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Seasonal food shortages in Afghanistan

Image Source: US Air Force

Previously a research assistant for the Czech Government’s economic advisory board NERV, young scholar Vojtěch Bartoš was awarded USD 9,000 through the GDN funded Regional Research Competitions in 2013. The grant was administered by CERGE-EI, and also gave him access to peerreview workshops and the GDN annual conference to pursue his research on socioeconomic inclusion.

With that support, Bartoš researched ethnic discrimination among farmers in rural Northern Afghanistan before, during and after seasonal food shortages. Based on an adaptation of experimental economic methodologies to his fieldwork, the research offered insights into the design of more equitable and targeted programs for the provision of insurance and the delivery of material aid to rural farmers across ethnic groups. The research was later expanded to include the levels of attention paid to applicants of different ethnic groups in the labour and housing markets by human resource personnel and landlords.

The mix of grant funding for a research project in an uncertain setting and networking opportunities offered by GDN allowed Bartoš, an early-career researcher, to make a significant step forward in his career, despite the lack of funding opportunities for earlycareer researchers in his home country. At the GDN events he attended, Bartoš met one of the scholars who later became part of his dissertation committee. After the end of his research, he started working as a consultant for an agricultural project in Angola, where he helped prepare a practical manual on impact evaluation and data collection in developing countries. The methodology has already been applied across other surveys conducted by the organization. According to his response to a questionnaire sent by GDN, the access to external grants is the exception rather than the rule. Bartos is of the opinion that this is where the GDN funded Regional Research Competitions make a difference in the Czech Republic. “It is especially beneficial for researchers at the early stages of their careers,” Bartoš points out.

Project: Regional Research Competitions

Research: Sharing norms adherence and enforcement during seasonal food shortages: Experimental evidence from rural Northern Afghanistan

Grantee: Vojtěch Bartoš

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