Policy Papers

Asia is home to some of the world’s fastest growing economies. Yet millions of people remain poor, while a handful gets richer and richer.

With the latest figures showing that over the last 15 years at least 31,000 people have died or gone missing while trying to reach Europe, the EU must let human rights be the focus at Valletta and not prioritize the EU's own agenda of tightened borders and increased state security.

The gap between where companies pay tax and where they really do their business is huge, as shown by new research described in this briefing.

With no end to the conflict in Syria in sight, the four million people forced to flee the country have no foreseeable prospect of safe return. And as the impact of the crisis on neighboring countries grows and aid dries up, the situation for these refugees is becoming increasingly dire. This briefing calls for a new approach by the international community.

The April 2015 earthquake devastated Nepal, affecting more than eight million people. This briefing paper considers the successes and challenges of the response so far, and looks at what must be done to ensure that Nepal recovers in a way which makes it more resilient and more equitable.

On 25 April 2015, Nepal was struck by a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake that left nearly 9,000 people dead and destroyed or damaged more than 850,000 homes. Many of the affected people have received some support from the Government of Nepal and aid organizations, but others are still waiting for assistance. 

This report is an independent review assessing the commitments that have been proposed ahead of COP21, this December in Paris. It shows that there is still a big gap between these proposals and what it will take to avoid catastrophic climate change and presents recommendations on how  this could be changed.

Wealthy countries have committed to helping countries in Africa to adapt to climate change, but few women producers, who are on the front line of dealing with the impacts, are feeling the benefit.

This paper describes how agricultural warrantage works in Burkina Faso and analyses it's economic viability in the North-Central region based on the storage of beans, sorghum, millet and maize.

The rights and technical capacities of indigenous peoples and smallholder farmers are the focus of the three-year global program, ‘Putting lessons into practice: Scaling up People’s Biodiversity Management for Food Security’. This briefing draws on the program’s results to suggest a global framework and six pathways for scaling up.