IFPRI announces new operational structure

The International Food Policy Research Institute is pleased to announce a new operational structure intended to strengthen our research, delivery, and scaling collaborations with partners on evidence-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. The updated structure also facilitates cross-CGIAR collaboration in line with the mission of CGIAR to advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Read more

Migrants on the move: The risks of West Africa migration
June 14, 2023, Washington, DC, USA

South Asia presentation of the 2023 Global Food Policy Report
June 19-20, 2023, Kathmandu, Nepal

More details will be announced shortly. Please check our Events page.

IFPRI mourns the passing of Professor Nurul Islam, IFPRI Research Fellow Emeritus, a prominent economist, author, and dear friend to many of us. Prof. Islam passed away on May 9, at the age of 94, in Washington, DC. Read full statement

Reducing IPV: Melissa Hidrobo and colleagues examine the impact of group-based delivery of cash plus activities on modifying intermediate outcomes related to intimate partner violence (IPV) in the context of the Ethiopian government’s Productive Safety Net Programme. (Read Article)

Opportunity costs: Clemens Breisinger, Yumna Kassim, Sikandra Kurdi, Josee Randriamamonjy, and James Thurlow analyze the trade-offs between reducing poverty and managing fiscal balances in the context of large national subsidy programs for staple foods, using Egypt as a case study. (Read Article)

Watershed moments: Soil erosion and land degradation pose challenges to food security and environmental sustainability in Ethiopia. The government of Ethiopia has implemented soil and water conservation programs to address these issues. Claudia Ringler and colleagues assess the effectiveness of these practices in improving vegetation and reducing soil erosion in the Feresmay watershed. (Read Article)

What are you thinking?: Audrey Pereira and colleagues explore men’s perspectives on gender, violence, and cash transfers targeted to women in northern Ghana by analyzing data from focus group discussions with male partners of women who participated in the Ghana Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) 1000 cash transfer program. (Read Article)

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Agricultural markets—particularly trade in cereals such as wheat and maize—have seen significant volatility over the past year as impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war, combined with tight global stocks, drove prices to record (nominal) highs. The rice market, by contrast, has been generally tranquil. However, recently there have been signs of trouble. Rice prices have risen (up 20%-30% from September 2022), due in part to the floods in Pakistan. Global stocks fell about 5% year-over-year and are now projected to be at their lowest level since 2017/18.

Abdullah Mamun and Joseph Glauber discuss three issues that will affect global rice markets in the coming months. (Read Blog)

Solidarity struggle: Following fierce farm protests over gluts of Ukrainian grain and other food items in their domestic markets, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Hungary have temporarily imposed import bans on key agricultural products from Ukraine. Rob Vos and Joseph Glauber examine impacts of these restrictions, the EU response, and the implications for broader global food security. (Read Blog)

Feeding Africa: Currently, less than 5% of cultivated land in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigated. Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler discuss how small-scale, farmer-led irrigation schemes can better contribute to achievements of national agriculture and development goals, improve nutritional outcomes, and why policymakers should support expansion of small-scale irrigation. (Read Blog)

Developing WEMNS: To better monitor progress toward SDG5—achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls—a team of researchers from IFPRI, the World Bank LSMS, Emory University, and Oxford University, along with experts from four pilot countries (Bangladesh, Guatemala, Malawi, and Nepal)—are designing a Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS). (Read Blog)

HarvestPlus: 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of biofortification, a nutrition-agricultural innovation, for which its pioneers were awarded the World Food Prize. In this post dedicated to the anniversary of HarvestPlus and biofortification, Arun Baral reviews biofortification’s role, advantages, and scale as an essential part of the CGIAR-wide effort to improve global nutrition. (Read Blog)

Six lessons: David Laborde, Lysiane Lefebvre, Francine Picard, and Valeria Piñeiro share six lessons that emerged from discussions at the recent GIZ conference “A Year of Multiple Crises: Reflecting the impacts, policy responses and outlook for food security and agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa” that can be broadly applied to address the impacts of overlapping crises, build resilience in agrifood systems, and improve global food security. (Read Blog)

Expanding WEAI: The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) toolkit continues to expand. The new Health and Nutrition (pro-WEAI+HN) and Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) modules are designed to measure domains of agency that are important for nutrition-sensitive and market-focused agricultural development projects. (Read Blog)

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Community-based childcare centers (CBCCs) are a key platform to roll out Malawi’s National Early Childhood Development policy. At these centers, families and community members come together to provide childcare services and meals for young children. The Nutrition Embedded Evaluation Program (NEEP) intervention was developed to use CBCCs for promoting child health and nutrition. The approach integrated local knowledge and guidance from experts at the University of Malawi and Save the Children to provide trainings on nutrition and agricultural production, linking with micro-lending program, and distributing seeds of nutritious foods to households.

IFPRI and Save the Children implemented a rigorous impact evaluation to see whether this approach was effective and could be replicated or scaled up across Malawi. In a new visual story, Aulo Geli, Amy Margolies, and Brian McNamara review the significant positive impacts of this program and lessons for the future.

(Read Story)

Food prices are falling on world markets, but not on kitchen tables: Associated Press quotes IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Joseph Glauber who noted that “food inflation will come down, but it’s going to come down slowly, largely because other factors (energy, transportation, processing, labor costs) are still running pretty high.”

FAO prepares for the arrival of El Niño: How to act against hunger before humanitarian crises break out: The International Food Policy Research Institute points out that the international community has enough data to prevent more people from falling into food insecurity, writes El País in an article about the global food crises.

Losses that harm everyone.. Any solutions to the meat crisis in Egypt?: Al Jazeera quotes an IFPRI study involving over 6,000 poor and near-poor households from across Egypt, which showed that “85% of the households reduced their meat consumption, while 75% decreased their consumption of chicken and eggs.”

International Food Policy Research Institute: Strengthening food resilience to address crises: Beijing News, Sina News (China) and other media feature the recent discussion of the 2023 Global Food Policy Report in China, quoting IFPRI Director General Johan Swinnen and Senior Research Fellow Katrina Kosec.

International Food Policy Research Institute: Climate change threatens global food security: Alghad (Jordan) writes about the presentation of the IFPRI’s 2023 Global Food Policy Report in Amman, Jordan, on May 24, 2023 along with the launch of the new CGIAR Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration, led by IFPRI’s Katrina Kosec.

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CGIAR at AIM for Climate (AIM4C) Summit (May 8 – May 10, 2023)

See photos from the Meet the Scientists Event and Reception at IFPRI on May 9 and read these stories about the summit: