Realizing the vision of a world free of hunger and malnutrition requires not only action at the local and national level. What is also needed is an effective system of global institutions and cooperation mechanisms to provide the global public goods that depend on international collaboration. There is increasing evidence that the global institutional architecture for agriculture, food and nutrition, which has evolved during the past six decades, needs to be reformed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. These include ensuring food security in view of a deteriorating natural resource base and an increasing demand for bio-energy; managing agriculture’s adaptation to climate change; controlling pandemic diseases such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; and making effective use of the benefits that international agricultural research can provide. IFPRI’s research analyzes different proposals for reforming the global institutions and coordination mechanisms in charge of agriculture, food and nutrition, focusing on the advantages, disadvantages and trade-offs of alternative institutional reform options.