NEWS

The average social protection program increases the value of food consumed/expenditure by 13% and caloric acquisition by 8%. Social protection also increases holdings of productive assets, livestock, and savings.

A few highlights from Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) in 2017, the first year of PIM's Phase 2. We thank all colleagues, partners, and supporters for and interesting and productive 2017, and look forward to even more exciting partnerships, research, and achievements in 2018.

The new book edited by Valeria Piñeiro and Martín Piñeiro focuses on presenting some of the main themes that are pending in the WTO negotiations, with an emphasis on the views and perspectives of the Southern Cone countries.

Agricultural mechanization is playing an increasingly important role in Africa’s rural transformation. Recent research in Ghana addresses the relationship of agricultural mechanization and economic transformation and suggests how government policies can support this process.

A new brief provides a framework and set of recommendations for enhancing gender equality and women’s rights in and through Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) initiatives. It presents key considerations for gender-responsive FLR, drawing on lessons from the wider gender and natural resource management literature, ongoing and past restoration, and relevant initiatives to alter local land uses for global conservation and development goals.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widespread globally, with estimates showing that nearly 1 in 3 adult women worldwide have experienced some form of IPV. South Asia has among the highest regional rates in the world, with 41 percent prevalence of IPV. In Bangladesh, one survey found that 72.6 percent of married women reported experiencing violence at the hands of their husbands, and another showed that 74 percent of men reported inflicting violence on their wives.

The purpose of cognitive interviewing is to systematically identify and analyze sources of response error in surveys, and to use that information to improve the quality and accuracy of survey instruments. The new paper describes the cognitive interviews undertaken in Bangladesh and Uganda in 2014 as part of the second round of pilots intended to refine the original version of the Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (WEAI).

This paper by Cheryl Doss, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Agnes Quisumbing, and Sophie Theis just published in Global Food Security inspects four pervasive gender myths: 1) Women account for 70% of the world's poor; 2) Women produce 60–80% of the world's food; 3) Women own 1% of the world's land; and 4) Women are better stewards of the environment.