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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.

researcher spotlight

Kate Ambler

Kate Amber is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. Kate’s research broadly focuses on interventions that can increase incomes for smallholders and other microenterprises in agrifood value chains, with a specific focus on the inclusion of women. This includes work on programming in fragile settings, innovations in agricultural finance, and regulatory solutions for food safety. 

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.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

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IFPRI works with partners in Africa at the country, regional, and continental levels to provide cutting edge, policy-relevant research on food and nutrition security for policymakers, development partners, and stakeholders. Sharing this research and engaging through capacity building and dialogue informs effective policies, programs, and investments to help ensure that all people have access to safe, sufficient, nutritious, and sustainably grown food. The Africa Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal, provides an on-the-ground presence to support local research and capacity building as well as partnership building for sustainably reducing poverty and ending malnutrition.

VISIT AFRICA WEBSITE

Contact

Eastern and Southern Africa Office (ESAO):
IFPRI c/o ILRI
P.O. Box 5689
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Phone: +251 (0) 11-617-2500
Fax: +251 (0) 11-646-2927
(use the (0) only when dialing from within Ethiopia)
Email: ifpri-AddisAbaba@cgiar.org

West and Central Africa Office (WCAO):
Titre 3396 Lot #2
Dakar Almadies – BP 24063
Senegal
Tel: +221.33.869.9800
Email: ifpri-dakar@cgiar.org
Website: africa.ifpri.info

Our experts

Elodie Becquey

Elodie Becquey

Senior Research Fellow, Africa,
Nutrition, Diets, and Health

Samuel Benin

Samuel Benin

Senior Research Fellow, Development
Strategies and Governance, Africa

John M. Ulimwengu

John M. Ulimwengu

Senior Research Fellow, Africa,
Development Strategies and Governance

Taddese Zerfu

Taddese Zerfu

Research Fellow, Africa,
Development Strategies and Governance

Projects

Ethiopian NIPN Technical Advisory Project (ENTAP)

Ethiopian NIPN Technical Advisory Project (ENTAP)

The Ethiopia NIPN Technical Advisory Project (ENTAP) is embedded in the Compact 2025 initiative for ending hunger and undernutrition by 2025. The objective of ENTAP……

Strengthening National Capacities and Policies for Food Systems Analysis and Transformation in Kenya, Ghana, and Senegal

Strengthening National Capacities and Policies for Food Systems Analysis and Transformation in Kenya, Ghana, and Senegal

Food systems encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food……

Supporting ReSAKSS and CAADP

Supporting ReSAKSS and CAADP

From 2006 to 2020, IFPRI facilitated the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) to support the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development……

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Publications

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Fertilizer demand and profitability amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia

2025Assefa, Thomas W.; Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Abay, Kibrom A.
Details

Fertilizer demand and profitability amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia

We assess fertilizer demand and profitability in Ethiopia in the face of the recent global fuel–food–fertilizer price crisis and other domestic shocks. We first examine farmers’ response to changes in both fertilizer and food prices by estimating price elasticity of demand. We then evaluate the profitability of fertilizer by computing average value–cost ratios (AVCRs) associated with fertilizer application before and after these crises. We use detailed longitudinal household survey data collected in three rounds, covering both pre-crisis (2016 and 2019) and post-crisis (2023) production periods, focusing on three main staple crops in Ethiopia (maize, teff, and wheat). Our analysis shows that fertilizer adoption, and yield levels were increasing until the recent crises, but these trends have been halted by these crises. We also find slightly larger fertilizer price elasticity of demand estimates than previous estimates, ranging between −0.40 and −1.12, which vary across crops. We find that farmers are more responsive to fertilizer prices than to output prices. Farmers’ response to increases in staple prices was statistically insignificant and hence not as strong as theoretically perceived. Households with smaller farm sizes are relatively more responsive to changes in fertilizer prices. Finally, we show important dynamics in the profitability of chemical fertilizer. While the AVCRs show profitable trends for most crops, the share of farmers with profitable AVCRs declined following the fertilizer price surges. Our findings offer important insights for policy focusing on mitigating the adverse effects of fertilizer price shocks.

Year published

2025

Authors

Assefa, Thomas W.; Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Abay, Kibrom A.

Citation

Assefa, Thomas W.; Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; and Abay, Kibrom A. 2025. Fertilizer demand and profitability amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia. Food Policy 133: 102785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102785

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Fertilizers; Prices; Farmers; Household Surveys; Maize; Teff; Wheat; Yields

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102785 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Adapting the women’s empowerment in nutrition index: Lessons from Kenya

2025Lentz, Erin; Jensen, Nathan; Lepariyo, Watson; Narayanan, Sudha; Bageant, Elizabeth
Details

Adapting the women’s empowerment in nutrition index: Lessons from Kenya

Women face a disproportionate burden of malnutrition and food insecurity. Research has shown that women’s empowerment can buffer women against nutritional problems. This paper contributes to ongoing efforts to measure women’s empowerment that are both context-sensitive and universal, focusing on the recently developed Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI). Earlier research has shown it is both a valid construct and positively related to dietary and nutritional outcomes of women in South Asia. We establish that WENI is generalizable to agropastoral and pastoral Kenya, an area with substantially different livelihoods, food system, norms, and institutions than South Asia. We find that a locally contextualized WENI is strongly associated with women’s body mass index and dietary diversity as well as household level food insecurity. We also present findings for two shorter variations of WENI: an abbreviated WENI (A-WENI) and a cross context WENI (CC-WENI). A-WENI contains a small subset of WENI indicators identified using machine learning with South Asian data and therefore is context-specific. CC-WENI does not contain indicators specific to the validation context. We find that they perform comparably well with caveats. Thus, as use of WENI expands we recommend adapting WENI for in-depth analyses of women’s nutritional empowerment; using CC-WENI for cross-context comparisons; and using A-WENI for rapid appraisals of community level progress in a given context.

Year published

2025

Authors

Lentz, Erin; Jensen, Nathan; Lepariyo, Watson; Narayanan, Sudha; Bageant, Elizabeth

Citation

Lentz, Erin; Jensen, Nathan; Lepariyo, Watson; Narayanan, Sudha; and Bageant, Elizabeth. 2024. Adapting the women’s empowerment in nutrition index: Lessons from Kenya. World Development 188: 106887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106887

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Women’s Empowerment; Malnutrition; Food Security; Livelihoods; Food Systems; Indicators

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106887 Source record

Project

Livestock

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Adapting the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index: Lessons from Kenya

2025Lentz, E.; Jensen, Nathaniel D.; Lepariyo, Watson; Narayanan, S.; Bageant, E.
Details

Adapting the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index: Lessons from Kenya

Women face a disproportionate burden of malnutrition and food insecurity. Research has shown that women’s empowerment can buffer women against nutritional problems. This paper contributes to ongoing efforts to measure women’s empowerment that are both context-sensitive and universal, focusing on the recently developed Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI). Earlier research has shown it is both a valid construct and positively related to dietary and nutritional outcomes of women in South Asia. We establish that WENI is generalizable to agropastoral and pastoral Kenya, an area with substantially different livelihoods, food system, norms, and institutions than South Asia. We find that a locally contextualized WENI is strongly associated with women’s body mass index and dietary diversity as well as household level food insecurity. We also present findings for two shorter variations of WENI: an abbreviated WENI (A-WENI) and a cross context WENI (CC-WENI). A-WENI contains a small subset of WENI indicators identified using machine learning with South Asian data and therefore is context-specific. CC-WENI does not contain indicators specific to the validation context. We find that they perform comparably well with caveats. Thus, as use of WENI expands we recommend adapting WENI for in-depth analyses of women’s nutritional empowerment; using CC-WENI for cross-context comparisons; and using A-WENI for rapid appraisals of community level progress in a given context.

Year published

2025

Authors

Lentz, E.; Jensen, Nathaniel D.; Lepariyo, Watson; Narayanan, S.; Bageant, E.

Citation

Lentz, E., Jensen, N., Lepariyo, W., Narayanan, S. and Bageant, E. 2025. Adapting the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index: Lessons from Kenya. World Development 188: 106887.

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Nutrition; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106887 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Events

Extraordinary Summit on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programmes (CAADP)
IFPRI at External Event

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January 9 to 11, 2025

Extraordinary Summit on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programmes (CAADP)

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the Extraordinary Summit on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), organized by the African Union Commission and hosted by the Government of Uganda on January 9 to 11, 2025. The summit will focus on adopting the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and Acton Plan for 2026-2035. This […]

Micronutrient Forum: 6th Global Conference
IFPRI at External Event

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October 16 to 20, 2023

Micronutrient Forum: 6th Global Conference

Hybrid Conference: October 16, 2023 – 8:30 AM to October 20, 2023 – 5:00 PM CEST. IFPRI is pleased to participate in this year’s Micronutrient Forum 6th Global Conference, being held at the World Forum in The Hague October 16–20, with a focus on “Nutrition for Resilience (N4R).

Africa’s Food Systems Forum (AGRF) 2023 Summit
IFPRI at External Event

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September 5 to 8, 2023

Africa’s Food Systems Forum (AGRF) 2023 Summit

Event: September 5, 2023 – 3:00 AM to September 8, 2023 – 7:30 AM EDT. IFPRI is participating in Africa’s Food Systems Forum (AGRF) 2023 Summit.

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News

September 06, 2023 | In the News

Unpacking the 2023 Africa agriculture assessment report (CNBC Africa) 

CNBC Africa interviewed John Ulimwengu, IFPRI Senior Research Fellow and the technical editor and lead researcher of the Africa Agriculture Status Report 2023, launched on September 6 at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF). .  The Report titled “Empowering Africa’s Food Systems for the Future” highlights the ways in which Africa is uniquely positioned to redefine its future and […]

March 15, 2023 | In the News

Senegal: Experts work on the functioning of the elements of the food system (Senegal Press Agency) 

Senegal Press Agency, in a summary of the two-day event launch of the “Food system” project at the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research (ISRA), writes that the workshop has contributed to a better understanding of the functioning of the Senegalese food system along various dimensions stretching from production to consumption.  This workshop was organized in […]

December 10, 2021 | In the News

Global health leaders to address drivers of unhealthy food systems (University of Sidney)

University of Sydney (Charles Perkins Centre) published a press release about the 2021 Global Food Governance Conference that will address the political, economic and colonial systems and corporate structures that produce harmful food systems. Senior research coordinator, Namukolo Covic, in her keynote address will discuss outcomes from the UN Food Systems Summit. Earlier this year, Covic wrote that the summit […]

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Blogs

A glimpse into the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in rural Kenya
IFPRI Blog
 | 
August 16, 2022

A glimpse into the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in rural Kenya

By Harriet Mawia

Effects of lost income and food insecurity linger, particularly for for women, a study shows.

Global Food 50/50 Report: Assessing gender, diversity, and power in food system organizations
IFPRI Blog
 | 
October 27, 2021

Global Food 50/50 Report: Assessing gender, diversity, and power in food system organizations

By Karla Estrada

A new and necessary accountability measure for gender equality.

Transform Nutrition West Africa: Time to build on the momentum
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 17, 2021

Transform Nutrition West Africa: Time to build on the momentum

By Roosmarijn Verstraeten

A four-country project's foundation for knowledge sharing and policy collaboration.

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