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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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Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Alan de Brauw

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Alan de Brauw is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit at IFPRI, and a Fellow of the Global Labor Organization. At IFPRI, he previously worked in the leadership of two CGIAR research programs and has managed several multi-country projects. Much of his research involves primary source data collection, and he has helped design, plan, and conduct multi-topic household surveys in 15 different countries in the developing world. His research agenda has focused on understanding both the impacts of agricultural interventions and the effects of migration on source households in rural areas of developing countries. His research has been published widely in development economics, agricultural economics, and nutrition journals and he recently co-authored a book on smallholders and agricultural value chains in Africa. Prior to joining IFPRI, Alan was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Williams College. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Davis.

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Publications

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Journal Article

Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi

2026Ambler, Kate; de Brauw, Alan; Godlonton, Susan
Details

Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi

We examine a program designed to alleviate credit, information, and farm management constraints among smallholder cash crop farmers through transfers and a cross-randomized program offering intensive agricultural extension. We document strong complementarities between the two sets of interventions. Investment driven by increased labor expenditures, production, and consumption are highest for farmers that received both transfers and intensive extension, a pattern that persists two and three years later. In the short run, transfers alone led to the reallocation of input expenditures into increased labor for cash crop cultivation, which led to increased production of project focal crops but not total crop production. While farmers in the transfers only group continue to spend more on labor in subsequent seasons, this does not lead to changes in production or consumption, suggesting that the support of the intensive extension was important for the generation of the largest welfare gains from the transfers.

Year published

2026

Authors

Ambler, Kate; de Brauw, Alan; Godlonton, Susan

Citation

Ambler, Kate; de Brauw, Alan; and Godlonton, Susan. 2026. Transfers, information and management advice: Direct effects and complementarities in Malawi. Journal of Development Economics 178(January 2026): 103601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103601

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Agriculture; Extension; Cash Transfers; Inputs; Smallholders; Advisory Services

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103601 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

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Brief

Vendors outside of markets in Viet Nam

2025de Brauw, Alan; Anh, Dao The; Tho, Pham
Details

Vendors outside of markets in Viet Nam

The food environment represents the place in which demand for food meets supply: consumers purchase foods in the food environment, and food retailers market and sell their products. In many countries, the food environment is undergoing rapid changes as economies grow and populations urbanize, with the consequence that a larger share of food consumed is purchased by the end consumer, rather than being self produced (de Bruin and Holleman 2023). Viet Nam is no different: over time, the country’s growing and urbanizing economy has led to shifts in its food environment. This note focuses on one type of retailer in Viet Nam’s food environment: food vendors that exist outside of formal markets. These vendors typically sell their goods in a fixed location, unlike mobile vendors, and do business on a daily or near-daily basis from that location. This definition includes vendors in “toad markets,” which are vendors who set up right outside of official markets, and other vendors who work in a fixed location but lack a storefront. All such vendors are clearly part of the informal sector. These vendors play a small but important role in Viet Nam’s food environment, and almost all of them sell at least one component of a sustainable healthy diet. As a result, these vendors can help to improve the diets of Viet Nam’s population. This note uses two data sets to examine small vendors outside markets. The first is a listing exercise that enumerates all businesses selling food in the sampled wards of three districts: Dong Da, in urban Hanoi; Dong Anh, in peri-urban Hanoi; and Moc Chau, a rural district northwest of Hanoi. This survey was used as a sample frame for the second survey; the second one was designed to examine the constraints and opportunities faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as they consider selling more healthy foods (Ceballos et al. 2023). Vendors outside of markets are one type of MSME in the food environment.

Year published

2025

Authors

de Brauw, Alan; Anh, Dao The; Tho, Pham

Citation

de Brauw, Alan; Anh, Dao The; and Tho, Pham. 2025. Vendors outside of markets in Viet Nam. CGIAR Better Diets and Nutrition Program Research Note. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178054

Country/Region

Vietnam

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Markets; Food Environment; Agro-industrial Sector; Healthy Diets; Credit

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Overcoming budget constraints to healthy diets: Evidence from urban Tanzania

2025Manda, Constantine; Sango, Danford; Hoffmann, Vivian; de Brauw, Alan; Zakaria, Zakayo; Temba, George; Brown, Elizabeth; Richards, Dorothy; Rashid, Said
Details

Overcoming budget constraints to healthy diets: Evidence from urban Tanzania

This study investigates the impact of temporary subsidies for nutrient-dense foods on the diets of low-income households in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Vouchers for eggs, milk, and unflavored yogurt were provided to randomly selected households over a three-month period. The subsidies significantly increased the consumption of the targeted healthy foods while discounts were offered. These effects persisted up to 9 months after the end of the subsidy period and were accompanied by a shift in preferences for the targeted foods. Consumption of unhealthy complements, specifically sugar added to yogurt and milk, increased during the subsidy period. Finally, while poorer households initially benefited most, sustained impacts were greater among wealthier households. In sum, the findings demonstrate that subsidies for healthy foods can lead to sustained improvements in diets, while suggesting a role for accompanying interventions such as nutrition education to maximize net health benefits, and pointing to the need for ongoing support to the most vulnerable.

Year published

2025

Authors

Manda, Constantine; Sango, Danford; Hoffmann, Vivian; de Brauw, Alan; Zakaria, Zakayo; Temba, George; Brown, Elizabeth; Richards, Dorothy; Rashid, Said

Citation

Manda, Constantine; Sango, Danford; Hoffmann, Vivian; de Brauw, Alan; Zakaria, Zakayo; Temba, George; et al. 2025. Overcoming budget constraints to healthy diets: Evidence from urban Tanzania. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2372. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177443

Keywords

Tanzania; Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Affordability; Consumers; Healthy Diets; Households; Less Favoured Areas; Subsidies; Urban Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

IFPRI and causal impact evaluation: Evidence for real-life policies
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 25, 2025

IFPRI and causal impact evaluation: Evidence for real-life policies

By Alan de Brauw

A new report outlines diverse applications.

Overcoming obstacles and expanding opportunities for digital finance in the midstream of agrifood value chains
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 12, 2025

Overcoming obstacles and expanding opportunities for digital finance in the midstream of agrifood value chains

By Kate Ambler, Jeffrey Bloem, and Alan de Brauw

Innovations yield benefits across the food system.

Agrifood value chain finance can expand opportunities for smallholders
IFPRI Blog
 | 
July 14, 2025

Agrifood value chain finance can expand opportunities for smallholders

By Alan de Brauw and Johan Swinnen

Building relationships between farmers, buyers, and lenders.

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Events

Shaping Food Policy in a Changing World: Research Priorities for Greater Impact
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

December 15, 2025, 9:00 – 4:00 pm

Shaping Food Policy in a Changing World: Research Priorities for Greater Impact

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. In today’s fast-changing world and evolving food systems, the need for evidence-based food policy has never been more urgent – demanding research that […]

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Towards Impact at Scale
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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December 2 to 4, 2025

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Towards Impact at Scale

South Asia continues to face an enduring burden of malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a steady increase in overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases. Over 1 billion people in South Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. While many promising solutions have emerged, translating them into sustained, large-scale impact remains a challenge. This […]

23rd International Congress of Nutrition (ICN)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 24 to 29, 2025

23rd International Congress of Nutrition (ICN)

IFPRI is participating in the 23rd International Congress of Nutrition (ICN), hosted by the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) on August 24-29 in Paris, France.  The theme of this year’s congress is “Sustainable Food for Global Health,” bringing together experts to discuss evidence and innovations in nutrition, sustainability, food science, and public health. IFPRI […]

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News

November 10, 2022 | In the News

New research initiative for healthy diets in Bangladesh (Dhaka Tribune) 

Poor-quality diets are associated with all forms of malnutrition-including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity as well as around 1.1 million premature adult deaths each year. Dhaka Tribune reports on the launch of CGIAR’s Initiative on Sustainable Healthy Diets through Food Systems Transformation (SHiFT). This initiative will work closely with local, national, regional, and […]

November 20, 2019 | In the News

Food loss and waste and key to achieving SDG 2

Financial Nigeria published an article on how Nigeria is dealing with food loss and waste. An IFPRI report was quoted about food loss in developing countries. “Food loss during production, trade, and processing tends to outweigh food waste occurring at the retail and consumer stages of the supply chain.”

October 09, 2018 | In the News

Great Expectations from Ethiopia’s Wheat Initiative (Thomson Reuters Foundation News)

Thomson Reuters Foundation News published an op-ed by several IFPRI researchers including Gashaw Tadesse Abate, Tanguy Bernard, Alan de Brauw, and Nicholas Minot, who examined the impact of Ethiopia’s Wheat Initiative on farmers’ yields to understand how programs can boost wheat yields in underperforming areas. 

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