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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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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 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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The Population Council conducts research to address critical health and development issues. In the developing world, the Population Council works with governments and civil society organizations to overcome obstacles to health and development. The Council also uses state-of-the-art biomedical science to develop new contraceptives and products to prevent the transmission of HIV.

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Publications

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Working Paper

Perceived need and measured well-being: How well do subjective rankings capture relative poverty?

2025Ranucci, Immacolata; Abay, Kibrom A.; Tiberti, Luca
Details

Perceived need and measured well-being: How well do subjective rankings capture relative poverty?

Subjective well-being rankings are increasingly used to target social protection programs, yet their ability to capture relative welfare and wealth remains debated. This study benchmarks self-, peer-, and elite-based poverty rankings against consumption- and wealth-based measures using Ethiopian household survey data, where about 20 households per village were ranked from neediest to least needy by themselves, peers, and community leaders. We assess concordance between subjective and conventional welfare rankings and explore sources of divergence. Subjective rankings align more with relative wealth than consumption and with total rather than per capita welfare, suggesting they overlook household composition. Elite-based rankings best capture conventional measures, followed by peers’ and self-rankings. Subjective rankings also better reflect relative deprivation among households exposed to covariate shocks. A composite index combining all three improves agreement with standard metrics. Information asymmetries, favoritism, and welfare dynamics partly explain discrepancies, offering insights for enhancing targeting in data-scarce settings.

Year published

2025

Authors

Ranucci, Immacolata; Abay, Kibrom A.; Tiberti, Luca

Citation

Ranucci, Immacolata; Abay, Kibrom A.; and Tiberti, Luca. 2025. Perceived need and measured well-being: How well do subjective rankings capture relative poverty? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2386. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Needs; Poverty; Living Standards; Social Welfare; Targeting; Social Protection

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Targeting of beneficiaries in chemical fertilizer subsidy programs: State of knowledge and evidence gaps

2025Trachtman, Carly; Hill, Ruth Vargas
Details

Targeting of beneficiaries in chemical fertilizer subsidy programs: State of knowledge and evidence gaps

Low and middle income countries have been facing mounting pressure from lenders and donors to eliminate or reform fertilizer subsidy programs, which can have distortionary market effects and negative environmental externalities. However, there is little systematic work understanding who these programs currently benefit both in theory and in practice, and hence who may be affected by policy reform. In this paper, we identify low and middle countries with active fertilizer subsidy programs, and characterize the targeting regime of each program based on both explicit and implicit criteria determining eligibility. Then in a selection of case studies, we explore which individuals are receiving subsidy benefits in practice. We find that while many fertilizer subsidy programs are meant to be universal, there are are additional implicit targeting criteria and/or informal targeting induced by supply shortfalls in many countries. Further, we find evidence that regardless of targeting regime, fertilizer subsidies are generally progressive, though this seems to be driven by the fact that the poor are often concentrated in the agricultural sector.

Year published

2025

Authors

Trachtman, Carly; Hill, Ruth Vargas

Citation

Trachtman, Carly; Hill, Ruth. 2025. Targeting of beneficiaries in chemical fertilizer subsidy programs: State of knowledge and evidence gaps. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178957

Keywords

Fertilizers; Inorganic Fertilizers; Subsidies; Targeting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The future of ABPU agriculture: The 2nd MERCUSUR outlook

2025Jorge, Nicolás; Kanadani Campos, Silvia; Fonseca da Pereira, Vanessa; Vicentin Masaro, Jimena; Gianatiempo, Juan Pablo; Piñeiro, Valeria; Rava, Catalina; Costa, Ramiro
Details

The future of ABPU agriculture: The 2nd MERCUSUR outlook

In today’s complex and uncertain global environment, region-specific agricultural and trade outlooks are more essential than ever. While global projections from institutions such as the OECD-FAO and USDA provide valuable baselines, incorporating local perspectives is essential to capture the specific dynamics of emerging economies that are deeply integrated into international agrifood markets. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the world’s largest net food-exporting region, playing a central role in stabilizing supplies and reducing price volatility (IFPRI, 2025). Within LAC, Mercosur—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay (ABPU)—accounts for more than half of the region’s agrifood trade, concentrated in oilseeds, cereals, and animal proteins. Over the past two decades, agricultural exports from LAC have more than doubled, consolidating the region’s role as a net contributor to global food availability (Piñeiro et al, 2025a, 2025b). This performance highlights Mercosur’s structural weight in global markets, while also underscoring the climatic, institutional, and infrastructural challenges that call for tailored foresight tools.

Year published

2025

Authors

Jorge, Nicolás; Kanadani Campos, Silvia; Fonseca da Pereira, Vanessa; Vicentin Masaro, Jimena; Gianatiempo, Juan Pablo; Piñeiro, Valeria; Rava, Catalina; Costa, Ramiro

Citation

Jorge, Nicolás; Kanadani Campos, Silvia; Fonseca da Pereira, Vanessa; Vicentin Masaro, Jimena; Gianatiempo, Juan Pablo; et al. 2025. The future of ABPU agriculture: The 2nd MERCUSUR outlook. LAC Working Paper 41. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178953

Country/Region

Argentina; Brazil; Paraguay; Uruguay

Keywords

Latin America and the Caribbean; International Trade; International Agreements; International Organizations; Macroeconomics; Capacity Building; Agrifood Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper