Poverty

For the one billion people living in poverty around the world, securing life's basic necessities for themselves or their families is a daily challenge. Solving this seemingly intractable problem is development's main goal, and identifying research-based policy solutions to poverty is central to IFPRI’s mission. IFPRI’s researchers explore the linkages among poverty, livelihoods, food security, and nutrition and evaluate the programs and policies that can best help families rise out of poverty. This work addresses policies to promote rural income growth and development through agricultural technology adoption and linking smallholders to markets. The Institute also evaluates social protection programs and other interventions that increase investment in human capital and improve coping strategies for the poor. By emphasizing the important role of gender in intrahousehold decisionmaking, and using behavioral experiments to understand the effect of risk and stress on the poor, our research identifies more effective and sustainable poverty alleviation strategies.