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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.

Ahmed Akhter

researcher spotlight

Akhter Ahmed

Akhter Ahmed is a Senior Research Fellow in the IFPRI’s Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit and 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 in developing countries including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Malawi, the Philippines, and Turkey.

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Nutrition, Diets, and Health

Amy Margolies

Research Fellow

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Bio

Amy Margolies is a Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit. She has worked on diverse projects including large-scale impact evaluations of social protection and nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs, cost and cost-effectiveness analyses, and qualitative research. Amy has experience conducting research in Latin America (Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico), Africa (Ethiopia, Uganda, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mali) and Asia (Bangladesh, India, East Timor). She received a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Language skills: English, Spanish, Portuguese

Publications

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Publications

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Journal Article

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

2025Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol
Details

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

Undernutrition in women and young children in Burkina Faso is a critical problem. Egg consumption is low despite many households raising poultry. The Soutenir l’Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l’Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l’Économie Rurale (SELEVER) project, an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention, promoted egg consumption and sales to investigate the impact of poultry production on child nutrition. Multisectoral nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs address nutrition deficits but lack comparable cost information. This study estimates the costs of the SELEVER program, an integrated poultry and nutrition intervention. The study estimates the program’s economic costs using a standardized methodology from the Strengthening Economic Evaluation for Multisectoral Strategies for Nutrition (SEEMS-Nutrition) consortium, which aligns financial and economic costs along program impact pathways, allocating costs by activities and inputs. We conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups on time allocation and beneficiary out-of-pocket costs. Incremental economic costs were calculated by combining expenditures and economic costs. The total incremental program cost was USD$18,084,727.68 over 5 years, with annual incremental costs of USD$209.20 per direct beneficiary and $796.26 per household. Major cost drivers included overhead (18%), poultry extension (17%), training (16%), household counseling (7%), technical assistance (7%) and microcredit (6%). Total input costs were dominated by personnel (51%), supplies (13%), agricultural inputs (10%) and overhead (9%). We present the total incremental costs of a multisectoral nutrition intervention to generate revenue with poultry. The costs per beneficiary were higher than similar interventions, underscoring the need for cost-effectiveness evaluations of multisectoral nutrition programs. A standardized cost methodology facilitates comparisons with multisectoral nutrition interventions and builds the evidence base.

Year published

2025

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; and Levin, Carol. 2025. The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso. Maternal and Child Nutrition 21(2): e13791. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Nutrition; Poultry; Value Chains; Children; Costs; Gender; Sustainability; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Journal Article

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Report

Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Kenya

2025Margolies, Amy; Amunga, Dorcas; Pather, Kamara; Craig, Hope; Olney, Deanna K.
Details

Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Kenya

Despite progress in reducing child stunting over the past 15 years, Kenya is now facing new nutrition challenges, including overweight and obesity. The double burden of malnutrition (DBM), which is the coexistence of under- and overnutrition within individuals, households, and populations [1], manifests as child stunting and adult overweight (mostly in women) at the population and household levels. Dietary diversity is low and affects different population groups (particularly young children, adolescents, and women), predisposing them to micronutrient deficiencies. However, recent data on micronutrient intake and status are lacking. Households living in urban areas are vulnerable to being overweight, a consequence of increasingly unhealthy dietary patterns. In Kenya’s informal urban settlements, limited dietary diversity, reliance on cereals, and widespread consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) contribute to high rates of child stunting, underweight, and the DBM, with affordability and accessibility driving food choices. Compounding factors include food safety concerns, clustering of unhealthy food vendors, and external shocks. Urban nutrition interventions have had mixed results, with some programs improving child health and maternal knowledge, but others showing no significant impact. Kenya aims to eliminate malnutrition by 2027, but national policies focus mostly on rural areas, leaving urban nutrition challenges insufficiently addressed. Programs such as Afya Jiji and the Nairobi City County Food System Strategy target urban health, but gaps in urban-specific strategies, poor coordination, and limited funding hinder progress. The national school meals program serves only a small portion of schools, and urban food policies are still underdeveloped.

Year published

2025

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Amunga, Dorcas; Pather, Kamara; Craig, Hope; Olney, Deanna K.

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Amunga, Dorcas; Pather, Kamara; Craig, Hope; and Olney, Deanna K. 2025. Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Kenya. Resilient Cities Country Profile. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/173368

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Dietary Diversity; Micronutrient Deficiencies; Obesity; Stunting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Resilient Cities

Record type

Report

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Report

Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Philippines

2024Margolies, Amy; Pather, Kamara; Namara, Rebecca; Sehgal, Mrignyani; San Valentin, Carleneth; Olney, Deanna K.
Details

Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Philippines

Child stunting is a persistent problem in the Philippines. While stunting prevalence is higher in rural than in urban areas, it still affects one in four children under the age of five in urban areas and coexists with rising overweight in school-age children, adolescents, and adults. Some urban nutrition interventions have focused on reducing diet-related noncommunicable disease (NCD) risks, but they have not addressed the challenges of the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) (e.g., the coexistence of problems of undernutrition and overnutrition) in school-age children and adolescents. Likewise, the lack of evidence on interventions in the urban food environment (FE) signals a need for studies to better understand the role of FEs in driving unhealthy dietary changes and the DBM and to test approaches to shift consumption patterns toward healthier diets and lifestyles. NCDs are the leading cause of mortality in the Philippines, and NCD risks are higher in urban areas than rural ones. National policies support nutrition with multisectoral approaches, particularly through urban farming and gardening to promote healthy and affordable urban diets. Yet the urban-specific programs must be evaluated. Evaluations of urban agricultural initiatives are needed to document any impact on diets and nutrition and to assess the potential for scale up, especially given land scarcity in dense urban areas. Additionally, multisectoral double-duty actions must be developed to address all forms of malnutrition.

Year published

2024

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Pather, Kamara; Namara, Rebecca; Sehgal, Mrignyani; San Valentin, Carleneth; Olney, Deanna K.

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Pather, Kamara; Namara, Rebecca; Sehgal, Mrignyani; San Valentin, Carleneth; and Olney, Deanna. 2024. Resilient Cities urban nutrition profile: Philippines. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/159838

Country/Region

Philippines

Keywords

Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agriculture; Child Stunting; Diet; Nutrition; Malnutrition; Urban Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Resilient Cities

Record type

Report

Blogs

Making a Difference: Childcare centers as a platform for improving child nutrition in Malawi
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 16, 2023

Making a Difference: Childcare centers as a platform for improving child nutrition in Malawi

By Aulo Gelli, Amy Margolies, and Brian McNamara

Education programs for parents yield continuing benefits.

Investing in nutrition through early childhood development in Malawi: Assessing costs and benefits
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 10, 2020

Investing in nutrition through early childhood development in Malawi: Assessing costs and benefits

By Aulo Gelli, Amy Margolies, Christopher Kemp, Carol Levin, and Natasha Ledlie

The SEEMS-Nutrition initiative offers a set of tools for project evaluations.