfare and behaviour are often assumed rather than tested and quantified, and systematic learning for programme design and modalities is rare (Martin-Shields & Stojetz, 2019;Brück et al, 2019b). We are aware of only a handful of studies of food security interventions based on credible counterfactuals in conflict-affected settings, none of them from Syria (Aurino et al, 2019;Brück et al, 2019c;Ecker et al, 2019;Schwab 2019;Tranchant et al, 2019;Vallet et al, 2021). How and if a complex agricultural intervention improves food and nutritional security, and how it strengthens the resilience of households against recurring shocks remains broadly understudied.…”

Section: Contribution To the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Seeds for recovery: The long-term impacts of a complex agricultural intervention on welfare, behaviour and stability in Syria (SEEDS)

Baliki¹,

Weiffen²,

Daccache³

et al. 2023

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There is scarce evidence on whether and how assistance in humanitarian emergencies and conflict settings impacts household well-being and behaviour. Conducting rigorous impact evaluations in such settings poses multiple challenges in design and data collection. In SEEDS, we evaluate the impact of a complex large-scale multi-arm agricultural intervention on productivity, food security, and resilience in the context of an on-going humanitarian crisis in Syria. Specifically, we identify the causal impacts of agricultural asset transfers over various time horizons (the short-, medium-, and long-run), and across different conditions and subgroups (gender and conflict intensity) at the household-level. We evaluate the effectiveness of irrigation rehabilitation separately at the community-level. We use and combine various data sources, including a unique survey panel dataset collected over a period of four years from multiple governorates in Syria, satellite remote-sensing data, and publicly available violent conflict incidence and weather data. Our findings from using cutting-edge machine and deep learning approaches together with innovative balancing and analytical methods can be summarised as follows: For average treatment effects at the household-level, we find that the provision of agricultural asset support leads to significant improvements in food security in the short- and long-term, three years after the intervention. The positive and significant effect on food security is driven mainly by the increased consumption of healthy food items such as vegetables. In the long-run, livestock support reduces the use of harmful coping strategies households employ to deal with food shortages. Interestingly, we find that households who received vegetable kits are not just less likely to sell their productive assets in the long-term but also are less likely to marry off their young daughters or send their children to work. Overall, we find that both agricultural and livestock asset support is key to improving households’ resilience in the long-term. The irrigation rehabilitation interventions at the community-level positively affected agricultural productivity compared to the pre-intervention and pre-conflict periods. However, these effects were only significantly pronounced in the spring season. As for the heterogeneity analysis, we find that female-headed households benefit remarkably more in terms of food security in the medium-term compared to male-headed families. Moreover, households residing in areas that are moderately affected by violent conflict show stronger food security improvements compared to households from peaceful or conflict-intense settings. Overall, we draw three overarching lessons from our findings in SEEDS: First, agricultural support in protracted conflict settings effectively improves the long-term welfare and resilience of vulnerable households. In fact, the presence of an ongoing humanitarian operation acts as a social safety net if circumstances deteriorate suddenly. Second, not all interventions are equally effective, and not all households equally benefit, underscoring the need to design and implement inclusive context-specific interventions with detailed targeting. Third, methodologically, using multiple remote data sources and machine learning methods help overcome challenges in conducting rigorous impact evaluations in hard-to-reach humanitarian emergency settings.

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Section: Long-term Impacts Of Other Agricultural Asset Transfers On F...supporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Contribution To the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Seeds for recovery: The long-term impacts of a complex agricultural intervention on welfare, behaviour and stability in Syria (SEEDS)

Baliki¹,

Weiffen²,

Daccache³

et al. 2023

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“…Other initiatives, such as a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) livelihood programme among refugees from 2016-18, have also documented promising results at a small scale. 18 The World Health Organization (WHO) has initiated research to explore the impacts of conflict and flooding on humanitarian-and development-supported health services and communities' access to health to inform the development of more resilient and holistic health systems.…”

Section: The Triple Nexus In South Sudanmentioning

confidence: 99%

اعتبارات أساسية: الاستجابة للفيضانات في جنوب السودان من خلال رابطة الإنسانية والسلام والتنمية

Moro,

Palmer,

Hrynick

2024

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ما هو حال دول إفريقية عديدة أخرى، تعاني جمهورية جنوب السودان بشكل متزايد من الفيضانات المدمرة المرتبطة بالتغير المناخي، وتقوم ظاهرة القطب الثنائي بالمحيط الهندي، بالإضافة إلى التردد الجنوبي - ال نينو بتنظيم مناخ شرق إفريقيا الاستوائية. وقد أدى احترار ثنائي القطب في المحيط الهندي الغربي في عام 2019، والذي تفاقم بواسطة تغير المناخ، إلى التسبب في معدلات أعلى من التبخر على الساحل الإفريقي. وسقط بخار الماء إلى الداخل على شكل أمطار هطلت فوق إثيوبيا، والصومال، وكينيا، والسودان، وجنوب السودان، مسببة فيضانات هائلة.ومنذ ذلك الحين، سقطت الأمطار الموسمية على مستنقعات سد في وسط وشمال شرق جنوب السودان على أراضي مشبعة مسبقا، مما أضاف إلى مياه الفيضانات. وأصبحت مساحات واسعة من البلاد مغمورة بالمياه على مدار السنة، وحدثت فيضانات مفاجئة في مناطق جديدة غير معتادة عليها. في ذات الوقت، يسعى جنوب السودان إلى المضي قدما نحو السلام في أعقاب حربه الأهلية بين عامي 2013 - 2018، بينما ما تزال العديد من الجماعات المسلحة منخرطة في القتال، بالإضافة الى الصراعات التاريخية مع السودان، والتي تعود الى عقود مضت. إن تأثير الفيضانات على بيئة الأمن والهشاشة الإجمالية لجنوب السودان حظي باهتمام رفيع المستوى.، فإن الفيضانات الشديدة - المصحوبة باندلاع أعمال العنف بشكل متكرر، بالإضافة الى الحوكمة الضعيفة، والفقر الكامن المستمر، والافتقار إلى البنية التحتية الأساسية والخدمات، تسبب في أزمة انسانية معقدة، وفي حرمان الدولة الناشئة (والتي نالت استقلالها عام 2011) من تحقيق السلام المستدام والعادل والصمود والتنمية. إن ترابط هذه الديناميات، بالإضافة إلى الحاجة إلى التعامل مع هذه المشاكل بشكل كلي، تم الاعتراف به بشكل متزايد من قبل جهات فاعلة رفيعة المستوى من خلال النقاشات حول رابطة الإنسانية والسلام والتنمية، والذي يطلق عليه أحيانا ب "الرابطة الثلاثية". يصف هذا الموجز المشاكل المترابطة للترابط بين العمل الإنساني والتنمية والسلام في سياق جنوب السودان من خلال التركيز على الفيضانات. كما أن لذلك صلة أوسع بدول أخرى في المنطقة مثل جمهورية الكونغو الديمقراطية، والسودان، والذين يمران بدورات مماثلة ذاتية التعزيز للأزمات الانسانية والتنموية والسلام، والتي تفاقمت بواسطة الفيضانات. وعلى وجه الخصوص، يصف هذا الموجز الآثار متعددة الأبعاد للفيضانات على السلام، والصحة، وسبل العيش، والحوكمة. كما يوفر هذا الموجز نظرة عامة على الجهود والابتكارات في مجال الاستجابة للفيضانات، والمواقف العامة تجاهها. ويؤكد الموجز على الحاجة إلى ربط الجهود الانسانية قصيرة المدى مع جهود بناء السلام والتنمية على المدى الطويل، من خلال التعاون الهادف بين الجهات الفاعلة، والتي تعمل ضمن هذه المساحات المعزولة في كثير من الأحيان.

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“…Programs to enhance women’s economic empowerment can spur economic growth through increased economic participation [ 1 ], which positively impacts on household welfare for example by improving household food security [ 2 ], also in humanitarian settings [ 3 ]. Positive effects were further described for the foundational drivers of household welfare that benefit the next generation, such as maternal health [ 4 ] and educational attainment [ 5 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging men in women’s empowerment: impact of a complex gender transformative intervention on household socio-economic and health outcomes in the eastern democratic republic of the Congo using a longitudinal survey

Bapolisi,

Makelele,

Ferrari

et al. 2024

BMC Public Health

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Background In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, women in (peri-)urban areas are commonly engaged in small trade, which allows them to meet the basic needs of their families. Microsaving approaches are a low-risk option to obtain financing for economic activities. A project combining men’s sensitization on gender equity and women’s empowerment through village savings and loan associations were implemented in North and South Kivu to raise the household economic level. Objective This study assessed how involving men in gender equity affects women’s health and socio-economic outcomes, including food security. Methods A cohort study was conducted with 1812 women at the baseline; out of them 1055 were retrieved at the follow-up. Baseline data collection took place from May to December 2017 and the follow-up from July 2018 to January 2019. To identify socio-economic changes and changes of gender relations, linear and logistic regressions were run. Results Results showed that the household income improved with intervention (coefficient = 0.327; p = 0.002), while the capacity to pay high bills without contracting debts decreased (coefficient = 0.927; p = 0.001). We did not find enough statistically significant evidence of the influence of the intervention on skilled birth attendance (coefficient = 0.943; p = 0.135), or family planning use (coefficient = 0.216; p = 0.435) nor women’s participation in the decision-making (coefficient = 0.033; p = 0.227) nor on couple’s cohesion (coefficient = 0.024; p = 0.431). Food insecurity levels decreased over time regardless of being in the intervention or control area. Conclusion Empowering women while sensitizing men on gender aspects improves financial well-being (income). Time, security, and strong politics of government recognizing and framing the approach are still needed to maximize the benefit of such projects on social factors such as women’s participation in decision-making and social cohesion.

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Where are the development actors in protracted crises? Refugee livelihood and food security outcomes in South Sudan demonstrate the potential for fragile settings

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

Seeds for recovery: The long-term impacts of a complex agricultural intervention on welfare, behaviour and stability in Syria (SEEDS)

Seeds for recovery: The long-term impacts of a complex agricultural intervention on welfare, behaviour and stability in Syria (SEEDS)

اعتبارات أساسية: الاستجابة للفيضانات في جنوب السودان من خلال رابطة الإنسانية والسلام والتنمية

Engaging men in women’s empowerment: impact of a complex gender transformative intervention on household socio-economic and health outcomes in the eastern democratic republic of the Congo using a longitudinal survey

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