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To what extent do the behavioral choices of Zambian smallholder farmers influence the negative effects of climate shocks, and what impact do these choices have on vulnerability and resilience? This paper uses nationally representative, three-wave household-level panel data to investigate these questions. The empirical estimation employs an instrumental variable probit regression model, which also controls for the endogeneity of key choice variables. There are four main empirical findings. First, droughts are the most prevalent climate shock rural smallholder farmers in Zambia face, but the extent of exposure differs spatially, with the Southern and Western Provinces being the hardest hit. Nationally, about three-quarters of all smallholder farmers are vulnerable and only about one-quarter are resilient. Second, increased climate shocks correlate with both increased vulnerability and reduced resilience, with short- and long-term deviations in seasonal rainfall worsening vulnerability and resilience. Third, higher asset endowments and education level of the household head reduce vulnerability and increase resilience among smallholder farmers. Female-headed households are more vulnerable and less resilient, on average. Fourth, the use of climate-smart agricultural practices-namely, minimum tillage and use of inorganic fertilizers or hybrid maize seed-significantly improves household resilience in the short term. The paper draws two main policy implications from the findings. First, the results point to an urgent need to invest in research and development for climate shock-tolerant crop varieties and in broader climate-smart agricultural technologies to scale out and scale up context-specific practices through innovative digital platforms. Second, more investment is needed in risk mitigation strategies such as weather indexed insurance, targeted social cash transfers and how to make these work effectively for smallholder farmers. Other important complementary elements include investment in innovative digital platforms that can facilitate timely delivery of climate information services and facilitating asset accumulation and education that can enable farmers to improve climate shock resilience over time.

Agricultural Sector Economics --- Agriculture --- Climate Change and Agriculture --- Climate Change Impacts --- Climate Resilience --- Climate Shocks --- Environment --- Inequality --- Livelihoods --- Living Standards --- Poverty Reduction --- Smallholder Farmers --- Sustainable Land and Crop Management --- Vulnerability

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Internet surveys may never replace in-person surveys as a gold standard, but they remain important tools for rapid, remote, and low-cost data collection. The West Bank and Gaza Poverty and Equity team had a unique opportunity to compare a Facebook survey with an in-person survey covering conflict exposure and potentially associated socioeconomic mental health outcomes over a similar time period. It is reasonable to expect that the estimates from internet surveys and in-person surveys would differ. In this case, the Facebook survey estimates more severe outcomes (e.g., higher exposure to conflict and worse mental health) than its in-person counterpart for most topics and populations. Multiple mechanisms may have contributed to this difference in estimates, including overrepresentation in the Facebook sample of respondents who were interested in the survey topics, reduced sensitivity bias in the context of a self-administered online questionnaire, and reporting more severe outcomes than personally experienced to encourage resource flows to perceived needs. Estimated outcomes tend to be more similar for people in Gaza, possibly because of greater homogeneity in socioeconomic experiences and exposure to violent conflict and broader interest in a survey on the effects of the May 2021 violence. The main results are robust to different ways of controlling for observable characteristics; neither alternative weights nor sample restrictions erase the systematic differences between the surveys.

Internet surveys.

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This study assesses jobs outcomes in the towns of South Sudan, based on a 2017 household survey and a dedicated 2019 youth jobs survey. It discusses how years of conflict have touched nearly all livelihoods, leaving few productive jobs, and causing high poverty. Most urban households diversify their job activities little, and rely on household work in agriculture, commerce or personal services, or they depend on a household member's work for NGOs or as a public servant. Many young workers say they are ready to build from the less than attractive job activities available. Workers point to a lack of funding, insecurity, and low demand as the main obstacles to doing better. The study is one of a set of four reports assessing different aspects of jobs in urban South Sudan in order to formulate policy for recovery.

Educational Attainment --- Employment --- Employment and Unemployment --- Inequality --- Labor Markets --- Living Standards --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction --- Social Protections and Labor --- Urban Development --- Urban Economic Development --- Urban Poverty --- Wages

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This report presents a detailed analysis of changes in both poverty and inequality since the fall of Apartheid, and the potential drivers of such developments. Use is made of national survey data from 1993, 2000 and 2008. These data show that South Africa’s high aggregate level of income inequality increased between 1993 and 2008. The same is true of inequality within each of South Africa’s four major racial groups. Income poverty has fallen slightly in the aggregate but it persists at acute levels for the African and Coloured racial groups. Poverty in urban areas has increased. There have been continual improvements in non-monetary well-being (for example, access to piped water, electricity and formal housing) over the entire post-Apartheid period up to 2008. From a policy point of view it is important to flag the fact that intra-African inequality and poverty trends increasingly dominate aggregate inequality and poverty in South Africa. Race-based redistribution may become less effective over time relative to policies addressing increasing inequality within each racial group and especially within the African group. Rising inequality within the labourmarket – due both to rising unemployment and rising earnings inequality – lies behind rising levels of aggregate inequality. These labour market trends have prevented the labour market from playing a positive role in poverty alleviation. Social assistance grants (mainly the child support grant, the disability grant and the old-age pension) alter the levels of inequality only marginally but have been crucial in reducing poverty among the poorest households. There are still a large number of families that are ineligible for grants because of the lack of appropriate documents. This suggests that there is an important role for the Department of Home Affairs in easing the process of vital registration.

Social Issues/Migration/Health --- South Africa