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Newsletter, May

This week listen to the new Make Change Happen podcast, find out how Kenya's coffee sector is dealing with COVID-19, three roles to apply for and more.

What makes a sustainable diet? And who decides?

Globally, we are producing more food than ever. But for many of the world’s poorer citizens, secure access to safe food is becoming less certain. To counter this, an advocacy programme called Sustainable Diets for All is asking: how can we create food systems that are fairer, healthier and more sustainable? We explore the programme’s citizen-led approach and hear from local partners.

Listen now to episode 5 of the Make Change Happen podcast

A cement factory in Cameroon. The country's government has a framework for development policy that identifies the extractive sector as one of its driving forces (Photo: copyright RELUFA)

Blog by Lorenzo Cotula and Brendan Schwartz

COVID-19 and global economic ordering: radical shift or more of the same?

The fallout from COVID-19 has triggered narratives about profound changes to economic ordering. A closer look provides a more complex picture, particularly for countries in the global South.

Find out more in the recent blog

"The pandemic has exposed socioeconomic disparities that were, all along, clear for everyone to see but gained little traction in policy agendas."

A wig market in Accra, Ghana. With the government recently starting to lift its lockdown, citing progress on other containment measures and concern with impacts on the poor and vulnerable, will scenes like this quickly return? (Photo: Francisco Anzola, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Blog by Andrew Norton

Coming through the pandemic the right way up

COVID-19 risks exacerbating inequality and ecological destruction, but it may also bring lessons of environmental and social justice that shift values, strengthen solidarity and encourage people to mobilise for change.

Read the blog now

Women separating groundnuts from stalks in Mwansambo (Photo: Barbara Adolph, IIED)

Case study

No room for manoeuvre: debt prevents investing in the future

This case study highlights the challenges that farmers in Malawi face when trying to intensify their agricultural production. It focuses on smallholder farmers in the Mwansambo area of Central Malawi. Mwansambo and neighbouring areas are important food and cash crop producing regions. But despite decades of agricultural development interventions, farmers are still struggling to feed their families and invest in sustainable land management.

Read the case study

Women hand pick the coffee that is exported by Vava Coffee Ltd (Photo: Vava Angwenyi)

Webinar

Kenya’s coffee sector in the COVID-19 context: can producer agency be sustained?

A webinar on 19 May will discuss an experience of promoting the agency of coffee growers as well as youth and women entrepreneurship in Kenya’s coffee sector, the implications of COVID-19 and some possible pathways to sustaining the progress made to date.

Find out more and register to attend

We're hiring

Wanted: latest advertised roles at IIED

Human resources director: Apply by 14 May

Principal researcher (inclusive blue economy): Apply by 17 May

Digital Officer – Communications: Apply by 18 May