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With research staff from more than 60 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

Elodie Becquey

Elodie Becquey is a Senior Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit, based in IFPRI’s West and Central Africa office in Senegal. She has over 15 years of research experience in diet, nutrition, and food security in Africa, including countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania.

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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TOPIC

Resilience

Economic, climate, and health shocks as well as conflict can be devastating for poor and vulnerable people who have limited resources and options. These shocks include food price hikes and financial crises, environmental and natural disasters, armed and political conflicts, and disease outbreaks. They can intensify the risk of food and nutrition insecurity, drive people into poverty or prevent them from moving out of poverty, and spur migration. Building resilience means helping individuals, households, communities, and countries prepare for, mitigate, cope with, and recover from shocks—so that they can not only bounce back but even become better off.

IFPRI’s resilience research examines the impact of different shocks and explores possible interventions to enhance human capital, policies for responding to and recovering from crises, and ways to create resilient food systems, economies, and societies. This includes extensive work on climate change, food prices, migration, and crises, including COVID-19 and the food, fuel, and fertilizer price increases associated with the Russia-Ukraine war. Research on women’s empowerment and gender equity also contributes to understanding resilience.

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IFPRI’s research on this topic is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG1, SDG2, SDG9, and SDG11, and with the CGIAR Impact Areas on Nutrition, Health, and Food Security; Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs; Climate Adaptation and Mitigation; and Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.

resilience_use

topics

Publications

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Journal Article

Estimating multidimensional development resilience

2026Lee, Seungmin; Abay, Kibrom A.; Barrett, Christopher B.; Hoddinott, John F.
Details

Estimating multidimensional development resilience

Existing measures of resilience are typically based on a single well-being indicator. This is problematic in contexts where households face deprivations across multiple dimensions. We develop a multidimensional resilience measure, integrating probabilistic moment-based resilience measurement approaches with multidimensional poverty measurement methods. Applying these to household panel data from Ethiopia, we show that univariate and multidimensional resilience measures based on expenditure-based poverty, dietary diversity, and livestock asset holdings can yield varied inferences on the ranking of households as well as potential impact of development interventions. Univariate resilience measures constructed using consumption expenditure, dietary diversity and livestock asset holdings show distinct temporal and spatial distributional patterns. But while univariate measures are weakly correlated with one another and with different well-being metrics, multivariate measures exhibit much stronger rank correlations. When we contrast univariate measures of resilience to multidimensional measures of resilience, we find that the latter vary less over the study period; multidimensional resilience measures seem to capture more “persistent or structural” vulnerability and associated capacity of households. We also demonstrate the differences in these univariate and multivariate measures, including the potential of the composite multidimensional resilience measures for supporting targeting processes.

Year published

2026

Authors

Lee, Seungmin; Abay, Kibrom A.; Barrett, Christopher B.; Hoddinott, John F.

Citation

Lee, Seungmin; Abay, Kibrom A.; Barrett, Christopher B.; and Hoddinott, John. 2025. Estimating multidimensional development resilience. Journal of Development Economics 178(January 2026): 103583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103583

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Data; Development; Households; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103583 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Gender, nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, and resilience: Evidence from rural Bangladesh

2025Hoddinott, John F.; Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Quisumbing, Agnes R.
Details

Gender, nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, and resilience: Evidence from rural Bangladesh

We assess whether a gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, fielded in rural Bangladesh, aimed at improving food production diversity enhanced resilience and whether impacts persisted post-intervention. Four years post-program, treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training reduced the likelihood that households undertook more severe forms of coping strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic. There were persistent improvements in household consumption and diet quality; impacts were largest for poor but not the poorest households in our sample. Underlying these results were the long-term beneficial impacts on women’s agricultural knowledge, agency, and increased engagement in agricultural activities.

Year published

2025

Authors

Hoddinott, John F.; Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Quisumbing, Agnes R.

Citation

Hoddinott, John F.; Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; and Quisumbing, Agnes R. 2025. Gender, nutrition-sensitive agricultural interventions, and resilience: Evidence from rural Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2375. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177816

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Resilience; Shocks; Gender; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia

Record type

Working Paper

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Report

Resilience science must-knows: Nine things every decision-maker should know about resilience

2025
Norström, Albert; Queiroz, Cibele; Nyström, Magnus; Jiménez-Aceituno, Amanda; Jonsson, Amanda; McFadden, Alexandra; Milton, Nirvana; Peterson, Garry; Barnes, Michelle; Béné, Christophe
…more Biggs, Reinette; Boyd, Emily; Broadgate, Wendy; Brown, Katrina; Carpenter, Stephen R.; Collins, Greg; de Coning, Cedric; Denton, Fatima; Ferreira, Regardt; Folke, Carl; Gordon, Line; Hamann, Maike; Hornberg, Jesper; McPhearson, Timon; Nagendra, Harini; Ringler, Claudia; Rockström, Johan; Romero-Lankao, Patricia; Scheffer, Marten; Westley, Frances; Ziervogel, Gina
Details

Resilience science must-knows: Nine things every decision-maker should know about resilience

Resilience has become a central consideration across practice, policy, and business. It is increasingly integrated into public health strategies, private-sector risk management, corporate planning, development, and financial investment. This growing interest in resilience is not by chance. In recent years, the world has faced a variety of overlapping crises, from climate extremes and military conflicts to the COVID-19 pandemic and cascading disruptions in trade and food systems. Volatility is no longer an exception; it is the new norm. Decision-makers across regions and sectors urgently need clear, science-based, and actionable knowledge to maintain the resilience of people and the planet and to ensure societies have the capacity to cope, adapt, and transform in order to thrive amid uncertainty. Yet, despite a wealth of research into the science of resilience, the findings often remain complex, making them difficult to translate into actionable insights for leaders outside the scientific community. The Resilience Science Must-Knows address this challenge head-on by distilling decades of cutting-edge resilience science into nine critical Must-Knows refined through dialogue with decision-makers.

Year published

2025

Authors

Norström, Albert; Queiroz, Cibele; Nyström, Magnus; Jiménez-Aceituno, Amanda; Jonsson, Amanda; McFadden, Alexandra; Milton, Nirvana; Peterson, Garry; Barnes, Michelle; Béné, Christophe; Biggs, Reinette; Boyd, Emily; Broadgate, Wendy; Brown, Katrina; Carpenter, Stephen R.; Collins, Greg; de Coning, Cedric; Denton, Fatima; Ferreira, Regardt; Folke, Carl; Gordon, Line; Hamann, Maike; Hornberg, Jesper; McPhearson, Timon; Nagendra, Harini; Ringler, Claudia; Rockström, Johan; Romero-Lankao, Patricia; Scheffer, Marten; Westley, Frances; Ziervogel, Gina

Citation

Norström, Albert; Queiroz, Cibele; Nyström, Magnus; Jiménez-Aceituno, Amanda; Jonsson, Amanda et al. 2025. Resilience science must-knows: Nine things every decision-maker should know about resilience. Stockholm, Sweden: Stockholm Resilience Centre, Global Resilience Partnership, Future Earth. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17466370

Keywords

Resilience; Climate Change; Environmental Policies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17466370 Source record

Record type

Report

Blogs

Northern Nigeria’s hunger crisis: Transforming food aid to rebuild food systems
IFPRI Blog
 | 
July 11, 2025

Northern Nigeria’s hunger crisis: Transforming food aid to rebuild food systems

By David Stevenson, Abdul Kamara, Yero Baldeh, Martin Fregene, and Steven Were Omamo

Leveraging assistance to build resilience.

Invest in climate adaptation – before disaster strikes
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 06, 2025

Invest in climate adaptation – before disaster strikes

By Kalle Hirvonen and Olli-Pekka Kuusela

Approaches to build resilience amid global aid cuts.

Pathways to power in fragile settings: Rethinking women’s roles in agriculture and food systems
IFPRI Blog
 | 
April 25, 2025

Pathways to power in fragile settings: Rethinking women’s roles in agriculture and food systems

By Agnes Quisumbing, Jordan Kyle, Katrina Kosec, and Catherine Ragasa

Difficult circumstances also offer opportunities.

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Events

Shaping Food Policy in a Changing World: Research Priorities for Greater Impact
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

December 15, 2025, 9:00 – 4:00 pm

Shaping Food Policy in a Changing World: Research Priorities for Greater Impact

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. In today’s fast-changing world and evolving food systems, the need for evidence-based food policy has never been more urgent – demanding research that […]

Empowerment in Crisis: Gender-Responsive Solutions for Fragile Food Systems
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

November 12, 2025, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Empowerment in Crisis: Gender-Responsive Solutions for Fragile Food Systems

Crises—whether driven by conflict, climate shocks, or economic instability—rarely affect everyone equally. Women and girls often bear the heaviest burdens, facing heightened food insecurity, disrupted livelihoods, and increased risks to their health and safety. Yet, women are not only victims of crisis—they are powerful drivers of resilience and recovery. “Empowerment in Crisis: Gender-Responsive Solutions for […]

Africa Food Systems Forum 2025 Summit
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 31 to September 5, 2025

Africa Food Systems Forum 2025 Summit

The Africa Food Systems Forum will host its annual summit in Dakar, Senegal, from August 31 to September 5, 2025. Africa’s Food Systems Forum, formerly AGRF, is the world’s premier forum for African agriculture and food systems, bringing together stakeholders to take practical actions and share lessons that will move African food systems forward. Africa […]

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News

November 12, 2024 | Press Release

New Study: Short-term humanitarian aid alone insufficient to address severe deterioration in employment, income, access to essential services and food security.

Economic revival, social protection, and infrastructure rehabilitation are critical for urban recovery in Sudan. Nairobi, 12 November 2024 – Eighteen months of war have deeply affected urban households in Sudan: 31 percent have been displaced, full-time employment has plummeted by half, over 70 percent of the urban households in Sudan had all or some of […]

August 29, 2024 | Press Release

Trade can support climate change mitigation and adaptation in Africa’s agricultural sector, new data shows

New report analyzes trade performance amid pressure points from climate change, water use, and carbon emissions, with recommendations for sustainable practices.

June 21, 2023 | Press Release

WFP resilience programmes in Sahel act as buffer against instability, build peace and social cohesion – study finds

DAKAR – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)’s efforts to build resilience to climate-related and human-made shocks and stressors have been shown to boost food security, while also strengthening social cohesion and improving the prospects for peace in Burkina Faso and Niger – a new study reveals.  The “Sahel Social Cohesion Research in Burkina […]

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Our experts

Deanna Olney

Deanna Olney

Director, Nutrition, Diets, and Health (NDH), Nutrition,
Diets, and Health

Claudia Ringler

Claudia Ringler

Director, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR), Natural
Resources and Resilience

David Spielman

David Spielman

Director, Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS), Innovation
Policy and Scaling

James Thurlow

James Thurlow

Director, Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM), Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Fakunle Aremu

Fakunle Aremu

Regional Policy Advisor, Innovation
Policy and Scaling

Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri

Senior Research Fellow, Innovation
Policy and Scaling

Shweta Gupta

Shweta Gupta

Senior Research Analyst, Natural
Resources and Resilience

Berber Kramer

Berber Kramer

Senior Research Fellow, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions

Razin Kabir

Razin Kabir

Senior Program Manager, Poverty,
Gender, and Inclusion