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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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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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Journal Article

Evolution of intimate partner violence impacts from cash transfers, food transfers, and behaviour change communication: Mixed-method experimental evidence from a nine-year post-programme follow-up in Bangladesh

2025Lokot, Michelle; Sultana, Nasrin; Hidrobo, Melissa; Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini; Ranganathan, Meghna
Details

Evolution of intimate partner violence impacts from cash transfers, food transfers, and behaviour change communication: Mixed-method experimental evidence from a nine-year post-programme follow-up in Bangladesh

Cash or food transfers can reduce intimate partner violence (IPV), but knowledge gaps remain on how impacts evolve over time, and the role of complementary ‘plus’ activities and contextual factors. We conducted a mixed-method analysis of how the Transfer Modality Research Initiative in Bangladesh affected IPV over time. The programme was implemented from 2012 to 2014, following a randomised controlled trial (RCT) design, across Northern and Southern Bangladesh. Intervention arms included monthly cash or food transfers, with or without complementary nutrition behaviour change communication (BCC). We estimate post-programme impacts on IPV using quantitative data collected in 2014–2015, 2018, and 2022, and combine this with qualitative data collected in 2023 to explore how and why IPV impacts evolved over time and the role of contextual factors. In the North, combining cash with BCC led to sustained IPV reductions in each post-programme round, while cash alone reduced IPV in 2022 but not the previous two rounds; food transfers showed no post-programme impacts. In the South, combining food with BCC led to post-programme IPV reductions in 2014–2015; no intervention sustained IPV reductions thereafter. Sustained IPV reductions are primarily driven by improved household economic security and emotional well-being. Other pathways – family relationships (including in-laws’ roles), women’s empowerment, and social and community support – contributed to changing couples’ relationships during the programme but became less salient after the programme ended. Contextual factors, including demographic changes, climate-related changes, external projects and norms condoning IPV appear to influence the sustainability of impacts. Results suggest that ‘plus’ programming was key to sustaining IPV impacts soon after the interventions, but less so by nine years post-programme, as economic security increasingly drove impacts. More mixed method research is needed from the outset to unpack if and how pathways to IPV reduction can be sustained in different contexts over time.

Year published

2025

Authors

Lokot, Michelle; Sultana, Nasrin; Hidrobo, Melissa; Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini; Ranganathan, Meghna

Citation

Lokot, Michelle; Sultana, Nasrin; Hidrobo, Melissa; Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini; and Ranganathan, Meghna. 2025. Evolution of intimate partner violence impacts from cash transfers, food transfers, and behaviour change communication: Mixed-method experimental evidence from a nine-year post-programme follow-up in Bangladesh. Social Science and Medicine 371(April 2025): 117901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117901

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Behaviour; Cash Transfers; Communication; Domestic Violence; Social Protection

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117901 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Do empowerment impacts endure? The medium-term impacts of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) Project in Bangladesh

2024Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; Rakshit, Deboleena
Details

Do empowerment impacts endure? The medium-term impacts of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) Project in Bangladesh

Whether impacts of development interventions are sustainable has attracted much recent interest (examples include Bandiera et al., 2017, Banerjee et al., 2021, Blattman et al., 2020, Carneiro et al., 2021, Grisolia, 2024, and Haushofer and Shapiro, 2018). When interventions involve trained facilitators, for example, it is of interest to know whether effects persist once these facilitators are no longer delivering the message (Ahmed et al, forthcoming). The recognition of women’s empowerment and gender equality as intrinsically important has spawned a growing literature on the impacts of development interventions on women’s empowerment (Quisumbing et al. 2023, Quisumbing et al. 2024) and attitudes towards gender roles (Alderman et al. 2025). Yet, with few exceptions (Alderman et al. 2025) there is little overlap between these two areas of work, in large part because many impact evaluations fail to follow up after the initial evaluation is completed. A synthesis of findings from a portfolio of 11 agricultural development projects in South Asia and Africa suggests that, while projects are able to affect aspects of empowerment such as decisionmaking over resources and control over income, changes in gender norms are more difficult to achieve in the two to three year time span over which impact evaluations are typically conducted(Quisumbing et al. 2024). If women’s empowerment interventions aim ultimately to change gender norms, to detect impacts, they should be measured over a sufficiently long period of time to allow for norm change.

Year published

2024

Authors

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

Citation

Quisumbing, Agnes; Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; and Rakshit, Deboleena. 2024. Do empowerment impacts endure? The medium-term impacts of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Gender Linkages (ANGeL) Project in Bangladesh. Gender Equality Initiative Working Paper. CGIAR System Organization. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168520

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Women’s Empowerment; Gender Norms; Development Policies; Agriculture; Diets; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Social assistance and adaptation to flooding in Bangladesh

2024Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Mueller, Valerie; Quabili, Wahid; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini; Thiede, Brian
Details

Social assistance and adaptation to flooding in Bangladesh

As climate change exacerbates weather shocks, there is growing interest in understanding whether social assistance programs can support coping among poor rural households and whether program effects vary by gender. We assess whether a social assistance program – the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI) –influenced the effects of prior monsoon flooding on household consumption and adult diets in southern Bangladesh. TMRI provided cash or food transfers, with or without nutrition behavior change communication, from 2012-2014. Within the study sites and years, flooding was substantial but moderate. Our findings suggest that, without TMRI, a one-standard-deviation increase in lagged flooding led to households smoothing consumption by drawing down savings and reducing diet quality among both men and women. In contrast, among TMRI treatment households, lagged flooding did not reduce savings, and both men’s and women’s diet quality improved. Effects on diet quality appeared largely driven by legumes and by fruits and vegetables, and improvements appeared strongest among households receiving both transfers and behavior change communication. Results indicate that social assistance can help households cope with effects of moderate flooding in southern Bangladesh, protecting household savings and improving both men’s and women’s diets.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Mueller, Valerie; Quabili, Wahid; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini; Thiede, Brian

Citation

Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, Mehrab; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Mueller, Valerie; Quabili, Wahid; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini; and Thiede, Brian. 2024. Social assistance and adaptation to flooding in Bangladesh. Gender Equality Initiative Brief. CGIAR System Organization. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168418

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Extreme Weather Events; Climate Change; Rural Areas; Flooding; Cash Transfers; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Brief

Events

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

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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 […]