IFPRI CGIAR
Subscribe

Back

Who we are

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

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

Where we work

Back

Where we work

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

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

Subscribe

experts

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Shalini Roy

Senior Research Fellow

Bio

Shalini Roy is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. Her research focuses on the relationship between households’ economic behavior and social protection, nutrition, agriculture, gender, and early childhood development. Much of her work is based on impact evaluations of development programming, with a particular interest in how programs both affect and are affected by intrahousehold dynamics. Her work spans South Asia (with a regional focus in Bangladesh), Africa, and Latin America. Shalini’s recent research includes comparing impacts of food and cash transfers on food security, nutrition, gender dynamics, and early childhood development in Bangladesh and Uganda; evaluating impacts of large-scale cash transfer projects in Mali, Brazil, and Mexico; and assessing gender- and nutrition-related impacts of agricultural projects in Bangladesh. Shalini has been at IFPRI since 2009 and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Languages spoken: English, Bangla, Spanish (basic)

 

Publications

CV

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Opinion Piece

How programme design and local context shape the lasting effects of cash and food transfers

2024Ahmed, Akhter; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Kolt, Bastien; Roy, Shalini; Tauseef, Salauddin
Details

How programme design and local context shape the lasting effects of cash and food transfers

A transfer programme in Bangladesh led to sustained consumption increases and reduced poverty four years post-programme, but design and context mattered. Cash and food transfer programmes in low- and middle-income countries have been shown to be highly effective in increasing household consumption and reducing household poverty in the short term ​(Bastagli et al. 2016, Hidrobo et al. 2018, ​Borga and D’Ambrosio 2021, Ravallion 2016​​). But evidence on whether they sustain longer-term impacts after programmes end is more mixed. Some studies of transfer programmes show significant sustained medium- to long-term impacts on consumption and poverty (​e.g. Carneiro et al. 2021, Stoeffler et al. 2020, ​Macours et al. 2022​)​, but others show effects fading out (e.g. Handa et al. 2019, Cahyadi et al. 2020, Haushofer and Shapiro 2018 ​)​. Some interventions combining transfers with additional components such as cash “plus” programmes or multi-faceted graduation models sustain impacts on consumption four to ten years post-intervention (Bandiera et al. 2017, Banerjee et al. 2022), while others do not (Brune et al. 2022).

Year published

2024

Authors

Ahmed, Akhter; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Kolt, Bastien; Roy, Shalini; Tauseef, Salauddin

Citation

Ahmed, Akhter; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Kolt, Bastien; Roy, Shalini; and Tauseef, Salauddin. 2024. How programme design and local context shape the lasting effects of cash and food transfers. VoxDev article. Published online on December 16, 2024. https://voxdev.org/topic/health/how-programme-design-and-local-context-shape-lasting-effects-cash-and-food-transfers

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Poverty; Cash Transfers; Aid Programmes; Consumption

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Opinion Piece

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Rainy day funds? How men and women adapt to heavy rainfall shocks and the role of cash transfers in Mali

2024Hidrobo, Melissa; Mueller, Valerie; Roy, Shalini; Fall, Cheikh Modou Noreyni; Lavaysse, Christophe; Belli, Anna
Details

Rainy day funds? How men and women adapt to heavy rainfall shocks and the role of cash transfers in Mali

Weather shocks can affect men and women differently, due in part to differences in their adaptive capacities. We merge weather data with survey data from a randomized control trial of a cash transfer program in Mali to describe how men and women cope with weather shocks and the role of cash transfer programs in supporting adaptive responses. We find that heavy rainfall reduces household’s consumption but that the cash transfer program mitigates these impacts, primarily by allowing households to draw down both men’s and women’s savings, increasing the value of livestock and farming assets held jointly by men and women, and facilitating a reallocation of men’s and women’s labor to livestock production and women’s labor to domestic work.

Year published

2024

Authors

Hidrobo, Melissa; Mueller, Valerie; Roy, Shalini; Fall, Cheikh Modou Noreyni; Lavaysse, Christophe; Belli, Anna

Citation

Hidrobo, Melissa; Mueller, Valerie; Roy, Shalini; Fall, Cheikh Modou Noreyni; Lavaysse, Christophe; and Belli, Anna. 2024. Rainy day funds? How men and women adapt to heavy rainfall shocks and the role of cash transfers in Mali. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2301. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Mali

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Cash Transfers; Gender; Men; Rainfall; Shock; Women; Social Protection

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Sustainable poverty reduction through social assistance: Modality, context, and complementary programming in Bangladesh

2024Ahmed, Akhter; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Kolt, Bastien; Roy, Shalini; Tauseef, Salauddin
Details

Sustainable poverty reduction through social assistance: Modality, context, and complementary programming in Bangladesh

Social assistance programs can increase consumption and reduce poverty, but less is known about whether these impacts are sustained after programs end, or how design and context influence sustainability. Using data collected in two regions of Bangladesh four years after a randomized intervention ended, we find that combining cash transfers with complementary programming led to sustained increases in consumption and reductions in poverty. Combining food transfers with complementary programming showed similar patterns, to a lesser extent. Cash alone had context-specific sustained effects; food alone had no sustained impacts. Results suggest that context, modality, and complementary programming matter for sustained impacts.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ahmed, Akhter; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Kolt, Bastien; Roy, Shalini; Tauseef, Salauddin

Citation

Ahmed, Akhter; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John; Kolt, Bastien; Roy, Shalini; and Tauseef, Salauddin. Sustainable poverty reduction through social assistance: Modality, context, and complementary programming in Bangladesh. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Article in Press. First online on December 5, 2024. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20230108&from=f

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Aid Programmes; Poverty; Sustainability; Cash Transfers; Food; Social Protection

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

Tackling gender inequality in a climate-changed world: How agrifood and social protection systems can empower women and girls to build climate resilience
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 18, 2024

Tackling gender inequality in a climate-changed world: How agrifood and social protection systems can empower women and girls to build climate resilience

By Clara Ceravolo, Ilaria Sisto, Lauren Whitehead, Matthew Walsham, Morane Verhoeven, and Shalini Roy

Five key ways to promote adaptation.

Examining ways to promote mobile money use in refugee-hosting areas in Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 14, 2022

Examining ways to promote mobile money use in refugee-hosting areas in Ethiopia

By Alan de Brauw and Shalini Roy

The importance of digital financial inclusion.

Making cash transfers more effective in reducing intimate partner violence
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 24, 2022

Making cash transfers more effective in reducing intimate partner violence

By Shalini Roy, Amber Peterman, and Lucy Billings

A new phase in understanding how such programs can empower women.

View all Blogs

Events

Virtual Event - COVID-19: Emerging problems and potential country-level responses
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

April 30, 2020, 9:00 – 10:15 am

Virtual Event – COVID-19: Emerging problems and potential country-level responses

IFPRI experts examine what to expect, and how developing countries can respond in ways that promote food security, nutrition, and greater equity.

Watch video

Seeds of Change Conference
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

April 2 to 4, 2019

Seeds of Change Conference

IFPRI is participating extensively in the Seeds of Change conference— the first international conference on gender equality through agricultural research for development. This interdisciplinary conference brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse fields of social science and agriculture focusing on food/commodity/cash crops, subsistence/semi-subsistence sectors, supply chains, climate, forestry, fisheries, and water management. The conference is jointly funded […]

Leveraging Cash Transfers to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence at Scale (A CSW 63 SIDE EVENT)
Series/Special Event

 | 

March 13, 2019, 11:30 – 1:00 pm

Leveraging Cash Transfers to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence at Scale (A CSW 63 SIDE EVENT)

Over 1.9 billion people benefit from social safety nets around the world, however effects on intra-household dynamics and gender implications of large-scale programming is rarely rigorously evaluated. This event will focus on growing evidence linking cash transfers to intimate partner violence in low- and middle-income countries and features research from the Cash Transfer and Intimate […]

View all Events

News

November 05, 2018 | In the News

Cash transfers prove effective in reducing violence against women: IFPRI study (Financial Express)

Financial Express (Bangladesh) reported on the IFPRI study, Transfers, behavior change communication, and intimate partner violence: Post-program evidence from rural Bangladesh, The study found that direct cash transfers coupled with behavior change communication (BCC) can reduce violence against women inflicted by their partners by more than a quarter. Research Fellow Shalini Roy stated, “The study […]

October 22, 2019 | In the News

Cash transfers and intimate partner violence (Agrilinks)

Agrilinks reported on an IFPRI study. The authors identify three policy-relevant knowledge gaps related to the potential of transfer programs to reduce intimate partner violence, drawing on case studies from Bangladesh, Ecuador, and Mali.

February 08, 2019 | In the News

Opinion: Measuring the unintended benefits of a development program (Devex)

Devex published an op-ed by Akhter Ahmed, Melissa Hidrobo, and Shalini Roy about the additional impact development programs may have on wellbeing.  Evaluating the Transfer Modality Research initiative in Bangladesh, research showed that cash transfers and behavior change communications can reduce intimate partner violence and lead to improved nutrition knowledge. 

View all News