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What we do

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.

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.

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Overview

IFPRI’s seven research units focus on research and innovation to deliver integrated policies, investments, governance processes, and capacity building in support of sustainable and equitable food systems transformation to deliver improved livelihoods and healthy diets.

Development Strategies and Governance

Agrifood systems play a critical role in economic development, poverty reduction, and improving nutrition in low- and middle-income countries. Yet these systems face challenges from conflict, recurrent crises, and political volatility that affect the prospects for equitable growth. At the same time, rapid urbanization is reshaping patterns of food insecurity and elevating the importance of decent off-farm jobs.

Foresight and Policy Modeling

Agrifood systems today are increasingly interconnected, but their future is less certain than ever before. Decision-makers — both public and private — need advance information to understand the growing complexity of these systems, navigate climate uncertainty and frequent crises, and manage trade-offs between competing interests and development goals.

Innovation Policy and Scaling

Effective innovation systems at the national, regional, and global levels are critical to improving agricultural productivity, nutrition, equity, inclusion, and climate resilience. The Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit provides data-driven, evidence-based solutions to accelerate innovation at scale and advance inclusive and sustainable food systems transformation.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Drastic changes in the functioning of food markets are needed to achieve food security and adequate nutrition for all people, as well as contributing to poverty reduction and environmental sustainability.

Natural Resources and Resilience

Climate change, natural resource degradation, and biodiversity loss, all aggravated by growing competition and trade-offs across natural resource systems and food systems, are impeding our ability to meet food demand and nutrition needs, and threatening human and planetary health.

Nutrition, Diets, and Health

Poor diets are a primary cause of malnutrition and the leading cause of disease worldwide. Improving diets and addressing nutrition and health issues can improve people’s quality of life, increase their productivity, and save an estimated one in five lives annually.

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Improving access to resources and increasing participation and empowerment within agrifood systems is essential for improving well-being and livelihoods as well as increasing resilience of poor populations, particularly women and other vulnerable groups.

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Essential Reading
The Russia-Ukraine Conflict & Global Food Security
The Russia-Ukraine conflict and global food security

The Russia-Ukraine conflict and global food security

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking fears of a global food crisis, IFPRI responded rapidly to the need for information and policy advice to address the crisis. From the first moments of the conflict, a new IFPRI blog series provided critical information and insights into the impacts on food security, caused by rising food, fertilizer, and fuel prices and trade disruptions, for vulnerable countries and regions. This book is a compilation of those blog posts, which include analysis of trade flows, tracking of food prices and policy responses, and results of impact modeling. Together, they provide an overview of how the crisis has progressed, how the international community and individual countries responded with efforts to ensure food security, and what we are learning about the best ways to ensure food security in the aftermath of a major shock to global food systems.

Year published

2023

Project

Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy

Engaging women's groups to improve nutrition
Engaging women’s groups to improve nutrition: Findings from an evaluation of the Jeevika multisectoral convergence pilot in Saharsa, Bihar

Engaging women’s groups to improve nutrition: Findings from an evaluation of the Jeevika multisectoral convergence pilot in Saharsa, Bihar

This report presents the endline findings of an impact evaluation of the JEEViKA Multisectoral Convergence pilot, designed as an effectiveness trial, in one district in Bihar, India. JEEViKA, a rural livelihoods project, supports self-help groups (SHGs) – savings and credit-based groups of about 15-20 women, mostly targeted toward those from poor households – with the aim of improving their livelihoods and enhancing household incomes. The JEEViKA Multisectoral Convergence (JEEViKA-MC) pilot went a step further, leveraging these SHGs to address the immediate and underlying determinants of undernutrition among women and children. The multisectoral convergence model, developed by the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society with technical support from the World Bank, was piloted in 12 Gram Panchayats of Saharsa district in Bihar. Two complementary sets of interventions-health and nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) to improve women’s knowledge and household practices, and efforts to improve service access through convergence -were layered onto the existing core package of JEEViKA activities and were targeted to women who were members of the SHGs already formed by JEEViKA. Within this target population, households with young children, mothers of young children, and pregnant women were the primary focus of the JEEViKA-MC pilot.

Year published

2019

Project

PHND; A4NH

show me what you eat
Show me what you eat: Assessing diets remotely through pictures

Show me what you eat: Assessing diets remotely through pictures

Goal: Using real-time smartphone meal pictures sent by rural or urban households to better monitor and assess the quality of their diets, and provide tailored recommendations to improve them. Detailed information on household and individual dietary intake is crucial for adequate nutritional monitoring and designing interventions to improve diets. Common recall-based methods are generally time consuming, costly, and subject to non-negligible measurement errors and potential biases. In addition, the scope of information that can be obtained in a regular survey is typically limited. Detailed diaries, in turn, are effort- and time-intensive and prone to errors. With increasing mobile penetration in both urban and rural areas, meal pictures can overcome some of these difficulties, providing real-time, detailed food intake information of individuals remotely and at a minimal cost. Moreover, pictures can be obtained over extended periods of time, beyond the standard short spans (i.e. 24-hours) in recall survey questions, with little to no data quality loss. Such rich consumption data can help identify and better understand vulnerabilities and nutritional imbalances —including specific macronutrient or micronutrient gaps or excesses—, and open the door for low-cost, individually tailored digital interventions to promote healthier diets. Moreover, crowdsourced data allow to identify locally available, affordable foods rich in specific nutrients consumed by similar households in the area. Interventions, in turn, can be delivered through text messages, interactive voice response (IVR), or phone calls, or videos or interactive games integrated into an app, benefitting from a two-way communication channel with individuals.

Year published

2021

Project

MTID

What’s New

Risk of famine remains high in Gaza
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 28, 2024

Risk of famine remains high in Gaza

By Rob Vos, Sara Gustafson, Sediqa Zaki, and Brendan Rice

After a reprieve, dangerous conditions are reemerging.

Shaping the future of agrifood systems: Insights from an Avanzar2030 workshop in Costa Rica
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 20, 2024

Shaping the future of agrifood systems: Insights from an Avanzar2030 workshop in Costa Rica

By Daniela Salas, Mali Eber Rose, and Brian McNamara

Surfacing the most promising innovations.

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.

Sudan food emergency: Unpacking the scale of the disaster and the actions needed
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 14, 2024

Sudan food emergency: Unpacking the scale of the disaster and the actions needed

By Oliver Kiptoo Kirui

More than 20 million face acute food insecurity.

New study emphasizes tradeoffs between arresting groundwater depletion and food security
Press Release

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June 14, 2024

New study emphasizes tradeoffs between arresting groundwater depletion and food security

A new study published today in Nature Sustainability, reaffirms the world’s growing dependence on depleting groundwater systems.

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