This Policy Brief discusses whether Bangladesh should continue to pursue a national food security strategy based on self-reliance or return to its earlier policy of food self-sufficiency through domestic production. It draws on the results of a study commissioned by the UK Department for...

This paper makes the case for why safety nets are an important tool for managing the risk of natural hazards. The use of safety nets is advocated both ex ante, to prevent and mitigate the impact of natural disaster and ex post, to cope with the impacts of natural shocks. Firstly, the paper...

Droughts are frequent and severe in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and have a devastating impact on their peoples and economies. The extreme vulnerability to rainfall in the arid and semiarid areas of the continent and the poor capacity of most African soils to retain moisture result...

The frequency of dramatic natural shocks around the world is a reminder that governments and the international community need to do more to prevent and mitigate the human misery and economic costs that result from such calamities. Natural disaster risk management is a multi-sectoral endeavor to...

Books reviewed: Edited by C. Kirkpatrick, R. Clarke and C. Polidano - Handbook on Development Policy and Management Jane A. Pryer - Poverty and Vulnerability in Dhaka Slums: The Urban Livelihoods Study Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen - IQ and the Wealth of Nations Edited by Sara Oldfield - The...