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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

Agnes Quisumbing

Agnes Quisumbing is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. She co-leads a research program that examines how closing the gap between men’s and women’s ownership and control of assets may lead to better development outcomes.

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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experts

Natural Resources and Resilience

Elizabeth Basauri Bryan

Senior Scientist

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Bio

Elizabeth Bryan is a Senior Scientist in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, where she conducts policy-relevant research on gender, sustainable agricultural production, climate-smart agriculture, and small-scale irrigation using mixed methods. She currently leads the Gender, Climate Change, and Nutrition Integration (GCAN) Initiative, co-leads the Methods Module of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform, and contributes to the CGIAR Research Initiatives on Nature-Positive Solutions and Gender Equality (HER+). She has considerable experience integrating gender into large, interdisciplinary research programs, including the Feed the Future Innovation Labs on Small-Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) and Policy Research, Capacity, and Influence (PRCI).

Elizabeth has published numerous articles based on her research and regularly presents research results to diverse audiences, including at policy workshops, trainings, and international conferences.

Before joining IFPRI, Elizabeth worked as a consultant for the Poverty Reduction Group of the World Bank and as a program assistant in the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She holds a PhD in agricultural sciences from the University of Hohenheim, an MA in development economics from American University, and a BA in international affairs from Wagner College.

Google Scholar Citations

Publications

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Journal Article

Women’s leadership in climate-resilient agrifood systems: Defining a future research agenda

2024Morgan, Miranda Yeen; Bryan, Elizabeth; Elias, Marlène
Details

Women’s leadership in climate-resilient agrifood systems: Defining a future research agenda

Women’s leadership is increasingly considered critical for achieving climate-resilient agrifood systems. Numerous initiatives and policies highlight the business case for women’s leadership to deliver a range of positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. In this Perspective, we examine the business case, finding uneven evidence linking women’s leadership to increased resilience to climate change. We problematize the ways women’s leadership is typically understood in this area and argue that, despite the value and utility of understanding the pathways through which women’s leadership can strengthen climate-resilient agrifood systems, support for increasing women’s leadership should not be contingent on proving the business case or its instrumental value. Rather, increasing the leadership of women in all their diversity in climate action is a moral imperative and non-negotiable due to women’s human right to have meaningful influence in the decisions that affect their lives. Finally, we propose ways to reframe the debate on women’s leadership in climate and agrifood systems and suggest priorities for future research in this area.

Year published

2024

Authors

Morgan, Miranda Yeen; Bryan, Elizabeth; Elias, Marlène

Citation

Morgan, Miranda Yeen; Bryan, Elizabeth; and Elias, Marlène. 2024. Women’s leadership in climate-resilient agrifood systems: Defining a future research agenda. Environmental Research: Climate 3(2): 023001. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fdd

Keywords

Gender; Women’s Participation; Climate Resilience; Agrifood Systems; Leadership; Business Management

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ad3fdd Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Addressing gender inequalities and strengthening women’s agency to create more climate-resilient and sustainable food systems

2024Bryan, Elizabeth; Alvi, Muzna; Huyer, Sophia; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Addressing gender inequalities and strengthening women’s agency to create more climate-resilient and sustainable food systems

Climate change affects every aspect of the food system, including all nodes along agri-food value chains from production to consumption, the food environments in which people live, and outcomes, such as diets and livelihoods. Men and women often have specific roles and responsibilities within food systems, yet structural inequalities (formal and informal) limit women’s access to resources, services, and agency. These inequalities affect the ways in which men and women experience and are affected by climate change. In addition to gender, other social factors are at play, such as age, education, marital status, and health and economic conditions. To date, most climate change policies, investments, and interventions do not adequately integrate gender. If climate-smart and climate-resilient interventions do not adequately take gender differences into account, they might exacerbate gender inequalities in food systems by, for instance, increasing women’s labor burden and time poverty, reducing their access to and control over income and assets, and reducing their decision-making power. At the same time, women’s contributions are critical to make food systems more resilient to the negative impacts of climate change, given their specialized knowledge, skills and roles in agri-food systems, within the household, at work and in their communities. Increasing the resilience of food systems requires going beyond addressing gendered vulnerabilities to climate change to create an enabling environment that supports gender equality and women’s empowerment, by removing structural barriers and rigid gender norms, and building equal power dynamics, as part of a process of gender transformative change. For this to happen, more research is needed to prioritize structural barriers that need to be removed and to identify effective gender transformative approaches.

Year published

2024

Authors

Bryan, Elizabeth; Alvi, Muzna; Huyer, Sophia; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Bryan, E., Alvi, M., Huyer, S. and Ringler, C. 2024. Addressing gender inequalities and strengthening women’s agency to create more climate-resilient and sustainable food systems. Global Food Security 40:100731.

Keywords

Gender; Food Systems; Women; Resilience; Climate-smart Agriculture

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100731 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Water insecurity is associated with greater food insecurity and lower dietary diversity: Panel data from sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic

2024Miller, Joshua D.; Young, Sera L.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Water insecurity is associated with greater food insecurity and lower dietary diversity: Panel data from sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic

There is growing recognition that water insecurity – the inability to reliably access sufficient water for all household uses – is commonly experienced globally and has myriad adverse consequences for human well-being. The role of water insecurity in food insecurity and diet quality, however, has received minimal attention. Data are from panel surveys conducted during 2020–21 among adults involved in smallholder agriculture in Niger (n = 364, 3 rounds), Nigeria (n = 501, 5 rounds), Senegal (n = 501, 5 rounds), and Ghana (n = 543, 5 rounds). We hypothesized that household water insecurity (measured using the brief Household Water Insecurity Experiences Scale) would be associated with greater individual food insecurity (using 5 of the 8 Food Insecurity Experiences Scale items) and lower dietary diversity (using the Minimum Dietary Diversity Score for Women). At baseline, 37.1% of individuals were living in water-insecure households and of these, 90.6% had some experience of food insecurity. In multilevel mixed-effects regressions, individuals living in water-insecure households had 1.67 (95% CI: 1.47, 1.89) times higher odds of reporting any food insecurity experience and were estimated to consume 0.38-fewer food groups (95% CI: -0.50, -0.27) than those living in water-secure households. Experiences with suboptimal water access and use are associated with poor nutrition. The pathways by which water insecurity impacts nutrition should be identified. Global and national food and nutrition security policies could be strengthened by monitoring and developing strategies to address household water insecurity.

Year published

2024

Authors

Miller, Joshua D.; Young, Sera L.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Miller, Joshua D.; Young, Sera L.; Bryan, Elizabeth; and Ringler, Claudia. 2024. Water insecurity is associated with greater food insecurity and lower dietary diversity: Panel data from sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food Security 16: 149-160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-023-01412-1

Country/Region

Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Ghana

Keywords

Western Africa; Southern Africa; Africa; Agriculture; Covid-19; Dietary Diversity; Food Security; Smallholders; Surveys; Water

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-023-01412-1 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

Integrating gender perspectives to prevent or reduce climate crisis impacts
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 07, 2023

Integrating gender perspectives to prevent or reduce climate crisis impacts

By Muzna Alvi, Claudia Ringler, and Elizabeth Bryan

Why women are key to building resilience.

Call to action: Addressing gender inequality in agrifood systems for effective responses to climate change
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 10, 2023

Call to action: Addressing gender inequality in agrifood systems for effective responses to climate change

By Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler

Launching an Innovation Sprint on Gender and Climate Action.

Feeding Africa: how small-scale irrigation can help farmers to change the game
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 02, 2023

Feeding Africa: how small-scale irrigation can help farmers to change the game

By Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler

Strong evidence of the relationship between small-scale irrigation, food security, diet quality, and nutrition.

Events

The Unjust Climate: Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women, and youth
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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June 18, 2024, 9:30 – 11:00 am

The Unjust Climate: Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women, and youth

Virtual Event: June 18, 2024 at 9:30am-11:00am EDT. This event will discuss key results from the report and hear from policymakers, practitioners, and partners on how they are working to generate relevant evidence and make a difference on the ground.   

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)
IFPRI at External Event

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November 30 to December 12, 2023

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) being held in Dubai from November 30  to December 12, 2023. IFPRI’s Board of Trustees is meeting in Dubai on December 8, 2023, and a number of researchers will engage in meetings and participate in several side events, as […]

From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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October 9 to 12, 2023

From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems

Conference: October 09, 2023 – 9:00 AM to October 12, 2023 – 6:00 PM IST. IFPRI is participating in the 2023 annual CGIAR gender research conference will take place in New Delhi, India.

News

December 03, 2023 | Press Release

CGIAR and partners launch Innovation Sprint on Gender and Climate Action

December 3, 2023, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). CGIAR and partners have committed US$31 million over four years (2023-2027) to ensure that climate innovations in agrifood systems are designed to work for women and rolled out in ways that address underlying gender inequalities. Together with 20 partners, CGIAR launched the AIM for Climate Innovation Sprint on […]

April 18, 2023 | In the News

Feeding Africa: How small-scale irrigation can help farmers to change the game (The Conversation)

The importance of small-scale irrigation to farmers and its numerous benefits, including increasing agricultural productivity and incomes. It can contribute more rapidly to the achievement of national agricultural and development goals compared to large irrigation schemes and can improve nutritional outcomes in several important ways are discussed In an op-ed in The Conversation (United States edition) […]