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Who we are

With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His work focuses on the relationships among poverty, nutrition, food security, agriculture, the environment, production, and migration—analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic levels, primarily using quantitative methods.

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What we do

Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

Where we work

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

Policy Research for Evolving Food Systems Needs

Looking Toward 2050

What’s New



Journal Article

Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

2024Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; Chen, Kevin Z.

Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

Despite the well-studied nutritional benefits of dairy for child linear growth, dairy is less consumed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the prevalence of child stunting is high. Previous studies have suggested the cost of dairy as a potential barrier to increased dairy consumption in these countries. Surprisingly, little research on the association between dairy consumption and child stunting in LMICs focuses on the role of trade policies, particularly the liberalization of dairy trade. To explore this, we use representative cross-country individual data on child stunting from 2006 to 2020 and link it with country-level dairy trade data. We find that a 10% decline in dairy tariff rates reduces the risk of stunting by 7.78%. Our results are robust to a subsample analysis excluding countries which joined the WTO after 2000 and to an alternative clustering method. As a falsification test, our results show child stunting is not linked with tariffs for coffee and tea. Heterogeneity analysis indicates the associations are more pronounced for boys, children aged 3–5, and children from households with lower socioeconomic status. Although we did not find significant rural–urban differences, the associations are indeed stronger for households without cattle and for countries in Western Africa, South East Asia and Europe and Central Asia. Mechanism analysis suggests that dairy tariffs are positively correlated with milk prices, while they are negatively associated with dairy import values. Lower dairy tariffs are also found to be linked with higher probability of child dairy consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of removing tariff barriers in reducing the cost of dairy and promoting dairy consumption in LMICs. This study has implications for repurposing dairy trade policies in creating nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Year published

2024

Authors

Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; Chen, Kevin Z.

Citation

Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; and Chen, Kevin Z. 2024. Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries. Food Policy 122(January 2024): 102554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102554

Keywords

Child Stunting; Data; Milk; Trade Liberalization; Trade Policies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Record type

Journal Article

Journal Article

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

2025Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

Undernutrition in women and young children in Burkina Faso is a critical problem. Egg consumption is low despite many households raising poultry. The Soutenir l’Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l’Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l’Économie Rurale (SELEVER) project, an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention, promoted egg consumption and sales to investigate the impact of poultry production on child nutrition. Multisectoral nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs address nutrition deficits but lack comparable cost information. This study estimates the costs of the SELEVER program, an integrated poultry and nutrition intervention. The study estimates the program’s economic costs using a standardized methodology from the Strengthening Economic Evaluation for Multisectoral Strategies for Nutrition (SEEMS-Nutrition) consortium, which aligns financial and economic costs along program impact pathways, allocating costs by activities and inputs. We conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups on time allocation and beneficiary out-of-pocket costs. Incremental economic costs were calculated by combining expenditures and economic costs. The total incremental program cost was USD$18,084,727.68 over 5 years, with annual incremental costs of USD$209.20 per direct beneficiary and $796.26 per household. Major cost drivers included overhead (18%), poultry extension (17%), training (16%), household counseling (7%), technical assistance (7%) and microcredit (6%). Total input costs were dominated by personnel (51%), supplies (13%), agricultural inputs (10%) and overhead (9%). We present the total incremental costs of a multisectoral nutrition intervention to generate revenue with poultry. The costs per beneficiary were higher than similar interventions, underscoring the need for cost-effectiveness evaluations of multisectoral nutrition programs. A standardized cost methodology facilitates comparisons with multisectoral nutrition interventions and builds the evidence base.

Year published

2025

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; and Levin, Carol. 2025. The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso. Maternal and Child Nutrition 21(2): e13791. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Nutrition; Poultry; Value Chains; Children; Costs; Gender; Sustainability; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Journal Article

Journal Article

Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs

2024
Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Neena; Chauhan, Alka; Dwivedi, L. K.; Kapur, Avani; Pedgaonkar, Sarang; Shukla, Ritwik
…more Chakrabarti, Suman; Singh, Shri Kant; Menon, Purnima

Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs

Background High coverage of nutrition-specific interventions is critical to meet global nutrition targets, and it is imperative to understand how to attain it. We examined trends and inequalities in the coverage of interventions in India and the role of the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) in achieving improvements. Methods We conducted trends and equity analysis of 30 interventions using two rounds of National Family Health Survey data (2015–2016, n=1 78 874, and 2019–2021, n=1 70 697). We also compared coverage between states that received incentives and monitoring under NNM and those that did not. We reviewed programme documents and grey literature to construct a policy timeline to trace pathways to coverage improvement and consulted with stakeholders to confirm interpretation of findings. Findings Between 2016 and 2021, coverage improved significantly for nearly all interventions (~1–22 percentage points (pp) during pregnancy, ~7–20 pp during delivery/postpartum and~5–17 pp during early childhood). Improvements in coverage were higher among the poor and in rural areas compared with the rich and in urban areas, respectively; wealth and residence gaps narrowed for most interventions. These improvements could be traced to community mobilisation, technology and monitoring under NNM. Improvements in coverage of growth monitoring and counselling were higher in states that received additional incentives and monitoring under NNM. Stakeholders concurred that the improvements in coverage were likely driven by NNM. Interpretation Focused policy attention and programmatic efforts improved coverage and reduced inequities indicating an inclusive approach. Persistent coverage gaps for certain interventions require further inquiry.

Year published

2024

Authors

Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Neena; Chauhan, Alka; Dwivedi, L. K.; Kapur, Avani; Pedgaonkar, Sarang; Shukla, Ritwik; Chakrabarti, Suman; Singh, Shri Kant; Menon, Purnima

Citation

Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Bhatia; Chauhan, Alka; et al. 2024. Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: role of national programs. Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs. BMJ Global Health 9(12): e015246. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015246

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Data; Maternal and Child Health; Nutrition; Research Methods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Journal Article

2024 Year in Review

Explore highlights from IFPRI’s 2024 research and outreach, including our work on food security and healthy diets, responding to conflicts and building resilience, and major outputs from our regional and country programs. Click through the interactive review to view videos, blogs, events and more.

Experts in Our Field

IFPRI’s experts work around the world to provide the evidence that supports effective policies to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.

600+

staff across the world

80+

countries where we work

#1

in the field of Agricultural Economics

20,000+

research outputs

Meet a Researcher

Avinash Kishore is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in IFPRI’s South Asia Office in New Delhi. His research focuses on understanding how public policies and markets affect the adoption and non-adoption of sustainable technologies and practices in agriculture in South Asia. He leads research projects on understanding food systems in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal and the policy research component of the Cereals Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)—a program implemented jointly by CIMMYT,…

Avinash Kishore

From our video channel

Faces of IFPRI: Agnes Quisumbing

This video features Agnes Quisumbing, Senior Research Fellow. Agnes reflects on 30 years of policy research based on extensive fieldwork in Asia and Africa, the importance of working together to solve tough problems, and of learning from women and men’s lived experiences. She also shares her favorite IFPRI memory, and what keeps her passionate about her work.

“Faces of IFPRI” is a new series of interviews with IFPRI colleagues around the world, showcasing the diversity of talent, geographies, and research interests across the Institute.

Our Events

Making a Difference Blog Series

West Africa faces significant problems with various forms of malnutrition, especially among women and children. In 2017, the region had the highest rate of under-five wasting (low weight-for-age) in Africa—8.5% compared with the continent’s mean of 7.4%. The rate of stunting (low height-for-age) waw also extremely high at 31.4%. In 2017, 52% of women ages 15-46 suffered from anemia.

In response, IFPRI, with funding from the Gates Foundation, established Transform Nutrition West Africa (TNWA)—a regional knowledge platform to facilitate effective policy and action on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in West Africa with a focus on four countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. TNWA ran from 2017 to 2021.

Tamsin Zandstra, Roos Verstraeten, Ampa Dogui Diatta, Loty Diop, and Mariama Touré explore TNWA’s research, work, and long-term impact in West Africa.