• Government–civil society interactions
  How do relationships and interactions between civil society and various levels of government—from national to local—affect policy development and implementation?
• Nutrition: promoting public action
  How do nutrition issues get on the public agenda? What factors promote public action on nutrition?
• Legal systems, the right to food, and food aid
  How do legislation and legal systems affect action to reduce hunger, including the right to food and humanitarian assistance?

Participatory Development in Bangladesh
Source: James Garrett

This research area seeks to examine the policy processes involving relationships and interactions between national, regional and local governments and civil society institutions, including processes of policy development and implementation.

We are developing a research program in India to investigate the operation and effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Program.

IFPRI and the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) have produced a series of briefs providing examples of the effective use of food assistance. One paper examined how food aid was used to empower communities in Honduras and Madagascar. Currently, the same questions are being examined in the context of Ethiopia.

How can community-driven development improve project design, implementation, and impact? Five case studies examined poverty alleviation in Kerala, India; urban livelihood programming in Zambia; CDD in the Kyrgyz Republic; microfinance in South Asia; and HIV/AIDS and food security in Malawi. This project was funded by the World Bank and supported by relevant country partners.

Traditional Peruvian meal
Source: CARE - Peru

How do political, economic, and social factors shape policy debates, decisions, and action on hunger and malnutrition? How can nutrition and food security issues be incorporated into government agendas?

Current work includes an analysis of why -- or even if -- a gap exists between evidence and action on nutrition, and what factors and processes lead to policy change. Previous work looked at the sectoral relationships between agriculture and nutrition and how institutions and politics affect government action.

In 2005, IFPRI led the efforts of a multi-sectoral team of Ethiopian experts to provide analytical support to the committee assigned the responsibility by the government of Ethiopia to formulate a national nutrition strategy for the country. Detailed analyses were provided on the determinants of malnutrition that are particularly salient in Ethiopia, the priority public actions required to improve the nutrition status of the vulnerable, and how nutrition issues could be incorporated into the agendas and institutions of federal and regional governments.
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TANA, managed by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), examined how the agriculture and nutrition communities can come together to combat poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. IFPRI led the international research component of this project. Researchers conducted studies in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda. A research report from this study will be finalized in 2006.

This project reviewed global opportunities for investment in nutrition by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) through a country-level assessment of nutrition conditions, policies, and programs in Bangladesh and Malawi.

Community Action in Kenya
Source: Carole Douglis

How do policymakers, development organizations, and interest groups use legislation and legal systems to generate actions that affect food and nutrition security?

Current work explores the added value of the rights-based approach for food security and alternative approaches to humanitarian assistance.

What does the concept of a “right-to-food” mean in practical terms? Does it lead to greater public action on food security, and ultimately to reductions in hunger? The project will work on developing indicators for monitoring implementation of the right to adequate food and identify how a “right-to-food” helps to achieve food security.