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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.

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Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His work focuses on the relationships among poverty, nutrition, food security, agriculture, the environment, production, and migration—analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic levels, primarily using quantitative methods.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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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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What’s New

Beyond the hype: Centering humans in CGIAR’s genAI research
IFPRI Blog
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May 14, 2025

Beyond the hype: Centering humans in CGIAR’s genAI research

By Eliot Jones-Garcia

Realizing the potential and minimizing the risks of a promising new technology.

Integrating gender and nutrition into climate policy: Insights from the GCAN Initiative in Nigeria
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 12, 2025

Integrating gender and nutrition into climate policy: Insights from the GCAN Initiative in Nigeria

By Musa Tukur Yakasai, Bello Yakasai, Yohanna Moses, Bedru Balana, Elizabeth Bryan, Augustine Iraoya, and Claudia Ringler

Grounding action in research and collaboration.

Applying the Women's Empowerment Metric in National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) to build gender equity
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 07, 2025

Applying the Women’s Empowerment Metric in National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) to build gender equity

By Emily Myers, Jessica Heckert, Hazel Malapit, Agnes Quisumbing, Flor Paz, Chiara Brunelli, and Chiara Gnetti

A tool to collect key data sometimes missing from household surveys.

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Journal Article

Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

2024Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; Chen, Kevin Z.

Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

Despite the well-studied nutritional benefits of dairy for child linear growth, dairy is less consumed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the prevalence of child stunting is high. Previous studies have suggested the cost of dairy as a potential barrier to increased dairy consumption in these countries. Surprisingly, little research on the association between dairy consumption and child stunting in LMICs focuses on the role of trade policies, particularly the liberalization of dairy trade. To explore this, we use representative cross-country individual data on child stunting from 2006 to 2020 and link it with country-level dairy trade data. We find that a 10% decline in dairy tariff rates reduces the risk of stunting by 7.78%. Our results are robust to a subsample analysis excluding countries which joined the WTO after 2000 and to an alternative clustering method. As a falsification test, our results show child stunting is not linked with tariffs for coffee and tea. Heterogeneity analysis indicates the associations are more pronounced for boys, children aged 3–5, and children from households with lower socioeconomic status. Although we did not find significant rural–urban differences, the associations are indeed stronger for households without cattle and for countries in Western Africa, South East Asia and Europe and Central Asia. Mechanism analysis suggests that dairy tariffs are positively correlated with milk prices, while they are negatively associated with dairy import values. Lower dairy tariffs are also found to be linked with higher probability of child dairy consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of removing tariff barriers in reducing the cost of dairy and promoting dairy consumption in LMICs. This study has implications for repurposing dairy trade policies in creating nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Year published

2024

Authors

Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; Chen, Kevin Z.

Citation

Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; and Chen, Kevin Z. 2024. Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries. Food Policy 122(January 2024): 102554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102554

Keywords

Child Stunting; Data; Milk; Trade Liberalization; Trade Policies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102554 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Journal Article

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

2025Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

Undernutrition in women and young children in Burkina Faso is a critical problem. Egg consumption is low despite many households raising poultry. The Soutenir l’Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l’Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l’Économie Rurale (SELEVER) project, an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention, promoted egg consumption and sales to investigate the impact of poultry production on child nutrition. Multisectoral nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs address nutrition deficits but lack comparable cost information. This study estimates the costs of the SELEVER program, an integrated poultry and nutrition intervention. The study estimates the program’s economic costs using a standardized methodology from the Strengthening Economic Evaluation for Multisectoral Strategies for Nutrition (SEEMS-Nutrition) consortium, which aligns financial and economic costs along program impact pathways, allocating costs by activities and inputs. We conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups on time allocation and beneficiary out-of-pocket costs. Incremental economic costs were calculated by combining expenditures and economic costs. The total incremental program cost was USD$18,084,727.68 over 5 years, with annual incremental costs of USD$209.20 per direct beneficiary and $796.26 per household. Major cost drivers included overhead (18%), poultry extension (17%), training (16%), household counseling (7%), technical assistance (7%) and microcredit (6%). Total input costs were dominated by personnel (51%), supplies (13%), agricultural inputs (10%) and overhead (9%). We present the total incremental costs of a multisectoral nutrition intervention to generate revenue with poultry. The costs per beneficiary were higher than similar interventions, underscoring the need for cost-effectiveness evaluations of multisectoral nutrition programs. A standardized cost methodology facilitates comparisons with multisectoral nutrition interventions and builds the evidence base.

Year published

2025

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; and Levin, Carol. 2025. The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso. Maternal and Child Nutrition 21(2): e13791. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Nutrition; Poultry; Value Chains; Children; Costs; Gender; Sustainability; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Journal Article

Journal Article

Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs

2024
Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Neena; Chauhan, Alka; Dwivedi, L. K.; Kapur, Avani; Pedgaonkar, Sarang; Shukla, Ritwik
…more Chakrabarti, Suman; Singh, Shri Kant; Menon, Purnima

Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs

Background High coverage of nutrition-specific interventions is critical to meet global nutrition targets, and it is imperative to understand how to attain it. We examined trends and inequalities in the coverage of interventions in India and the role of the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) in achieving improvements. Methods We conducted trends and equity analysis of 30 interventions using two rounds of National Family Health Survey data (2015–2016, n=1 78 874, and 2019–2021, n=1 70 697). We also compared coverage between states that received incentives and monitoring under NNM and those that did not. We reviewed programme documents and grey literature to construct a policy timeline to trace pathways to coverage improvement and consulted with stakeholders to confirm interpretation of findings. Findings Between 2016 and 2021, coverage improved significantly for nearly all interventions (~1–22 percentage points (pp) during pregnancy, ~7–20 pp during delivery/postpartum and~5–17 pp during early childhood). Improvements in coverage were higher among the poor and in rural areas compared with the rich and in urban areas, respectively; wealth and residence gaps narrowed for most interventions. These improvements could be traced to community mobilisation, technology and monitoring under NNM. Improvements in coverage of growth monitoring and counselling were higher in states that received additional incentives and monitoring under NNM. Stakeholders concurred that the improvements in coverage were likely driven by NNM. Interpretation Focused policy attention and programmatic efforts improved coverage and reduced inequities indicating an inclusive approach. Persistent coverage gaps for certain interventions require further inquiry.

Year published

2024

Authors

Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Neena; Chauhan, Alka; Dwivedi, L. K.; Kapur, Avani; Pedgaonkar, Sarang; Shukla, Ritwik; Chakrabarti, Suman; Singh, Shri Kant; Menon, Purnima

Citation

Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Bhatia; Chauhan, Alka; et al. 2024. Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: role of national programs. Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs. BMJ Global Health 9(12): e015246. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015246

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Data; Maternal and Child Health; Nutrition; Research Methods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015246 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Journal Article

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2024 Year in Review

Explore highlights from IFPRI’s 2024 research and outreach, including our work on food security and healthy diets, responding to conflicts and building resilience, and major outputs from our regional and country programs. Click through the interactive review to view videos, blogs, events and more.

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IFPRI and CGIAR

IFPRI is a Research Center of CGIAR,  the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network. IFPRI researchers collaborate closely with researchers from other CGIAR Centers, and our work contributes to the CGIAR mission of delivering science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.

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Experts in Our Field

IFPRI’s experts work around the world to provide the evidence that supports effective policies to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.

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Meet a Researcher

Mamata Pradhan is a Research Coordinator in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in India. She is a scholar in development researching social protection programs. Her work portfolio involves large-scale multi-country and multi-stakeholder projects in the South Asia Region. She helped develop an integrated framework for trade, environment, and food security in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). Dr. Pradhan is also engaged in a transect study where urban, rural, and peri-urban food…

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Mamata Pradhan

From our video channel

Faces of IFPRI: Tigist Gedeb

This video features Tigist Gedeb, Senior Finance Manager.

“Faces of IFPRI” is a new series of interviews with IFPRI colleagues around the world, showcasing the diversity of talent, geographies, and research interests across the Institute.

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Our Events

How vulnerable are economies to systemic risks? New approaches to assessing economic and climate-related shocks
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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May 14, 2025, 9:30 – 10:30 am

How vulnerable are economies to systemic risks? New approaches to assessing economic and climate-related shocks

This webinar showcases two innovative approaches to understanding how economic and climate-related risks affect national economies and vulnerable populations across developing regions. The first presentation introduces an economywide modeling approach to assess economic vulnerabilities. It examines how national economies and key population groups are exposed to shocks—such as global market fluctuations or disruptions in domestic […]

EconPol Annual Conference 2025
IFPRI at External Event

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May 19, 2025, 11:30 – 5:00 pm

EconPol Annual Conference 2025

Climate policy debates tend to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of climate change. However, climate change is expected to continue even under the most optimistic emission scenarios, inflicting severe damage. Across Europe, increasingly frequent and more severe flooding is causing significant physical damage, while rising temperatures and droughts are leading to […]

2025 Global Food Policy Report | Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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May 28, 2025, 9:00 – 12:30 pm

2025 Global Food Policy Report | Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World

Also streaming on Over the last 50 years, the world’s food systems have evolved tremendously amid major economic, environmental, and social changes. Throughout this period, policy research has played a critical role in providing evidence and analysis to inform decision-making that supports agricultural growth, better livelihoods, and improved food security, nutrition, and well-being for all. […]

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Making a Difference Blog Series

West Africa faces significant problems with various forms of malnutrition, especially among women and children. In 2017, the region had the highest rate of under-five wasting (low weight-for-age) in Africa—8.5% compared with the continent’s mean of 7.4%. The rate of stunting (low height-for-age) waw also extremely high at 31.4%. In 2017, 52% of women ages 15-46 suffered from anemia.

In response, IFPRI, with funding from the Gates Foundation, established Transform Nutrition West Africa (TNWA)—a regional knowledge platform to facilitate effective policy and action on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in West Africa with a focus on four countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. TNWA ran from 2017 to 2021.

Tamsin Zandstra, Roos Verstraeten, Ampa Dogui Diatta, Loty Diop, and Mariama Touré explore TNWA’s research, work, and long-term impact in West Africa.

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