Work is well underway on two new ESRC-funded Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (DSAI) projects. In the first, new NRI Post-Doctoral Researcher Dr Olusegun Fadare, Dr Marcella Vigneri at LSHTM and NRI Visiting Professor Tilman Bruck collaborate on seeking to identify the impact of exposure to conflict and violence on the violence against children.

In the second project, titled ‘Evaluating the interrelated impact of commodity expansion, market access, and forest conservation on food security in tropical landscapes’, Dr Truly Santika, Dr June Po and other NRI colleagues combine remote sensing and different secondary data-sets to examine the combined impacts of different processes of change on food security and other development and environmental outcomes in five of Indonesia’s major islands.

Following Future Leader Fellow Dr Uche Okpara’s research on peace and prosperity in the Lake Chad Region, Dr Fiorella Picchioni has won NRI a second UKRI Future Leader Fellowship. Over the next five years, her fellowship will support the setting up of an interdisciplinary, multicountry and innovative Observatory for Research and Practice on Food Systems and Social Reproduction where the aim is to transform food systems in ways that i) no longer perpetuate inequalities and injustices currently embedded in the way food is produced, distributed and consumed; ii) are resilient to shocks resulting from economic crises, conflict and ecological disasters.

Prof Valerie Nelson continues her work for The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IBPES) as a lead author on the Transformative Change assessment.

Dr Lora Forsythe was invited to attend the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Leaders’ Forum in Ecuador in November/December where she presented on Gender Based Violence in Food systems.

In October, Dr Uche Okpara chaired a panel session on ‘Adaptation at the Nexus of Climate Change and Conflict’ at the 2023 Adaptation Futures Conference in Montreal and led a problem lab session titled ‘Against the Odds: Connecting and Innovating to Deliver Meaningful Prosperity and Peace Pathways’ at the 2023 Canadian Society for Ecological Economics Conference in Toronto”.

Prof Vegard Iversen’s joint paper in collaboration with UNU-WIDER colleagues titled ‘Barriers or Catalysts? Traditional Institutions and Social Mobility in Rural India’ will be presented at the Royal Economic Society’s Annual conference in Belfast in March.

20-21 February NRI is organizing a project end conference for the GBP 7.5 million Expanding Excellence in England funded ‘Food and Nutrition Security Initiative’ (FaNSI) with panels covering Food Systems and Nutrition, Food Loss and Waste Reduction, Sustainable Agricultural Innovation and Climate Change. The Climate Change panel includes presentations by Zinta Zommers, climate change lead for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Vice Chair of the IPCC, who will speak on linkages between climate change, food security and the need for humanitarian action. Dr Mofa Islam, NRI, will present recent research using large-scale secondary socio-economic and environmental datasets to analyse linkages between climate change and farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria. Dr Uche Okpara will present work on the nexus of thermal discomfort and conflict in the Lake Chad Basin. Finally, Dr Laxmi Pant, NRI, will present on alternative food movements as contested vehicles for climate justice.

Time in Office and the Changing Gender Gap in Dishonesty: Evidence from Local Politics in India’, by Ananish Chaudhuri, Vegard Iversen, Francesca R. Jensenius and Pushkar Maitra. American Journal of Political Science

Livestock diversification mitigates the impact of farmer-herder conflicts on animal-source foods consumption in Nigeria by Olusegun Fadare, Chittur Srinivasan, and Giacomo Zanello.

Gender-based violence in food systems in Nature Food by Lora Forsythe.

NRI continues to accept applicants for our excellent MSc in Global Sustainable Development (previously Transformative Change for Sustainable Development), currently in its second year, which has been very well received by our students (PTES score of 100%). More information on course content.