Eva Schiffer, former International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) postdoctoral research fellow, won the 2008 CGIAR Promising Young Scientist Award, for creating "Net-Map," at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's (CGIAR) annual general meeting. Net-Map is a low-tech interview based mapping tool that helps people research, understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes. Schiffer first developed Net-Map when she was working with the CGIAR's Challenge Program on Water and Food in Ghana.
"This is a simple way for us to understand and anticipate what can be very confusing and complicated interactions in the agriculture sector," said Joachim von Braun, IFPRI Director General. "It's so effective that we are now seeing it adopted far beyond our area of work. Net-Map is being used as a way to improve communications related to the risks of avian influenza in Asia and Africa and to understand political pressures on the legislative process in Chile."