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The pathway from research to impact can be direct or, at times, more difficult to trace.
IFPRI commissions independent, peer-reviewed assessments of our work and engages researchers in internally validating our activities.
This new brochure, part of IFPRI’s 50th Anniversary celebration this year, highlights some of our stories of impact to show how IFPRI’s research is making a difference for people and the planet.
Read the brochure | Learn more about IFPRI’s impact
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This year’s Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) took place in Dakar, Senegal, from August 31 – September 5, 2025, under the theme Africa’s Youth: Leading Collaboration, Innovation, and Implementation of Agri-Food Systems Transformation.
IFPRI was honored to take part, with Director General Johan Swinnen and senior researchers actively contributing to plenaries, high-level panels, and special events as part of the wider CGIAR delegation. On September 2, IFPRI and AGRA co-hosted the Africa launch of the 2025 Global Food Policy Report spotlighting its links to the new CAADP agenda. Read more about this event in our event post and watch the recording here.
Steven Were Omamo, IFPRI’s Director for Development Strategies and Governance and Director for Africa, was invited to share his reflections about the Forum on the AFSF blog. He notes that while the strong focus on youth in food systems at the Forum was welcome and important, African policymakers must now double down on implementing the Kampala Declaration and the new CAADP framework. Read his post here: Africa’s Youth and the Future of Food: IFPRI’s Key Takeaways from AFS Forum 2025.
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From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments to tackle hunger and food insecurity: High-level declarations shape global legitimacy, but how well do they translate into action? Christina Zorbas, Danielle Resnick, Eleanor Jones, Shoba Suri, Elyse Iruhiriye, Derek Headey, Will Martin, Rob Vos, and Purnima Menon examine commitments to SDG 2, which aims to end hunger, achieve food security, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030, assessing whether these pledges have guided concrete progress. (Read in Food Policy)
Cash transfers, gender norms, and women’s control over decision-making in Egypt: Bargaining models suggest that cash transfers to women can boost their influence in household decisions, but evidence is mixed. Hoda El-Enbaby, Daniel Gilligan, Naureen Karachiwalla, Yumna Kassim, and Sikandra Kurdi find that transfers through Egypt’s national cash transfer program to women without education had large and significant negative effects on their ability to influence household decisions. (Read in Economic Development and Cultural Change)
Food price stabilization: Theory and lessons from experience: Many countries try to stabilize food prices through public grain reserves or trade policy. Paul Dorosh, Nicholas Minot, and Shahidur Rashid review the theory and practice of price stabilization, highlighting challenges from volatile international markets, speculative attacks, imperfect information, and political interference. (Read in Food Policy)
Accuracy of using weight and length in children under 24 months to screen for early childhood obesity: With early childhood overweight and obesity rising, timely prediction is crucial. Morgan Boncyk, Jef Leroy, Rebecca Brander, Leila Larson, Marie Ruel, and Edward Frongillo reviewed 14 studies using data from children under 24 months to predict overweight and obesity at ages 3–7. Models using weight and length, alone or with additional factors, showed modest accuracy, improving with machine learning and multiple assessments, but remain impractical for broad-scale use, especially in low- and middle-income countries. (Read in Advances in Nutrition)
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For more frequent updates on the latest peer-reviewed publications from IFPRI researchers, read and sign up for our weekly newsletter on LinkedIn, Weekly Reads from IFPRI.
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Strengthening Food Systems Across South Asia and Beyond
ATMI-II Launch in Jakarta
On August 4–5, IFPRI and partners—including IFAD, BIMSTEC, and SEARCA—launched the second phase of the Agricultural Transformation and Market Integration (ATMI-II) initiative in Jakarta. The program aims to strengthen inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient agrifood systems across Southeast and South Asia, reinforcing the value of regional collaboration and partnerships in transforming food systems.
South Asia Dialogue on Food Policy
In New Delhi on September 16, IFPRI and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) convened a high-level regional policy dialogue Food Policy for a Changing World: Lessons and Priorities for South Asia. The event brought together policymakers and experts to discuss pathways for healthier, more resilient, and inclusive food systems, and marked the South Asia launch of IFPRI’s 2025 Global Food Policy Report.
SAARC Agriculture Centre and IFPRI Sign MoU
On September 23, the SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) and IFPRI signed a Memorandum of Understanding to deepen collaboration in food and agriculture research, policy analysis, and capacity building across South Asia. (Read media coverage in The Daily Star – SAARC Agriculture Centre teams up with IFPRI for food, agriculture research)
🔗Learn more about our work in the region on www.southasia.ifpri.info
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 October 8 – 9, 2025, 3:00 – 5:40 pm (America/Costa Rica)
Transformative and scalable experiences for a new generation of public policies for agrifood systems
LAC Regional Launch of IFPRI’s 2025 Global Food Policy Report
October 14, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am (US/Eastern)
The EU deforestation regulation: Policy implications and research frontiers
Co-organized by IFPRI, CGIAR, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
October 16, 2025, 10:00 – 11:00 am (US/Eastern)
School meal programs and regenerative agriculture: Generating evidence on sustainability tradeoffs
Research Webinar Series: School-based Interventions in the 21st Century: Evidence Gaps and Future Directions | Co-organized by IFPRI and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
October 22, 2025, 3:00 – 4:30 pm (Africa/Khartoum)
Informing crisis response in Sudan
Co-organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Science Program on Food Frontiers and Security | Part of the Fragility to Stability Seminar Series
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Our new Blog and Webinar Series from the AI for Food Systems Research initiative, in partnership with Digital Green, explores how AI tools can be responsibly designed, applied, and governed in agricultural research, policy, and extension. The series brings together researchers and practitioners across CGIAR and partners to share insights and innovations.
Read our latest blog Grounding AI in practice: What extension gets wrong, what extension gets right, and what AI can learn and register for an upcoming webinar on October 23, Launching the Ethical AI Methods Toolkit: Reflections from Research and Practice.
Also, explore our new topic page on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and join our LinkedIn community to follow new posts and share your ideas!
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💹 Blog Series: Financing Food Systems Transformation
Overcoming obstacles and expanding opportunities for digital finance in the midstream of agrifood value chains
By Kate Ambler, Jeffrey Bloem, and Alan de Brauw
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Food Systems Markets and Value Chains
Realistic options for repurposing fertilizer subsidy spending
By Ruth Hill and Danielle Resnick
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Agriculture Production Governance
⚡ Blog Series: Conflicts and Other Shocks Impacting Food Systems
Gaza’s catastrophe will have long-lasting impacts on lives and livelihoods
By Rob Vos and Soonho Kim
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Food Crises Agriculture Production
🌍 Issue Posts
African agrifood trade at a crossroads
By Valeria Piñeiro, Juan Pablo Gianatiempo, Joseph Glauber, and Fousseini Traoré
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Trade
Bridging food systems and carbon markets: Policy, practice, and progress in Kenya
By Suresh Babu and Ann Maina
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Agriculture Production Climate Change Food Systems
By Thomas Falk, Ivo Steimanis, Lara Bartels, Vishwambhar Duche, Björn Vollan, and Ruth Meinzen-Dick
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Gender Governance Environment and Natural Resources
Costs and benefits of using social learning games to support Indian communities in better managing their dams
By Thomas Falk, Ivo Steimanis, Lara Bartels, Vishwambhar Duche, Björn Vollan, and Ruth Meinzen-Dick
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Environment and Natural Resources Governance
🎤 Event Posts
TICAD 9: How IFPRI and Japan leverage advanced technologies, know-how, and institutional innovations to advance African development
By Futoshi Yamauchi, Teunis van Rheenen, and Eduardo Maruyama
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Agriculture Production Food Systems Markets and Value Chains Nutrition
South-South triangular cooperation for food system transformation: Lessons for the CGIAR Capacity Sharing Accelerator
By Suresh Babu and Kumara Charyulu Deevi
🏷️IFPRI Topics: Capacity Strengthening
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In 2014, IFPRI and the Gates Foundation launched the AReNA project to bridge agriculture and nutrition research, addressing data gaps and advancing understanding of how agriculture can better improve diets and nutrition worldwide.
The AReNA project created a one-of-a-kind dataset that links nutrition-related indicators to agricultural and environmental indicators. The dataset has been used for countless studies on the determinants of child stunting, wasting, and feeding practices.
Tamsin Zandstra and Derek Headey explore this work in the latest interactive story of our Making a Difference series.
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Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world: Johan Swinnen and Purnima Menon were interviewed for the VoxDevTalks podcast, where they discuss IFPRI’s landmark 2025 Global Food Policy Report, which reviews 50 years of progress and setbacks in global food systems.
Raising PNG’s minimum wage to improve affordability of healthy diets: DevPolicy published an article by Kristi Mahrt and Emily Schmidt that examines how raising the minimum wage could improve the affordability of nutritious foods in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Using the Cost of a Healthy Diet (CoHD) indicator, they show that the price of a basic healthy diet in urban PNG increased from 7.70 kina in 2021 to 10.37 kina in 2025—a 35% rise, outpacing both general and food inflation.
Can Indonesia afford free lunches?: BBC featured Suman Chakrabarti on their podcast, the inquiry, for an episode on school meals in Indonesia. Chakrabarti provided comments on India’s free school meal program. “The original impetus for the program in India was looking at some success stories from pilot states. In India, the southern states, which include Tamil Nadu and Kerala, have a long history of piloting programs for the poor.”
Czy czeka nas dekada rekordowo wysokich cen żywności? (Are we facing a decade of record-high food prices?): BBC News Polska interviewed Rob Vos on global food price trends. Vos warns, “The era of cheap food is over. The world must adjust to this new reality.” While global market prices have eased since their 2022 peak, many countries still face high food inflation driven by rising production costs, supply chain disruptions, climate change, and trade policies.
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CIMMYT and IFPRI announce the launch of a joint research hub dedicated to advancing innovative technologies, evidence, scaling strategies, and policy solutions to fight hunger, poverty, and malnutrition equitably and sustainably. Read more
Photo: IFPRI Director General Johan Swinnen (left) and CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts (right) cut the ribbon to unveil a new CIMMYT liaison office at IFPRI HQ on September 25, 2025.
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