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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.

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David Spielman

David Spielman is the director of IFPRI’s Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit and has been with the institute since 2004. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agriculture and rural development policy; agricultural science, technology, and innovation; plant genetic resources and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development.

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experts

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Akhter Ahmed

Senior Research Fellow / Country Representative, IFPRI Bangladesh

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Ahmed Akhter

Bio

Akhter Ahmed is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Country Representative for IFPRI Bangladesh. He has worked on strategies for agricultural and rural development, social protection, and women’s empowerment to reduce poverty, food insecurity, and undernutrition of the poor in developing countries. He served as the leader of IFPRI’s collaborative project on food security research in Egypt. He also worked on poverty and human development issues in Bangladesh, China, India, Malawi, the Philippines, and Turkey. Since 2010, Ahmed has been posted in Bangladesh. Before joining IFPRI, Ahmed worked with the World Bank and served as an Agricultural Economist for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He received a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Colorado State University and a master’s in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University.

Publications

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Publications

Resource thumbnail

Book Chapter

Mechanizing agriculture in Bangladesh: Trends, challenges, and policy priorities

2026Karim, Md. Aminul; Shamma, Raisa; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Belton, Ben; Kishore, Avinash; Ahmed, Akhter
Details

Mechanizing agriculture in Bangladesh: Trends, challenges, and policy priorities

Agricultural mechanization has become a cornerstone of rural transformation in Bangladesh (Zhang et al. 2014). Since the 1980s, the country has made significant strides in mechanizing various stages of agricultural production, from land preparation to harvesting (Mottaleb, Krupnik, and Erenstein 2016; Rahman et al. 2021). As in India and other neighboring countries, both informal custom-hiring businesses and government support have enabled the widespread use of agricultural machinery in Bangladesh (Biggs and Justice 2015). Mechanization has helped address growing labor shortages, increase labor productivity and input-use efficiency, and raise farmers’ incomes (Islam 2021; Mandal 2017).

Year published

2026

Authors

Karim, Md. Aminul; Shamma, Raisa; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Belton, Ben; Kishore, Avinash; Ahmed, Akhter

Citation

Karim, Md. Aminul; Shamma, Raisa; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Belton, Ben; Kishore, Avinash; and Ahmed, Akhter. 2026. Mechanizing agriculture in Bangladesh: Trends, challenges, and policy priorities. In Transforming Smallholder Agriculture Through Mechanization in Asia: Volume 1: Pathways and Policies, eds. Ma, Wanglin; Rahut, Dil B.; and Sonobe, Tetsushi. Chapter 1, p. 1-42. https://doi.org/10.56506/OFAY7376

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Agricultural Mechanization; Ownership; Econometric Models; Labour; Gender; Profitability

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.56506/ofay7376 Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Journal Article

Understanding social safety nets and intra-household food allocation: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh

2026Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter; Roy, Shalini; Hoddinott, John F.
Details

Understanding social safety nets and intra-household food allocation: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh

Evidence shows that social protection can improve diets, but little is known about how impacts vary within households, the extent to which the modality of the transfer affects how it is distributed across all household members, whether adding training on the importance of nutrition and diets alters the way transfer resources are allocated within the household, relative to a transfer alone, and if differences in allocations are shaped by differences in livelihood opportunities. We use individual food intake data from two randomized control trials fielded in rural Bangladesh to address these questions. Our results overwhelmingly demonstrate that food gains are distributed equally, regardless of the type of transfers households received (cash, food, or combination), inclusion of nutrition training, regional context, or specific dietary outcome measured. These patterns of findings hold when we consider several extensions: (1) analyzing more aggregated demographic groups; (2) considering alternative measures of diet; (3) analyzing shares rather than levels; (4) considering impacts relative to deprivation at baseline; (5) analyzing impacts on non-food outcomes that can be assigned demographically; (6) re-estimating impacts using alternate samples and alternate estimation models. Where the few significant differences are found, they are often small in magnitude and in favor of children.

Year published

2026

Authors

Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter; Roy, Shalini; Hoddinott, John F.

Citation

Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter U.; Roy, Shalini; and Hoddinott, John. 2025. Understanding social safety nets and intra-household food allocation: Experimental evidence from Bangladesh. Journal of Development Economics 178(January 2026): 103585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103585

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Social Safety Nets; Resource Allocation; Gender Equity; Cash Transfers; Diet; Gender; Social Protection

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103585 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Evolution of consumption and livelihood impacts from cash and food transfer programs: Eight-year post-program experimental evidence from Bangladesh

2025Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John F.; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini
Details

Evolution of consumption and livelihood impacts from cash and food transfer programs: Eight-year post-program experimental evidence from Bangladesh

Findings from this study will provide greater insight as to how and why transfer programs have mixed post-intervention effects across different contexts, and how gender and livelihood opportunities may influence these trajectories. These insights will help inform the future design of transfer programs that aim to support sustainable poverty reduction and gender-equitable livelihoods, including to guide modifications tailored to the local context.

Year published

2025

Authors

Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John F.; Rakshit, Deboleena; Roy, Shalini

Citation

Ahmed, Akhter; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John F.; Rakshit, Deboleena; and Roy, Shalini. 2025. Evolution of consumption and livelihood impacts from cash and food transfer programs: Eight-year post-program experimental evidence from Bangladesh. IFPRI Project Note. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179365

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Social Protection; Cash Transfers; Food Security; Evaluation; Consumption; Livelihoods; Food Assistance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Events

Into, Through and Beyond USAID Programs: Lessons from the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index
IFPRI at External Event

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March 29, 2023, 9:00 – 10:15 am

Into, Through and Beyond USAID Programs: Lessons from the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

Virtual Event: March 29, 2023 – 9:00 AM- 10:15 AM EDT. This webinar will mark the launch of two briefs, one on the use cases of WEAI in USAID projects worldwide and the other on how WEAI has informed and supported the design of policies and programs in Bangladesh.

Measuring What Matters: 10 Years of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, why has it mattered, and what’s next?
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

March 24, 2022, 9:00 – 10:30 am

Measuring What Matters: 10 Years of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, why has it mattered, and what’s next?

Virtual Event: March 24, 2022 – 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM EDT. This side event will provide an opportunity to discuss country experiences in using the WEAI and reflect on its impact on measuring and tracking gender equity and equality.

Virtual Event - Social Safety Nets and COVID-19: Can we protect food security and nutrition?
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

June 11, 2020, 9:30 – 10:45 am

Virtual Event – Social Safety Nets and COVID-19: Can we protect food security and nutrition?

How have social safety net programs responded to COVID-19? Are food security & nutrition issues effectively addressed with these responses? What and where are opportunities and future challenges? Watch Video

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News

May 12, 2025 | In the News

Fix social protection flaws instead of expanding outlay (The Daily Star)

Bangladesh must urgently redirect resources within its fragmented social protection system and scale up a handful of proven programs that directly benefit the poorest, says IFPRI’s Akhter Ahmed.

February 11, 2024 | In the News

Agricultural growth key to accelerated poverty reduction in Bangladesh (Financial Express)

Senior research fellow and country representative, Akhter Ahmed writes in an op-ed for the Financial Express (Bangladesh) that the country “has witnessed substantial economic growth over the past decade, with an average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.6 per cent between 2016 and 2022. Notably, the country experienced a 3.4 per cent increase in GDP in 2020, making Bangladesh one […]

November 25, 2022 | In the News

‘Immediate interventions needed to lower food prices’ (Dhaka Tribune)  

The Dhaka Tribune published a review and comments from a roundtable on “Food Security for Sustainable Development” held in Bangladesh. Participants agreed that the double shocks of the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine crisis have drastically increased food prices, and immediate policy interventions are needed to keep food items affordable for people of lower income […]

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