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Who we are

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

Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. She has extensive transdisciplinary research experience in using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. 

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.

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Unit

Nutrition, Diets, and Health

Purpose

IFPRI’s Nutrition, Diets, and Health (NDH) research provides evidence on strategies to achieve healthy diets, good nutrition, and health.

Overview

Poor diets are a primary cause of malnutrition and the leading cause of disease worldwide. Improving diets and addressing nutrition and health issues can improve people’s quality of life, increase their productivity, and save lives. It is estimated that improving poor quality diets can save one in five lives annually.

IFPRI’s Nutrition, Diets, and Health (NDH) research provides evidence on strategies to achieve healthy diets, good nutrition, and health. To accomplish this, the unit’s researchers examine the causes and constraints that lead to dietary, nutrition, and health issues.

Working together with partners, they identify effective policies and programs for tackling these issues, including policies and programs centered around agriculture, health, education, and social protection. Identified solutions are assessed to determine their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness as well as to understand how the solutions worked to achieve impact and how they could be improved to deliver even greater impact for diets, nutrition, and health. Gender, equity, and sustainability are a major cross-cutting focus in NDH work.

NDH’s activities focus on Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, with some additional work in Latin America and the Pacific.

Areas of Focus

Health sector interventions

To inform health system programs for nutrition, NDH research assesses their  effectiveness, especially for women, children, and adolescents. These include behavior change communication interventions, fortified foods and supplements, wasting prevention and treatment, growth monitoring and promotion, school feeding programs, and health system strengthening.

Multisectoral programs

Addressing poor quality diets and all forms of malnutrition requires multisectoral approaches. NDH research provides evidence on the effectiveness of agriculture, social protection, and education centered interventions for addressing obstacles to better nutrition and improving diets, health and care practices, women’s empowerment, and child development.

Food environments and consumers

Food system transformation, including the food environments that shape food choices, is essential for achieving sustainable healthy diets. NDH investigates the relationships between diets and food environments, and evaluates interventions for increasing consumer demand for healthy diets and co-located interventions designed to simultaneously address multiple constraints to healthy diets.

Policies to support scale-up

Implementing solutions at scale requires engagement with and action from policy actors and others. NDH research generates evidence on the drivers of poor-quality diets and malnutrition, and on the policy environments and process for scaling up effective interventions. Capacity-sharing activities, country presence, multi-partner consortia, and stories of change support evidence uptake.  

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Discussion paper

Task or time? Comparing methods for measuring the gender distribution of work

IFPRI Discussion Paper2024Banerjee, Archis; Kumar, Neha; Quisumbing, Agnes R.
Details

Task or time? Comparing methods for measuring the gender distribution of work

There is growing evidence that gender disparities in the distribution of paid and unpaid work impose constraints on women’s well-being and livelihoods, reducing access to paid employment, and time for education, leisure, and social activities. Yet, gender disparities in unpaid work often go undiagnosed by traditional household surveys. While time-use surveys are well-suited for measuring unpaid work, they are often expensive to administer and take substantial amounts of survey time, leading to respondent fatigue, particularly in multi-topic surveys where other outcomes are also being collected.

Year published

2024

Authors

Banerjee, Archis; Kumar, Neha; Quisumbing, Agnes R.

Citation

Banerjee, Archis; Kumar, Neha; and Quisumbing, Agnes R. 2024. Task or time? Comparing methods for measuring the gender distribution of work. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2277. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords

Time Use Patterns; Households; Gender; Unpaid Work; Women’s Empowerment; Surveys; Gender Norms

Language

English

Series

IFPRI Discussion Paper

Source

Source record

Record type

Discussion paper

Journal article

Women improving nutrition through self-help groups in India: Does nutrition information help?

Food Policy2024Kumar, Neha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Scott, Samuel P.; Menon, Purnima; Thai, Giang; Gupta, Shivani; Nichols, Carly; WINGS study team
Details

Women improving nutrition through self-help groups in India: Does nutrition information help?

Women’s self-help groups (SHGs) are an important platform for reaching poor women in India. Despite SHGs’ women-focused programming, evidence of the impact of SHG-based interventions on nutrition outcomes is limited, and most evaluations of nutrition interventions have not examined intermediate outcomes along the impact pathways or outcomes for women themselves. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention delivered through women’s SHGs in five states in central and eastern India. The interventions involved the delivery of nutrition behavior change communication to groups through participatory approaches, community engagement around key issues, and the strengthening of collective organizations. Our analysis is based on three rounds of rich panel data on close to 2700 rural women and their households from eight districts in these five states and qualitative work from an accompanying process evaluation. Using difference-in-difference models with nearest neighbor matching methods, we present results on women’s anthropometry and diet-related outcomes.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kumar, Neha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Scott, Samuel P.; Menon, Purnima; Thai, Giang; Gupta, Shivani; Nichols, Carly; WINGS study team

Citation

Kumar, Neha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Scott, Samuel P.; Menon, Purnima; Thai, Giang; Gupta, Shivani; Nichols, Carly; and WINGS study team. 2024. Women improving nutrition through self-help groups in India: Does nutrition information help? Food Policy 128(October 2024): 102716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102716

Keywords

Agriculture; Body Mass Index; Maternal Nutrition; Self-help Groups; Women; Nutrition Education; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Series

Food Policy

Source

Source record

Record type

Journal article

Discussion Paper

Can farmer collectives empower women and improve their welfare? Mixed methods evidence from India

IFPRI Discussion Paper2024Ray, Soumyajit; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Bhanjdeo, Arundhita; Heckert, Jessica
Details

Can farmer collectives empower women and improve their welfare? Mixed methods evidence from India

Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)—farmer collectives, often legally registered – can mitigate some of the constraints smallholder farmers face by improving their access to extension, services, and markets, especially for women. We evaluate the effects of a set of interventions delivered through women-only FPOs in Jharkhand, India, using a panel of 1200 households and a difference-in-difference model with nearest neighbor matching. A complementary qualitative study in the same areas helps triangulate and interpret our findings. The interventions aimed to improve agricultural productivity by coordinating production and improving access to services, while also providing gender sensitization trainings to FPO leaders and members. We collect household data on asset ownership and agricultural outcomes and individual data on women’s and men’s empowerment using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI). Our results for asset ownership, land cultivated, cropping intensity, and per acre yields, revenues or costs are statistically insignificant. Effects on men’s and women’s empowerment are mixed. While we see positive effects on women’s decisionmaking, asset ownership, control over income and attitudes towards intimate partner violence, the program is associated with an increase in workload and a reduction in active group membership for both men and women. Men appear to cede control over resources and decisionmaking to other household members. Additional analyses suggest that while some effects can occur in the short-term, others take time to accrue. FPO based interventions that aim to empower women or other marginalized groups likely require sustained investments over multiple years and will need to go beyond improving FPO functioning and increasing women’s participation to transforming social norms.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ray, Soumyajit; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Bhanjdeo, Arundhita; Heckert, Jessica

Citation

Ray, Soumyajit; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Bhanjdeo, Arundhita; and Heckert, Jessica. 2024. Can farmer collectives empower women and improve their welfare? Mixed methods evidence from India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2267. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151877

Language

English

Series

IFPRI Discussion Paper

Source

Source record

Record type

Discussion Paper

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With the failure of the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Agenda, debate continues as to wurity and reduce poverty or whether they exacerbate food volatility and hinder income opportunities and market access for poor population and reduce poverty or whether they exacerbate food price volatility and food and reduce poverty or whether they exacerbate food price volatility and hinder income opportunities and market access for poor population and reduce poverty or whether they exacerbate food price volatility and hinder income opportunities and market access for poor populations.

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Tools and Models

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Knowledge product

Interactive typology tool for spatial targeting of FNS interventions

2023Marivoet, Wim; Ulimwengu, John M.
Details

Interactive typology tool for spatial targeting of FNS interventions

In this interactive we develop a typology to help design and improve spatial targeting of food and nutrition security (FNS) interventions. Based on the efficiency estimation within a four-indicator diagram which represent the core segments of a food system, the proposed approach allows for the broad identification and location of major FNS bottlenecks. After discussing the basic concepts, we illustrate the core typology using a real-world example and propose a series of extensions to further refine its approach for improved policymaking.

Year published

2023

Authors

Marivoet, Wim; Ulimwengu, John M.

Citation

Marivoet, Wim; and Ulimwengu, John M. 2023. Interactive typology tool for spatial targeting of FNS interventions. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://www.ifpri.org/project/spatial-typologies-targeted-food-and-nutrition-security-interventions

Keywords

Agriculture; Agrifood Sector; Data; Data Analysis; Food Systems; Nutrition; Resilience; Spatial Data; Technology; Typology

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

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Record type

Knowledge product

Knowledge product

Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) model

2022International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Details

Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) model

The Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) model is a systems-based analytical approach linked with RIAPA through several handshake variables (price and quantities) depicting information flows both ways. The LEAS model was developed in response to major implications that emerge from the recent literature on livestock systems in developing countries, including the need for a livestock systems approach that accounts for the downstream linkages connecting producers and consumers, the reliance of the livestock sector development on the future trajectory of the broader economy, and the need for a holistic approach that helps prioritize livestock sector interventions. The LEAS model incorporates a well-disaggregated herd dynamics module (HDM) linked to RIAPA that in turn passes information to microsimulation modules that help trace changes in poverty, household consumption, and dietary diversity. The HDM is a lifecycle (stock-flow) module that tracks annual herd/flock size disaggregated by age, sex, breed/strain, and agroecology zone. It estimates reproduction, births, deaths, and offtakes (slaughtering) for different types of animals (such as cattle, chickens, sheep, and goats). Given information on consumer demand for animal products and the profitability of animal offtake activities, the HDM estimates offtake level, remaining herd size, and annual feed requirement. Several policy interventions are embedded within the HDM, such as public-provision of medicines to improve animal health or access to improved feed to increase on-farm livestock productivity. Environmental variables such as forage supply and biophysical carrying capacity are incorporated to capture the impact of climate on herd stock and productivity. The HDM also incorporates parameters and variables for analyzing shocks (drought, disease, etc.) to the livestock system. The HDM is currently calibrated for cattle, but can easily be adapted to study other livestock systems including small ruminants and poultry. The LEAS model has been used to assess the implications of national development scenarios on the livestock sector performance, and the response of cattle herds to weather shocks.

Year published

2022

Authors

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Citation

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). 2022. Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) model. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Keywords

Modelling; Models; Demography; Policies; Food Systems; Agricultural Production; Environment; Climate Change; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Knowledge product

Knowledge product

SACRED: Systematic Analysis for Climate Resilient Development

2022International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Details

SACRED: Systematic Analysis for Climate Resilient Development

Physical climate vulnerability is often assessed using three key methodologies: indicator-based methods (e.g., a vulnerability index), model and GIS-based (quantitative approaches), and participatory approaches (e.g., cognitive mapping, interviews, and surveys). Each methodology has its own strengths and weaknesses and a combination of approaches is often considered ideal. With respect to physical risks and impacts, IFPRI maintains a framework labelled SACRED (Systematic Analysis for Climate Resilient Development). This framework has been applied throughout Africa as well as in Asia. A schematic of the framework is shown below. Key features of the SACRED framework are: · Focus on a country or region rather than the globe. · Structural approach. The component models of the SACRED framework are typically bottom-up and drawn from first principles. · Completeness. All relevant climate change impact channels are treated in a coherent framework. · Flexibility. It is important that the elements of the SACRED modelling interact appropriately with one another; however, the exact modelling frameworks are flexible. · Risk and uncertainty. The SACRED framework is on the cutting edge when it comes to incorporating the likely frequency, severity, and economic implications of extreme events. Relative to many integrated assessment model (IAM) frameworks, the SACRED framework is detailed with granular representations of key features such as water systems, agriculture, and infrastructure. In addition, the economic model within SACRED has strong detail in water and in regional agriculture. As a result, it meshes well with the bio-physical modelling approaches that are key to appropriately representing climate change within the economic model. Key components of the framework are: 1. Incorporating both climate uncertainty and weather variability. 2. Using biophysical modelling to evaluate climate/weather impact on agricultural production. 3. Using water and hydrological models to assess future climate impact on irrigation, hydropower, droughts, and flooding. 4. Using both climate and water models to inform the assessment of damages from extreme events such as flooding, storm surge, and salinization on agriculture, infrastructure, and other capital. 5. When necessary, using additional models to assess options for the energy sector and to compute changes in greenhouse gas emissions. 6. Using an economic model to assess impact on GDP, welfare, employment, prices, and trade. Selected publications related to SACRED Special Issue of Climatic Change on the Zambezi River Valley. Table of contents here: . Six articles. 1) Arndt, C., and F. Tarp. 2015. Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations: Lessons Learned from the Greater Zambezi River Valley and Beyond. Climatic Change. 130(1):1-8. 2) Schlosser, C.A., K. Strzepek. 2015. Regional climate change of the greater Zambezi River Basin: a hybrid assessment. Climatic Change 130:9-19. 3) Arndt, C., Fant, C., Robinson, S. et al. 2015. Informed selection of future climates. Climatic Change 130, 21-33. 4) Fant, C., Y. Gebretsadik, A. McCluskey, and K. Strzepek. 2015. An uncertainty approach to assessment of climate change impacts on the Zambezi River Basin. Climatic Change 130:35-48 5) Chinowsky, P.S., A.E. Schweikert, N.L. Strzepek and K. Strzepek. 2015. Infrastructure and climate change: a study of impacts and adaptations in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. Climatic Change 130:49-62. 6) Arndt, C., and J. Thurlow. 2015. Climate uncertainty and economic development: evaluating the case of Mozambique to 2050. Climatic Change 130:63-75. Akpalu, W. and M. Bezabih. 2015. Tenure Insecurity, Climate Variability and Renting out Decisions among Female Small-Holder Farmers in Ethiopia. Sustainability 7(6):7926-7941. Akpalu, W., C. Arndt, and I. Matshe. 2015. Introduction to the special issue on the economics of climate change in developing countries: Selected studies of impacts and adaptations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. Sustainability. 7(2015):12122-12126. Akpalu, W., I. Dasmani, and A.K. Normanyo. 2015. Optimum Fisheries Management under Climate Variability: Evidence from Artisanal Marine Fishing in Ghana. Sustainability 7(6):7942-7958. Amisigo, B.A., A. McCluskey, and R. Swanson. 2015. Modeling Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources and Agriculture Demand in the Volta Basin and other Basin Systems in Ghana. Sustainability 7(6):6957-6975. Arndt, C., C.A. Schlosser, K. Strzepek, and J. Thurlow. 2014. Climate Change and Economic Growth Prospects for Malawi: An Uncertainty Approach. Journal of African Economies. 23(4): ii83-ii107 Arndt, C., C.A. Schlosser, K. Strzepek, and J. Thurlow. 2014. Climate Change and Economic Growth Prospects for Malawi: An Uncertainty Approach. Journal of African Economies. 23(4): ii83-ii107 Arndt, C., F. Asante and J. Thurlow. 2015. Implications of Climate Change for Ghana’s Economy. Sustainability 7(6):7214-7231. Arndt, C., F. Tarp, and J. Thurlow. 2015. The Economic Costs of Climate Change: A Multi-Sector Impact Assessment for Vietnam. Sustainability 7(4):4131-4145. Arndt, C., P. Chinowsky, C. Fant, S. Paltsev, A. Schlosser, K. Strzepek, F. Tarp, and J. Thurlow. 2019. Climate change and developing country growth: The cases of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. Climatic Change 154(3-4): 335-349. Berhanu, W. and F. Beyene. 2015. Climate Variability and Household Adaptation Strategies in Southern Ethiopia. Sustainability 7(6):6353-6375. Chinowsky, P.S., A.E. Schweikert, N. Strzepek, and K. Strzepek. 2015. Road Infrastructure and Climate Change in Vietnam. Sustainability 7(5):5452-5470. Cullis, J., T. Alton, C. Arndt, A. Cartwright, A. Chang, S. Gabriel, Y. Gebretsadik, F. Hartley, G. de Jager, K. Makrelov, G. Robertson, A. C. Schlosser, K. Strzepek, and J. Thurlow. 2015. An Uncertainty Approach to Modelling Climate Change Risk in South Africa. WIDER Working Paper 2015/045 . Helsinki: UNU-WIDER. Enahoro, D., Sircely, J., Boone, R. B., Oloo, S., Komarek, A. M., Bahta, S., … Rich, K. M. 2021. Feed biomass production may not be sufficient to support emerging livestock demand: Model projections to 2050 in Southern Africa. SocArXiv. Hachigonta, Sepo, ed.; Nelson, Gerald C., ed.; Thomas, Timothy S., ed.; Sibanda, Lindiwe M., ed. 2013. Southern african agriculture and climate change: A comprehensive analysis. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Hartley, F., S. Gabriel, J. Cullis, and C. Arndt. 2021. Climate uncertainty and agricultural vulnerability in South Africa. SA-TIED Working Paper 162 . February 2021. Manuel, L., E. Tostão, O. Vilanculos, G. Mandlhate, and F. Hartley. 2020. Economic implications of climate change in Mozambique. SA-TIED Working Paper #136 . September 2020. Note that a version of this DP was accepted in Climatic Change this week. The article should be proofed and available shortly. Neumann, J.E., K.A. Emanuel, S. Ravela, L.C. Ludwig, and C. Verly. 2015. Risks of Coastal Storm Surge and the Effect of Sea Level Rise in the Red River Delta, Vietnam. Sustainability 7(6):6553-6572. . (Note: The same work was done for Mozambique but was not published separately). Ngoma, H., P. Lupiya, M. Kabisa, and F. Hartley. 2020. Impacts of climate change on agriculture and household welfare in Zambia: An economy-wide analysis. SA-TIED Working Paper #132 . August 2020. Payet-Burin, Raphael; Kenneth Strzepek. 2021. Development of a modelling framework to analyze the interrelations between the water, energy, and food systems in the Zambezi River Basin. SA-TIED Working Paper 182. Payet-Burin, Raphael; Kenneth Strzepek. 2021. Interrelations between the water, energy and food systems and climate change impacts in the Zambezi River Basin. SA-TIED Working Paper 181. Robinson, Sherman; Mason d’Croz, Daniel; Islam, Shahnila; Sulser, Timothy B.; Robertson, Richard D.; Zhu, Tingju; Gueneau, Arthur; Pitois, Gauthier; and Rosegrant, Mark W. 2015. The International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT): Model description for version 3. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1483. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Schlosser, Adam; Sokolov, Andrei; Strzepek, Kenneth M.; Thomas, Timothy S.; Gao, Xiang; and Arndt, Channing. 2020. The changing nature of hydroclimatic risks across Southern Africa. SA-TIED Working Paper 101. Simbanegavi, W. and C. Arndt. 2014. Climate Change and Economic Development in Africa: An Overview. Journal of African Economies. 23(4): ii4-ii16. Tembo, B., S. Sihubwa, I. Masilokwa, and M. Nyambe-Mubanga. 2020. Economic implications of climate change in Zambia. SA-TIED Working Paper #137 . September 2020. Twerefou, D.K., P. Chinowsky, K. Adjei-Mantey, Strzepek, N.L. 2015. The Economic Impact of Climate Change on Road Infrastructure in Ghana. Sustainability. 2015; 7(9):11949-11966.

Year published

2022

Authors

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Keywords

Frameworks; Resilience; Models; Modelling; Climate Change; Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Knowledge product

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