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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

Kate Ambler

Kate Amber is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. Kate’s research broadly focuses on interventions that can increase incomes for smallholders and other microenterprises in agrifood value chains, with a specific focus on the inclusion of women. This includes work on programming in fragile settings, innovations in agricultural finance, and regulatory solutions for food safety. 

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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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TOPIC

Social Protection

Social protection aims to reduce poverty, increase opportunity, and strengthen individuals’ and households’ resilience to shocks. Social protection includes social assistance (such as cash transfers, public works, or school feeding), social insurance (such as old age pension, health insurance, and crop insurance), social care (such as family support services), and labor and economic inclusion (such as job search programs or economic inclusion programs). Social protection targets multiple risks (poverty, health, employment, natural disaster) at various stages of the life cycle (childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age).

IFPRI conducts rigorous impact evaluations on a variety of social protection programs, including unconditional and conditional cash transfer programs; emergency assistance in the form of cash and/or food; school feeding programs; maternal and child health and nutrition programs; public works programs; and insurance programs. These impact evaluations use state-of-the-art methodologies to evaluate the impacts of these policies and identify the most cost-effective designs for social protection programs.

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Evaluations in social protection have assessed effects on poverty and food security as well as a wide range of other outcomes, including maternal and child health and nutrition, women’s empowerment, intimate partner violence, financial inclusion, labor, schooling, and mental health. Recently, IFPRI has focused on assessing how social protection can protect the well-being of individuals and households in LMICs against negative impacts of climate change and facilitate their adaptation to a changing climate. IFPRI had conducted impact evaluations of social protection programs and related research in Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Turkey. It has also pointed to the important role these programs can play in crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, and regional exposure to natural disasters.

IFPRI’s research on this topic is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG1, SDG2, and SDG16, and the CGIAR Impact Areas on Nutrition, Health, and Food Security; Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs; and Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.

social_protection

topics

Publications

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Journal Article

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

2025Ahmed, 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

2025

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

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

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Journal Article

Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh

2025Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John F.; Roy, Shalini
Details

Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper reports the results of two 2-year randomized control trials in two poor rural areas of Bangladesh. Treatment arms included monthly cash transfers, monthly food rations of equivalent value to the cash transfers, and mixed monthly cash and food transfers, and treatment arms—one with food and one with cash—that combined transfers with nutrition-behavior communication change (BCC). This design enables a comparison of transfer modalities within the same experiment. Intent-to-treat estimators show that cash transfers and nutrition BCC had a large impact on nutritional status, a 0.25 standard deviation increase in height-for-age z-scores and a 7.8 percentage point decrease in stunting prevalence. No other treatment arm affected anthropometric outcomes. Mechanisms underlying these impacts are explored. Improved diets—particularly increased intake of animal source foods in the cash plus BCC arm—are consistent with the improvements observed in this paper.

Year published

2025

Authors

Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John F.; Roy, Shalini

Citation

Ahmed, Akhter; Hoddinott, John; and Roy, Shalini. Food transfers, cash transfers, behavior change communication and child nutrition: Evidence from Bangladesh. World Bank Economic Review. Article in press. First published online on May 23, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae023

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Cash Transfers; Human Behaviour; Child Nutrition; Social Protection; Rural Areas; Stunting; Food Assistance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhae023 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Promoting adoption of sustainable land management technologies by women and couples in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized trial

2024Leight, Jessica; Bahiru, Kibret Mamo; Buehren, Niklas; Getahun, Tigabu; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene
Details

Promoting adoption of sustainable land management technologies by women and couples in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized trial

Sustainable land management (SLM) technologies including composting and agro-forestry are widely promoted as strategies to counter land degradation and enhance resilience against adverse weather shocks. Given that women are disproportionately vulnerable to such shocks, promoting their uptake of these technologies may be particularly important. We conducted a randomized trial in rural Ethiopia analyzing a bundled intervention providing training and inputs designed to encourage uptake of three interrelated SLM technologies: fruit tree planting, composting, and home gardening. The trial included 1900 extremely poor households in 95 subdistricts, randomly assigned to treatment arms in which women only or couples were included in the intervention. The findings one year post-baseline suggest a positive and large effect on take-up of all three technologies: the probability of reporting any trees increased by eight percentage points, and the probability of reporting a garden and/or composting increased by 20 to 30 percentage points, symmetrically across treatment arms. There are also significant reported increases in household vegetable production and consumption as well as in women’s dietary diversity. There is, however, some evidence that tree survival rates and tree health are weakly lower in intervention households compared to control households who spontaneously planted trees. Some positive effects on equitable intrahousehold decision-making and task-sharing are observed, especially in the couples’ training arm, but in general there is no robust evidence that either intervention significantly shifted intrahousehold gender dynamics.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Bahiru, Kibret Mamo; Buehren, Niklas; Getahun, Tigabu; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Bahiru, Kibret Mamo; Buehren, Niklas; Getahun, Tigabu; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; and Tambet, Heleene. 2024. Promoting adoption of sustainable land management technologies by women and couples in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized trial. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2309. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168513

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Climate Change; Land Management; Gender; Social Protection; Sustainable Land Management

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Takaful program: Giving Egypt’s poor a hand up, not just a handout
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 26, 2024

Takaful program: Giving Egypt’s poor a hand up, not just a handout

By Naureen Karachiwalla, Daniel Gilligan, and Sikandra Kurdi

Assessing impacts of cash transfers.

Egypt’s experience bridging cash transfers and an economic inclusion program for sustainable social protection
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 18, 2024

Egypt’s experience bridging cash transfers and an economic inclusion program for sustainable social protection

By James Allen IV, Daniel Gilligan, Sikandra Kurdi, and Basma Yassa

A path for moving out of poverty.

Graduation from poverty: Can a big push program help conflict-affected households? Evidence from Somalia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 17, 2024

Graduation from poverty: Can a big push program help conflict-affected households? Evidence from Somalia

By Kalle Hirvonen, Naureen Karachiwalla, Jessica Leight, and Deboleena Rakshit

Moving from assistance to self-sufficiency.

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Events

School meals in the 21st century - emerging evidence and future directions
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

January 28, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am

School meals in the 21st century – emerging evidence and future directions

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. Undernutrition during childhood and early adolescence has long-term consequences for development and health, and for girls it can affect the survival and wellbeing […]

SPIR II RFSA Learning Event: Impact results workshops
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 9 to 10, 2024

SPIR II RFSA Learning Event: Impact results workshops

December 9, 2024 | 9:30am to 12:00pm (Africa/Addis_Ababa) | Video Recording | Presentation December 9, 2024 | 1:00pm to 3:30pm (Africa/Addis_Ababa) | Video Recording | Presentation December 10, 2024 | 9:30am to 12:45pm (Africa/Addis_Ababa) | Video Recording | Presentation Click HERE to view the agenda. The Strengthen PSNP Institutions and Resilience (SPIR II) Resilience Food […]

The Socio-Economic Impact of Armed Conflict on Sudanese Urban Households
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

November 4, 2024, 9:00 – 12:00 pm

The Socio-Economic Impact of Armed Conflict on Sudanese Urban Households

The ongoing conflict in Sudan has been concentrated in cities, with major impacts on urban households. Large numbers of families are displaced, employment is down dramatically, and most children are unable to go to school. A comprehensive survey conducted earlier this year by IFPRI’ Sudan Strategy Support Program and the United Nations Development Programme provides […]

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News

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 […]

August 17, 2023 | In the News

90 Years of the IRC’s Partnerships: Making a difference together (International Rescue Committee) 

IRC mentions IFPRI in an article on its anniversary featuring organization’s history, achievements, and partnerships over the past 90 years.   “Over the last 90 years, the IRC has generated or partnered in the creation of more impact research in conflict zones than any other organization.”  “Google supported the IRC’s 2021 Anticipatory Action project in Nigeria, which […]

June 23, 2023 | In the News

WFP resilience program builds ‘buffers’ for Sahel in response to instability (UN News) 

WFP’s resilience programs in Burkina Faso and Niger in response to climate crises and anthropogenic shocks boosted food security and social cohesion, improving prospects for peace in both countries, new research shows, writes UN China.  The study, “Social Cohesion in Burkina Faso and Niger in the Sahel,” was published jointly by WFP, the International Food […]

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Our experts

Daniel Gilligan

Daniel Gilligan

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

Deanna Olney

Deanna Olney

Director, Nutrition, Diets, and Health (NDH), Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

James Allen IV

James Allen IV

Associate Research Fellow, Poverty,
Gender, and Inclusion

Jef L. Leroy

Jef L. Leroy

Senior Research Fellow, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Mariam Dawoud

Mariam Dawoud

Program Manager, Development
Strategies and Governance

Razin Kabir

Razin Kabir

Senior Program Manager, Poverty,
Gender, and Inclusion

Hagar ElDidi

Hagar ElDidi

Senior Research Analyst, Natural
Resources and Resilience

Cynthia Kazembe

Cynthia Kazembe

Communications Manager, Development
Strategies and Governance

Shima Mohamed

Shima Mohamed

Research Analyst, Development
Strategies and Governance

Md. Redoy

Md. Redoy

Field Research Officer, Poverty,
Gender, and Inclusion