Before government programs and international aid efforts, people coped with disasters, famine, conflicts, and other shocks by coming together as a community and relying on their networks—in other words, using social capital. Social capital, in the form of community-based organizations and social networks, has traditionally played an important, but largely unexplored, role in building resilience. >> Read more
Archives for May 2014
Highlights from Conference Brief 18: Strengthening the links between resilience and nutrition
In the field of food policy, nutrition and resilience are strongly interlinked conceptually—and now Charlotte Dufour, Domitille Kauffmann, and Neil Marsland are trying to bind the two much more tightly in practice. Resilience, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is “the ability to prevent disasters and crises as well >> Read more
Highlights from Conference Briefs 10, 17 and 19
There is a wide recognition that building the resilience of the rural poor—the most vulnerable group—requires helping the affected recover from various shocks, such as weather and nutritional shocks.
Highlights from Conference Brief 16: Building a resilient global food system by lowering food price spikes and volatility
Why should we be concerned about volatility and spikes in global food prices, particularly since they have subsided in recent years?
Farming First and IFPRI Photo-Infographic Series
The photo-infographic series below has been produced by Farming First in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in conjunction with the 2020 Conference.
Highlights from Conference Brief 8- Resilience: a primer
Resilience, a term once reserved for such fields as ecology and psychology, is now being referenced in international development circles. Does it add anything new and useful to development theory and practice or is it simply more jargon? IFPRI senior research fellow John Hoddinott prefaces his conference brief with a definition of resilience in >> Read more
Highlights from Conference Brief 1: Measuring resilience in a risky world
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. In applying a popular business adage to an international development-based resilience framework, researchers Chris Barrett and Derek Headey the case for long-term, high-frequency measurement and analysis of individual, household, and community resilience in the world’s most vulnerable regions. Their conference brief and related 2020 conference paper outline >> Read more
Bouncing back: building resilience for food and nutrition security
The following post by Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Head of IFPRI's 2020 Vision Initiative, was originally published on the Global Food Security blog. We need to be better prepared for shocks, says Rajul Pandya-Lorch of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Poor countries and vulnerable people are being hit hard by a barrage of shocks: >> Read more
Tough Love: Making Resilience Meaningful
Our guest author, Jon Kurtz, Director for Research and Learning for Mercy Corps, continues our series of blog articles on resilience published in partnership with Farming First ahead of the conference “Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security” 15-17 May 2014. Resilience has an Achilles’ heel: By being all things, it risks being nothing new. Resilience casts >> Read more
IFPRI 2020 Mobile App Now Available!
We are pleased to announce the debut of the "IFPRI 2020" mobile app for use before, during and after the conference.
