The need to manage risk and secure livelihoods can be the main driver of migration decisions; however, at the same time, a derived demand for various forms of social protection, state and non-state, may arise from the migration process. Rachel Sabates-Wheeler and Ian MacAuslan argue that it is...

Identifying the poorest for selection into social transfer programmes is a major challenge facing programme implementers. An innovative cash transfer programme in northern Kenya trialled three targeting mechanisms to learn lessons about which approach is

An ongoing and highly politicised debate concerns the relative efficacy of cash transfers versus food aid. This paper aims to shed light on this debate, drawing on new empirical evidence from Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP). Our data derive from a two-wave panel survey...

Annexes to the report prepared by Michigan State University for the World Bank under contract No. 7144132, Strengthening Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa through Trade Liberalization and Regional Integration

Moral hazard is widely reported as a problem in credit and insurance markets, mainly arising from information asymmetry. Although theorists have attempted to explain the success of Joint Liability Lending (JLL) schemes in mitigating moral hazard, empirical studies are rare. This paper...

This study records the use of hybrid maize seed and fertilizer by small-scale farmers in Malawi, as well as their opinions about these inputs, from 1989-90 through 1996-97. Its main purpose is to determine whether the principal constraint to smallholders� use of maize hybrids is the...

<title>Abstract</title> Following success in Latin America, cash transfers are rapidly gaining currency as a principal tool for social protection in Africa. Pilot projects abound, but are often conceived and evaluated without much attention to the political and social implications of targeting, of payment...

This paper applies ‘policy processes’ literature to constructions of hunger. Problem conceptualization and associated solutions are understood as shaped by discourse, rhetoric and interests. Two constructions of the problem of ‘hunger’ are analysed: hunger as lack of food, associated...

Using a panel data set from Burundi where information on protection payments during the twelve-year civil war was collected, we test the relationship between payments, the nature of extraction by the rebels, and the welfare outcomes. We ask, “Does payment to rebels insure against future...