Rural poverty, a widespread problem for the Paraguayan government over the last decade – as well as for other economies in the region – , led to the implementation, in 2016 and 2017, of the “Sembrando Oportunidades Familia por Familia” pilot program, an initiative based on the graduation approach to reduce the incidence of extreme poverty in rural areas. Evaluating the intervention results is essential to understand the effectiveness of this approach in reducing poverty in the Paraguayan context, where the government is in charge of its implementation.

We analyze the effects of the interactions that the two pillars of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy—market support and rural development—have on farmers’ uptake of organic farming practices. Special attention is given to the 2003 reform, which substantially altered the relative importance of the two types of support by decoupling direct agricultural payments from the production of a specific crop. In our empirical analysis we study the case of Sweden, making use of the variation in the timing of farmers’ decisions regarding participation in support programs.

A new methodology, Tracking Underreported Financial Flows (TUFF), leverages open-source
information on development finance by non-transparent, non-Western donors. If such open-source methods
prove to be valid and reliable, they can enhance our understanding of the causes and consequences of
development finance from non-transparent donors including, but not limited to, China. But open-source methods
face charges of inaccuracy. In this study we create and field-test a replicable ‘ground-truthing’ methodology to

Tanzania has high rates of deforestation and forest degradation. Reducing deforestation and forest degradation is an important strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, asking households to reduce deforestation means asking them to sacrifice direct benefits from forests, such as energy resources. The REDD+ programme provides a way to compensate households. This study estimates households’ willingness to accept forest-use restrictions governing participation in the REDD+ programme and its determinants.