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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.

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Unit

Nutrition, Diets, and Health

A farmer tends to crops in Madhuban Model Village where WWF has helped introduce the use of biogas and organic farming practices. Switching from a wood-fuelled cooking fire to a biogas flame saves trees, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, prevents health problems and also saves time.

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.

research units

Overview

IFPRI’s Nutrition, Diets, and Health (NDH) Unit provides evidence on strategies to achieve healthy diets, good nutrition, and health. Researchers examine the causes and constraints that lead to dietary, nutrition, and health issues, and collaborate with partners to identify effective policies and programs to address these issues, including possible solutions centered around agriculture, health, education, and social protection.

These solutions are assessed to determine effectiveness and cost, as well as to understand how they work to achieve impact and could be improved to deliver even greater results for diets, nutrition, and health. Gender, equity, and sustainability are a major cross-cutting focus in NDH’s work.

NDH’s activities focus on Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, with some additional work in Latin America and the Pacific.

Areas of Focus

Health sector interventions

To improve programs for nutrition within health systems, NDH researchers assess their effectiveness, especially for women, children, and adolescents. These programs include behavior change communication interventions, fortified foods and supplements, wasting prevention and treatment, growth monitoring and promotion, school feeding programs, and health system strengthening.

Multisectoral programs

Addressing poor quality diets and all forms of malnutrition requires multisectoral approaches. NDH research provides evidence on the effectiveness of agriculture, social protection, and education-centered interventions for addressing obstacles to better nutrition and improving diets, health and care practices, women’s empowerment, and child development.

Food environments and consumers

Food systems transformation, including the food environments that shape food choices, is essential for achieving sustainable healthy diets. NDH investigates the relationships between diets and food environments, and evaluates interventions for increasing consumer demand for healthy foods and addressing multiple constraints to healthy diets.

Policies to support scale-up

Implementing solutions at scale requires engagement with and action from policy actors and other stakeholders. NDH research generates evidence on the drivers of poor-quality diets and malnutrition, and on the policy environments and process for scaling up effective interventions. Capacity-sharing activities, country presence, multipartner consortiums, and stories of change support evidence uptake.  

Tools and research methods

NDH researchers work in multidisciplinary teams, using rigorous approaches including impact and process evaluations and cost-effectiveness studies. Program impact pathways inform design of programs, evaluations, and evidence synthesis. NDH also develops and validates assessment tools and methods for diets and food environments.

Explore our research

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Working Paper

Monitoring the agri-food system in Myanmar: The rising costs of diets – September 2024 survey round

2024Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis
Details

Monitoring the agri-food system in Myanmar: The rising costs of diets – September 2024 survey round

We assess changes in food prices and diet costs based on large-scale surveys of food vendors (fielded from June 2020 until September 2024) and households (fielded in six periods between 2022 to 2024) across rural and urban areas and in all states/regions of Myanmar. Key Findings  Between July 2023 and September 2024, the cost of a healthy and commonly consumed diet increased by 34 and 35 percent, respectively.  The price of rice – the major staple – was more than twice as high in September 2024 compared to two years prior. Prices rose by 29 percent between July 2023 and September 2024, and by only 7 percent between March and September 2024.  In September 2024, cooking oil prices were 88 percent higher than the previous year, but 15 percent lower than two years prior.  In September 2024, the median prices of most protein-rich foods, except for fish, were at least 50 percent higher compared to two years prior. Over the same two-year period, banana prices doubled.  The highest costs for both common and healthy diets are seen in the conflict-affected states of Rakhine and Kachin, where in September 2024, the costs of the healthy diet was about 65 percent higher than the national average and the costs of the common diet costs was about 40 percent higher.  Compared to average casual wages, the healthy and common diets are least affordable in Kachin, Rakhine and Magway and most affordable in Kayin and Mon.  Between the fourth quarter of 2023 and September 2024, the prices of petrol rose by 90 percent, bar soap and paracetamol by nearly 50 percent, and toothpaste by 160 percent. Recommended Actions  Ensuring food is available at affordable prices is crucial to prevent food security and nutrition issues in the country. Therefore, prioritizing a well-functioning agri-food system should be a key focus for all stakeholders.  The food price situation in Rakhine State is most concerning among all states and regions, and the state should be prioritized – to the extent that this possible – for assistance.

Year published

2024

Authors

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis

Citation

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis. 2024. Monitoring the agri-food system in Myanmar: The rising costs of diets – September 2024 survey round. Myanmar Strategy Support Program Research Note 116. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agrifood Systems; Diet; Food Prices; Households; Surveys

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Rice productivity in Myanmar: Assessment of the 2024 dry season

2024Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis
Details

Rice productivity in Myanmar: Assessment of the 2024 dry season

Key Findings We analyze paddy rice productivity and profitability data for the dry seasons of 2023 and 2024, based on the Myanmar Agriculture Performance Survey (MAPS) fielded in the period of July 29th to September 16th, 2024. The survey covered plots of 825 rice paddy producers. It is found that: • Prices of inputs used in paddy production – labor and mechanization – increased significantly between these two growing seasons by between 36-38 and 59 percent respectively, on average. On the other hand, urea prices declined by 1 percent. Paddy prices at the farm increased by 14 percent. • Nominal profits for paddy rice farmers increased over the last two seasons. At the same time, price inflation has been high in the country. Therefore, real profits from paddy rice farming, which are nominal prices corrected by the change in the cost of an average food basket, decreased by 15 percent during the dry season of 2024 compared to the dry season of 2023. However, real profits were still higher than two and three years ago. • Rice productivity at the national level during the dry season of 2024 on farmers’ largest rice plot was slightly higher (+6.9 percent) than in the previous dry season. • Six percent of the rice farmers reported to have been affected by flooding during the dry season, even before cyclone Yagi affected many farmers in the beginning of September 2024. Recommended Actions • As paddy prices have gone up compared to last year, rice prices have gone up substantially as well, making the costs of Myanmar’s staple food unaffordable for some consumers, especially for the most vulnerable ones. Expansion of safety nets, targeted or self-targeted to the poorest, would therefore be beneficial. • The cyclone Yagi has affected a significant share of monsoon producers. Assistance for farmers in these areas to recover from floods in time for the post-/pre-monsoon is called for.

Year published

2024

Authors

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis

Citation

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis. 2024. Rice productivity in Myanmar: Assessment of the 2024 dry season. Myanmar Strategy Support Program Research Note 115. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute https://hdl.handle.net/10568/159895

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Rice; Agricultural Productivity; Profitability; Inputs; Dry Season; Prices; Cyclones

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Report

Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Philippines

2024Margolies, Amy; Pather, Kamara; Namara, Rebecca; Sehgal, Mrignyani; San Valentin, Carleneth; Olney, Deanna
Details

Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Philippines

Child stunting is a persistent problem in the Philippines. While stunting prevalence is higher in rural than in urban areas, it still affects one in four children under the age of five in urban areas and coexists with rising overweight in school-age children, adolescents, and adults. Some urban nutrition interventions have focused on reducing diet-related noncommunicable disease (NCD) risks, but they have not addressed the challenges of the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) (e.g., the coexistence of problems of undernutrition and overnutrition) in school-age children and adolescents. Likewise, the lack of evidence on interventions in the urban food environment (FE) signals a need for studies to better understand the role of FEs in driving unhealthy dietary changes and the DBM and to test approaches to shift consumption patterns toward healthier diets and lifestyles. NCDs are the leading cause of mortality in the Philippines, and NCD risks are higher in urban areas than rural ones. National policies support nutrition with multisectoral approaches, particularly through urban farming and gardening to promote healthy and affordable urban diets. Yet the urban-specific programs must be evaluated. Evaluations of urban agricultural initiatives are needed to document any impact on diets and nutrition and to assess the potential for scale up, especially given land scarcity in dense urban areas. Additionally, multisectoral double-duty actions must be developed to address all forms of malnutrition.

Year published

2024

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Pather, Kamara; Namara, Rebecca; Sehgal, Mrignyani; San Valentin, Carleneth; Olney, Deanna

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Pather, Kamara; Namara, Rebecca; Sehgal, Mrignyani; San Valentin, Carleneth; and Olney, Deanna. 2024. Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Philippines. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Philippines

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agriculture; Child Stunting; Diet; Nutrition; Malnutrition; Urban Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Resilient Cities

Record type

Report

Blogs

Comprehensive sanitation in India: Despite progress, an unfinished agenda
IFPRI Blog
 | 
October 23, 2024

Comprehensive sanitation in India: Despite progress, an unfinished agenda

By Suman Chakrabarti, Soyra Gune, Tim A. Bruckner, Julie Strominger, and Parvati Singh

Building on improvements in Infant mortality.

World Food Day 2024: The critical role of healthy diets for realizing the right to food
IFPRI Blog
 | 
October 15, 2024

World Food Day 2024: The critical role of healthy diets for realizing the right to food

By Marie Ruel and Inge Brouwer

IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report on a key paradigm shift.

Potential impact of zinc-enriched rice on zinc intakes in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 20, 2024

Potential impact of zinc-enriched rice on zinc intakes in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines

By Fabiana F. De Moura, Mourad Moursi, Moira Donahue Angel, and Erick Boy

Nutritional benefits of enhanced biofortification.

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News

September 05, 2024 | In the News

Swachh Bharat Mission averted 60,000-70,000 infant deaths between 2011 & 2020, shows Nature study (The Print)

IFPRI Researchers analyzed infant & under-5 mortality data from 35 states, 640 districts. Research praised by PM Modi on X.

April 18, 2024 | In the News

Why a campaign has started to bring back some plants that have been forgotten (NPR) 

In a radio story, NPR explains that the world depends on just a few crops for most of its food.  Because that dependence could be risky, a new international effort supports research and development of overlooked plants as food sources.  NPR interviewed Purnima Menon, senior director of Food and Nutrition Policy at IFPRI, who discussed countries that had invested in […]

September 20, 2023 | Press Release

New study reveals alarming impact of food inflation on child undernutrition in low and middle-income countries

September 20, 2023, Washington, DC: A new study published in Nature Communications sheds light on the critical relationship between food inflation and child undernutrition in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The study, conducted by Derek Headey and Marie Ruel of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), explores the impact of food price volatility on […]

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Events

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Connecting the Dots Across Systems
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 3 to 5, 2024

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Connecting the Dots Across Systems

South Asia grapples with escalating levels of malnutrition in various forms, including undernutrition, overweight and obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies, alongside increasing incidence of diet-related non-communicable diseases. Malnutrition results from a complex interplay of factors incorporating household and individual decision-making, agriculture and food systems, healthcare services, education, and socio-ecological systems that determine access to services and […]

Improving Diets and Nutrition through Food Systems: What Will it Take? A Dialogue on IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report
Series/Special Event

 | 

November 6, 2024, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Improving Diets and Nutrition through Food Systems: What Will it Take? A Dialogue on IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report

IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy flagship publication arrives at a pivotal moment, as the importance of addressing food systems for better nutrition continues to gain global recognition. With United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 29th Conference of the Parties taking place in November, the SUN Global Gathering on the horizon and the Nutrition […]

Supporting and shaping the global nutrition agenda with evidence: A three-decade journey of research and partnerships for impact
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

October 30, 2024, 10:00 – 11:30 am

Supporting and shaping the global nutrition agenda with evidence: A three-decade journey of research and partnerships for impact

This year’s Forman Lecture will be delivered by Dr. Marie Ruel, Senior Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit at IFPRI. She served as the Director of IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division from 2004 to 2023, after serving as Senior Research Fellow and Research Fellow in that division beginning in 1996. Dr. […]

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Projects

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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

Our experts

Purnima Menon

Purnima Menon

Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy, CGIAR and IFPRI, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions, Nutrition, Diets, and Health, Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Deanna Olney

Deanna Olney

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

Sunny Kim

Sunny Kim

Senior Research Fellow, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Jef L. Leroy

Jef L. Leroy

Senior Research Fellow, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Kemit Price

Kemit Price

Senior Program Manager, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Amanda Wyatt

Amanda Wyatt

Senior Program Manager, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Loty Diop

Loty Diop

Senior Research Analyst, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Soumyajit Ray

Soumyajit Ray

Senior Research Analyst, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Mariama Toure

Mariama Toure

Senior Research Analyst, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health