Subscribe

Back

Who we are

With research staff from more than 70 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

David Spielman

David Spielman is the director of IFPRI’s Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit and has been with the institute since 2004. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agriculture and rural development policy; agricultural science, technology, and innovation; plant genetic resources and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development.

Back

What we do

Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

Research topics

Projects and impact

Food Security Portal

Modeling tools

What’s new

Where we work

Back

Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 480 employees working in over 70 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country and Regional Offices

Research by country and region

Subscribe

experts

Development Strategies and Governance

Sikandra Kurdi

Research Fellow and Country Program Leader, Egypt

Follow

Sikandra

at:

ORCiD
profile

Bio

Sikandra Kurdi is a Research Fellow and Country Program Leader for Egypt in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her dissertation work looked at the impacts of Labor Intensive Public Works program in Yemen on household incomes and the use of store credit for coping with shocks. She completed her PhD in Agricultural Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2015, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Paris School of Economics.

Publications

CV

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Brief

The state of fisheries in Hadramawt: Insights from a scoping review

2026Belton, Ben; Abdelhadi, Ali; Dey, Durjoy; Jovanovic, Nina; Kurdi, Sikandra; Ecker, Olivier
Details

The state of fisheries in Hadramawt: Insights from a scoping review

In this project note, we review prior research and integrate insights from 14 semi-structured key informant interviews with experts on fisheries in southern Yemen to synthesize current knowledge on fisheries in Hadramawt governorate—home to the largest population of fishers in Yemen—and identify gaps that warrant further investigation.

Year published

2026

Authors

Belton, Ben; Abdelhadi, Ali; Dey, Durjoy; Jovanovic, Nina; Kurdi, Sikandra; Ecker, Olivier

Citation

Belton, Ben; Abdelhadi, Ali; Dey, Durjoy; Jovanovic, Nina; Kurdi, Sikandra; and Ecker, Olivier. 2026. The state of fisheries in Hadramawt: Insights from a scoping review. MENA Project Note 29. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179858

Country/Region

Yemen

Keywords

Asia; Western Asia; Fisheries; Systematic Reviews; Stakeholders; Value Chains; Fishing Vessels; Fishery Industry Equipment; Governance; Markets; Postharvest Losses; Fish Consumption

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Fish for food security in Yemen: Insights from the Data in Emergencies survey

2026Dey, Durjoy; Belton, Ben; Kurdi, Sikandra; Ecker, Olivier
Details

Fish for food security in Yemen: Insights from the Data in Emergencies survey

Fish is the most frequently consumed animal-source food in Yemen, apart from dairy. Fish consumption is highest in coastal southern Yemen but also very common in southern inland districts. Nine percent of households in coastal southern Yemen earned income from fishing. Earning fishing income is highly positively associated with consumption of fish or meat and with the frequency of fish or meat consumption. Sustaining fish stocks and fishing livelihoods is critical to food security and nutrition in southern Yemen.

Year published

2026

Authors

Dey, Durjoy; Belton, Ben; Kurdi, Sikandra; Ecker, Olivier

Citation

Dey, Durjoy; Belton, Ben; Kurdi, Sikandra; and Ecker, Olivier. 2026. Fish for food security in Yemen: Insights from the Data in Emergencies survey. MENA Project Note 28. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179637

Country/Region

Yemen

Keywords

Asia; Western Asia; Fish; Food Security; Surveys; Fish Consumption; Fishing; Livelihoods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Inter‐group cooperation and conflict. Experimental evidence from Yemen

2026Bertelli, Olivia; Kurdi, Sikandra
Details

Inter‐group cooperation and conflict. Experimental evidence from Yemen

Year published

2026

Authors

Bertelli, Olivia; Kurdi, Sikandra

Citation

Bertelli, Olivia; and Kurdi, Sikandra. Inter‐group cooperation and conflict. Experimental evidence from Yemen. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. Article in press. First published on 12 January 2026. https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.70039

Country/Region

Yemen

Keywords

Asia; Western Asia; Cooperation; Conflicts; Disputes; War; Data

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.70039 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

Events

Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition: The MENA launch of IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report
Series/Special Event

 | 

June 27, 2024, 9:00 – 11:30 am

Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition: The MENA launch of IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report

Unhealthy diets are a major driver of all forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity. Despite increasing global efforts to address malnutrition, as many as 3 billion people globally cannot afford healthy diets. The need to transform our food systems to ensure sustainable healthy diets for everyone is more urgent than […]

Famines and Fragility: Making humanitarian, developmental, and peacebuilding responses work
Series/Special Event

 | 

June 11, 2024, 9:30 – 11:15 am

Famines and Fragility: Making humanitarian, developmental, and peacebuilding responses work

Virtual Event: June 11, 2024 – 9:30 AM- 11:15 AM EDT. This seminar will take stock of what we know of key drivers about protracted food crises and persistent fragility and about the obstacles to successful HDP action.

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

November 30 to December 12, 2023

IFPRI @ 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28)

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) being held in Dubai from November 30  to December 12, 2023. IFPRI’s Board of Trustees is meeting in Dubai on December 8, 2023, and a number of researchers will engage in meetings and participate in several side events, as […]

View all Events

News

October 04, 2023 | In the News

In Middle East, poor miss out as ‘faulty’ algorithms target aid (Reuters) 

“Poverty assessment methods powered by algorithms are supposed to make payments fairer, but activists and researchers say such tools often wrongly exclude people,” writes Reuters in a story on new tools to benefit social protection.  Sikandra Kurdi, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which was hired by the World Bank to […]

January 27, 2023 | In the News

Bread for all and anti-inflation markets to rescue Egyptians from the economic abyss (El País) 

El País, in an article about the food crisis in Egypt, quoted IFPRI findings from a recent issue post in the High Food & Fertilizer Prices and War in Ukraine series and interviewed Sikandra Kurdi, IFPRI research fellow based in Cairo, one of the coauthors.  The economic shock caused by the war in Ukraine – nearly 85% of wheat imports […]

June 24, 2019 | In the News

Biometrics disagreement leads to food aid suspension in Yemen (Devex)

Devex reported on the World Food Programme’s partial suspension of food aid in Yemen due to disagreement over the use of biometric data to track distribution. Associate Research Fellow Sikandra Kurdi was quoted in the article saying that using biometrics makes sense in a context like Yemen where many people lack national identification cards that […]

View all News

Research

Projects

    Topics/Countries