The Impact of Covid-19 on Livelihoods and Food Security

Studies of livelihoods and food systems since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 have shown a consistent pattern: the primary risks to food and livelihood security are at the household level. Covid-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. The studies included in this Research for Policy and Practice Report and supported by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Programme span several continents and are coordinated by leading research organisations with a detailed understanding of local food system dynamics and associated equity and livelihood issues in their regions: (1) the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa; (2) supporting small and medium enterprises, food security, and evolving social protection mechanisms to deal with Covid-19 in Pakistan; and (3) impact of Covid-19 on family farming and food security in Latin America: evidence-based public policy responses.

The Impact of Covid-19 on Livelihoods and Food Security

Studies of livelihoods and food systems since the start of the global pandemic in 2020 have shown a consistent pattern: the primary risks to food and livelihood security are at the household level. Covid-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. The studies included in this Research for Policy and Practice Report and supported by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Programme span several continents and are coordinated by leading research organisations with a detailed understanding of local food system dynamics and associated equity and livelihood issues in their regions: (1) the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa; (2) supporting small and medium enterprises, food security, and evolving social protection mechanisms to deal with Covid-19 in Pakistan; and (3) impact of Covid-19 on family farming and food security in Latin America: evidence-based public policy responses.

International Real Estate Review

We study the relative performance of private equity real estate joint ventures by using new data that connect investment style, ownership structures, and quarterly cash flows for a large sample of sold properties from 1978-2009. The expansion into joint ventures by private equity core, value-added and opportunistic real estate funds since 1990 has been significant. This paper tests three hypotheses. First, do real estate joint ventures experience higher returns? Second, are investment fund managers generally willing to take on riskier projects in forming joint ventures? Third, are joint ventures formed to procure new business and grow assets under management and maximize fund fees? Tests of these hypotheses are performed by using quantile regressions, to determine whether the returns on joint venture projects are more concentrated in the tails of the return distribution ¡V particularly in the left (low end) tail ¡V than are whole assets. We reject the hypothesis that real estate joint ventures experience abnormal returns overall. However, we do find evidence that there is a lot more risk taking by value-added funds relative to core funds. Our evidence is also consistent with more risk taking by large investment fund managers vs. small investment fund managers.

Engineering and Social Justice through an Accreditation Lens: Expectations and Learning Opportunities for Ethics and Equity

The inclusion of Ethics and Equity as one of the twelve essential attributes mandated for accredited engineering programs in Canada represents a unique opportunity for engineering educators. Never before has the term equity been included in criteria for accreditation. To apply professional equity in the practice of engineering requires our students to learn about world affairs and diverse ways of life, about historical and sociological frameworks for exploring their own global frames of reference, and those of others, about current and historical examples of engineering approaches to making our world more equitable, and about how all of this can be used to integrate equity into their practice of engineering. Three settings in which we can provide our students with opportunities to learn about these concepts include humanities courses, an engineering equity core course, and immersion throughout coursework in engineering core courses. Ideally, a combination of the three should be implemented.