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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

Emily Schmidt

Emily Schmidt is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her most recent research explores household livelihood strategies in Papua New Guinea, including linkages between agriculture, poverty, and nutrition outcomes among rural smallholder farmers.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Foresight and Policy Modeling

Andrew Comstock

Senior Research Analyst

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Bio

Andrew Comstock is a Senior Research Analyst with the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit based in Washington and a member of the Unit’s consumer behavior and dietary change workstream. His research focuses on food systems transformation and demand system estimation in Africa and Asia. He has provided research support to the Pakistan, Malawi, and Nigeria country programs – among others – while his recent work has focused on cross-cutting issues related to food security and diets. Andrew received his master’s in Internation Economics and Development from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

Publications

Publications

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Book Chapter

Dietary quality and nutrition: Past progress, current and future challenges

2024Mahrt, Kristi; Headey, Derek D.; Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; Tauseef, Salauddin
Details

Dietary quality and nutrition: Past progress, current and future challenges

Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the military coup in 2021, Myanmar was experiencing a period of rapid economic growth and transformation in the wake of economic and political liberalization. Between 2005 and 2017, average annual growth in real GDP per capita was 7.8 percent, making Myanmar the fastest growing economy among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. Strong growth was accompanied by a halving of the national poverty rate between 2005 and 2017 from 48.2 to 24.8 percent (CSO, UNDP, and World Bank 2019). COVID19 and the economic and political shocks affecting the country since 2021 have led to an economic contraction: 2021 saw an 18 percent drop in real GDP per capita; in 2022, real GDP per capita was estimated to be 15 percent lower than in 2019 (World Bank 2022). The impacts on poverty were even more dire. A high-frequency panel phone survey of mothers and young children in urban Yangon and the rural Dry Zone revealed incomes collapsing during the COVID-19 lockdowns and further income losses in the wake of the February 2021 military takeover (Headey et al. 2022). Prices rose dramatically, with the consumer price index rising by 20 percent between July 2021 and July 2022 (MOPF 2022), while food prices rose by 34 percent over the same period and by about 50 percent between December 2021 and December 2022. Nationally, a variety of different poverty indicators suggest that between 40 and 50 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2022 —poverty rates similar to those found between 2005 and 2010.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mahrt, Kristi; Headey, Derek D.; Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; Tauseef, Salauddin

Citation

Mahrt, Kristi; Headey, Derek; Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew; and Tauseef, Salauddin. 2024. Dietary quality and nutrition: Past progress, current and future challenges. In Myanmar’s agrifood system: Historical development, recent shocks, future opportunities, Duncan Boughton, Ben Belton, Isabel Lambrecht, and Bart Minten, eds. Chapter 4, Pp. 79-120. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155148

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agrifood Systems; Development; Diet Quality; Economic Shock; Governance; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Book Chapter

Food processing: A stalled transformation

2024Minten, Bart; Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; Mahrt, Kristi; Fang, Peixun; Goeb, Joseph; Zone, Phoo Pye
Details

Food processing: A stalled transformation

Processed foods account for 80 percent of global food sales. Such foods are becoming increasingly important in low- and middle-income countries, driven by growing demand for convenient and ready-to-eat products. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the state and evolution of food processing in Myanmar and to assess the effect of the crises (COVID-19 and the military coup) on the different segments—production, trade, and consumption—of the sector. This assessment is important given the possible implications of changes in food processing for agriculture, employment opportunities in the food processing industry and food service sector, and nutritional outcomes.

Year published

2024

Authors

Minten, Bart; Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; Mahrt, Kristi; Fang, Peixun; Goeb, Joseph; Zone, Phoo Pye

Citation

Minten, Bart; Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew; Mahrt, Kristi; Fang, Peixun; Goeb, Joseph; and Zone, Phoo Pye. 2024. Food processing: A stalled transformation. In Myanmar’s agrifood system: Historical development, recent shocks, future opportunities. Boughton, Duncan; Belton, Ben; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Masias, Ian; and Minten, Bart (Eds.). Chapter 13, Pp. 341-372. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155155

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

South-eastern Asia; Food Processing; Shock; Agro-industrial Sector; Markets; Trade; Processed Foods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Brief

Consumer preferences matter for transforming food systems for sustainable healthy diets: Evidence from rural Bangladesh

2024Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; de Brauw, Alan; Diao, Xinshen; Talukder, Md. Ruhul Amin
Details

Consumer preferences matter for transforming food systems for sustainable healthy diets: Evidence from rural Bangladesh

Food system transformation strategies rely on consumer demand response for achieving sustainable healthy diets, but food consumption patterns and consumer preferences are often not well understood in many countries of the global South. This brief examines consumer demand in Bangladesh, a country in the take-off stage of agrifood system transformation, that has experienced improvements in diet quality but also an increasing incidence of overweight, with faster increases in rural than urban areas. The authors estimate responses in consumer demand to changes in incomes and changes in food prices, finding that rural consumer demand is driven by strong preferences for animal-source foods, while the demand for sugar and highly processed foods increases faster than total food demand when income rises. They conclude that agricultural value chain development can be an important policy instrument for improving household diet quality but can also lead to undesirable dietary change if food consumption incentives conflict with nutritional needs.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; de Brauw, Alan; Diao, Xinshen; Talukder, Md. Ruhul Amin

Citation

Ecker, Olivier; Comstock, Andrew R.; de Brauw, Alan; Diao, Xinshen; and Talukder, Md. Ruhul Amin. 2024. Consumer preferences matter for transforming food systems for sustainable healthy diets: Evidence from rural Bangladesh. IFPRI Issue Brief June 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144173

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Food Systems; Consumer Behaviour; Rural Areas; Healthy Diets; Demand; Overweight; Modelling; Animal Source Foods; Agricultural Value Chains; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Brief

Events

The E-FooD Dataset and Food Security Simulators for Kenya and Nigeria: Innovative Tools to Support National Policies and Strategies
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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December 7, 2023, 8:00 – 9:00 am

The E-FooD Dataset and Food Security Simulators for Kenya and Nigeria: Innovative Tools to Support National Policies and Strategies

Virtual Event: December 7, 2023 – 8:00 AM- 9:00 AM EST. This webinar, organized by the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS), introduces the E-FooD dataset and FSS for Kenya and Nigeria, showcases their applications, and discusses the role that such tools can play in policymaking.