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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.

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researcher spotlight

Samuel Benin

Samuel Benin is the Acting Director for Africa in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. He conducts research on national strategies and public investment for accelerating food systems transformation in Africa and provides analytical support to the African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review.

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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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Channing Arndt

Senior Director, Transformation Strategies, CGIAR and IFPRI

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Channing

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@channingarndt
ORCiD

Bio

Channing Arndt is the Senior Director for Transformation Strategies, where he oversees four units within IFPRI/CGIAR: Natural Resources and Resilience, Innovation Policy and Scaling, Foresight and Policy Modeling, and Development Strategies and Governance, which houses IFPRI’s regional offices and country programs. He has worked closely with central decision-making organs at the national level in Africa and Asia, including six years of resident experience in the Ministry of Planning and Finance in Mozambique. He has dedicated his career to the systemic transformations that underpin inclusive and sustainable economic development, and established a reputation for building institutional capacity in countries and via research networks such as the African Economic Research Consortium. His recent books include Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa; Measuring Poverty and Wellbeing in Developing Countries; and The Political Economy of Clean Energy Transitions. He has published research in leading academic journals on a range of topics including agricultural development, poverty measurement, poverty alleviation and growth, market integration, nutrition, gender and discrimination, HIV/AIDS, technological change, trade policy, aid effectiveness, energy, bioenergy, climate variability, and the implications of climate change.

Publications

RePEc Author Profile

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Publications

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Working Paper

From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments on food security and diets since 2015

2024Zorbas, Christina; Resnick, Danielle; Jones, Eleanor; Suri, Shoba; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Headey, Derek D.; Martin, Will; Vos, Rob; Arndt, Channing; Menon, Purnima
Details

From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments on food security and diets since 2015

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2), Zero Hunger, by 2030 is in jeopardy due to slowing and unequal economic growth, climate shocks, the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, lackluster efforts toward investing in food system sustainability and agricultural productivity growth, and persistent barriers to open food trade. Nevertheless, numerous commitments to achieving SDG 2 have been repeatedly expressed by Heads of State and Ministers at diverse global meetings since the SDGs became a focus in 2015. To identify the intensity and degree of convergence of commitments that national governments have collectively made to realizing SDG 2, this paper provides a qualitative assessment of statements from more than 68 global meetings and 107 intergovernmental commitment documents since 2015. Analyzing these commitments against seven critical factors necessary for impact at scale, we find that stated intentions to solve the global food security and hunger challenge have become more pronounced at global meetings over time, especially in the wake of the crises. However, the intent to act is not consistently matched by commitments to specific actions that could help accelerate reductions in hunger. For instance, while increased financing is often recognized as a priority to reach SDG 2, few commitments in global fora relate to detailed costing of required investments. Similarly, many commitment statements lack specificity regarding what and how policy interventions should be scaled up for greater action on SDG 2 or the ways to enhance different stakeholders’ capacities to implement them. While horizontal coherence was mentioned across most global fora, it was only present in about half of the commitment statements, with even less recognition of the necessity for vertical coherence from global to local levels. Despite global acknowledgement of the importance of accountability and monitoring, usually by way of progress reports, we find few consequences for governments that do not act on commitments made in global fora. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer recommendations for how to strengthen the commitment-making process to help accelerate actions that can reduce food insecurity and hunger and augment the legitimacy of global meetings. This work can inform the policy advocacy community focused on SDG 2 and those engaged in catalyzing and supporting intergovernmental action on other SDGs. Our findings reiterate the importance of attention to global governance and the political economy of global meetings—which is necessary to strengthen our focus on delivering outcomes that put the world on a path that brings the solution to the problems of global hunger and food insecurity within reach.

Year published

2024

Authors

Zorbas, Christina; Resnick, Danielle; Jones, Eleanor; Suri, Shoba; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Headey, Derek D.; Martin, Will; Vos, Rob; Arndt, Channing; Menon, Purnima

Citation

Zorbas, Christina; Resnick, Danielle; Jones, Eleanor; Suri, Shoba; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Headey, Derek D.; Martin, Will; et al. 2024. From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments on food security and diets since 2015. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2238. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138946

Keywords

Food Security; Diet; Accountability; Food Policies; Hunger; Governance; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Journal Article

Variation in women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence across the rural–urban continuum in Ethiopia

2024Amare, Mulubrhan; Arndt, Channing; Guo, Zhe; Seymour, Greg
Details

Variation in women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence across the rural–urban continuum in Ethiopia

Little is known about the effects of urbanization on women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence (IPV). The scarcity of empirical studies on this relationship can be partly attributed to the lack of an objective measure of urbanization levels. In this study, we investigate the effects of urbanization on Ethiopian women’s attitudes toward IPV using four continuous measures of urbanization: nightlight intensity, distance to urban areas, total urban area within a 10-km radius, and an urbanization index. These measures are defined from satellite-based nighttime light intensity and multispectral sensor data. We find that despite a generally strong positive association between urbanization and progressive attitudes among women toward IPV, some stages of urbanization show a more significant association than others. The heterogeneities in the effect of all urbanization measures on women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence further show that the effects of urbanization measures are sharply heterogeneous across wealth indicator terciles. While we find that urbanization measures are associated with an overall decrease in the justification of IPV, the effects are higher and stronger for women in the upper and middle wealth terciles compared to the lowest wealth tercile. Initially less-privileged women gain little from urbanization in the attitudes toward IPV, resulting in increased inequality in women’s empowerment in the short and medium term.

Year published

2024

Authors

Amare, Mulubrhan; Arndt, Channing; Guo, Zhe; Seymour, Greg

Citation

Amare, Mulubrhan; Arndt, Channing; Guo, Zhe; and Seymour, Greg. 2024. Variation in women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence across the rural–urban continuum in Ethiopia. World Development 174(February 2024): 106451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106451

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Women; Gender-based Violence; Domestic Violence; Rural Areas; Urban Areas; Urbanization

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106451 Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Journal Article

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Opinion Piece

El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year

2024De Weerdt, Joachim; Arndt, Channing; Thurlow, James; Duchoslav, Jan; Glauber, Joseph W.; You, Liangzhi; Anderson, Weston
Details

El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year

Maize is the preferred staple of most of southern Africa. In Malawi it supplies two-thirds of national calorie intake. Nine out of 10 farming households produce maize and devote over 70% of their land to growing it. Most farming households are vulnerable to the rainfall patterns. Over 90% of farming households in the country rely solely on rain to irrigate their maize plants. We looked at possible weather pattern changes driven by El Niño – an unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean – and their impact on maize production in Malawi. We did this by developing a model from historical district crop data and El Niño events since the 1980s. Econometric modelling, which uses statistics and mathematics, is useful in studying the cause and effect of relationships, in the case of weather patterns. Historically, two out of every three El Niño events have coincided with reduced maize harvests of, on average, 22.5%.

Year published

2024

Authors

De Weerdt, Joachim; Arndt, Channing; Thurlow, James; Duchoslav, Jan; Glauber, Joseph W.; You, Liangzhi; Anderson, Weston

Citation

De Weerdt, Joachim; Arndt, Channing; Thurlow, James; Duchoslav, Jan; Glauber, Joseph; You, Liangzhi; and Anderson, Weston. El Niño: Malawi’s harvest of its staple food maize may fall by 22.5% this year. The Conversation online editorial. First published online January 28, 2024. https://theconversation.com/el-nino-malawis-harvest-of-its-staple-food-maize-may-fall-by-22-5-this-year-221349

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; El Niño; Maize; Households; Harvesting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-ND-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Opinion Piece

Blogs

Climate Risk to Resilience: Financing adaptation in African countries
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 07, 2023

Climate Risk to Resilience: Financing adaptation in African countries

By Channing Arndt

New insights for scaling up efforts in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia.

IFPRI Global Food Policy Report 2022: Accelerating food systems transformation to combat climate change
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 12, 2022

IFPRI Global Food Policy Report 2022: Accelerating food systems transformation to combat climate change

By Johan Swinnen, Channing Arndt, and Rob Vos

Six policy priorities that can—and should—be implemented now.

The role of agriculture and food systems in achieving net zero global GHG emissions
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 24, 2021

The role of agriculture and food systems in achieving net zero global GHG emissions

By Channing Arndt

Agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) is currently the only major sector with serious potential to become a net emissions sink.

Events

2024 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

July 8 to 18, 2024

2024 High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)

The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will be held from Monday, July 8, to Wednesday, July 17, 2024, under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council. This includes the three-day ministerial segment of the forum from Monday, July 15, to Wednesday, July 17, 2024 as part of the High-level Segment of the […]

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

November 30 to December 12, 2023

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) being held in Dubai from November 30  to December 12, 2023. IFPRI’s Board of Trustees is meeting in Dubai on December 8, 2023, and a number of researchers will engage in meetings and participate in several side events, as […]

Implications of El Niño 2023/24 for Africa South of the Sahara
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

November 29, 2023, 7:30 – 9:00 am

Implications of El Niño 2023/24 for Africa South of the Sahara

Virtual Event: November 29, 2023 at 7:30am-9:00am EST. IFPRI in collaboration with USAID FEWS NET and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is hosting a presentation on the potential impact of the upcoming El Niño on the global agrifood system, with special emphasis on low-income countries in Africa South of the Sahara. The event will be organized around four short talks.

News

July 21, 2022 | In the News

Future scorching: Average temperature in India to grow by 4.4 degrees Celsius (Mint) 

Mint published an article, writing that IFPRI’s 2022 Global Food Policy Report reports that India’s summer heat waves are likely to triple or quadruple due to climate change. The Report finds, “South Asia is a climate change hotspot, with many climate-induced risks compounded by significant existing vulnerabilities.” Channing Arndt, Director of IFPRI’s Environment and Production […]

June 11, 2020 | In the News

Who has been hit hardest by South Africa’s lockdown? We found some answers (The Conversation)

The Conversation published an op-ed by EPTD Division Director Channing Arndt, Senior Research Fellow Emeritus Sherman Robinson, and Scientist Sherwin Gabriel that stated in the case of South Africa, the lockdown policies are relatively stringent, and the economic impacts large. Along with analysis and recommendations, the authors said, “With a catastrophic global pandemic coming on top of more than a […]

May 05, 2020 | In the News

SA’s economic recovery plan: Prof. Channing Arndt (SABC News)

SABC News interviewed EPTD Director Channing Arndt on the South Africa Scheme, ‘Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED)’ which has released an initial analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the South African economy. Arndt stated that “It would be difficult for the lockdown to go on for months. The flow of goods and services would have slowed by one-third. The longer the lockdown goes, the more […]