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Is it too late to save Gaza’s population from famine?
The latest assessment of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Global Partnership suggests that famine is imminent in Gaza for at least half the population of 2.2 million.
According to the assessment, 685,000 people faced “catastrophic” levels of acute food insecurity or famine-like conditions as of early March—a clear deterioration from a previous assessment in December 2023. In a highly likely scenario of continued conflict escalation, 1.1 million people in Gaza face famine and the risk of dying from hunger in the coming weeks or months.
Rob Vos, Ismahane Elouafi, and Johan Swinnen discuss the IPC report. (Read blog)
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 AFRICA – AGRICULTURE: Roundtable on Strengthening Institutions, and Investments in Climate-Smart Agri-Food Systems to Improve Smallholder Livelihoods in Africa
High-Level Roundtable | April 9, 2024, 4:30PM to 6:00PM EDT
Deepening Social Protection Systems: Enhancing Livelihoods and Health in Ethiopia
Hybrid Policy Seminar | April 17, 2024, 10:30AM to 12:00PM EDT (Lunch reception to follow)
Dairy and Nutrition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Potential, Progress, and Obstacles Ahead
Hybrid Policy Seminar | April 24, 2024, 9:30AM to 11:00AM EDT
Sudan at a Crossroads: Food Systems, Hunger, and Humanitarian Aid During Civil Conflict
Hybrid Policy Seminar | May 2, 2024, 10:00AM to 11:30AM EDT
Please check our Events page for most recent updates.
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Resilience of social transfer programs to large unexpected shocks: Large unexpected shocks are becoming more frequent, making the design of robust social transfer programs more vital than ever. Kalyani Raghunathan, Shahidur Rashid, et al. evaluate the performance of the Food Friendly Program (FFP), the largest in-kind social transfer program in Bangladesh, before and during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. (Read article in The Journal of Development Studies)
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Production vulnerability to wheat blast disease under climate change: Wheat blast is a devastating disease caused by a fungal pathogen that has spread to both neighboring and distant countries following its emergence in Brazil in the 1980s. Under climate change conditions, wheat blast is predicted to spread primarily in tropical regions. Richard Robertson et al. coupled a wheat crop simulation model with a newly developed wheat blast model to provide quantitative global estimates of wheat blast vulnerability under current and future climates. (Read article in Nature Climate Change)
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Pandemic experiences and the post-lockdown economic recovery: Yanyan Liu et al, draw upon multiple big data sources from China to examine the patterns of human mobility and job creation before, during, and after the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The authors find that the pace of post-lockdown mobility recovery in a region is significantly influenced by its pandemic experiences. (Read article in China Economic Review)
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Understanding differential reductions in undernutrition among districts in Rwanda: Understanding the drivers of improvements in child undernutrition solely at the national level can mask subnational differences. Elyse Iruhiriye, Deanna Olney, et al. explore how different factors in the policy environment affected reductions in stunting across districts in Rwanda. The study finds that enhancing the integration of nutrition in different sectors and improving mid-level actors’ capacity to advocate for nutrition programming could help stunting. (Read article in Maternal and Child Nutrition)
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Since the onset of the civil war, Sudan is facing a surge in acute food insecurity, soaring poverty levels, and extensive losses in income, employment, and productive assets. A conference on March 5, 2024, highlighted ongoing research on the conflict, covering topics including poverty, food security, and the role of social protection in mitigating shocks. (Watch recording) (Read blog)
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On March 7, 2024, Global Health 50/50, IFPRI, and UN Women held a launch event for the third annual Global Food 50/50 Report, which reviews the gender- and equity-related policies and practices of 51 global food system organizations. (Watch recording)
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A seminar on March 18, 2024, in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea presented the results of a rural household survey conducted in 2023 and discussed opportunities for promoting agricultural transformation for economic growth and food security in the country. (Learn more)
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IFPRI, CGIAR, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) co-organized a seminar on March 27, 2024, to take stock of food systems–related outcomes from COP28 and outline priorities for advancing them at the international and country level. (Watch recording)
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World Water Day 2024
The theme of this year’s World Water Day (March 22), Water For Peace, could not come at a more opportune time. Global water, food, and humanitarian crises have reached near-unprecedented levels.
Because water is essential to life, the lack of water is a crisis multiplier—an underlying factor contributing to and compounding conflict and humanitarian crises. But this also means that improving water management can reduce the potential for conflict—and when conflict occurs, help to ease its impacts.
Gender inequities increase with humanitarian crises, and women and girls are disproportionately affected. Strengthening women’s agency is essential for crisis prevention and improved water and food security.
Claudia Ringler writes about why we must invest in women for peace and water security. (Read blog)
Also watch these World Water Day videos with Claudia Ringler and Khalid Siddig.
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Scaling up the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) tool: WEMNS was designed to be a streamlined instrument that assesses multiple dimensions of empowerment across individuals with a variety of livelihood strategies in both rural and urban settings, suitable for large-scale, multitopic surveys. On February 22, 2024, IFPRI held a policy seminar to launch WEMNS and highlight how the tool can benefit policymakers. Emily Myers and Flor Paz delve into the WEMNS instrument and policy seminar. ( Read blog)
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Agrifood value chains are complex transaction-linked networks: Agrifood value chains are an integral part of food systems, moving food from farms where it is produced to retailers where it is sold to consumers. Research often depicts agrifood value chains in a highly stylized and simple way. Kate Ambler, Jeff Bloem, Alan de Brauw, and Julia Wagner write about a network-based survey that aims to better capture the range of these relationships within agrifood value chains. ( Read blog)
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Playing the right game: An emerging body of literature explores “serious games”— participatory behavioral games created for purposes other than entertainment—as learning tools and interventions for improving natural resource management. Such games, particularly when combined with other tools, have the potential to help agricultural communities make more productive and sustainable use of water resources, by changing individual behavior and fostering cooperation. Thomas Falk, Vishwambhar Duche, Richu Sanil, Pratiti Priyadarshini, Hagar Eldidi, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and Bryan Bruns look at how games can contribute to meaningful institutional and behavioral change. (Read blog)
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The fallout from COVID-19, land grabs, and deforestation in Argentina’s Gran Chaco Forest region: Gran Chaco is among the most deforested areas on earth, much of that due to the expansion of farming and livestock ranching in recent decades, as well as growing climate impacts. Argentina’s deforestation rate has slowed overall in the past decade and a number of national and international initiatives are seeking to reduce it further, reflecting a continuing push and pull over forestlands. Madison Davis examines this complex situation in this guest blog post. (Read blog)
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An evidence-based approach to climate change in Central Asia: Global anthropogenic methane emissions are projected to rise by up to 13% between 2020 and 2030 if no action is taken. Tajikistan recently joined the Global Methane Pledge with support from IFPRI-implemented activities under USAID’s flagship program Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative (CACCI). Suresh Babu and Nandita Srivastava discuss the essential pathways that can assist countries in carrying out emissions reductions and meeting their global climate change commitments. (Read blog)
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Reforming agricultural policies to sustainably transform food systems: With global food systems facing various stresses, making them more resilient, health-promoting, and sustainable is more urgent than ever. A key tool in such a transformation is reforming agricultural policies and repurposing agricultural support. This is a major challenge, requiring bold action through concerted internal coordination and national-level policy reform. Swati Malhotra provides an overview of a recent CGIAR Policy Seminar that explored evidence on the potential for policy reforms. (Read blog)
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Plots, crops, infrastructure, and livestock in the Khatlon Province: Tajikistan’s agriculture sector is uniquely shaped by the country’s history and geography. Efforts to develop the sector have often focused on predominantly rural Khatlon Province, historically the country’s poorest region. More than 30 years after the post-Soviet reforms, Tajikistan’s agricultural landscape continues to evolve as a result of changes in markets and value chains, economic development projects, and efforts by farmers and farming communities. Isabel Lambrecht, Sarah Pechtl, Kamiljon Akramov, Jovidon Aliev, and Parviz Khakimov look at how these changes are affecting Khatlon’s farming households. (Read blog)
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Global cocoa market sees steep price rise amid supply shortfall: Cocoa bean prices have climbed to record nominal levels over the past six months, more than doubling since August 2023. This price spike has largely been driven by weather-related diseases that have reduced cocoa production in key West African countries that account for almost three-quarters of world supplies. Joseph Glauber and Abdullah Mamun examine the current agitated state of the global cocoa market and prospects going forward. (Read blog)
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Who’s afraid of high fertilizer prices?
During 2021 and 2022, global food and fertilizer prices spiked due to several overlapping factors. Spiking fertilizer prices raised fears that fertilizer application would drop around the world, leading to lower crop production, higher food prices, and greater food insecurity.
While many problems linger, the worst fears have not been realized. International food and fertilizer prices remain somewhat elevated compared to historical averages, but receded after peaking in April 2022, with prices nearing their pre-pandemic levels.
This blog by Brendan Rice and Rob Vos focuses on fertilizer markets, looking back at the disruptions of 2021 and 2022—finding that, on balance, price shocks appear to have had a limited impact on fertilizer usage and yields. (Read blog)
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As starvation looms, Ethiopia’s social safety net program faces a funding gap: The New Humanitarian interviewed Daniel Gilligan for an article on the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), a program that provides assistance to around 8 million vulnerable people, making it one of the largest welfare schemes in Africa. “It was considered a very effective food assistance response,” Gilligan said. “The PSNP, and complementary efforts by the government, really deserve credit for that.”
UN report says households waste 1 billion meals daily: Al Jazeera spoke with Kalyani Raghunathan on food loss and waste, who explained that “global production of food far exceeds the global requirement.” “It’s not about net supply and demand—it’s more a question of the distribution of that food,” Raghunathan said. She noted that the terms “food loss” and “food waste” are often used interchangeably, but rates of food loss and food waste differ around the world.
More participation from Latin America to strengthen global food security: IICA: Forbes Central America reported on the new publication, “Navigating the Trade Panorama: A Latin American Perspective” released by IICA and IFPRI. Valeria Piñeiro, speaking about the new report, said: “Among other issues, it deals with how global geopolitics has been changing and its implications for agricultural trade and how the dismantling of subsidies can be attained in order to achieve more sustainable agricultural production.”
Solar-powered farming is quickly depleting the world’s groundwater supply: Energy Update (Pakistan) quoted Claudia Ringler in an article on how farmers in arid regions are turning to low-cost solar pumps to irrigate their fields. “The potential in Africa is large,” Ringler said. “Solar power is a breakthrough technology. Barriers will be increasingly overcome, and it will transform agricultural irrigation.”
IFPRI: Agri-led growth three times more effective than others in alleviating poverty: Dhaka Tribune (Bangladesh) reported on a recent IFPRI seminar, “Agri-food value chains and farm mechanization in Bangladesh.” Akhter Ahmed was quoted citing a recent IFPRI study, saying, “Agriculture-led growth is three times more effective in alleviating poverty than other sectors in the economy in Bangladesh.” Kate Ambler and Alan de Brauw presented IFPRI and CGIAR’s research on the role of intermediaries in rice and potato value chains in Bangladesh. (Also published in the Daily Observer)
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The Great Recession of the late 2000s had a profound effect on global food security. Between 2004 and mid-2008, when the global recession was reaching full force, food grain prices—a key indicator of food security—increased significantly.
This global food crisis exposed a critical need for improved food security analyses, solutions, and early warning systems for policymakers, development organizations, and other stakeholders. IFPRI responded to this need by launching the Food Security Portal (FSP), with funding from the European Commission, in 2010.
To learn more, read a new interactive story in our “Making a Difference” series.
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