September 2022

New climate emphasis within analysis of multilateral agricultural investments in Sub-Saharan Africa

Agriculture plays a dominant role in the economies of sub-Saharan African countries though productivity has historically lagged behind other regions.

Farmer's market in Kenya
September 2022

Presenting an Evaluation of Existing Poverty Measures

Agreeing on a definition of poverty is central to producing valid and reliable measures. Defining poverty, and a normative adequate standard of living, also carries practical significance for targeting assistance and tracking outcomes.

July 2021

Introducing a new project-level glimpse of multilateral agricultural investments in Sub-Saharan Africa

Through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) adopted in 2003, African countries have re-prioritized agriculture as a key lever for development.

December 2020

Categorizing Small-Scale Producers – Part 2: Visualizing Definitions with Consequences

This is part two in a two-part series on categorizing small-scale producers.  In the last post, we looked at the fact that the majority of the literature does not offer a definition o

Vegetable market
December 2020

Categorizing Small-Scale Producers – Part 1: Defining the Problem

The idea of working with small-scale producers, also known as small-scale farmers, is ubiquitous in the development literature, so much so that the term made it into SDG target 2.3: “By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers…” However, an exact defini

September 2020

Measurement Choices - Multi-Crop Plot Area (Part 2)

Over the last year and a half, EPAR has constructed over 150 indicators related to agricultural development, and shared our decisions on data cleaning and indicator construction.

Image credit: McKay Savage. A Self-Help Group from Limuru fighting food insecurity
September 2020

Explorable Data around Self-Help Group Prevalence and Coverage

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa can be defined as mutual assistance organizations through which individuals undertake collective action in order to improve their own lives. “Collective action” implies that individuals share their time, labor, money, or other assets with the group.

September 2020

Measurement Choices - Yield Area Measure (Part 1)

Over the last year and a half, EPAR has constructed over 150 indicators related to agricultural development, and shared our decisions on data cleaning and indicator construction.

September 2020

Climate Change Impacts on Small Scale Producers

Agricultural systems worldwide are undergoing changes due to shifts in a variety of factors including socioeconomic development, population growth and increasing variable and unpredictable climate conditions.

Macro Shot of Calculator Keyboard
September 2020

The EPAR Indicator Query Tool: From Data to Dashboard

For over two years, EPAR has worked to create agricultural indicators based on the data collected through the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Survey – Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA).

Rice fields in Vietnam
September 2020

Private, Public, and Philanthropic Funding for Global Agricultural and Health Research and Development

Research and development (R&D) is work that pertains to innovation, introduction, and improvement of products and processes.

Image credit: McKay Savage. A Self-Help Group from Limuru fighting food insecurity
January 2020

Explorable Data around Self-Help Group Prevalence and Coverage

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa can be defined as mutual assistance organizations through which individuals undertake collective action in order to improve their own lives. “Collective action” implies that individuals share their time, labor, money, or other assets with the group.

January 2020

Measurement Choices - Multi-Crop Plot Area (Part 2)

Over the last year and a half, EPAR has constructed over 150 indicators related to agricultural development, and shared our decisions on data cleaning and indicator construction.

January 2020

Measurement Choices - Yield Area Measure (Part 1)

Over the last year and a half, EPAR has constructed over 150 indicators related to agricultural development, and shared our decisions on data cleaning and indicator construction.

January 2020

Climate Change Impacts on Small Scale Producers

Agricultural systems worldwide are undergoing changes due to shifts in a variety of factors including socioeconomic development, population growth and increasing variable and unpredictable climate conditions.

Macro Shot of Calculator Keyboard
December 2019

The EPAR Indicator Query Tool: From Data to Dashboard

For over two years, EPAR has worked to create agricultural indicators based on the data collected through the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Survey – Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA).

May 2019

Explorable Data Around Self-Help Group Prevalence and Coverage

Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa can be defined as mutual assistance organizations through which individuals undertake collective action in order to improve their own lives. “Collective action” implies that individuals share their time, labor, money, or other assets with the group.

Interpretation of Shakespearean Plays Topic Modeling
May 2019

Guide to Topic Modeling for Qualitative Research – Interpreting the Results (Part 2)

This is Part 2 in a two-part series about topic modeling for qualitative research.

Romeo_and_Juliet
May 2019

Guide to Topic Modeling for Qualitative Research – Building the Model (Part 1)

This post is Part 1 in a two-part series about topic modeling for qualitative research. In this post, we focus on what topic modeling is, how EPAR uses topic modeling, and the technical nitty-gritty of writing and running your own topic modeling code.

CICO_network_infrastructure
December 2018

Regulating Cash-in Cash-Out Networks in LMICs

Many individuals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face a financial infrastructure gap. One way organizations have begun addressing this financial infrastructure gap in low-income and rural communities is through the provision of digital financial services (DFS). To utilize DFS however, users must be able to convert physical cash into electronic money through cash-in, cash-out (CICO) networks.

Level of Perceived Risk by Gender and Domain, Mali
April 2018

Risk Perceptions among Smallholder Farmers in Mali

Risk – and the perception of risk - shapes our lives and the decisions we make every day. In a recent paper published in Risk Analysis, EPAR with lead author Alison Cullen analyzes perceptions of risk among smallholder farmers in Mali, with a focus on exploring how gender affects risk perceptions.

Reconstruction in Nepal
February 2018

Conceptualizing Self-Sufficiency for Aid Recipient Countries

Multilateral and bilateral donors generally intend for economic development aid to recipient countries to decrease over time and for those countries to move toward greater self-sufficiency. Recent EPAR research looks at whether the concept of "self-sufficiency" for aid recipient countries is defined in the academic literature, grey literature, and donor policy documents. 

Photo Credit: PATH/Evelyn Hockstein
December 2017

Factors Affecting Private Sector Investment in Global Health R&D

Private sector investment in overall health research and development (R&D) exceeds $150 billion annually, but only $5.9 billion of this is focused on global health diseases that primarily affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A recent EPAR review examines the evidence in the literature for five hypothesized disincentives to private sector investment in global health R&D, and looks at examples of policy incentives that may help promote private sector investment.

Photo credit: PATH/Evelyn Hockstein
December 2017

Addressing Challenges to Private Global Health R&D Investment Through Partnerships

EPAR reviewed the literature on factors affecting private sector investment in global health R&D. Partnerships are common across all phases of preclinical and clinical research. Both within the private sector and spanning the private, public, and philanthropic sectors, partnerships are generally seen as effective mechanisms to overcome research disincentives and increase private investment in global health R&D.

Photo Credit: The Guardian
November 2017

Long-term Impacts of Cash Transfer Programs: What Does the Evidence Say?

Cash transfer programs have become an increasingly common tool used in low- and middle- income countries to promote investments in education, improve health outcomes, and combat poverty. EPAR conducted “a review of reviews”, with an emphasis on reported evidence of long-term impacts of cash transfer programs.

November 2017

Who Has Heard of Mobile Money?

Being aware of the potential benefits and services of Digital Financial Services is pre-requisite to accessing them. We analyzed the effect of various sociodemographic characteristics on an individual’s likelihood to be aware of DFS, focusing in particular on differences by gender.

Delivery of Goods Funded by USAID
November 2017

Donors’ Dilemma: Bilateral versus Multilateral Aid Channels

Foreign aid donors face many decisions about how they should disburse aid, and must be able to justify these choices to their constituents. Among the choices that donors must make is whether to allocate via bilateral versus multilateral channels.

Photo Credit: UN Women/Fatma Elzahraa Yassin
November 2017

Providing Legal Identity to All

There are more than 1.1 billion individuals without official proof of identity throughout the world today, according to the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) program.

Rice fields in Vietnam
June 2017

Private, Public, and Philanthropic Funding for Global Agricultural and Health Research and Development

Research and development (R&D) is work that pertains to innovation, introduction, and improvement of products and processes.

Digital credit regulations map
May 2017

Digital Credit Regulatory Oversight, Overlaps, and Gaps

Digital credit refers to loans that are issued remotely (often without any brick-and-mortar infrastructure), automatically (minimizing the time and number of steps between registration and the distribution of loans), and instantly (often in less

Data used by digital credit products
May 2017

Digital Credit: An Emerging Market

Digital credit products are rapidly emerging in the digital financial services (DFS) market as a new, innovative form of accessing electronic money.

Honduras Bananas
April 2017

Food Security and Nutrition in Low-Income Countries

Food insecurity and poor nutrition, which can lead to physical and mental impairment, are widespread problems in many low-income countries. We review EPAR's researchto date on issues related to food security and nutrition.

Hmong Embroidery
February 2017

Thinking About the Impact of Gender in Development Questions

How might policy decisions and interventions have a different effect for women compared to men in rural households? We explore what EPAR's body of research to date on gender in developing countries reveals about this question.

Cell phone
February 2017

Does Money Grow on Phones?

Mobile money, or the use of mobile devices to send, receive, and transfer money digitally, is becoming more popular around the world and offers a potential pathway to increase financial inclusion amon

Myanmar Workshop
January 2017

National Identification Programs Presentation in Myanmar

EPAR was invited to present their work on national identity card programs at a workshop organized by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue for Myanmar's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, and Population.

Global Mobile Coverage
January 2017

Global Mobile Phone Coverage and Expansion

Researchers at the World Bank, in a 2012 report, estimated that nearly 3 in 4 people worldwide now have access to a mobile phone.

Nigeria Growth and Poverty
January 2017

Economic Growth & Poverty in Nigeria: Part 2 of 2

This is the second in a two-part series on measuring and understanding economic growth and poverty in Nigeria, presenting findings from EPAR Technical Report #327. Nigeria became Africa’s largest economy in 2014.

Nigeria Growth and Poverty
January 2017

Economic Growth & Poverty in Nigeria: Part 1 of 2

This is the first in a two-part series on measuring and understanding economic growth and poverty in Nigeria, presenting findings from EPAR Technical Report #327.

Harvest Labor
January 2017

Impact of Rural and Agricultural Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), over 60% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on the agricultural sector for their livelihoods.