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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

Lilia Bliznashka

Lily Bliznashka is a Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit. Her research focuses on assessing the effectiveness of multi-input nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions and the mechanisms through which they work to improve maternal and child health and nutrition globally. She has worked in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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

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

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The mission of Development Alternatives International (DAI) is to create long lasting impact throughout the world by creating solutions to pertinent social and economic development problems. DAI works with a range of clients such as local governments, private corporations, and philanthropic organizations. DAI delivers results across the spectrum of international development contexts to more than 150 countries.

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Publications

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Working Paper

Exploring good gaps for right-sizing food assistance: Methods, data challenges, and lessons learned

2026Rice, Brendan; Vos, Rob
Details

Exploring good gaps for right-sizing food assistance: Methods, data challenges, and lessons learned

Accurate measurement of the depth of acute food insecurity remains a major gap in current global monitoring systems. While the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) identifies the scale and geographic distribution of populations in crisis, it does not quantify the magnitude of food intake shortfalls faced by affected populations. This paper outlines an exploratory data exercise that tests three proxy approaches to estimating food gaps using available IPC and DIEM data. First, we derive back-of-envelope caloric deficit estimates by IPC phase using thresholds from the Household Economy Approach. Second, we assess whether widely used dietary diversity, experiential food insecurity, and coping capacity indicators can serve as proxies for calorie deficits by analyzing their cross-indicator correlations. Third, using microdata from FAO’s DIEM surveys matched to IPC area phases, we estimate indicator-specific shortfalls using a Foster-Greer-Thorbecke gap framework and translate these into food assistance estimates. The results show that proxy indicators cannot be used interchangeably to estimate caloric shortfalls, reflecting weak cross-indicator correlations consistent with the existing literature. Within-phase heterogeneity is wide and data limitations are substantial. The paper documents these approaches and their limitations as an intermediate step. The paper provides several recommendations for improving data collection that would allow for more reliable food gap estimates using the framework presented in this paper, which in turn could then operationalized for humanitarian agencies to ‘right size’ and better target food assistance to populations facing acute food insecurity.

Year published

2026

Authors

Rice, Brendan; Vos, Rob

Citation

Rice, Brendan; and Vos, Rob. 2026. Exploring food gaps for right-sizing food assistance: Methods, data challenges, and lessons learned. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2414. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords

Food Security; Dietary Diversity; Humanitarian Assistance; Aid Programmes; Targeting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Livelihood alternatives to labor migration: A choice experiment in Tajikistan

2026Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Rajiv, Sharanya; De Block, Wouter; Ergasheva, Tanzila; Maertens, Miet; Mardonova, Mohru; Van Hoyweghen, Kaat
Details

Livelihood alternatives to labor migration: A choice experiment in Tajikistan

Labor migration is often driven by a need for income, and can also be motivated by a desire for higher earnings. A naïve assumption is therefore that an increase in local livelihood alternatives might reduce outmigration, something which has been found to hold true in some settings, but not in others. This study employs a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with 408 rural respondents in Tajikistan—a country heavily reliant on remittances from abroad—to assess whether specific local income-generating opportunities, such as those offered through cash-for-work programs or through the provision of additional farmland, might affect stated preferences regarding migration. The study explores trade-offs between local income generating opportunities (wage employment, access to farmland, and irrigation infrastructure) and migration restrictions, i.e., hypothetical constraints on household members migrating abroad for a given duration. We rely on stated rather than revealed preferences to examine these trade-offs. Our findings lend some support to the idea that households are willing to accept outmigration restrictions in return for improved local income-generation opportunities, either through wage employment or own-farming. Yet, findings are heterogeneous and depend on the households’ current and anticipated reliance on labor migration.

Year published

2026

Authors

Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Rajiv, Sharanya; De Block, Wouter; Ergasheva, Tanzila; Maertens, Miet; Mardonova, Mohru; Van Hoyweghen, Kaat

Citation

Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Rajiv, Sharanya; De Block, Wouter; Ergasheva, Tanzila; Maertens, Miet; Mardonova, Mohru; and Van Hoyweghen, Kaat. 2026. Livelihood alternatives to labor migration: A choice experiment in Tajikistan. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2412. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Central Asia; Migration; Livelihoods; Land; Income Transfers; Remittances; Public Works

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Five misconceptions distorting food policy in Malawi: A joint NPC-IFPRI position paper

2026Changaya, Fredrick; Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim; Duchoslav, Jan; Jamali, Andrew; Nagoli, Joseph
Details

Five misconceptions distorting food policy in Malawi: A joint NPC-IFPRI position paper

Among countries not affected by conflict, Malawi has the lowest GDP per capita, and its economy has been shrinking for much of the past five years. External shocks have undoubtedly strained an already fragile economy, but policy choices have further stifled growth and amplified vulnerabilities. Many of these choices are rooted in persistent misconceptions, that distort decision-making and undermine progress. This position paper identifies and challenges those misconceptions. We focus only on beliefs that are widespread, lead to seriously distorted policy choices, and are genuinely held by well-intentioned actors committed to inclusive development in Malawi. These actors are our primary audience, as those without this underlying objective are unlikely to be swayed. Our list is selective rather than exhaustive, concentrating on misconceptions that are particularly pervasive and influential in the food systems policy space, and for which robust, evidence-based arguments exist.

Year published

2026

Authors

Changaya, Fredrick; Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim; Duchoslav, Jan; Jamali, Andrew; Nagoli, Joseph

Citation

Changaya, Fredrick; Cockx, Lara; De Weerdt, Joachim; Duchoslav, Jan; Jamali, Andrew; and Nagoli, Joseph. 2026. Five misconceptions distorting food policy in Malawi: A joint NPC-IFPRI position paper. MaSSP Policy Note 57. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/182570

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Food Policies; Food Security; Food Assistance; Maize

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Events

Innovation for Agribusiness (InovAgro) Project Impact Evaluation Results Dissemination Workshop
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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October 28, 2021, 2:00 – 3:30 pm

Innovation for Agribusiness (InovAgro) Project Impact Evaluation Results Dissemination Workshop

Virtual Event: OCT 28, 2021 – 02:00 PM to 03:30 PM CAT. This workshop will disseminate the results of the impact evaluation of the InovAgro project's interventions.