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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

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Jessica Heckert

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Jessica Heckert is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit.  She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to address questions related to adolescent/youth well-being and work experiences, the impact of agricultural development interventions on women’s empowerment and other gender-related outcomes, and the intersection of household gender dynamics and health outcomes. In line with these research themes, she also works on the development of women’s empowerment metrics, including the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and affiliated tools, as well as the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS). She has conducted work in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Djibouti, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania.

Jessica earned a PhD in demography and human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University.

Languages spoken: English, French, Haitian Creole, Spanish

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Publications

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Working Paper

Intersecting gender and youth financial inclusion in agrifood systems: Evidence from northern Nigeria

2026Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Heckert, Jessica; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Myers, Emily; Popoola, Olufemi; Kabir, Hauwa
Details

Intersecting gender and youth financial inclusion in agrifood systems: Evidence from northern Nigeria

The agrifood system employs one-third of the global workforce, yet young women and men continue to face persistent constraints to joining this workforce, including financial exclusion. Financial exclusion constrains agricultural employment by limiting young people’s ability to engage in work and to scale operations. Yet the existing literature often overlooks how gender and youth intersect within these dynamics. Using intersectionality theory and institutional analysis, this study examines barriers to financial access and adaptation strategies among young men and women (ages 18–30) in northern Nigeria’s agrifood systems. The analysis draws on 61 semi-structured interviews and 51 focus group discussions with young women and men, alongside key informant interviews with financial service providers and market actors, across five northern Nigerian states with large populations that are “unbanked,” meaning not engaged with formal financial institutions. Drawing on these qualitative data, the study reveals that formal and informal financial institutions jointly reproduce patterns of unequal gendered access. While young men leverage wider mobility and networks to secure trading capital, young women’s restricted mobility and limited collateral confine them to smallscale processing with few growth prospects. Financial exclusion is further compounded by geography, insecurity, and the gendered structure of digital finance. Youth adapt to these institutional gaps through collective savings, trust-based credit, and in-kind payments. The study calls for gender-sensitive, digitally inclusive financial services that complement informal systems, offering an integrated institutional–intersectional framework for promoting inclusive agrifood systems transformation. Its central contribution is an institutional–intersectional analysis of financial exclusion in agrifood systems, showing how formal and informal institutions jointly, rather than separately, produce gendered patterns of access.

Year published

2026

Authors

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Heckert, Jessica; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Myers, Emily; Popoola, Olufemi; Kabir, Hauwa

Citation

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Heckert, Jessica; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Myers, Emily; Popoola, Olufemi; and Kabir, Hauwa. 2026. Intersecting gender and youth financial inclusion in agrifood systems: Evidence from northern Nigeria. SFS4Youth Working Paper 18. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Organization. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/184760

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Gender; Youth; Financial Inclusion; Agrifood Systems; Capital; Access to Finance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Financial inclusion for youth in agrifood systems: Gendered barriers and solutions in northern Nigeria

2026Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Heckert, Jessica; Popoola, Olufemi
Details

Financial inclusion for youth in agrifood systems: Gendered barriers and solutions in northern Nigeria

Nigeria is home to one of the world's largest and fastest-growing youth populations aged 15–35, yet financial exclusion continues to sideline young people, particularly young women, from fully participating in agrifood systems. When women control financial resources, they generate multiplier effects across the food system. In northern Nigeria, where more than half the population remains unbanked, the stakes are especially high. This research note draws on evidence from two complementary IFPRI studies to examine the financial inclusion experiences of young women and young men in northern Nigeria and identify practical, gender-sensitive solutions.

Year published

2026

Authors

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Heckert, Jessica; Popoola, Olufemi

Citation

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Heckert, Jessica; and Popoola, Olufemi. 2026. Financial inclusion for youth in agrifood systems: Gendered barriers and solutions in northern Nigeria. SFS4Youth Research Note 7. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/183198

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Financial Inclusion; Youth; Agrifood Systems; Gender; Gender Norms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa

2026Dione, Malick; Heckert, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; le Port, Agnes; Peterman, Amber; Seye, Moustapha
Details

C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa

Edutainment is a promising tool for changing behavior at scale, yet little is known about how to maximize impacts. We undertake an experimental evaluation of a popular West African television series, C’est la vie!, delivered through film clubs targeted at adolescent girls and young women in rural Senegal. We examine impacts on violence against women and girls and sexual and reproductive health. Results show C’est la vie! improved knowledge on both domains three months after film clubs ended, as well as violence-related attitudes nine months later, however, had no impact on behaviors. We investigate design components intended to strengthen impacts, generally finding no additional impacts from post-screening discussions, engaging men, and podcasts. Our findings suggest that edutainment is an engaging way to reach viewers on sensitive themes, however more evidence is needed on how to effectively deliver edutainment content for sustained behavior change at scale.

Year published

2026

Authors

Dione, Malick; Heckert, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; le Port, Agnes; Peterman, Amber; Seye, Moustapha

Citation

Dione, Malick; Heckert, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; le Port, Agnes; Peterman, Amber; and Seye, Moustapha. 2026. C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa. Journal of Development Economics 182(June 2026): 103748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2026.103748

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Education; Television; Mass Media; Impact Assessment; Social Impact Assessment; Randomized Controlled Trials; Violence; Health; Gender-based Violence; Reproductive Health; Adolescents

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2026.103748 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

Events

IFPRI @ Tropentag 2026
IFPRI at External Event

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September 16 to 18, 2026

IFPRI @ Tropentag 2026

IFPRI is pleased to participate in Tropentag 2026, taking place September 16–18, 2026, in Göttingen, Germany. The annual interdisciplinary conference focuses on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management, and rural development. This year’s conference will be held under the theme “Towards multi-functional agro-ecosystems promoting climate-resilient futures.” Tropentag 2026 will highlight interdisciplinary research […]

2025 Gender Conference: Accelerating Equality in Food, Land, and Water Systems
IFPRI at External Event

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October 7 to 9, 2025

2025 Gender Conference: Accelerating Equality in Food, Land, and Water Systems

Join the CGIAR Accelerator Gender Equality & Inclusion, in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Western Cape Government, in Cape Town for the 2025 Gender Conference, a pivotal gathering at the intersection of gender equality and sustainable development. This year’s theme, “Accelerating Equality in Food, Land, and Water Systems,” highlights the urgent need […]

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

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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 […]

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News

July 11, 2023 | Press Release

Women key to crop success in low-income countries

This post is a slightly modified version of the original press release issued by the University of Edinburgh. Empowering women farmers in low and middle-income countries can lead to greater crop diversity helping to improve year-round supply of healthy foods, suggests a new article published in The Lancet Planetary Health by a group of authors including […]

July 11, 2023 | In the News

Editorial: Empower women to grow (The Lancet Planetary Health)

“Almost half of the world’s agricultural workers are women and women farmers produce up to 80% of the food grown in LMICs. Despite their large contribution to agricultural labor, fewer than 20% of landowners globally are women,” writes The Lancet Planetary Health in an editorial featuring a new article co-authored by IFPRI’s Lilia Bliznashka, Aulo Gelli, and […]

August 03, 2020 | In the News

The campaign #RuralWomen, Women with Rights begins (Diario Rotativo) 

Diario Rotativo (Mexico) published an article on the campaign to recognize rural women, on July 30 the campaign #RuralWomen, Women with Rights. Rural women,  breadwinners during the health crisis, have added to their productive activities, the care, and attention to children who do not go to school, a gigantic overload of unpaid work. IFPRI along with many NGOs and […]

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