Constraints to growth in Malawi

This paper applies a growth diagnostics approach to identify the most binding constraints to private-sector growth in Malawi - a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world. The approach aims to identify the constraints (in terms of public policy, implementation, and investments) most binding on marginal investment, and therefore whose relaxation would have the largest impact on growth through the investment channel. The authors find that growth in Malawi has been primarily driven by the domestic multiplier effect from export revenues. The multiplier effect is particularly pronounced due to the high number of smallholder farmers, which produce Malawi’s main export crop, tobacco, and consequently results in the widespread and rapid transmission of agricultural export income. Furthermore, despite changes in the structure of agricultural production from estate to smallholder farming and liberalization of prices and finance, a longstanding relationship persists between exports in real domestic currency and overall gross domestic product. This central role of exports in creating domestic demand highlights the importance of the real exchange rate in Malawi’s growth story, which directly increases the strength of the export multiplier. The most pressing constraint to growth in Malawi continues to be the regime of exchange rate management. Despite good progress, there is compelling evidence that the rate is still substantially overvalued. Furthermore, it is also likely that the inflow of foreign aid - in excess of 50 percent of exports -contributes to the overvaluation through its large component of recurrent expenditures.Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Access to Finance

Linking Agricultural Development to School Feeding

This paper is an output from the initial phase of the Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) Project which is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and implemented by the Partnership for Child Development at Imperial College. The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex is a project partner and part of the project’s agricultural technical consortium. As such IDS is charged with providing expertise across three areas: agricultural development, food security and social protection. IDS also play a central role in the evaluation component of the project. Over the last five years HGSF – essentially an attempt to actively and explicitly link agricultural development with school feeding – has received increasing attention from international agencies (Sanchez et al. 2005), policy makers (e.g. CAADP4), national governments, academics (Morgan et al. 2007) and practitioners (Espejo et al. 2009). BMGF has funded or co-funded some of these activities as well as other closely related initiatives such as WFP’s Purchase-for-Progress (P4P) programme.DfI

Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India, Series 1. India’s water future: scenarios and issues

River basinsEnvironmental flowsDevelopment projectsWater requirementsIrrigated farmingWater demandFood demandGroundwater irrigationIrrigation efficiencyWater harvestingSupplemental irrigationWater productivityWater conservationDrip irrigationSprinkler irrigationRainfed farmingAgricultural policy

Special Topics in Information Technology

This open access book presents thirteen outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the thirteen best theses defended in 2019-20 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

Priorities and Strategies for Soil and Water Aspects of Natural Resources Management Research in the CGIAR

Report of a TAC study on priorities for the soil and water aspects of research on natural resource management (NRM) research in the CGIAR, completed in April 1996 under the leadership of TAC members Hans Gregersen and Ted Henzell. The study is supported by background reports on a strategic review of NRM research on soil and water, and a synthesis of current activities in soil and water research in the CGIAR. The document also contains an extract from the proceedings of the CGIAR meeting in May 1996, and a transmittal from the TAC Chairman.The paper conveys TAC's views on the needs for soil and water research in the CGIAR and the mechanisms for meeting those needs. It says that strengthening research on environmental issues is needed, but linked to the CGIAR vision of contributing to poverty alleviation and sustainable food security. Other goals of NRM research should be considered as well. The balance of effort should be shifted from location specific studies to results transferable among developing countries. The centers should play an active but limited role in generating information on the condition of the natural environment, and the impact of humans on that environment. The CGIAR needed an integrated framework for NRM research, and within that framework to focus on specific subject matter. Water in particular was cited as needing more emphasis. The paper called for uniform and consistent criteria for judging CGIAR priorities for NRM activities and research. The study was requested by the Group at the CGIAR Mid Term Meeting, May 1994, and was initiated at TAC 65 in October 1994. The evolving study was considered at TAC 66, 67, 68, and 69. It was presented at the CGIAR Mid Term Meeting in May 1996

Aquaculture, fisheries, poverty and food security

Fisheries and aquaculture play important roles in providing food and income in many developing countries, either as a stand-alone activity or in association with crop agriculture and livestock rearing. The aim of this paper is to identify how these contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security can be enhanced while also addressing the need for a sustainability transition in over-exploited and over-capitalized capture fisheries, and for improved environmental performance and distributive justice in a rapidly growing aquaculture sector. The focus of the paper is on the poverty and food security concerns of developing countries, with an emphasis on the least developed. The emphasis is on food security rather than poverty reduction policies and strategies, although the two are of course related. The food security agenda is very much to the fore at present; fish prices rose along with other food prices in 2007-8 and as fish provide important nutritional benefits to the poor, food security has become a primary concern for sector policy

Conserving land, protecting water

Water resource management / Water productivity / Water conservation / Recycling / Land management / Soil conservation / Ecosystems / Ecology / Evapotranspiration / Food security / Poverty / River basins / Irrigated farming