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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

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

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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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Journal Article

Diets, fruit and vegetables consumption, and nutritional status in Benin: A scoping review

2025Bliznashka, Lilia; Pather, Kamara; Mitchodigni, Irene M.; Hess, Sonja Y.; Olney, Deanna K.
Details

Diets, fruit and vegetables consumption, and nutritional status in Benin: A scoping review

Unhealthy diets, including low fruit and vegetables (F&V) intake, contribute to morbidity and mortality related to non-communicable diseases. Designing culturally appropriate interventions to improve diets and F&V intake requires an in-depth understanding of individual-level dietary patterns, household consumption patterns, and nutritional status resulting from inadequate F&V intake. In this scoping review, we summarised the literature on diets, F&V intake, and nutritional status in Benin. We searched PubMed from 2012 to August 2024 to identify articles on diets and nutritional status, and from 2002 to August 2024 to identify articles on F&V intake. We included 36 articles on diets, 27 on F&V intake, and 16 on nutritional status. Existing literature demonstrated that Beninese diets are cereal-based and monotonous, characterised by low diversity and low F&V intake across all population groups. Available evidence indicated a high burden of undernutrition in children <5 years of age, a rising prevalence of overnutrition in women of reproductive age, and a high prevalence of overnutrition in adults. Evidence on how diets and F&V intake vary by urban/rural location, season, and socioeconomic characteristics was limited and inconsistent. Two evaluations of garden irrigation programmes assessed impacts on women's dietary diversity and F&V consumption. Additional research is needed to improve our understanding of diets, F&V intake, and diet-related nutritional challenges and how they evolve over time and across different population groups. Understanding these gaps can help identify entry points and targets for interventions to improve diet quality and F&V intake in Benin.

Year published

2025

Authors

Bliznashka, Lilia; Pather, Kamara; Mitchodigni, Irene M.; Hess, Sonja Y.; Olney, Deanna K.

Citation

Bliznashka, Lilia; Pather, Kamara; Mitchodigni, Irene M.; Hess, Sonja Y.; and Olney, Deanna K. Diets, fruit and vegetables consumption, and nutritional status in Benin: A scoping review. Maternal and Child Nutrition. Article in Press. First published online on December 10, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13747

Country/Region

Benin

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Africa; Diet; Fruits; Vegetables; Non-communicable Diseases; Household Consumption; Nutrition; Research; Children; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13747 Source record

Project

Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Journal Article

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Report

Cool transportation in Nigeria: Intervention, baseline and randomized controlled trial

2024Yamauchi, Futoshi; Dauda, Bawa; Balana, Bedru; Edeh, Hyacinth; Shi, Weilun
Details

Cool transportation in Nigeria: Intervention, baseline and randomized controlled trial

In many developing countries, including Nigeria, much of fruit and vegetable production is lost largely because of lack of an adequate cold chain, including postharvest handling, cold storage and temperature-controlled transportation. As a result, not only the availability of fish, fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and meat but also the safety and nutritional content of the food are affected. Under such conditions, all agents in the supply chain including farmers suffer from income reduction, while consumers face un-stable and lower-quality supply of normally more nutritious foods. Inadequate development of value chains and deficiencies in high costs associated with cooling systems are main causes of such losses.

Year published

2024

Authors

Yamauchi, Futoshi; Dauda, Bawa; Balana, Bedru; Edeh, Hyacinth; Shi, Weilun

Citation

Yamauchi, Futoshi; Dauda, Bawa; Balana, Bedru; Edeh, Hyacinth; and Shi, Weilun. 2024. Cool transportation in Nigeria: Intervention, baseline and randomized controlled trial. CGIAR Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets Technical Report. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Western Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Fruits; Vegetables; Agricultural Production; Postharvest Losses; Cold Storage; Food Safety; Agricultural Value Chains; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Report

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Working Paper

Livelihoods and welfare: Findings from the seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (January–June 2024)

2024Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis
Details

Livelihoods and welfare: Findings from the seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (January–June 2024)

The seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and regionally representative phone survey, was implemented between April–June 2024 with a recall period covering January to June of the same year. It follows six rounds of surveys that were carried out since the beginning of December 2021. This report documents livelihood and welfare dynamics over this survey period. Overall, household welfare has deteriorated in Myanmar considerably over the past two years. In terms of income sources, household farming, farm wages, and non-farm businesses are the most important livelihoods in rural areas while non-farm businesses and non-farm salary employment are most important in urban areas. However, in terms of primary livelihoods, we witness a structural shift in livelihood profiles of rural households with fewer households identifying non-farm business income are their primary livelihood (4.1 percentage points decrease) while more households rely on farm wages (2.9 percentage points increase). There are also fewer reported sources of income with households on average reporting 1.6 income sources, compared to almost 2 years ago. The primary source of income is shifting to low-paying livelihoods like wage work, with remittances and assistance serve as supplementary income sources. A combination of increasing prices and growing reliance on low paying livelihoods over the past years led to a significant decline in household purchasing power. Median real household income per adult equivalent per day declined by 8.4 percent over the past year between the first half of 2023 and 2024 and by 18.2 percent over the two-year period between the first half of 2022 and 2024. Over the same period, the headcount rate of poverty increased to 63.6 percent in the first half of 2024 from 60.9 percent a year back in 2023 and 56.2 percent two years back in 2022. Wage earning households continue to be extremely vulnerable with the lowest median real daily income per adult equivalent as well as the livelihood category with the highest level of poverty. With respect to states/regions, poverty is the highest in states engulfed by high levels of conflict, for example, Rakhine, Chin and Kayah. A notable trend in recent years is the faster increase in urban poverty. Urban poverty increased by 9.2 percentage points over the past year from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024, while it increased by 14.7 percentage points over the past two years from the first half of 2022 to first half of 2024. On the other hand, rural poverty only increased by 0.2 percentage points in the past year and 4.6 percentage points in the past two years. There are only a few strategies helping households stay out of poverty, including earning income from farming (which has partially benefited from higher output prices), migrating with the whole household, and receiving assistance or remittances. The presence of remittance income significantly reduces a household’s probability of being poor by a notable 21 percentage points. There are many inter-linked factors that have led to the deterioration in welfare in Myanmar in recent years, including escalating conflict, macroeconomic mismanagement and inflation in particular, the breakdown of social protection, and the absence or deterioration of many other critical services normally provided by the state, including healthcare and nutrition, education, agricultural extension, financial programs for the poor, infrastructure development and social protection.

Year published

2024

Authors

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis

Citation

Myanmar Agrifood Program for Strategy and Analysis. 2024. Livelihoods and welfare: Findings from the seventh round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (January–June 2024). Myanmar SSP Working Paper 64. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Myanmar

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Households; Livelihoods; Telephone Surveys; Welfare

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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.

View all Blogs

News

December 03, 2024 | Press Release

UNICEF, WFP and WHO join forces in global efforts to improve nutrition for children and women in humanitarian crises

The partnership includes the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as the global research partner.

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 […]

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Events

2024 Global Child Nutrition Forum
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

December 9 to 10, 2024

2024 Global Child Nutrition Forum

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the “2024 Global Child Nutrition Forum”. The Global Child Nutrition Foundation works with a global network of governments, businesses, and civil society organizations to support school meal programs that help children and communities thrive. GCNF provides training, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to help governments build national school meal […]

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 […]

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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

Elodie Becquey

Elodie Becquey

Senior Research Fellow, Africa,
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

Malick Dione

Malick Dione

Senior Research Analyst, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Soyra Gune

Soyra Gune

Research Analyst, Nutrition,
Diets, and Health