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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.

researcher spotlight

Kalyani Raghunathan

Kalyani Raghunathan is Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit, based in New Delhi, India. Her research lies at the intersection of agriculture, gender, social protection, and public health and nutrition, with a specific focus on South Asia and Africa. 

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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.

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experts

Natural Resources and Resilience

Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Senior Research Fellow

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@ruth_meinzen_d
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Bio

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. She has extensive transdisciplinary research experience in using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. This has led her to study land and water policy, property rights, collective action and other governance arrangements, games for experiential learning, and the impact of development interventions, drawing on fieldwork in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Ruth is a co-creator of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and recipient of the Elinor Ostrom Collective Governance of the Commons 2019 Senior Scholar Award. She holds a PhD in development sociology from Cornell University.

Languages: English, Tamil

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Publications

Resource thumbnail

Opinion Piece

Crafting combinations to govern groundwater: Knowledge, motivation, and agency

2024Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Bruns, Bryan
Details

Crafting combinations to govern groundwater: Knowledge, motivation, and agency

Groundwater is a vital common pool resource for water supply, irrigation, and ecosystems, but can be difficult to govern due to invisibility, conflicting interests, and limitations of available institutions. While there are many policy and technical instruments (tools) available, efforts to apply them are often ineffective. This special issue of the International Journal of the Commons presents a set of papers with insights into policy instruments and other methods for groundwater governance. The relevance and effectiveness of tools and combinations of tools (toolboxes) in addressing problems that emerge from groundwater use is related to how they fit with diverse physical and social contexts. Drawing on research and applied experience, including that presented in this issue, we outline a conceptual framework for groundwater governance that emphasizes attention not just to knowledge, but also to motivations, and to agency for effective coordination among key actors. Articles in the special issue analyze groundwater governance in areas of Africa (east, south, and north), Central Asia, India, and the United States. The articles cover a range of scales from small groups playing experiential games to international agreements about transboundary aquifers. Several papers illustrate the crucial role of knowledge about groundwater, and the need for governance instruments and interventions to go beyond only changing knowledge. Three papers focus on groundwater games and their use to understand and change behavior, especially when combined with other tools that facilitate collective deliberation and action. Several papers illustrate how understanding of the ways people care about and practice care for groundwater illuminates examples and capabilities for groundwater governance.

Year published

2024

Authors

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Bruns, Bryan

Citation

Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; and Bruns, Bryan. 2024. Crafting combinations to govern groundwater: Knowledge, motivation, and agency. International Journal of the Commons 18(1): 585–600. https://doi. org/10.5334/ijc.1473

Keywords

Governance; Groundwater Management; Ecosystems; Nexus Approaches

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi. org/10.5334/ijc.1473 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Opinion Piece

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Journal Article

Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross- continental assessment of landscape approaches

2024
Estrada Carmona, Natalia; Carmenta, Rachel; Reed, James; Betemariam, Ermias; Declerck, Fabrice; Falk, Thomas; Hart, Abigail K; Jones, Sarah K; Kleinschroth, Fritz; McCartney, Matthew
…more Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Milder, Jeff; Quintero, Marcela; Remans, Roseline; Valbuena, Diego; Willement, Louise; Zanzanaini, Camilla; Zhang, Wei
Details

Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross- continental assessment of landscape approaches

Expectations for agricultural landscapes in subtropical and tropical regions are high, aiming for conservation and development amid climate change, unfair trade, poverty, and environmental degradation. Landscape ap- proaches (LAs) are gaining momentum as means to reconcile expectations, although they face multiple chal- lenges, including unclear distinctions among LAs and stakeholder involvement. We studied 380 LAs from three continents via questionnaires with landscape managers (2012–2015 and 2021) and identified three LA types through cluster analysis: an ‘‘integrated’’ type with longer-term, multisectoral goals involving various stakeholders early in the design and two shorter-term types focused on sectoral priorities of preservation or production. Better-performing LAs are associated with longevity, inclusivity, and diversified investments across goals, notably those enabling social justice. International stakeholder analysis shows broad support for LAs but identifies gaps between support and LAs’ needs. The growing interest in LAs is promising. Yet, underpinning effective and lasting LAs that reconcile multiple expectations requires better support.

Year published

2024

Authors

Estrada Carmona, Natalia; Carmenta, Rachel; Reed, James; Betemariam, Ermias; Declerck, Fabrice; Falk, Thomas; Hart, Abigail K; Jones, Sarah K; Kleinschroth, Fritz; McCartney, Matthew; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Milder, Jeff; Quintero, Marcela; Remans, Roseline; Valbuena, Diego; Willement, Louise; Zanzanaini, Camilla; Zhang, Wei

Citation

Estrada Carmona, N.; Carmenta, R.; Reed, J.; Betemariam, E.; Declerck, F.; Falk, T.; Hart, A.K.; Jones, S.K.; Kleinschroth, F.; McCartney, M.; Meinzen-Dick, R.; Milder, J.; Quintero, M.; Remans, R.; Valbuena, D.; Willement, L.; Zanzanaini, C.; Zhang, W. (2024) Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross-continental assessment of landscape approaches. One Earth, Online first paper(2024-09-20). 014. ISSN: 2590-3330

Keywords

Diversification; Agriculture; Resilience; Landscape Approaches; Socio-ecological Systems; Sustainable Development Goals; Agricultural Landscapes; Multifunctional Landscapes; Agroecological Landscapes; Conservation; Biocultural Landscapes; Climate Change; Tropical Forests; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.08.014 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Opinion Piece

Common lands are not wastelands

2024ElDidi, Hagar; Khurana, Ritika; Zhang, Wei; Jadav, Maheshkumar Kalidas; Guha, Chiranjit; Priyadarshini, Pratiti; Guo, Zhe; Sandhu, Harpinder; Nagendra, Harini; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Details

Common lands are not wastelands

What are common lands? What is the state of common lands in India? This has to do with the expansion of economic activities, human encroachment, land conversions, along with increasing environmental pollution. Policy makers tend to look at commons as wastelands and weak community rights over commons and eroding local institutions governing commons have also contributed to their degradation. Further, conservation policies that focus on expanding protected areas have led to shrinking of common lands marginalising communities who depend on them. The paper discusses the findings of an assessment of the spatial extent and usage of officially recognised common lands across districts in India, using 2011 Census of India data and Household Census data.

Year published

2024

Authors

ElDidi, Hagar; Khurana, Ritika; Zhang, Wei; Jadav, Maheshkumar Kalidas; Guha, Chiranjit; Priyadarshini, Pratiti; Guo, Zhe; Sandhu, Harpinder; Nagendra, Harini; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Citation

ElDidi, Hagar; Khurana, Ritika; Zhang, Wei; Jadav, Maheshkumar Kalidas; Guha, Chiranjit; Priyadarshini, Pratiti; et al. 2024. Common lands are not wastelands. India Water Portal blog post. First published online June 9, 2024. https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/common-lands-are-not-wastelands

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Common Lands; Land Degradation; Livelihoods; Rural Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-SA

Source

Source record

Record type

Opinion Piece

Blogs

Reach, Benefit, Empower, Transform: Approaches to helping rural women secure their resource rights
IFPRI Blog
 | 
October 14, 2024

Reach, Benefit, Empower, Transform: Approaches to helping rural women secure their resource rights

By Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Anne M. Larson

Avenues to empowerment.

Adapt, assess, progress: Integrating measures of women’s empowerment into rural development projects
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 13, 2024

Adapt, assess, progress: Integrating measures of women’s empowerment into rural development projects

By Carlo Azzarri, Sedi-Anne Boukaka, Jessica Heckert, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Greg Seymour, and Sara Savastano

A new tool developed by IFPRI and IFAD.

Playing the right game: A decision tree for choosing approaches to strengthen water governance
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 13, 2024

Playing the right game: A decision tree for choosing approaches to strengthen water governance

By Thomas Falk, Vishwambhar Duche, Richu Sanil, Pratiti Priyadarshini, Hagar ElDidi, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and Bryan Bruns

Fostering cooperative natural resource management.

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Events

Building More Inclusive and Natural Resource-Secure Food Futures
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

December 12, 2024, 10:30 – 12:00 pm

Building More Inclusive and Natural Resource-Secure Food Futures

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. Throughout her career, Ruth Meinzen-Dick has made pathbreaking contributions to natural resource management and gender equity, drawing from her deep engagement with communities […]

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 2 to 7, 2024

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists

The triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE-2024), centred on the theme “Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems” is scheduled from August 2-7, 2024, in New Delhi, India. The conference offers a distinctive platform, providing a golden opportunity for the agricultural academic institutions and researchers to convene in person, exchange knowledge, and actively contribute to the […]

Introducing the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

February 22, 2024, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Introducing the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)

Virtual Event: February 22, 2024 at 9:00am-10:30am EST. This event will present the WEMNS metric, review the development of the tool, and discuss its use to advance women’s empowerment. A panel of stakeholders from government and national statistical offices and from multilateral organizations will discuss the potential of WEMNS for promoting and monitoring women’s empowerment as part of national statistical surveys.

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News

February 04, 2020 | In the News

How can data build a truer picture of the gender gap in food insecurity? (Devex)

Devex published an article on the challenges of an accurate picture of the differences in food security between men and women when using typical household survey methods. Research Fellow Jessica Heckert stated that “countrywide surveys offer the advantage of gathering data on a wider variety of topics, but because of that breadth in a single […]

November 19, 2019 | In the News

The latest report of the International Food Policy Research Institute shows that gender norms affect the overall performance of agriculture (Cvonet)

Cvonet (China) reported on the 2019 Annual Trends and Outlooks Report.  Senior Research Fellow and co-author of the Report, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, stated that without gender considerations and efforts to achieve gender equality, Malabo’s commitments might not be implemented.” 

November 12, 2019 | In the News

The 19th Annual ReSAKSS Conference Opens Monday In Lomé (Togo 24)

Togo 24 reported on the opening of the conference and the 2019 Annual trends and outlook report: Gender equality in rural Africa: From commitments to outcomes. (2019 ATOR). The Report presents an Africa-wide analysis on a topic of strategic importance to the CAADP agenda. The ATOR 2019 report examines the progress and results of research […]

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