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The mobile money revolution has begun to substantially increase financial access around the world. Mobile money accounts allow people previously excluded from the formal financial sector to access savings accounts, make payments to merchants, and make person-to-person transfers, among other services. Research has shown that mobile money access can have important effects on key outcomes such as improved resilience and food security.

Beans play an important role in the diets of rural Ugandans, making up as much as 25 percent of average daily protein intake. They are also an important cash crop within the country, with biofortified beans holding the potential for significant value-added production and income generation. However, this potential is constrained by Uganda’s weak seed systems and uncoordinated value chains, which limit productivity.

In the spring of 2022, we taught a graduate level course titled “Agri-food Systems and Economic Development” in Georgetown University’s Global Human Development Program. One of the assignments was writing a policy brief on the impact of a major shock to food systems (such as a significant policy or technological change, natural disaster, or the COVID-19 pandemic) on a sub-population in a country or region. This post by Christian Kamm is based on the assignment.

An innovative market system development (MSD) intervention in Mozambique has helped increase use of agricultural inputs and access to critical market information among smallholder farmers, according to a new policy brief released by IFPRI. These results extended beyond the direct beneficiaries as well, highlighting the potential for such interventions to provide wide-ranging benefits.