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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

Timothy Thomas

Timothy Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit. His research focuses on the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. Tim’s work involves developing innovative methods for simulated climate futures and model coordination between climate, crop, water, energy, and economics.

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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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experts

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

Assessing the role of food MSMEs in providing employment for women and youth in Ethiopia

2026Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew; de Brauw, Alan
Details

Assessing the role of food MSMEs in providing employment for women and youth in Ethiopia

Micro-, Small-, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are often important sources of employment in the food retail environment of Low- and Middle-Income Countries. As a result, policy makers might consider promoting job creation through MSMEs operating in the food environment. In this paper, we study a unique data set collected in two sites in Ethiopia to draw potential policy lessons for job creation based on the characteristics of MSMEs operating in the food environment. The data were collected from among 1,686 food vendors in a neighborhood of Addis Ababa and Butajira, Ethiopia, as part of an effort to better understand the relationship between consumers and the food environment in Ethiopia. Our descriptive analysis suggests that a large share of the enterprises in our sample do not employ anyone beyond the owner, and female-owned enterprises are less likely to hire workers than male-owned enterprises. Moreover, the profits per worker are lower than the cost of a healthy diet, suggesting that without an improvement in profitability it is unlikely that hiring labor would help improve nutritional status. So while the sampled MSMEs may have the potential to deliver food at lower cost, they have limited ability to generate additional employment.

Year published

2026

Authors

Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew; de Brauw, Alan

Citation

Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew; and de Brauw, Alan. 2026. Assessing the role of food MSMEs in providing employment for women and youth in Ethiopia. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 15(1): 34. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-026-00622-z

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Small and Medium Enterprises; Microenterprises; Gender; Women; Youth; Employment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-026-00622-z Source record

Project

Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Returns to investment in selected IFPRI research

2026de Brauw, Alan; DiGiovanni, Maria
Details

Returns to investment in selected IFPRI research

Funders and governments increasingly demand evidence of the returns on investment (ROI) of agri-food systems research, but many research benefits are difficult to quantify. This paper describes methods to estimate the ROI of selected Gates Foundation investments in IFPRI research on nutrition, foresight modeling, and women's empowerment. We present a conceptual framework linking research results to improved outcomes for people, then identify projects with evidence of research influence, high-quality impact estimates, and measures of reach. Two selected projects meet the impact and reach requirements: (1) an evaluation of the first phase of Alive & Thrive and (2) modeling which helped persuade Tanzania's government not to impose a maize export ban. For IFPRI's role as a research partner to Alive & Thrive, we conservatively attribute between $43 and $90 million in net returns to the research, suggesting a median ROI of roughly 450 percent. For the modeling research that informed decision-making on a maize export ban in Tanzania, estimated benefits are between $64 million and $397 million, though cost data are unavailable. The benefits of women's empowerment research could not be converted into monetary terms. The exercise shows that ROI is not always appropriate or feasible to measure and that returns may be lower when programs target women or the poor. The limitations illustrated here suggest that ROI estimates are best interpreted as part of a wider research portfolio, including benefits that cannot be calculated monetarily. The results suggest that the overall ROI of Gates Foundation investments in IFPRI research is positive.

Year published

2026

Authors

de Brauw, Alan; DiGiovanni, Maria

Citation

de Brauw, Alan; and DiGiovanni, Maria. 2026. Returns to investment in selected IFPRI research. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2448. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords

Nutrition; Nutrition; Return on Investment; Return on Investment; Forecasting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Risk aversion and credit access: Solving financial exclusion through contract innovation

2026Ambler, Kate; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; de Brauw, Alan; Uddin, Mohammad Riad
Details

Risk aversion and credit access: Solving financial exclusion through contract innovation

Credit market failures may reflect voluntary withdrawal by risk-averse borrowers in addition to supply-side constraints. We conduct a randomized trial with 1,517 Bangladeshi households, offering cattle financing through conventional loans or profit-sharing contracts that spread risk between the farmer and the financial partner. Overall, interest in and take-up of the profit-sharing contracts were modestly higher than the conventional loans. However, conventional loan take-up was much lower among risk-averse farmers, and profit-sharing eliminated the take-up gap between risk-averse and non-risk-averse farmers. We find that it is male risk preferences that are associated with these decisions even when contracts explicitly target women. Livestock investment increases under both contracts with no evidence of moral hazard under profit-sharing.

Year published

2026

Authors

Ambler, Kate; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; de Brauw, Alan; Uddin, Mohammad Riad

Citation

Ambler, Kate; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; de Brauw, Alan; and Uddian, Mohammad Riad. 2026. Risk aversion and credit access: Solving financial exclusion through contract innovation. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2405. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/181679

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Gender; Credit; Financing; Livestock; Loans; Smallholders; Financial Innovation; Access to Finance; Risk; Risk Coping Strategies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

The case for tackling multiple constraints for smallholder farmers: Evidence from Malawi
Research Post
 | 
June 01, 2026

The case for tackling multiple constraints for smallholder farmers: Evidence from Malawi

By Kate Ambler, Alan de Brauw, and Susan Godlonton

Cash or in-kind transfers and extension services work better together.

IFPRI and causal impact evaluation: Evidence for real-life policies
Research Post
 | 
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
Issue Post
 | 
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.

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Events

8th African Conference of Agricultural Economists (ACAE)
IFPRI at External Event

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September 22 to 25, 2026

8th African Conference of Agricultural Economists (ACAE)

IFPRI is pleased to support the upcoming 8th African Conference of Agricultural Economists (8th ACAE), scheduled for 22–25 September 2026 at the Mövenpick Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. ACAE is a premier continental gathering focused on advancing agricultural economics through innovation, digital transformation, and strengthened trade systems. Anchored on the theme “Smart Agriculture: Innovation, Digital Transformation, […]

Reducing Food Loss and Waste: A Food Systems Perspective
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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January 13, 2026, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Reducing Food Loss and Waste: A Food Systems Perspective

Reducing food loss and waste is essential for building more efficient value chains, lowering the climate footprint of agri‑food systems, and improving farmer livelihoods. This seminar brings together new insights and emerging evidence on how to tackle this challenge from multiple angles. In the first segment, Jocelyn Boiteau and Prabhu Pingali will share key findings from […]

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

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December 15, 2025, 9:00 – 4:00 pm

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

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 is timely, inclusive, and tailored to context. Reliable data and rigorous analysis are essential, but research must also evolve – and become more timely, more relevant, and more inclusive of diverse voices […]

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News

September 29, 2026 | In the News

Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day: Nutrient-dense foods lost first, driving hidden hunger (Nutrition Insight)

Nutrition Insight quoted Alan de Brauw, senior research fellow at IFPRI, in this article on the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.

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.”

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