Explore SPARC’s publications and resources as we create, distil, evaluate and share evidence and best practice on research and policy that aims to support pastoralists and farmers in dryland areas.
This study builds on earlier SPARC-IDRC research on food prices in Mali and Sudan by looking at subsequent price changes and their drivers, effects, and public responses from 2023 to mid-2025.
This journal article assesses the persistence of pastoral livelihoods despite far-reaching social, political, economic, and technological change over the last 45 years (1975–2020).
Despite efforts to link humanitarian responses and development programming, gaps in effectively aligning and integrating the two aids still exist. How can we move towards effective integration?
Dynamic Drylands is SPARC's podcast which explores new ways of thinking about aid, development and resilience in the drylands of Africa and the Middle East.
This policy brief looks at why aid practitioners' governance reforms in Afghanistan failed to understand or engage with existing village-level governance structures.
This policy brief looks at how aid practitioners in Afghanistan assumed a high degree of uniformity in the rural economy that does not exist, to the detriment of development interventions.
This policy brief looks at why aid practitioners missed an important opportunity to bolster food security by supporting improved post-harvest processing and storage in Afghanistan.
Using examples from Afghanistan, this research outlines 10 traps that practitioners and donors working in fragile and conflict-affected regions must avoid if aid is to engage effectively with context.
