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Digitalizing agriculture in Africa: promises and risks of an emerging trend

by Fabio Gatti and Oane Visser  | EADI/ISS Blog Series

The potential of the digitalization of agriculture in Africa to contribute to food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability agendas is being increasingly recognized, as shown by growing investment in digital technologies that are supposed to help small-scale farmers to ‘upgrade’ the way they farm. However, these technologies should not be considered panaceas from the get-go and require critical scrutiny to ensure that they will benefit those who need it the most. Continue reading “Digitalizing agriculture in Africa: promises and risks of an emerging trend”

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COVID-19 and Development Co-operation: we know a lot about what works, let’s use the evidence

By Per Øyvind Bastøe, Wendy Asbeek Brusse and Jörg Faust

The recent statement from the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee calls for sustained action to address the crisis in the poorest countries of the planet. In these societies, the pandemic will encounter weak public health systems. Lock-down measures will crush fragile economic structures and worsen the social situation for many people, particularly among the most vulnerable groups in society. Continue reading “COVID-19 and Development Co-operation: we know a lot about what works, let’s use the evidence”

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The Coronavirus pandemic and the irrelevance of the SDGs

By Remco van de Pas

We are awakened to a new reality. The pandemic outbreak by an infectious pathogen comes to no surprise to the Global Health community. The World Health Organization (WHO) has prepared for pandemic scenarios and response plans since over a decade, albeit that they have been written for an influenza virus, not for the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic that we currently face. What is unpresented though is how countries fall back on their own security and economic matters, and that multilateral cooperation is under severe constraints. A large part of the planet’s population is currently under some form of quarantine and travel restrictions. This is unprecedented in human history. Continue reading “The Coronavirus pandemic and the irrelevance of the SDGs”

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How do we live with corona?

By Ghassan Baliki, Tilman Brück, Neil Ferguson, Patricia Justino and Wolfgang Stojetz 

People who live through extreme events are, often deeply, altered by the experiences they have. Even when those experiences take place predominantly in the physical realm, they are also events of consciousness. They come not only with physical impacts but also with emotional ones, and consequent to that, changes in behavioural choices, and maybe even preferences. Continue reading “How do we live with corona?”