Today's world is one of unprecedented change and issues such as climate change, globalization, conflict, emergent diseases and major migratory pests can all increase vulnerability and threaten the livelihood and health of poor people. NRI is working to understand, quantify and mitigate these major challenges so as to help the world's poorest to withstand these potentially disastrous multiple threats.

Examples of our work include:

• Investigation of impacts of drought on pastoralists in southern Ethiopia;
• Assessment of the livelihood impacts of humanitarian land mine removal in Yemen;
• Contributions to the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;
• Strengthening local agricultural innovation systems to adapt to climate change and vulnerability.