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Somalia will likely avoid widespread famine, due to scaled up humanitarian assistance and marginally improved rainfall; however, the situation within the country remains critical. After three consecutive years of drought, millions of Somalis are facing acute food insecurity and hunger, and the risk of famine remains in several areas of the country.

Coffee plays a central role in Ethiopia’s economic structure. An estimated 15 million Ethiopians depend on the coffee sector for their livelihoods, and the country remains the largest producer and exporter of coffee in Africa. Despite the importance of the crop for income generation and economic growth, however, only a small proportion of Ethiopian coffee farmers engage in practices that can result in higher quality beans and garner higher prices on the international market.

Access to and consumption of healthy diets, including fruits and vegetables, forms a key pillar of food security. Consumption of nutritious foods have been shown to reduce the risks of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and heart disease and to cut rates of early morbidity and mortality. Despite these benefits, however, the world’s population continues to overconsume unhealthy foods, such as those high in sugar, fats, and salt, and underconsume healthier foods.

Kenya’s new government has developed an ambitious Bottom-Up Economic Plan to tackle complex domestic and global challenges. “The Bottom-Up approach is about making sure that markets work, and more importantly, work for the poor,” Cabinet Secretary Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u explained during a recent policy seminar hosted by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) and IFPRI Kenya as part of the CGIAR Research Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS) seminar series.

In the spring of 2022, we taught a graduate level course titled “Agri-food Systems and Economic Development” in Georgetown University’s Global Human Development Program. One of the assignments was writing a policy brief on the impact of a major shock to food systems (such as a significant policy or technological change, natural disaster, or the COVID-19 pandemic) on a sub-population in a country or region. This post by Christian Kamm is based on the assignment.