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Food Prices for Nutrition Launch: Responding to the current food crisis and transforming food systems so they can provide affordable healthy diets for all requires reliable and responsive data that can inform policies and interventions. The Food Prices for Nutrition project, a new initiative led by Tufts University, IFPRI, and the World Bank, in collaboration with FAO, meets this need by providing new food security indicators on the cost and affordability of a healthy diet.
In back-to-back policy discussions on July 14 and July 15 at the World Bank and then at IFPRI, policymakers and global food security experts discussed the implications of the new Food Prices for Nutrition data, as well as how the indicators can be used to guide food system and agricultural interventions and reduce food insecurity.
Check out the IFPRI blog post for more details.
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Unequal Burden: The global food crisis, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, presents an opportunity to design gender-responsive programs that buffer women and girls against hardships in the short term and tackle entrenched gender inequalities while building resilience to future shocks over the long term. In their new paper, Elizabeth Bryan, Claudia Ringler, and Nicole Lefore present concrete strategies. (Read Article and Blog Post)
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The Bigger Picture: Corinna Hawkes, Hazel Malapit, and colleagues discuss the systemic-root causes of the current food price crisis and outline barriers to change. They highlight four inclusivity-focused ways to tackle the political inequalities underlying unequal food systems and thus reduce vulnerabilities to future shocks. (Read Article)
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More than a Safety Net: Using remote sensing and econometric methods, Kalle Hirvonen and colleagues find that Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program increased tree cover. These results suggest that public works programs with an environmental component have the potential to support climate change mitigation and adaptation while providing social protection. (Read Article)
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Nutrition Modeling Tools: Nutrition modeling tools (NMTs) generate evidence to help inform policy and program decision-making, but there has been little research on their use and impacts. Frances Knight, Gilles Bergeron, and colleagues help to fill that gap by studying the influence of 12 NMTs on policy decision-making and identifying the factors influencing them. (Read Article)
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Lay the Groundwork: Evidence from Central America shows that smallholders’ perception of soil characteristics, as well as actual variability of the soil, are likely causes of low adoption rates of agricultural interventions. Reducing information gaps with respect to farmers’ real needs will make extension policies more effective and increase agricultural productivity, argue Luciana Delgado and Jetse Stoorvogel. ( Read Article)
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Scaling Up: Using scenario-based assessments, Phuong Nguyen, Priyanjana Pramanik, Rasmi Avula, Purnima Menon, and colleagues examine the feasibility of integrating preventive nutrition services through Bangladesh’s primary health-care system. They identify three promising platforms for expanding and strengthening preventative service delivery and consider challenges that would need to be addressed to facilitate scaling. ( Read Article)
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The Russia-Ukraine Grain Agreement: In 2021, Ukraine exported an average of 4 million metric tons of grains (wheat, maize, and barley) per month. But this year, the Russian blockade resulted in a sharp reduction in exports. Despite efforts to divert grain to alternate routes, Ukrainian exports have only averaged about 1.5–2 million metric tons monthly, about one-third of the normal level, causing severe stress on available storage capacity.
However on July 22, after months of Russian blockade, Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement to allow exports of grain and other agricultural products to resume from selected Ukraine Black Sea ports. “The deal is tenuous; nevertheless, it remains the beacon of hope as the first step toward a normalization of trade out of the Black Sea region, and improved food security for hundreds of millions,” write Joseph Glauber and David Laborde. ( Read Blog)
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The 2022 SOFI Report: The world continues to lose ground in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030, according to the recently-released 2022 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report. The report, as well as recent research by IFPRI in collaboration with the World Bank, suggests that repurposing agricultural subsidies could make funds available to invest more in healthy, affordable diets, sustainable production, and economic prosperity. (Read Blog)
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Evaluating Edutainment: Through dramatic, fictional storylines revolving around everyday life in a maternal health clinic, the C’est la Vie! television series aims to entertain and educate its audience on themes including sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, and gender-based violence. After screening the show for young women and girls in rural, conservative areas of Senegal, researchers conducted a process evaluation to document the challenges of implementation. (Read Blog)
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COVID-19 and Gender: In rural Kenya, the pandemic has posed serious, ongoing problems—particularly for women. To shed light on some of the gendered impacts, Harriet Mawia draws on IFPRI phone survey evidence and shares anecdotes from her interview with Esther, a woman who has first-hand experience as a small-scale farmer in Nyandarua County, Kenya, during COVID-19. (Read Blog)
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Responding to Crisis: A recent policy seminar organized by BMZ, CGIAR, and IFPRI, and supported by GIZ, analyzed the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war on food security in low- and middle-income countries, and policy and research responses. Speakers highlighted the work of the Global Alliance for Food Security (GAFS)—a new initiative formed to expedite and coordinate the response to the crisis—and showcased how CGIAR’s immediate and longer-term responses can support policy initiatives. (Read Blog)
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A Helpful Nudge: Modern contraception and family planning have substantial health benefits, but in Mozambique, the national unmet need for modern family planning was estimated at 23% in 2015. A new study analyzed the efficacy of using text messaging to encourage women to visit family planning clinics in urban Mozambique, finding that this “nudge” approach had a modest positive effect. Jessica Leight discusses the evidence. (Read Blog)
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2022 AAEA Awards: Two IFPRI Senior Research Fellows, Derek Headey and Kibrom Abay, recently received awards from the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA). Headey, along with co-authors, was awarded the 2022 AAEA Quality of Communications Award for the paper, Cost and affordability of nutritious diets at retail prices: Evidence from 177 countries. Abay, along with co-authors, is the recipient of the AAEA International Section’s 2022 Best Paper Award for the paper, Measurement error mechanisms matter: Agricultural intensification with farmer misperceptions and misreporting. (More Details)
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 At times [people] can oversimplify these crises, so I think this focus on really unpacking—at the country level—the specific context and the specific kinds of responses really sets an example for the kind of analysis that we should be doing.” – Chris Hillbruner, Division Chief, Analysis and Learning Office of Policy, Analysis, and Engagement Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, USAID. (Event)
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The triple crises of conflict, COVID, and climate change are dramatically exacerbating existing food security challenges in previously unknown magnitudes.” – Sebastian Lesch, Head of Division, Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chains, International Agricultural Policy, Agriculture, Innovation, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. (Event)
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There’s a fixation in agricultural policy on yield density but very little on nutritional density, so that part of the story is actually missing.” – Malinda Seneviratne, Director of the Sri Lanka Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute. (Event)
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When do we stop doing capacity strengthening? A quote from F.M. Kangaude, Malawi’s former Deputy Minister of Agriculture: “If there is still demand for your work, then your job in capacity strengthening is not yet done.“ – Suresh Babu, Senior Research Fellow, and Head of Capacity Strengthening, IFPRI. (Event)
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In order for services to be responsive and clients to be served, we need better data.” – Lynnda Kiess, Senior Programme Advisor Nutrition, World Food Programme. (Event)
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FG Launches National Agricultural Technology, Innovation Policy: The Nigerian Tribune reports that, with support from The Feed the Future Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project (implemented by IFPRI and Michigan State University), Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has launched the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) 2022–2027.
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Grain Shipments Increase Out of Ukraine, Potentially Helping to Ease Global Food Prices: IFPRI’s Joseph Glauber was interviewed by PBS News Hour about the impact of the Russia-Ukraine grain agreement thus far: “It’s small, but it’s — it hopefully will get bigger. Right now [August 18], roughly 700,000 tons have moved. That’s about a tenth of what Ukraine does on a monthly basis during their peak season. And this is their peak season as we come into wheat harvest, and they want to be shipping that out to the rest of the world.”
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