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The paper reviews existing literature on South Asian ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) and identifies how community participation can be used to plan and implement ecosystem-based DRR approaches.

The literature review methodology involved several stages. Firstly, the research objective was determined. Secondly keywords for the literature search were determined. Scopus, Google Scholar, JSTOR and AUT online library were utilized for the literature search. After the search, the literature was screened. The study design, methodology, results and limitations were identified and documented. After data extraction, the literature was analyzed. The patterns, trends and inconsistencies in the literature were identified based on the research question. Later the gaps, controversies and future research needs were identified. Then, a comprehensive and structured literature review that summarizes the relevant literature, synthesizes the findings and provides a critical evaluation of the literature was documented. After writing the document, it was reviewed and edited to ensure its clarity, accuracy and coherence.

The paper identifies four different themes recurrently emerging in literature on the importance of community participation in ecosystem-based DRR in South Asia. The themes are local community participation in ecosystem-based DRR governance, knowledge production, livelihood enhancement and increased public acceptance.

The paper also illustrates the challenges in integrating community participation with the dominant physical scientific approaches ecosystem-based DRR and proposes a five-element framework to facilitate the integration.

This study aims to empirically investigate the impact of political instability on the banking stability of the dual banking system in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries.

The study measures banking stability with probability of default (PD) and Zscore by employing the generalised method of moment (GMM) between 2007 and 2021 on the dual banking system in the region. The authors further estimate short-long-run situations coupled with a robustness test using a generalised least square (GLS) model.

The authors' findings indicate that institutional factors of political stability, crisis period, high-crisis countries, law and order and macroeconomic indicators influence the two types of banking stability in the region. The authors found the consistency of the factors explaining stability in the region in both short-and long-run situations. Consequently, the study also reveals the adverse effects of crisis periods and high-crisis countries on banking stability.

The results of this study explicitly identify the critical need for sustaining political stability and abiding by laws and order to achieve dual banking stability in the region. Therefore, policymakers may consider allowing the region's banks to operate beyond retail banking since diversification enhances banking stability.

The authors' study balances by employing dual stability measurement in predicting the impact of political instability, law and order and other indicators on the MENA region's two banking models. This study uncovers the effect of the global crisis period on banking stability and high-crisis countries in the region and verifies the models' robustness.

Serious concerns about the stability of the international financial systems have arisen recently, resulting from the mounting inflation rates and the accompanying procedures to control them. Consequently, this study aims at examining empirically the impact of inflationary pressures/shocks on the stability of banking sectors.

The study adopts a dynamic GMM models and exploits a sample of 188 banks operating in 14 MENA economies, over the period 1999–2021.

This research finds that high inflation does indeed harm bank financial stability and deteriorates banks credit risk. Furthermore, the examination of the impact of interaction terms between inflation and bank-specific and institutional quality variables shows that better capitalisation levels, higher liquidity buffers, larger asset size, greater market power, foreign ownership and overall political stability, all can counterbalance the impact of inflationary pressures on MENA banks financial stability.

In addition to empirically revealing how inflationary shocks can deteriorate financial stability, the main novelty of this research is examining how the interactions between inflation on one hand, and bank-specific and institutional quality on the other, affect bank stability.

Involvement of lenders for PPP highway projects in India starts after the bid award. The post-award development phase of Toll and Annuity PPPs differ significantly in terms of potential risk assumed by lenders. This study aims to assess the impact of the transparency law on the post-award development phase of Toll and Annuity PPPs.

A unique dataset of 469 PPP highway projects implemented in India was used to conduct this empirical study. An OLS regression model was developed to assess the impact of the transparency law on the post-award development phase.

Enacting the transparency law increased the duration of the post-award development phase of Toll projects; however, its impact on Annuity projects was not significant. Moreover, Toll and Annuity projects with a longer post-award development phase had a shorter construction phase. The post-award development phase of the Toll projects was relatively more sensitive to technical, economic and location-specific variables than Annuity projects. Length of road stretch, duration of the concession period and individual income of end-users significantly impacted the duration of this phase of Toll projects.

Transparency law can improve risk mitigation of Toll projects during the post-award development phase.

The impact of transparency law on PPP projects has never been assessed. This study assesses its impact on the two forms of PPPs. It also highlights the determinants of this phase and how they differ for the two forms of PPPs.

Public-private partnership (PPP) highway projects in India are undertaken at both state and national levels, such that differences exist in how the procuring authorities manage project risk during the development and construction phase under different institutional frameworks. This study assesses the performance implication of the different administrative positionings of the procuring authority.

A data set of 516 PPP highway projects implemented in India formed the basis of this study. Means comparison, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and seemingly unrelated regression were used to assess the impact of procuring authority on schedule performance.

The findings suggest that the state and the national highway projects were no different in achieving financial closure. However, the administrative positioning of the procuring authorities had a significant impact on other schedule performance variables. The construction of the state highway projects started quickly after the financial closure compared to the national highway projects. Moreover, the state highway projects were not only planned to be implemented at a faster rate but they were actually implemented at a faster rate and had a lower time overrun.

Procuring authorities under the state governments, being closer to the project, are better placed to manage project risk than those under the national government.

The administrative distance of the procuring authority from the PPP project and its implication on performance has never been studied.

The present study provides evidence on export advantages of horticultural commodities based on competitiveness, trade balance and seasonality dimensions.

The study delineated horticultural commodities in terms of comparative advantage, examined temporal shifts in export advantages (mapping) and estimated seasonality. Product mapping was carried out using the Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) and Trade Balance Index (TBI). Seasonal advantages were examined through a graphical approach along with the objective tests, namely, modified QS-test (QS), Friedman-test (FT) and using a seasonal dummy.

Cucumbers/gherkins, onions, preserved vegetables, fresh grapes, shelled cashew nuts, guavas, mangoes, and spices emerged as the most favorable horticultural products. India has a strong seasonal advantage in dried onions, cucumber/gherkins, shelled cashew nut, dried capsicum, coriander, cumin, and turmeric. The untapped potential in horticulture can be addressed by handling the trade barriers effectively, particularly the sanitary and phytosanitary issues, affecting the exports. Proper policies must be enacted to facilitate the investment in advanced agricultural technologies and logistics to ensure the desired quality and cost effectiveness.

Commodity-specific studies on value chain analysis would provide valuable insights into the issues hindering exports and realizing the untapped export potential.

There is no holistic and recent study illustrating the horticulture export advantages covering a large number of commodities in the Indian context. The study would be helpful to the stakeholders for drawing useful policy implications.

Farmers producer organisations (FPOs) play the most crucial role in the agriculture supply chain system, aiming to redress the balance between farming and marketing activities of agricultural produce. The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of FPOs using data envelopment analysis (usually referred to as DEA) on 34 FPO units selected from the state of Rajasthan.

One of the most commonly used techniques to examine business performance is the application of DEA. The application of DEA requires the selection of inputs and outputs. This study takes three inputs and three outputs based on the insights drawn from the field survey. While the input variables consist of total assets, paid-up capital and the number of economic activities, the three output variables are turnover, net profit and number of members benefitted. Broadly, these variables encapsulate the operational performance of the business units.

This study’s findings reveal that the estimated relative efficiency score of the input-oriented CCR (Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes) model ranges from 0.06 to 1. Interestingly, only one FPO has reported a relative efficiency (RE) score of one, whereas the remaining FPOs fall below the efficiency frontier. However, 15 FPOs report an RE score of one in the output-oriented CCR approach. Considering the estimates obtained in the input- and output-oriented BCC (Banker, Charnes and Cooper) models, this study found that about 20% of the FPOs report an efficiency score greater than 0.80. Moreover, three FPOs are on the frontier line. An examination of the scale efficiency score in the input-oriented model, 45% of the FPOs have an efficiency score greater than 0.80, whereas almost all FPOs achieve a scale efficiency score greater than 0.80 in the output-oriented model. Overall, the results imply that the FPOs should place greater emphasis on the efficient utilisation of the inputs to enhance the overall business performance and productivity.

The findings of this study provide vital insights into the specific inputs and outputs that determine the performance efficiency of FPOs and identify the potential areas for improving the existing inefficient FPOs.

This study contributes to the repository of the existing empirical studies in three distinct ways. First, the authors hardly found any previous studies that quantitatively assess the business performance of FPOs using the DEA technique. Second, the effort to identify the slacks associated with each input and output variable in input- and output-oriented models gives insights on improvable areas for inefficient FPOs. Third, the authors attempt to demystify the empirical obfuscations by highlighting the major challenges FPOs face in the state of Rajasthan.

Food systems research is typically focused on productivity and efficiency. But in the face of impending challenges of climate, investment, markets, and incomes small holders may do well to shift to diversity and sufficiency. The transition requires institutions such as Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to play the role of intermediaries. This paper aims to understand this challenging phenomenon using a case from India.

In this article, drawing from the emerging literature of PO as a sustainability transition intermediary, this paper uses the case study of a women-owned FPO and explores its role in contributing to sustainable food systems through practices of non-pesticide management of agriculture. This paper explores, through non-participant observer methods, focus group discussions and interviews with multiple stakeholders how an FPO embeds sustainability in its purpose and the challenges faced in transforming producer and consumers towards sustainable food systems.

The study argues for early articulation of the “sustainability transition intermediary” role in the FPO’s vision and mission. Second, FPOs’ role of being a transition intermediary is impacted by the key stakeholders and the durability of relationship with them.

By studying FPOs in India, from the framework of sustainability transitions, this article adds to the limited literature that looks as POs as sustainability transition intermediaries.