All publications and documents

Published annually, the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, and providing an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement. All content on this page is either Open Access or has been made free to read…

Over the past decade, the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) has consistently shown that governments need to look at discriminatory laws, social norms and practices to achieve gender equality and promote women’s empowerment. This 2019 global report provides an overview of the main outcomes of the SIGI in relation to women and the family, their physical integrity, access to productive and…

The Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department of the African Development Bank Group launched its “Strategy for Agricultural Transformation in Africa 2016-2025” on Monday, September 19, 2016 at the AfDB headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The objective of the launch was to present the AfDB strategy for agricultural transformation in Africa to a wide range of stakeholders on the…

Agriculture in Africa has a massive social and economic footprint. More than 60 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is smallholder farmers, and about 23 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP comes from agriculture. Yet, Africa’s full agricultural potential remains untapped. In a recent analysis, we determined that Africa could produce two to three times more cereals and grains (Exhibit…

Differentiated gender roles and activities The economic and social organization of rural societies has a high level of gender differentiation in terms of rights, activities and responsibilities. This interacts with other aspects of social stratification based on factors such as ethnicity, statutory groups, religion and level of wealth. Consequently, women do not represent a…

Soil carbon: multiple functions benefiting societies and the environment Soil organic matter (SOM)—and thus organic carbon which accounts for over 50% of its mass—has a key role in the overall behaviour of soils and the agroecosystems they support: soil physical qualities, stimulation of soil biological activity, water and nutrient storage and availability for plants and pollutant…