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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.

Erick Boy

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

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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.

Where we work

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Where we work

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

Worsening food insecurity, waning response capacity: Options for a better way forward

Co-organized by IFPRI, the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) and the CGIAR Science Program on Food Frontiers and Security | Part of the Fragility to Stability Seminar Series

July 2, 2025

  • 9:30 – 11:00 am (America/New_York)
  • 3:30 – 5:00 pm (Europe/Amsterdam)
  • 7:00 – 8:30 pm (Asia/Kolkata)

Food crises arise from the complex interplay of conflict, poverty, climate variability, and economic shocks, resulting in acute food insecurity among vulnerable populations. According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (2025), the number of people facing severe levels of acute food insecurity has tripled over the past decade, rising from around 100 million in 2016 to nearly 300 million people in 2024.  

The report warns that intensifying conflict in areas prone to food crises could worsen these conditions, policy uncertainty in major economies could slow income growth around the world, and budget cuts could erode humanitarian assistance, as well as capacities to monitor and anticipate drivers of acute food insecurity. 

This seminar will assess these prospects and discuss ways to counteract them. 

Speakers will discuss:  

  • Trends in acute food insecurity and major drivers 
  • Challenges posed by budget cuts by major aid donors and impacts on food crisis response capacities 
  • Obstacles faced by early warning, early action systems in collecting adequate data to monitor and anticipate food crises and address drivers 
  • Insights from AI-driven predictive modeling approaches to overcome select data challenges and better inform anticipatory and preventive action 

Opening Remarks

Global food crises, fragility, and prospects: Trends and drivers  
Presentation of the key findings of the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises 

What are the consequences for food insecurity risks of waning international humanitarian and development assistance? EC perspectives and responses

  • Simona Bortolotti, Policy Officer, Sustainable Agrifood Systems and Fisheries Unit, Directorate General for International Partnerships, European Union

Implications of foreign aid cuts for climate resilience and food insecurity 

Challenges to humanitarian assistance and anticipatory action amid Sudan’s worsening food crisis  

  • Nigist Abebe, Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit, World Food Programme (WFP), Sudan

A new approach to assess food insecurity trends and drivers to better inform early action systems  

  • Luca Russo, Independent consultant and co-lead of study on trends and drivers of acute food insecurity commissioned by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC)

Using AI-informed modeling to overcome challenges to data collection and predict food crises  

Concluding Remarks 

  • Rob Vos, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

Moderator 

  • Katrina Kosec, Interim Deputy Director, CGIAR Science Program on Food Frontiers and Security; Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI