This article determines the extent to which the food insecurity status of women in South Africa can be reduced by participating in gardening around the homestead, using survey data from 207 women farmers. A household food insecurity average score index and an empirical model that accounts for observed and unobserved factors contributing to food insecurity were employed. The findings reveal that participating in the programme worked to reduce the food insecurity of women significantly, and also show other policy factors that need to be taken into consideration to reduce food insecurity. We recommend that policy interventions towards promoting high participation by women are a sustainable strategy to address food insecurity and to achieve the 2030 agenda targeting an end to poverty and hunger.

In conventional agricultural research for development (AR4D) projects, decisions about rural innovation activities often rest with scientists. In transdisciplinary AR4D projects in Kenya and Tanzania, we designed a methodology aiming to give key decision-making rights to the farmer groups involved. Five collaborating groups were facilitated to explore different innovation possibilities and they then put forward ideas that they wished to implement. Next, the groups were invited to apply for a small grant using a video proposal. This practical note provides information on the participatory video proposal process and highlights some benefits and challenges experienced by farmers and scientists.

This article analyses welfare impacts of fertiliser adoption using data collected from 838 cocoa farm households in the four key cocoa-producing regions in Ghana. Using propensity score matching (PSM), the study indicates that application of fertiliser leads to significant gains in farm yields, farm income, consumption expenditure, consumption expenditure per capita, and value of productive farm assets. The article concludes that cocoa-specific programmes such as Cocoa High Technology (Cocoa Hi-tech), initiated to intensify the application of improved farm technologies such as fertiliser, should be strengthened through effective and efficient management systems.

Energy poverty is a major challenge in the developing world, with an estimated 1.2 billion people lacking household electricity. Although energy poverty affects both men and women, the burden of household energy supply disproportionately affects women in low-income countries in the developing world. This article examines the impact of a women-oriented solar lighting social enterprise, Solar Sister, in Tanzania for both solar entrepreneurs and customers, demonstrating that solar lanterns positively impact household savings, health, education and women’s economic productivity and empowerment. Our study argues that Solar Sister’s approach is successful because of its explicit gender lens. Providing energy access to women translates to a pro-woman, pro-child, and pro-family development intervention.

Governance has been described as an institutionalised mode of social coordination to provide collective goods. In Ghana, governance involves various stakeholders such as the government, state agencies, development partners, the private sector, and civil society organisations (CSOs). While government’s participation in governance is mandatory, stakeholders like CSOs may be driven by certain factors to participate in the governance process. Using stakeholder analysis as its analytical lens, this article reports on a study that adopted a qualitative research approach and found that CSOs in Ghana are driven by their contribution to the development of a just society, the mandate of the organisation, funding, and recognition.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon experience widespread food insecurity, implying lifelong negative effects on human development. Urban agriculture can improve food security status at the household level and incubate sustainable development. This article outlines lessons learnt from an urban agricultural project in Lebanon that aimed to provide food security for Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities. The findings from a survey of 41 project participants show the potential to improve the project’s performance in achieving its objectives by revising the project design. Fine-tuning project objectives based on available capacities and resources, beneficiaries’ expectations, and integrating the social, cultural, technical and economic characteristics of the region into the project design could increase its success.

This article reports on a 2016 field-based multiple case study of three communities in peri-urban Port Vila, Vanuatu. It offers robust empirical evidence that participatory planning, partnerships, and programme evaluation, as espoused in the literature from the last two decades and readdressed in Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, is not regularly occurring in aid-based housing programmes. The study identifies that in sacrificing consultation – community cohesion, capacity building, resiliency, and innovation, are also sacrificed. This research differs from peer literature by employing an inductive and underutilised methodology, storytelling, and by focusing on an at-risk country which receives little academic, NGO, or development attention.

This article reviews how peacekeeping officials safeguard children from sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in Liberia, more than 15 years after the landmark reports published on this issue. Based on original fieldwork conducted in Liberia and in New York, the article introduces an innovative framework to assess whether or not organisations effectively safeguard children from SEA. It reviews three interrelated issues: reinforcing the institutional environment in the country, strengthening prevention of and accountability for child SEA by UN actors. The article concludes with specific policy recommendations for actors involved in peacekeeping activities.

While there is consensus among those working to prevent violence against women and girls of the need to develop the capacity of researchers and implementers working in the global South, there is insufficient evidence on how to effectively achieve this. This article reflects on the approaches used by the What Works programme to develop capacity. It recommends that effective capacity development requires: meaningful commitment; an organic process driven by the needs of the global South; recognising the importance of soft-skills; acknowledging what is achievable within resource constraints; and a commitment to women’s rights and gender equality.