Does gender equality in labor participation bring real equality? Evidence from developed and developing countries

Drawing on various macro- and micro-data sources, the authors present robust evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between female labor force participation and inequality. Overall, female labor force participation is found to have a strong and significant dis-equalizing impact in at least three groups of developing countries with relatively low initial levels of participation. A decile-level analysis shows that female labor force participation has higher levels of returns among top deciles compared with the lower deciles in the developing countries analyzed. This evidence focuses attention on the importance of developing policies specifically targeting women in lower deciles of the income distribution

Once NEET, always NEET? A synthetic panel approach to analyze the Moroccan labor market

In many regions of the world, the persistent, and growing, proportion of young people who are currently not in employment, education, or training is of global concern. This is no less true of Morocco: about 30 percent of the Moroccan population between ages 15 and 24 are currently not in employment, education, or training. Drawing from various rounds of Moroccan labor force surveys, this paper contributes to understanding the complex dynamics of labor markets in developing countries. First, it identifies the socioeconomic determinants of Morocco's young population not in employment, education, or training. Second, employing a synthetic panel methodology in the context of labor market analysis, the paper describes how the conditions of individuals in this group has changed over time. One striking, and worrisome, pattern that emerges from the 2010 synthetic panel data is that, even after 10 years, a majority of the young population not in employment, education, or training remained outside the labor marketor education, with very little chance of moving out of their situation. Their chronic stagnancy confirms the powerful effect that initial conditions have on determining young people's future outcomes

Replication Data for: "Documenting the adoption of Conservation Agriculture and Agroforestry in Malawi and Zambia"

This study provides a comprehensive cross-country understanding of the determinants of the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) practices and agroforestry, as well as empirical evidence on their impacts on productivity in Malawi and Zambia. Using unique panel data sets from geo-referenced agricultural household surveys combined with long-term climatic data on rainfall, temperature and soil properties, we model farmers’ adoption decisions for multiple practices simultaneously in order to capture the complementarities and/or substitutabilities among the different technologies controlling for the effect of both climatic risk factors and household-specific time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity. Furthermore, we also estimate the empirical association between the adoption of practices and the maize productivity, as well as the value of the production, taking into account potential confounders related to climate shocks, household characteristics, bio-physical soil characteristics, agro-ecological heterogeneity and government programs and institutions relevant for smallholder farmer production. The empirical analysis allows us to identify some lessons that are valid across the two countries. Our findings highlight the importance of promoting flexible technology packages that suit site-specific (climatic, agro-ecological and socio-economic) conditions in order to facilitate adoption and increase agricultural productivity and profitability

IFAD IMPACT ASSESSMENT - Community-based forestry development project in southern states (DECOFOS): Mexico

The territory of Mexico is covered by forests and wildland up to about 73% of the total territory (World Bank, 2015 and CONAFOR, 2012). This corresponds to around 140 million hectares, 80% of which are owned by communities and ejidos. Starting from the '80s, Mexico has experienced one of the largest deforestation rates in Latin America due to a number of complex socio-economic and political reasons which have reduced incentives to the sustainable use of forests with negative consequences for their long term conservation (Segura, 2000). To address and overcome problems linked to deforestation and forest degradation, the Community-based Forestry Development Project in Southern States (Desarrollo Comunitario Forestal en los Estados del Sur – DECOFOS) was designed and implemented from March 2011 to September 2016 with contribution from the Government of Mexico, IFAD, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and project beneficiaries. The project had two main components. The first component was mainly meant to raise awareness of climate change and of sustainable use and management of natural resources through trainings and capacity development. This component could be instrumental to achieving impacts when combined with the second component which had a more tangible connotation. The second component, indeed, consisted on promoting sustainable management and exploitation of forest and natural resources through reforestation, adoption of agroforestry and of good environmental practices, supporting and facilitating business enterprises through the provision of technical and financial support to the start-up of micro-entrepreneurial projects and small-businesses enterprises

New evidence from recent household surveys

Non-PRIFPRI5; HarvestChoiceEPT

Climate-change vulnerability in rural Zambia: the impact of an El Nino-induced shock on income and productivity

This paper examines the impacts of the El Nino during the 2015/2016 season on maize productivity and income in rural Zambia. The analysis aims at identifying whether and how sustainable land management (SLM) practices and livelihood diversification strategies have contributed to moderate the impacts of such a weather shock. The analysis was conducted using a specifically designed survey called the El Nino Impact Assessment Survey (ENIAS), which is combined with the 2015 wave of the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Surveys (RALS), as well as high resolution rainfall data from the Africa Rainfall Climatology version 2 (ARC2). This unique, integrated data set provides an opportunity to understand the impacts of shocks like El Nino that are expected to get more frequent and severe in Zambia, as well as understand the agricultural practices and livelihood strategies that can buffer household production and welfare from the impacts of such shocks to drive policy recommendations. Results show that households affected by the drought experienced a decrease in maize yield by around 20 percent, as well as a reduction in income up to 37 percent, all else equal. Practices that moderated the impact of the drought included livestock diversification, income diversification, and the adoption of agro-forestry. Interestingly, the use of minimum soil disturbance was not effective in moderating the yield and income effects of the drought. Policies to support livestock sector development, agroforestry adoption, and off -farm diversification should be prioritized as effective drought resiliency strategies in Zambia

Diversification under climate variability as part of a CSA strategy in rural Zambia

This paper aims at presenting empirical evidence from Zambia to better understand the linkages between climatic shocks, livelihood diversification and welfare outcomes with the goal of highlighting potential policy entry points to incentivize the types of diversification aimed at improving food security and resilience to climate shocks. We also investigate the role of different institutions in shaping diversification decisions to shed some light into potential policy levers at institutional level