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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

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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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

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Farm land in Giza in Egypt

country program

Egypt Strategy Support Program

Farm land in Giza in Egypt

country programs

Overview

The Egypt Strategy Support Program (Egypt SSP) is a policy research, capacity strengthening, and communication program, which aims to reduce poverty and improve food and nutrition security in Egypt. This IFPRI program is hosted by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).

In line with IFPRI’s mandate and mission of providing research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition, the Egypt SSP aims to support development policy and project design and to strengthen the capacity of Egyptian institutions in the areas of impact evaluation and monitoring.

To learn more, visit the IFPRI Egypt website.

Links/Projects

IFPRI Egypt Website

Arab FNS Blog (English)

Arab FNS Blog (Arabic)

Africa Regional Website

Donors

Partners

Duration

2016 – Ongoing

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Challenges for private sector job matching in rural Egypt: Results from a survey of Forsa employers

2024Shokry, Nada; Yassa, Basma; Kurdi, Sikandra
Details

Challenges for private sector job matching in rural Egypt: Results from a survey of Forsa employers

Increasing formal employment for youth and women is a key goal of the Forsa pilot graduation intervention and Egyptian government policy in general. As detailed in Forsa evaluation reports, matching Takaful beneficiaries with jobs in the private sector is a major challenge on the household and on the beneficiary level. In this policy note, however, we examine the challenges from the perspective of potential employers. We review literature of the market failures that may contribute to difficulties with job matching in rural Egypt and present results from a small telephone survey of Forsa employers.

Year published

2024

Authors

Shokry, Nada; Yassa, Basma; Kurdi, Sikandra

Citation

Shokry, Nada; Yassa, Basma; and Kurdi, Sikandra. 2024. Challenges for private sector job matching in rural Egypt: Results from a survey of Forsa employers. MENA Regional Program Policy Note 25. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Egypt

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Northern Africa; Employment; Rural Areas; Women; Youth

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Digital literacy training to promote diffusion of digital agricultural tools to smallholder farmers

2024Abdelaziz, Fatma; Abay, Kibrom A.
Details

Digital literacy training to promote diffusion of digital agricultural tools to smallholder farmers

Digital innovations hold significant potential to address multiple forms of market failures. However, their adoption remains low and heterogenous across Africa. Smallholder farmers face significant barriers in accessing essential information, limiting their ability to seize market opportunities and enhance profitability. While numerous digital tools have been developed for farmers in the region, most are still in pilot phases. The landscape of digital agricultural innovations in Egypt, the focus of this study, presents a similar outlook, whereby the Egyptian market has an array of innovative digital study, presents a similar outlook, whereby the Egyptian market has an array of innovative digital agricultural tools that offer different services to farmers (including digital advisory agricultural and market services). Several demand and supply-side factors contribute to the low adoption of these digital innovations and their disparities among smallholder farmers in Africa and Egypt. On the supply side, the most important challenges include inadequate public and private investment in complementary infra-structure, unsustainable business models, and a misalignment in the pace of innovation. The most important demand-side challenges include lack of digital literacy, insufficient context-specific needs assessments, digital divide, and accessibility, usability, and user trust. User confidence and trust in digital tools is another important but understudied topic.. However, we lack empirically grounded evidence on alternative supply and demand-side interventions to enhance the adoption and scaling of digital innovations in various contexts, including Egypt.

Year published

2024

Authors

Abdelaziz, Fatma; Abay, Kibrom A.

Citation

Abdelaziz, Fatma; and Abay, Kibrom A. 2024. Digital literacy training to promote diffusion of digital agricultural tools to smallholder farmers. Project Note September 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152495

Country/Region

Egypt

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Northern Africa; Agricultural Technology; Digital Agriculture; Digital Innovation; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africa

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Digital tools for smallholders in Egypt: The launch of a new price monitoring tool – Mahsoly

2024Abdelaziz, Fatma; Tarek, Abdallah
Details

Digital tools for smallholders in Egypt: The launch of a new price monitoring tool – Mahsoly

The rapid adoption of mobile phones in agricultural and production systems provides an avenue to unlock the potential of digital innovations to transform smallholder agriculture in low- and middle-income countries. Previous research highlights how the adoption of digital tools can enhance farmers’ profits and marketing outcomes by improving market efficiency through better supply and demand matching. Other research similarly emphasizes how digital innovations can facilitate agricultural transformation and transform the functioning of markets by addressing multiple forms of institutional and market failures. However, despite these advantages and the availability of numerous digital tools for agriculture, their adoption remains low and uneven across Africa, where agricultural markets are still underdeveloped. Smallholder farmers in developing countries, including Egypt, face challenges in accessing essential information, which limits their ability to leverage market opportunities and maximize profitability. Given the limited understanding of the primary challenges hindering Egyptian farmers’ adoption of digital technologies and the strategies needed to enhance their access to these innovations, this paper aims to utilize an extensive survey of smallholder farmers in Egypt to: (i) examine the constraints to adoption of digital agricultural tools in Egypt; and (ii) assess the impact of farmer training programs on the awareness and adoption of digital tools, using the Mahsoly mobile application and its new price monitoring tool as a case study.

Year published

2024

Authors

Abdelaziz, Fatma; Tarek, Abdallah

Citation

Abdelaziz, Fatma; and Tarek, Abdallah. 2024. Digital tools for smallholders in Egypt: The launch of a new price monitoring tool – Mahsoly. MENA Working Paper 43. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152510

Country/Region

Egypt

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Northern Africa; Digital Innovation; Farming Systems; Mobile Phones; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

The Russia-Ukraine crisis poses a serious food security threat for Egypt
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 14, 2022

The Russia-Ukraine crisis poses a serious food security threat for Egypt

By Kibrom Abay, Lina Abdelfattah, Clemens Breisinger, Joseph Glauber, and David Laborde

A country heavily dependent on wheat faces supply disruptions and spiking prices.

The links between food-related trade and fiscal policies and obesity rates in low- and middle-income countries
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 21, 2022

The links between food-related trade and fiscal policies and obesity rates in low- and middle-income countries

By Kibrom Abay, Hosam Ibrahim, Clemens Breisinger, and Ali Abdelhadi

Nutrition impacts of tariffs and subsidies.

Launch event: Agricultural Investment Data Analyzer (AIDA) guides policy makers on potential economic and social impacts
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 19, 2021

Launch event: Agricultural Investment Data Analyzer (AIDA) guides policy makers on potential economic and social impacts

By Dalia ElSabbagh

A new tool now available for Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, and Yemen.

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News

October 26, 2023 | In the News

Sharp energy solutions Europe delivers 900 bifacial solar panels to Egypt for IFPRI’s innovative solar-powered irrigation project (PV Magazine)

“Sharp Energy Solutions Europe has successfully delivered 900 units of the NB-JD550 bifacial solar panel to Egypt as part of a high-impact project introduced by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan,” writes PV Magazine (International). “In collaboration with Sharp Energy Solutions Europe, IFPRI’s project […]

October 04, 2023 | In the News

In Middle East, poor miss out as ‘faulty’ algorithms target aid (Reuters) 

“Poverty assessment methods powered by algorithms are supposed to make payments fairer, but activists and researchers say such tools often wrongly exclude people,” writes Reuters in a story on new tools to benefit social protection.  Sikandra Kurdi, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which was hired by the World Bank to […]

May 26, 2023 | In the News

Losses that harm everyone.. Any solutions to the meat crisis in Egypt? (Al Jazeera)

“The sharp increase in the price of red meat led to a decline in its consumption in Egypt,” reports Al Jazeera.   “According to a study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in October and November of last year, involving over 6,000 poor and near-poor households from across Egypt, 85% of the households reduced […]

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Events

UNFSS Independent Dialogue in Egypt: “The Role of Water Security for Food Systems Transformation
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

April 19, 2021, 7:00 – 9:30 am

UNFSS Independent Dialogue in Egypt: “The Role of Water Security for Food Systems Transformation

Water scarcity remains a key challenge for agricultural development in the MENA region, including Egypt. Scarcity is rapidly growing as a result of climate change and rapid increases in water demand for other uses. Considering that Egypt’s agri-food system provided critical cushioning for economic growth, jobs, and household income negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, […]

Beyond COVID-19: Recommendations from Five Years of Policy Research in Egypt and Directions for the Future
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 8, 2020, 2:00 – 4:00 pm

Beyond COVID-19: Recommendations from Five Years of Policy Research in Egypt and Directions for the Future

Recommendations from five years of policy research in Egypt and directions for the future.

Details & Registration

COVID-19 and social protection: From effective crisis protection to self-reliance
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

September 22, 2020, 3:00 – 4:00 pm

COVID-19 and social protection: From effective crisis protection to self-reliance

IFPRI’s Egypt Strategy Support Program (Egypt SSP) is organizing a seminar on “COVID-19 and social protection: From effective crisis protection to self-reliance.” The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are increasing poverty around the world. As one of the key immediate policy responses to cushion the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable, many […]

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Team members

Sikandra Kurdi

Sikandra Kurdi

Research Fellow and Country Program Leader, Egypt, Development
Strategies and Governance

Daniel Gilligan

Daniel Gilligan

Director, Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI), Poverty,
Gender, and Inclusion

Olivier Ecker

Olivier Ecker

Senior Research Fellow, Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Jef L. Leroy

Jef L. Leroy

Senior Research Fellow, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Claudia Ringler

Claudia Ringler

Director, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR), Natural
Resources and Resilience

James Thurlow

James Thurlow

Director, Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM), Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You

Senior Research Fellow, Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Xiaobo Zhang

Xiaobo Zhang

Senior Research Fellow, Development
Strategies and Governance

Kibrom Abay

Kibrom Abay

Senior Research Fellow , Development
Strategies and Governance

Fatma Abdelaziz

Fatma Abdelaziz

Senior Research Associate, Development
Strategies and Governance

Hagar ElDidi

Hagar ElDidi

Senior Research Analyst, Natural
Resources and Resilience

Zhe Guo

Zhe Guo

Senior GIS Coordinator, Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Mariam Raouf

Mariam Raouf

Senior Research Associate, Development
Strategies and Governance

profile

Basma Yassa

Research Associate, Development
Strategies and Governance

The Programs

  • Kutubdia Island in the Bay of Bengal

    Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program

    Improving food and nutrition security is of paramount concern to millions in Bangladesh.

  • Wuxi, the fast growing city that was formerly known as White Horse Village.

    China Strategy Support Program

    Supports joint research & capacity strengthening as well as policy dialogues & communication to improve policymaking.

  • Farm land in Giza in Egypt

    Egypt Strategy Support Program

    Egypt SSP's main objective is to raise incomes of the rural poor and to improve food and nutrition security in Egypt.

  • Gayo village, Ethiopia

    Ethiopia Strategy Support Program

    ESSP is a collaborative program undertaken by IFPRI and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI)

  • amevi-wisdom-wiul_nyafcy-unsplash

    Ghana Strategy Support Program

    Conduct research & advise on policy to support agricultural growth, rural development & economic transformation.

  • Local vendors selling vegetables at a market in Kenya,Africa

    Kenya Strategy Support Program

    KSSP is a policy research, capacity strengthening and policy communication program with the main objectives to accelerate poverty reduction and to improve food security.

  • Mitundu Market, Lilongwe, Malawi

    Malawi Strategy Support Program

    This project facilitates and promotes evidence-based dialogue and decision-making in support of agricultural development, food security, and economic growth in Malawi.

  • Country program Myanmar

    Myanmar Strategy Support Program

    The project supports agricultural transformation and other development policy goals by enhancing national technical, institutional, and policy analysis capacities.

  • Nigeria Strategy Support Program

    NSSP responds to the research, analysis, and capacity needs of stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural research and policy community.

  • Papua New Guinea Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Policy Support Program

    The Papua New Guinea Agriculture, Food, and Nutrition Policy Support Program (PNG-AFNP) is an initiative aligned with the Government of Papua New Guinea’s vision to revitalize and transform its agricultural sector to improve economic opportunities, livelihoods, and food security.

  • Fertile field at sunset in the countryside (Rwanda/ Africa)

    Rwanda Strategy Support Program

    Rwanda SSP is an initiative aligned with the Government of Rwanda’s vision to accelerate agricultural transformation and rural development in Rwanda.

  • A sunset view of river Nile in Khartoum, Sudan

    Sudan Strategy Support Program

    The Sudan Country Strategy Support Program (CSSP), with key team members based in Khartoum, can provide needed analytical support to the Government of Sudan, local and international partners.