Date: 1 & 2 October 2024

Fragile Lives

Location: Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Evidence from human development, food security, and peace in poly-crisis.

About the conference

Fragile Lives 2024 is an international expert conference on the use of rigorous, scientific evidence for the development of knowledge-based policy interventions in fragile, conflict-affected and under-developed settings. It will focus specifically on how poly-crises shape individuals, institutions, and interventions at the micro-level and on the policies that can boost resilience and coping capacities in the context of these shocks.

Across three themes, we will examine the drivers, dynamics, and impacts of poly-crises, spanning violent conflict, humanitarian emergencies, and the climate crisis:

Lives and Livelihoods

How do people respond to and cope with poly-crises around the world?

Achieving Zero Hunger

How do we best increase food security in poly-crises?

Peace and Prosperity

How can rigorous evidence inform the design of effective peacebuilding measures?

Across two days, Fragile Lives 2024 will:

Present rigorous analyses of questions of significant policy interest in the compounding challenges poly-crises;
Discuss how causal evidence can be used to develop new policy to improve the lives and livelihoods of people affected by such shocks and poly-crises;
Offer novel policy recommendations for how to protect and support vulnerable households and institutions; and
Connect academia and practice across disciplines, institutions, sectors, and countries to facilitate learning on how to deal with our increasingly uncertain and challenging world.

Fragile Lives 2024 will take place on 1 & 2 October 2024 at Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin in Germany. It is organized jointly by the Zero Hunger Lab of Humboldt-University of Berlin with IRI THESys and Leibniz Institute of Vegetables and Ornamental Crops (IGZ).

In addition to its panel sessions and keynote speeches, Fragile Lives 2024 will also host the annual workshops of the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN), the Leibniz Environment And Development Symposium (LEADS), and the Methods Working Group of German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies (AFK Methods), enabling a unique level of interaction between experts from international donor organizations, practitioners, and cutting-edge academic research.

Each of the workshops has published its own CfP and the paper submission deadline is 10 May.

Call for Papers

HiCN · Understanding Poly-Crisis

AFK Methods · Empirical Research on Peace and Conflict Workshop

LEADS · Leibniz Environment and Development Symposium

Fragile Lives Opening Speeches

Julia von Blumenthal (President of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Martina Brockmeier (President of the Leibniz Gemeinschaft), and Deike Potzel (Director General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilisation, Peace Building, and Humanitarian Assistance of the German Federal Foreign Office).

Keynote Speakers

Agnes Quisumbing

Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute

Agnes Quisumbing is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. She co-leads a research program that examines how closing the gap between men’s and women’s ownership and control of assets may lead to better development outcomes.

Ibrahim Elbadawi

Managing Director, Economic Research Forum

Ibrahim Elbadawi is the Managing Director of the Economic Research Forum (since January 2017- August 2019; August 2020- present). He was also Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Republic of Sudan (Sept 2019-July 2020).

Local Organizers of Fragile Lives 2024

Tilman Brück (IGZ, HU Berlin and ISDC), Jonathan Garcia (IGZ and HU Berlin) and Dorian Lötzer (ISDC)

With support from our partners: