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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

Kalyani Raghunathan

Kalyani Raghunathan is Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit, based in New Delhi, India. Her research lies at the intersection of agriculture, gender, social protection, and public health and nutrition, with a specific focus on South Asia and Africa. 

Where we work

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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

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Deboleena Rakshit

Research Analyst

Deboleena Rakshit

Bio

Deboleena Rakshit is a Research Analyst in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. She works on rigorous evaluation of the gendered impacts of social protection programs on resilience, health, and general well-being, with a regional focus on South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining IFPRI, she worked with Equimundo (formerly Promundo-US) in Washington, DC, as a Quantitative Researcher, and with Quest Alliance in Bangalore as a Program Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. She holds a master’s degree in International Development, with a focus on Development Economics, from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University.

Languages spoken: English, Bengali, Hindi, French

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Publications

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Brief

Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa, Somalia: Qualitative evidence around resilience in the context of flood shocks

2024Magan, Mohamed; Hassan, Hashi; Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Rakshit, Deboleena
Details

Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa, Somalia: Qualitative evidence around resilience in the context of flood shocks

Somalia is among the most impoverished nations globally, grappling with severe poverty, persistent armed conflicts, and recurrent droughts and floods, leading to a humanitarian crisis marked by substantial internal displacement. The site of this evaluation, Baidoa, has 517 sites for internally displaced persons (IDPs), housing nearly 600,000 households. Notably, 64% of the residents in these sites are women and girls. The 2nd Somali High-Frequency Survey revealed that poverty is particularly pronounced in IDP settlements, compounded by high unemployment rates and a lack of income-generating opportunities, thereby exacerbating the challenging circumstances in this area. This brief reports findings from a qualitative assessment conducted in January 2024 exploring the effects of severe floods in Baidoa and the role of the Ultra-Poor Graduation (UPG) intervention in protecting households from these shocks.

Year published

2024

Authors

Magan, Mohamed; Hassan, Hashi; Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Rakshit, Deboleena

Citation

Magan, Mohamed; Hassan, Hashi; Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Karachiwalla, Naureen; and Rakshit, Deboleena. 2024. Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa, Somalia: Qualitative evidence around resilience in the context of flood shocks. Learning Brief April 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141613

Country/Region

Somalia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Conflicts; Flooding; Households; Poverty; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Brief

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Brief

Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa: A randomized controlled trial: Evidence from the midline survey

2024Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Rakshit, Deboleena
Details

Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa: A randomized controlled trial: Evidence from the midline survey

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and severe poverty, ongoing armed conflict, and recurring droughts and floodings have created a humanitarian crisis characterized by a high level of internal displacement. Baidoa city – the site of this evaluation – hosts 517 internally displaced persons (IDP) sites with almost 600,000 households, and 64 percent of the individuals living in these sites are women and girls. According to the 2nd Somali High Frequency Survey (Pape and Karamba 2019), poverty is particularly high in IDP settlements (along with rural areas), exacerbated by high unemployment rates and an absence of income-generating opportunities. This brief reports on midline findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the project Building Pathways Out of Poverty for Ultra-poor IDPs and Vulnerable Host Communities in Baidoa, an ultra-poor graduation (UPG) intervention implemented by World Vision and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The project seeks to enable ultra-poor internally displaced households to graduate from extreme poverty and begin an upward trajectory to self-reliance for displacement-affected communities by enabling gender-sensitive, context-appropriate, and sustainable livelihoods in an urban setting. IFPRI is collaborating with World Vision to conduct the trial.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Rakshit, Deboleena

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Karachiwalla, Naureen; and Rakshit, Deboleena. 2024. Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa: A randomized controlled trial: Evidence from the midline survey. Learning Brief March 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140604

Country/Region

Somalia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Armed Conflicts; Displacement; Households; Poverty; Randomized Controlled Trials

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Can gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs improve resilience? Medium-term impacts of an intervention in Bangladesh

2023Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Rakshit, Deboleena
Details

Can gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs improve resilience? Medium-term impacts of an intervention in Bangladesh

There are few studies that rigorously assess how agricultural and nutrition related interventions enhance resilience and even fewer that incorporate a gendered dimension in their analysis. Mindful of this, we address three knowledge gaps: (1) Whether agricultural interventions aimed at diversifying income sources and improving nutrition have sustainable impacts (on asset bases, consumption, gender-specific outcomes and women’s empowerment, and on diets) that persist after the intervention ends; (2) whether such interventions are protective when shocks occur? and (3) whether these interventions promote gender-sensitive resilience. We answer these questions using unique data, a four-year post-endline follow up survey of households from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a nutrition-and-gender-sensitive agricultural intervention in Bangladesh. We find that treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training had sustainable effects on real per capita consumption, women’s empowerment (as measured by the pro-WEAI), and asset holdings measured four years after the original intervention ended. Treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training (with or without gender sensitization) reduced the likelihood that households undertook more severe forms of coping strategies and reduced the likelihood that household per capita consumption fell, in real terms, by more than five percent between in the four years following the end of the intervention. The treatment arm that only provided training in agriculture had positive impacts at endline but these had largely faded away four years later. Our results suggest that bundling nutrition and agriculture training may contribute to resilience as well as to sustained impacts on consumption, women’s empowerment, and asset holdings in the medium term. These have implications for the design of future gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs.

Year published

2023

Authors

Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Rakshit, Deboleena

Citation

Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; and Rakshit, Deboleena. 2023. Can gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs improve resilience? Medium-term impacts of an intervention in Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2231. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Resilience; Agriculture; Nutrition; Gender; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137085 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Events

Building pathways out of poverty: Midline findings from a randomized controlled trial
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

July 31, 2024, 9:00 – 10:00 am

Building pathways out of poverty: Midline findings from a randomized controlled trial

This webinar will provide evidence around the effects of the Ultra Poor Graduation program implemented in Baidoa, Somalia by World Vision and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The project seeks to enable ultra-poor internally displaced households to graduate from extreme poverty and begin an upward trajectory […]