Read our just published Annual Report, which gives an overview of ZEF's research and outreach activities between mid 2014-mid 2015. The Lead Article deals with the root causes of migration.

There are around 6.7 million foreign workers in Malaysia, of whom 4.6. million entered the country illegally. ZEF doctoral student Wan Teng Lai conducts research on how legal and illegal migrants live in Penang, one of Malayisia's megacities.

ZEF-director Christian Borgemeister has won the 2015 Distinguished Scientist Award of the International Branch of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), the largest entomological society in the world.

Seven women's associations in Bonn organized the first science slam for female scientists only in town in the "Landesmuseum" in Bonn on November 12, 2015. Julia Matz, ZEF senior researcher, was among the seven performing "artists".

ZEF has developed, in consultation with its stakeholders, an updated research strategy. ZEF’s six core research areas take the emerging United Nations post-2015 agenda into account which is succeeding the 2000-2015 Millennium Development Goals.

South Africa is among the 30 most water-stressed countries in the world. Many of its regions continue to face persistent water shortages as well as increasing competition between water users, a growing population and varying climatic changes.

This research explores the dynamics of local politics surrounding large hydro-power dam projects in the north-eastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh in Himalayan India.

October 2015. Ethno-cultural and language diversity are a distinctive feature of modern Kazakhstan with its more than 100 different ethnic groups such as Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Germans, etc. Unlike its Central Asian counterparts, Kazakhstan has strived for institutionalized multiculturalism.

The "grazing game" is a learning tool to better understand the behavior of farmers in response to climate variability. This article informs about game trials conducted with local farmers in West Africa.

Professor Ninomiya's visit is part of the collaboration program between the University of Tokyo and ZEF. Professor Ninomiya gave two lectures in ZEF's Doctoral Studies Program which were partly video-transmitted to students in Japan.

In the just published bi-annual newsletter ZEF news you can read about why it is important to look into the root causes of migration, why farmers in West Africa play games to adapt to climate change, and how migrant laborers in Malaysia cope with life's challenges.

ZEF-director Joachim von Braun met with Bono (lead singer of U2) in Cologne, Germany, on October 18. They discussed actions on how to monitor and enforce the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the G7 commitments to end hunger, the current refugee crisis, as well as the situation in Syria and North Africa.

ZEF-director Joachim von Braun presented a paper on “Refugees and migration – consequences for development policy” at the event "Africa Insight" of the Africa Association (Afrika Verein, Wirtschaft) in Berlin, September 24, 2015.

ZEF's research group on the Economics of Land Degradation has just published five case studies (on Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania, India as well as Uzbekistan) in which the costs of action towards combating land degradation are weighed up against the costs of inaction over a 30-year horizon.

Professor Eva Youkhana has taken over the Department's interim leadership from Professor Anna-Katharina Hornidge as of September 1, 2015.

ZEF researchers won prestigious awards at the 29th tri-annual International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE) in Milan, Italy, on August 13, 2015, in which more than 1200 researchers from about 70 countries participated. They received the awards for best contributed papers in both categories of oral and visual presentations.

Find a Summary of Findings and Outlooks based on the cooperation of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the WASCAL doctoral program on Economics of Climate Change at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

PAUWES’ first batch of students attended workshops and a summer school on water, energy and climate change in Cologne and Bonn. The 26 students from 12 African countries were attending courses at ZEF and UNU-EHS from July 27-July 31.

The NutriHAF-Africa project carried out its kick-off workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from July 6-9, 2015. NutriHAF-Africa is a research and capacity building project that explores options to integrate appropriate fruit and vegetable crops into multi-storey cropping systems with the aim of increasing (micro-) nutrition security, diversifying and intensifying agriculture and thus reducing pressure on natural habitats in biodiversity hotspots.