Subscribe

Back

Who we are

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.

Erick Boy

researcher spotlight

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

Back

What we do

Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

Research topics

Projects and impact

Modeling tools

Project microsites

What’s new

Where we work

Back

Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

Subscribe

experts

Development Strategies and Governance

Clemens Breisinger

Senior Research Fellow

Follow

Clemens

at:

ORCiD

Bio

Clemens Breisinger is Program Leader for the Kenya Strategy Support Program and a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Previously, Clemens led IFPRI’s Middle East and North Africa team and was based in Cairo from 2016 to 2021, where he also established and led IFPRI’s country program office for Egypt. Clemens, now based in Nairobi, is also the Country Program Leader for Kenya and has co-led the establishment of IFPRI’s new country program office in Sudan. The country programs develop research-based policy solutions, build coalitions for policy change, and co-create innovative analytical tools in close collaboration with ministries of planning, social solidarity, and agriculture; statistical agencies and universities; and regional and international partners such as AGRA, the European Union, UN agencies, USAID, and the World Bank. Clemens’ research, capacity building, and policy advisory work covers a broad range of issues related to food systems transformation and poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, climate change, conflict, and social protection. Together with colleagues and partners, Clemens has produced more than 100 widely read and quoted publications. Clemens received his PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany.

Languages spoken: English, French, German

Publications

Google Scholar

RePEc

CV

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Opinion Piece

How good are livestock statistics in Africa?

2025Abay, Kibrom; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karugia, Joseph; Breisinger, Clemens
Details

How good are livestock statistics in Africa?

Livestock supports the livelihoods of around one billion people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Thorne and Conroy 2017, Baltenweck et al. 2020). However, growth and productivity of the livestock sector in many LMICs are not keeping pace with the increasing demand for animal-source foods. Boosting the sector’s productivity is crucial for poverty reduction in LMICs, which continue to face multifaceted challenges and shocks that threaten the sustainability of food systems. This, in turn, requires reliable livestock data for informing livestock policies and investments. However, there is a significant gap in the quality and reliability of livestock data, which inhibits evaluations of the livestock sector’s role in livelihoods and national economies and therefore impedes evidence-based livestock policies and investments.

Year published

2025

Authors

Abay, Kibrom; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karugia, Joseph; Breisinger, Clemens

Citation

Abay, Kibrom; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karugia, Joseph; and Breisinger, Clemens. 2025. How good are livestock statistics in Africa? VoxDev. First available online July 8, 2025. https://voxdev.org/topic/methods-measurement/how-good-are-livestock-statistics-africa

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Livestock; Livelihoods; Productivity; Poverty Reduction

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Opinion Piece

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

How good are livestock statistics in Africa? Can nudging and direct counting improve the quality of livestock asset data?

2025Abay, Kibrom A.; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karguia, Joseph; Breisinger, Clemens
Details

How good are livestock statistics in Africa? Can nudging and direct counting improve the quality of livestock asset data?

Livestock statistics in most low- and middle-income countries rely on self-reported, survey-based measures. However, respondents may have various challenges to accurately report livestock ownership. This study introduces a novel set of survey and measurement experiments to improve livestock statistics in Africa. We introduce two innovations to conventional livestock data collection methods. First, we address some of the sources of potential underreporting in livestock assets by introducing an explicit nudge to a random subset of survey respondents. Second, we arrange for direct counting of livestock assets by enumerators and local livestock experts. We demonstrate that self-reported data on livestock ownership suffer from significant and systematic underreporting. While our nudge affects only the reporting behaviour of households with larger stocks of livestock, direct counting increases total livestock ownership by 39 percent and the reported number of cattle by 43 percent. These impacts are evident at both the extensive and intensive margins of livestock asset ownership, as well as considering the number and value of livestock assets owned. Such mismeasurement in self-reported livestock data can lead to underestimation of the contribution of the livestock sector to national economies. Furthermore, direct counting generates important spillover effects to livestock species not explicitly counted in the survey. We finally show that underreporting in self-reported livestock data is systematic and hence consequential for statistical inferences. Our findings underscore that survey designs that can address specific sources of bias in self-reported livestock data can meaningfully improve livestock asset measurement in Africa.

Year published

2025

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karguia, Joseph; Breisinger, Clemens

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Ayalew, Hailemariam; Terfa, Zelalem; Karguia, Joseph; and Breisinger, Clemens. 2025. How good are livestock statistics in Africa? Can nudging and direct counting improve the quality of livestock asset data? Journal of Development Economics 176(September 2025): 103532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103532

Keywords

Africa; Livestock; Measurement; Survey Methods; Livestock Management

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103532 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Man vs. machine: Experimental evidence on the quality and perceptions of AI-generated research content

2024Keenan, Michael; Koo, Jawoo; Mwangi, Christine Wamuyu; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Breisinger, Clemens; Kim, MinAh
Details

Man vs. machine: Experimental evidence on the quality and perceptions of AI-generated research content

Academic researchers want their research to be understood and used by non-technical audiences, but that requires communication that is more accessible in the form of non-technical and shorter summaries. The researcher must both signal the quality of the research and ensure that the content is salient by making it more readable. AI tools can improve salience; however, they can also lead to ambiguity in the signal since true effort is then difficult to observe. We implement an online factorial experiment providing non-technical audiences with a blog on an academic paper and vary the actual author of the blog from the same paper (human or ChatGPT) and whether respondents are told the blog is written by a human or AI tool. Even though AI-generated blogs are objectively of higher quality, they are rated lower, but not if the author is disclosed as AI, indicating that signaling is important and can be distorted by AI. Use of the blog does not vary by experimental arm. The findings suggest that, provided disclosure statements are included, researchers can potentially use AI to reduce effort costs without compromising signaling or salience. Academic researchers want their research to be understood and used by non-technical audiences, but that requires communication that is more accessible in the form of non-technical and shorter summaries. The researcher must both signal the quality of the research and ensure that the content is salient by making it more readable. AI tools can improve salience; however, they can also lead to ambiguity in the signal since true effort is then difficult to observe. We implement an online factorial experiment providing non-technical audiences with a blog on an academic paper and vary the actual author of the blog from the same paper (human or ChatGPT) and whether respondents are told the blog is written by a human or AI tool. Even though AI-generated blogs are objectively of higher quality, they are rated lower, but not if the author is disclosed as AI, indicating that signaling is important and can be distorted by AI. Use of the blog does not vary by experimental arm. The findings suggest that, provided disclosure statements are included, researchers can potentially use AI to reduce effort costs without compromising signaling or salience.

Year published

2024

Authors

Keenan, Michael; Koo, Jawoo; Mwangi, Christine Wamuyu; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Breisinger, Clemens; Kim, MinAh

Citation

Keenan, Michael; Koo, Jawoo; Mwangi, Christine; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Breisinger, Clemens; and Kim, MinAh. 2024. Man vs. machine: Experimental evidence on the quality and perceptions of AI-generated research content. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2321. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169363

Keywords

Southern Asia; Artificial Intelligence; Communication; Research

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Digital Innovation

Record type

Working Paper

Events

What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

July 23, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am

What Do We Know About the Future of Food Systems?

Food systems have achieved remarkable progress in recent decades, but moving forward, they will face significant challenges in delivering the many outputs and services—such as poverty alleviation, nutrition and health, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability—we expect and need. By combining sophisticated analysis and close engagement with stakeholders, we can identify and explore the likely impacts of […]

The Future of Youth Jobs in Agrifood Systems in Africa
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

July 15, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am

The Future of Youth Jobs in Agrifood Systems in Africa

Africa’s population is the youngest of any region, affording the continent an adequate workforce to drive economic and social transformation. However, African economies are finding it difficult to create employment opportunities for this “youth bulge”—opportunities that are needed to advance on SDG target 8.6 to substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education […]

4th International Conference on Financing for Development
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

June 30 to July 3, 2025

4th International Conference on Financing for Development

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). This conference provides a unique opportunity to reform financing at all levels, including to support reform of the international financial architecture and addressing financing challenges preventing the urgently needed investment push for the SDGs. FFD4 Conference will be held in […]

View all Events

News

January 08, 2024 | Press Release

A new book provides a roadmap for food systems transformation in Kenya

The past few years have seen Kenya, along with many other countries, confronted with multifaceted and compounding challenges. The disruptions caused by COVID-19, high levels of food price inflation, and environmental crises, such as locust infestations and droughts, have severely tested the resilience of Kenya’s food systems and the affordability of food for its citizens. […]

May 20, 2022 | In the News

CGIAR launches initiative to build food security policy in 6 countries (Devex) 

Devex published an article stating that CGIAR has launched a new initiative that seeks to improve food security and resilience by supporting partner countries in developing coherent policies on food, land, and water. The National Policies and Strategies for Food, Land and Water Systems Transformation Initiative, or NPS — which was inaugurated Tuesday in Kenya […]

April 13, 2022 | In the News

Russia-Ukraine conflict is driving up wheat prices: this could fuel instability in Sudan (The Conversation)

The Conversation published an op-ed by senior research fellows Clemens Breisinger, David Laborde, Joseph Glauber, Paul Dorosh, and research fellow Oliver Kiptoo Kurui. In the op-ed, the authors write that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted agricultural production and trade from one of the world’s major food exporting regions. The war threatens to drive rising […]

View all News