Food policy indicators: Tracking change

Decision-makers and policy analysts need solid evidence and timely information to develop and implement effective food policies. The International Food Policy Research Institute develops and shares global public goods—including datasets, indicators, and indexes—as part of its mission to provide research-based policy solutions that sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition. This information can be used to gauge the impact of policy changes and the progress made on specific aspects of development. This section highlights five of the indicator series generated by IFPRI research and illustrates some recent trends revealed by these datasets. Indicators include investments in agricultural research, public spending on agriculture, capacity for food policy research, agricultural total factor productivity, and projections for agricultural production, food consumption, and risk of hunger to 2030 and 2050. The full datasets and more information about how the indicators are calculated and how they can be used by policymakers is available online.