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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

Danielle Resnick

Danielle Resnick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit and a Non-Resident Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on the political economy of agricultural policy and food systems, governance, and democratization, drawing on extensive fieldwork and policy engagement across Africa and South Asia.

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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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Foresight and Policy Modeling

Eleanor Jones

Program Manager

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Bio

Eleanor Jones is a Program Manager in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit. Prior to her work at IFPRI, she worked as a research consultant at the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago. She also served as the managing editor for the Journal of Poverty and Public Policy.

Eleanor has worked in various countries across the world including completing a Fulbright in Mongolia, developing after-school educational programs in South Africa, and serving as an editor for the Journal of Southeast Asian Human Rights at the Centre for Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Migration in Indonesia.

Eleanor received a Master of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, Keough School of Global Affairs.

Foresight and Policy Modeling

Publications

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Working Paper

School meals in the 21st century: Key evidence gaps and future directions

2026
Gelli, Aulo; Bell, Winnie; Bliznashka, Lilia; Eustacchio-Colombo, Patricia; Heirman, Jonas; Jones, Eleanor; Katundu, Mangani; Khincha, Roshni; Lerva, Benedetta; Lombardini, Simone
…more Schultz, Linda; Scott, Samuel P.; Wineman, Ayala; School Meal Evidence Priorities Collaborators
Details

School meals in the 21st century: Key evidence gaps and future directions

School meal programs are a widely implemented safety net with documented impacts across social protection, education, health and nutrition and high estimated returns to investment (Alderman et al., 2024). Globally, in 2022, these programs reached over 400 million children for a total investment of $70 billion a year(Global Child Nutrition Foundation, 2024). The School Meals Coalition (SMC) created in 2021 and involving 106 member countries, has brought momentum and new opportunities for school meals. Collaborative research activities by development partners from the SMC have included evidence generation, review and synthesis, and the identification of key research gaps on school meal programs. This article provides the basis for a common research agenda to support evidence generation aimed at improving action on sustainable school meal programs. These evidence gaps were generated through a series of activities including evidence reviews, expert consultations and stakeholder workshops undertaken by SMC partners.

Year published

2026

Authors

Gelli, Aulo; Bell, Winnie; Bliznashka, Lilia; Eustacchio-Colombo, Patricia; Heirman, Jonas; Jones, Eleanor; Katundu, Mangani; Khincha, Roshni; Lerva, Benedetta; Lombardini, Simone; Schultz, Linda; Scott, Samuel P.; Wineman, Ayala; School Meal Evidence Priorities Collaborators

Citation

Gelli, Aulo; Bell, Winnie; Bliznashka, Lilia; Eustacchio-Colombo, Patricia; Heirman, Jonas; et al. 2026. School meals in the 21st century: Key evidence gaps and future directions. IFPRI Working Paper. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179539

Keywords

School Feeding; Investment; Sustainability; Cost Analysis; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Kenya: Cost effective options for inclusive and sustainable development

2025Aragie, Emerta A.; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James; Jones, Eleanor
Details

Kenya: Cost effective options for inclusive and sustainable development

In this policy brief, we present findings of a systematic evaluation and ranking of investment options for Kenya’s agrifood system based on their cost-effectiveness in achieving multiple development outcomes, including agrifood gross domestic product (GDP) growth, agrifood job creation, poverty reduction, declining undernourishment, and lowering diet deprivation. Additionally, the study assesses their environmental footprint, focusing on water consumption, land use, and emissions. Investments in small and medium enterprise (SME) processors, irrigation, and seed subsidy are shown to be the most cost-effective at driving improvements in social outcomes, like poverty and undernourishment. They are also highly ranked in terms of expanding agrifood GDP and employment. Expansion in extension and advisory services for seeds and agronomy as well as improvements in seed systems also rank high. However, many cost-effective investments have relatively high environmental footprints, which highlights potential tradeoffs. The study further reveals shifts in the cost-effectiveness ranking of investment options overtime and when extreme production shocks occur.

Year published

2025

Authors

Aragie, Emerta A.; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James; Jones, Eleanor

Citation

Aragie, Emerta A.; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James; and Jones, Eleanor. 2025. Kenya: Cost effective options for inclusive and sustainable development. Agrifood Investment Prioritization Country Series Brief 7. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178746

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Agrifood Sector; Sustainable Development; Poverty; Nutrition; Environmental Impact; Agrifood Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Malawi’s agrifood system: Transformation and environmental impacts

2025Diao, Xinshen; De Weerdt, Joachim; Fang, Peixun; Jones, Eleanor; Nagoli, Joseph; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James
Details

Malawi’s agrifood system: Transformation and environmental impacts

This paper is an update of Country Brief 8 in the series of Agrifood System Diagnostics coauthored by De Weerdt et al. (2023). The important addition from the previous country brief is a new section assessing agriculture’s environmental footprint, focusing on water use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by subsector and over time. Unlike the previous version, this brief does not include a forward-looking analysis—using IFPRI’s Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) model (IFPRI 2023)—of the contribution of productivity growth in agricultural value chains on agrifood transformation, employment, and socioeconomic outcomes. For a recent and extensive value chain ranking analysis that incorporates RIAPA modeling results, readers are referred to Pienaar et al. (2023). Malawi experienced slow growth in the post COVID-19 pandemic period. In addition to the economic impacts of the pandemic itself, the country suffered from high levels of public debt and a sustained balance of payments crisis. Global events such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and adverse weather events such as Cyclone Freddy and the El Niño in 2023–2024 further prevented the Malawi economy from returning to pre-pandemic growth levels. Economic growth rates have dropped from an average of 4.1 percent in 2011–2019 to 2.2 percent since 2020 (World Bank 2025), with an average growth rate of 3.8 percent per year during 2009–2022.

Year published

2025

Authors

Diao, Xinshen; De Weerdt, Joachim; Fang, Peixun; Jones, Eleanor; Nagoli, Joseph; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James

Citation

Diao, Xinshen; De Weerdt, Joachim; Fang, Peixun; Jones, Eleanor; Nagoli, Joseph; et al. 2025. Malawi’s agrifood system: Transformation and environmental impacts. IFPRI Working Paper. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178668

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Agrifood Systems; Environmental Impact; Value Chains; Trade

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Events

How do we prioritize agrifood system policies and investments? Insights from the RIAPA modeling system
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

June 12, 2024, 10:00 – 11:00 am

How do we prioritize agrifood system policies and investments? Insights from the RIAPA modeling system

Virtual Event: June 12, 2024 at 10:00am-11:00am EDT. In this webinar, we will demonstrate how RIAPA has been used to identify priority agricultural value chains that most effectively contribute to development outcomes.