The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100. Europe, America and the Third World

Agro-financing and food production in Nigeria.

This research covered the palliative material distribution project in Lagos State, Nigeria, during the lockdown and restriction on movement because of COVID-19 pandemic. The study engaged reports from extant literature and tertiary data sources such as the newspapers, the Internet, and website source. Relevant data gathered from these sources were conceptually analysed and discussed along with extant literature. The research also adopted the use of rich pictures for further presentation of the research. A key finding from the research is the need to redesign the distribution process and consider proper structuring of the project. And further engagement with the affected stakeholders to address crucial issues such as marginalisation that can defeat the purpose, which is to emancipate the affected indigents of the State from the harrowing effects of COVID-19 lockdown and other emergencies-related critical incidences such as starvation and criminalities. The study proposed a model for a resilience approach to effectively address the current palliative distribution process challenges in Lagos State, the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

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Re-Strategising Government Palliative Support Systems in Tackling the Challenges of COVID-19 Lockdown in Lagos State, Nigeria

Population of the World

The nexus between access to energy, poverty reduction and PM2.5 in Sub-Saharan Africa: New evidence from the generalized method of moments estimators.

This study examines how social protection policies and programmes can help in poverty and inequality reduction in Africa. The study covers 38 African countries and engages the fixed and random effects models utilising data sourced from the World Development Indicators, Gini Index and Country Policy Institutional Assessment for the period 2000–2017. A remarkable finding, among other things, from the study is that a 1% increase in the provision of social protection will decrease poverty and inequality by 58% and 26%, respectively. The results imply that the provision of social protection contributes to poverty and inequality reduction in Africa. Therefore, the study recommends that the efficient provision of social protection should be implemented through in-kind and in-cash supports, among others, in order to reduce the level of poverty and inequality in Africa. Although, social protection appears to be an essential strategy for reducing, to a more considerable extent, poverty and, to a relatively lesser extent, inequality in Africa, there are also regional variations. Thus, the study submits that the type (s) of social protection policies may need to differ from one region to the other.

Population–Poverty–Inequality Nexus and Social Protection in Africa

This study examines how the performance of the agricultural sector can be enhanced in the long-run through institutional framework thereby ensuring food security in Nigeria. It employs the ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) with data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletin, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Development Indicators (WDI), and World Governance Indicators (WDI). Food security is used as the dependent variable proxied by the number of the people undernourished under the stability dimension; agricultural sector performance and institutional framework as the independent variables, while population is a control variable. Two agricultural variables (agriculture production and agriculture credit) are employed with six variables of institutional framework. The findings show that in the long-run, agriculture production and agriculture credit (agriculture variables) will increase food security by reducing the number of people undernourished by 2% and 18%, respectively. In terms of institutional framework; political stability and absence of violence and rule of law increase food security by reducing undernourishment by approximately 69% and 29%, respectively; control of corruption and voice and accountability tends to reduce food security by increasing the number of the people undernourished by 74%, 51% and 63% respectively. Therefore, the study concludes by recommending, among others, that the Nigerian institutional framework should be improved (especially the control of corruption) in addressing the challenges in the implementation of food security programmes and ensuring timely distribution of food resources.

Agricultural Sector Performance, Institutional Framework and Food Security in Nigeria

Abstract COVID‐19 has caused economic hardship globally. Several economies are making efforts to cushion these negative effects. Following the lockdown and downward trend of global oil prices, the Nigerian economy has been hard hit. This paper sheds light on policy actors' views vis‐à‐vis what should be the economic policy response of the Nigerian government to cushion the effects of COVID‐19 and ensure quick economic recovery. A multistage random sampling method was used to select and interview 635 policy actors drawn from academia/research institutes, civil society organizations, development partners, international NGOs, national NGOs, the private sector, and the public sector. The study adopted a participatory development approach. Descriptive and deductive analysis methods were used. The results support direct cash transfers to households, and small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) as the policy option that would have huge impact in mitigating the economic effects of COVID‐19 in Nigeria. The second most recommended policy option is the eradication of corruption among government officials. The paper recommends that pragmatic actions towards eradicating corrupt practices among government officials should be an integral part of any economic recovery policy in Nigeria and other emerging economies.

Precious Ohalete

Papers

Population–Poverty–Inequality Nexus and Social Protection in Africa

Agricultural Sector Performance, Institutional Framework and Food Security in Nigeria

Nigerian economic policy response to COVID‐19: An evaluation of policy actors' views