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Happy New Year from all of us at the International Food Policy Research Institute!
2025 marks the 50th anniversary of IFPRI. Since its founding in 1975, IFPRI has worked closely with hundreds of partners, including its sister CGIAR centers, around the world to provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.
IFPRI’s research has informed important policy, program, and investment decisions around the world and had a positive impact on the lives of many people around the world. As we look ahead, we focus on ensuring that high-quality evidence remains at the forefront of national, regional, and global development policy processes in an increasingly complex world.
We are planning a series of important events and activities related to this milestone, both in Washington, DC, and in various countries and regions where IFPRI is present and active. We will be sharing more information in this newsletter and on our website and social media. Please stay tuned!
2025 also marks the launch of the new CGIAR Research Portfolio 2025-2030 in which IFPRI researchers are actively engaged. Last but not least, we are excited to welcome Dr. Sandra Milach who has been appointed to serve as CGIAR’s Chief Scientist!
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Purnima Menon, IFPRI Senior Director for Food and Nutrition and Policy, assumed an additional role as Acting Senior Director for Transformation Strategies. Channing Arndt, who held this role since 2022, has moved to Purdue University, as Professor and Director of the Center for Global Trade Analysis and Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), Department of Agricultural Economics. IFPRI thanks Channing for all his contributions and looks forward to ongoing collaboration with GTAP under his leadership.
Steven Were Omamo, Director of the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, also assumes the role of Acting Director for Africa, taking over from Samuel Benin, who will continue as Senior Research Fellow.
Both changes are effective January 1, 2025.
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 January 9-11, 2025, 9:00 am – 6:00 pm (Africa/Kampala)
Extraordinary Summit on Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programmes (CAADP)
Organized by The African Union Commission
January 13, 2025, 9:30 am – 11:00 am (US/Eastern)
Trade disruptions and their impacts on agricultural markets: Looking back and ahead
IFPRI-AMIS Seminar Series
January 28, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am (US/Eastern)
School meals in the 21st century – emerging evidence and future directions
Co-organized by IFPRI and The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) research consortium
February 4, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am EST
Official Launch of the Third Global Survey of School Meal Programs
Co-organized by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF), GNCF Global Survey, and IFPRI
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While agrifood value chains hold potential to create jobs and reduce disparities, there are systemic barriers for women and youth. Using data from agrifood value chains in Bangladesh and Uganda, our new issue brief highlights significant gender and age employment gaps in intermediary activities such as trading, processing, and wholesaling. The brief offers recommendations to address these challenges in this “hidden middle” of agrifood value chains. (Read the brief)
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Disruptions and adaptations of an urban nutrition intervention delivering essential services for women and children during a major health system crisis in Dhaka, Bangladesh: Alive & Thrive developed an intervention to integrate nutrition into urban antenatal care in Dhaka, which started at the onset of COVID-19 and encountered major service disruptions. Phuong Nguyen, Purnima Menon, and co-authors examine these disruptions, the adaptations made to sustain services for women and children, and how the intervention team implemented them. (Read the article in Maternal and Child Nutrition)
The technopolitics of agronomic knowledge and tropical(izing) vegetables in Brazil: Over the past 50 years, Brazil has experienced rapid agricultural transformation. Ryan Nehring analyzes the role of scientists, the state, and the environment in shaping agricultural research agendas, and demonstrates how public agricultural research shapes the long-term development of food systems. (Read the article in Environmental Science & Policy)
Experimental measures of intra-household resource control: Measuring individual decision power within households is important both from a theoretical perspective and as an element of women’s empowerment. Kate Ambler and co-authors examine experimental measures of preferences for intra-household resource control among 3,387 couples in Ghana and Uganda. (Read the article in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization)
A framework for cost-effectiveness analysis of greenhouse gas mitigation measures in the dairy industry with an application to dairy farms in China: The dairy sector contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions and seeks economically viable ways to reduce them. The absence of a cost-effectiveness analysis framework hinders selection of mitigation measures. Kevin Chen and co-authors developed a framework to identify cost-effective options for the dairy industry. (Read this article in the Journal of Environmental Management)
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A shock to the (food) system: Using new IFPRI tools to evaluate household food security outcomes
When a crisis hits unexpectedly, researchers, governments, and international organizations must quickly assess the impacts on household food security in order to devise appropriate responses to avert declines in diet quality and nutrition.
Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine sparked a significant and ongoing series of global crises. Among these was a dramatic increase in the global price of staple goods. IFPRI’s Food Security Simulator (FSS) tools were used to examine the effect of a 30% price increase on all grains in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia—the average increase in world grain prices caused by the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
To learn more, read the post by Andrew Comstock, Olivier Ecker, and Eleanor Jones.
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Knowledge, motivation, and agency for groundwater governance
By Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Bryan Bruns
Collaborative approaches for a fragile resource.
Six synergies to consider for groundwater governance
By Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Bryan Bruns
Advantages of “both/and” solutions.
How anticipatory action can empower women in disaster-prone areas
By Emily Myers, Katrina Kosec, Jordan Kyle, Agnes Quisumbing, Teresa Gonzales, Ana Madero, Caitlin Mittrick, and Amica Rapadas
How assistance programs can catalyze improvements in gender equality.
When school overlaps with farming: Measuring reduced educational advancement and simulating solutions in Africa
By James Allen IV
The social costs of calendars.
Graduation from poverty: Can a big push program help conflict-affected households? Evidence from Somalia
By Kalle Hirvonen, Naureen Karachiwalla, Jessica Leight, and Deboleena Rakshit
Moving from assistance to self-sufficiency.
Egypt’s experience bridging cash transfers and an economic inclusion program for sustainable social protection
By James Allen IV, Daniel Gilligan, Sikandra Kurdi, and Basma Yassa
A path for moving out of poverty.
How we used coordinated trials and meta-analysis to evaluate interventions to increase varietal turnover
By Berber Kramer, Carly Trachtman, and Witold Więcek
Assessing impacts of a multi-country project.
From crisis to recovery: How CGIAR’s BRIGHT Survey can catalyze evidence-based policy reforms in Sri Lanka
By Derek Headey, Joanna van Asselt, Olivier Ecker, and Jean Balié
Research can shape a new government’s decision-making.
Borlaug Dialogue side event: Reducing food loss and waste to address climate change in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia
By Nandita Srivastava
Managing value chains to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Takaful program: Giving Egypt’s poor a hand up, not just a handout
By Naureen Karachiwalla, Daniel Gilligan, and Sikandra Kurdi
Assessing impacts of cash transfers.
Strengthening Uganda’s solar pump subsidy program: Key challenges and solutions
By Edward Kato, Claudia Ringler, Geoffrey Kiguli, George Sentumbwe, Dennis Tiishekwa, Abdul Nsereko, and Jennifer Alinaitwe
Helping smallholders build water security.
The wonder and importance of biological control in farming and agrifood systems
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Collective efforts needed to reform food systems New Age quoted Johan Swinnen in this article on the Annual BIDS Conference on Development 2024. Reforming food systems is feasible, but highly complex due to the multitude of stakeholders involved, Swinnen said.
What has four stomachs and could change the world? The Economist cited research by Beliyou Haile and Derek Headey in this article on the potential for technology to transform cattle farming and improve nutrition. The article stated that their study found that an increase in milk consumption in a country was associated with a large reduction in stunting, even after controlling for income.
Myanmar’s war has forced doctors and nurses into prostitution The New York Times cited IFPRI research in this article on the current economic situation in Myanmar, stating that the cost of a typical meal has surged 160 percent.
How programme design and local context shape the lasting effects of cash and food transfers Vox Dev published an article by Akhter Ahmed, Melissa Hidrobo, John Hoddinott (Cornell University), Bastien Kolt (WHO), Shalini Roy, and Salauddin Tauseef on forthcoming research that assessed whether a two-year transfer program implemented in Bangladesh had sustained impacts on consumption and poverty.
Global Business: FAO: Food prices at a 20-month high in November CGTN America interviewed Joseph Glauber about the rise in global food commodity prices. Glauber discussed how this rise has been driven in part by a surge in the cost of vegetable oil, and how weather events that impact production in producer countries can impact global prices.
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Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Connecting the Dots Across Systems
December 3–5, 2024
Regional flagship nutrition conference co-organized by IFPRI South Asia and regional and global partners and co-hosts.
SPIR II RFSA Learning Event: Impact results workshops
December 9-10, 2024, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Organized by IFPRI.
WTO Annual Agriculture Symposium 2024
December 9, 2024
Organized by the World Trade Organization (WTO).
2024 Global Child Nutrition Forum
December 9 to 10, 2024
The forum was offered in cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and International Child Nutrition Japan.
Building More Inclusive and Natural Resource-Secure Food Futures
December 12, 2024
This IFPRI Policy Seminar highlighted the research contributions of Ruth Meinzen-Dick.
The Pulse of Progress: Harnessing High-Frequency Survey Data for Development Research in the Polycrisis Era
December 17 to 18, 2024
Co-organized by The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Policy Roundtable on Advancing Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Odisha
December 20, 2024
Organized by the Government of Odisha, in collaboration with IFPRI and the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS).
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