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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.

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Eliot Jones-Garcia

Eliot Jones-Garcia is a Senior Research Analyst with the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on human-AI interaction, user-centered design, and the ethical and responsible development of AI. Eliot is currently finalizing a PhD on the digitalization of agricultural advisory services at Wageningen University & Research.

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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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experts

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Kalle Hirvonen

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Kalle Hirvonen is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. ​Through his research, Kalle seeks to understand how to sustainably improve nutrition and food security outcomes in low-income countries. Thematically, this work sits at the intersection of development, health, and agricultural economics. Kalle has done extensive research in areas of social protection, agriculture-nutrition linkages, food systems, value chains, and food markets. Most of his work is based on statistical analyses of primary data from large-scale household surveys or randomized controlled trials. Kalle holds a PhD in Economics and a master’s degrees in Development Economics from the University of Sussex, UK, as well as a master’s degree in International Economics from the University of Helsinki.

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Publications

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Working Paper

The impact of a nutrition-sensitive graduation model program on child nutrition: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

2025Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mesfin, Hiwot Mekonnen; Mulford, Michael; Tesfaye, Haleluya
Details

The impact of a nutrition-sensitive graduation model program on child nutrition: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

Multifaceted graduation models are a promising strategy to sustainably reduce poverty, yet evidence on their effects on child undernutrition remains limited. This randomized controlled trial evaluated a nutrition-sensitive graduation model combining village economic and savings associations, peer-led behavior change communication, and maternal cash transfers (and for a subset, lump-sum livelihoods transfers) implemented among ultra-poor households in rural Ethiopia. The model without maternal cash transfers improved maternal nutrition knowledge and financial inclusion but did not generate meaningful changes in children’s diets or growth. Supplementing the pro-gram with maternal cash transfers produced at least moderate improvements in child diet quality, early childhood development, household consumption, and assets. The largest improvements in child growth occurred among households receiving both the livelihoods grant and maternal cash transfers. Overall, the results suggest that coupling behavior change communication and livelihoods support with sufficient financial support is critical for achieving meaningful progress in both economic well-being and child nutrition.

Year published

2025

Authors

Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mesfin, Hiwot Mekonnen; Mulford, Michael; Tesfaye, Haleluya

Citation

Hirvonen, Kalle; Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mesfin, Hiwot Mekonnen; Mulford, Michael; and Tesfaye, Haleluya. 2025. The impact of a nutrition-sensitive graduation model program on child nutrition: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2391. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179205

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Models; Nutrition; Children; Livelihoods; Poverty; Child Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Healthy diets and the role of micro, small, and medium enterprises: Examining Ethiopia’s food environment

2025de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle
Details

Healthy diets and the role of micro, small, and medium enterprises: Examining Ethiopia’s food environment

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) play an important role in the food environment in many low- and middle-income countries. But there is little systematic knowledge about the opportunities they have and constraints they face in trying to grow their businesses. To contribute to building this knowledge base, we draw upon linked household–enterprise surveys collected in two districts in Ethiopia in 2023. To learn about the constraints faced by these enterprises, we examine differences in organizational characteristics and business practices by outlet type, location, and manager gender and education among MSMEs that sell food. The results suggest that while there are clear availability constraints for specific types of foods, there are some strategies that could help MSMEs that retail healthy foods increase sales. If policymakers or others are interested in supporting sales through the food environment, interventions such as business training, service access, and capacity building on nutrition would best fit their needs.

Year published

2025

Authors

de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle

Citation

de Brauw, Alan; and Hirvonen, Kalle. 2025. Healthy diets and the role of micro, small, and medium enterprises: Examining Ethiopia’s food environment. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2367. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/177229

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Capacity Development; Enterprises; Food Environment; Healthy Diets; Households; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Graduating from Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme: What have we learned?

2025Hirvonen, Kalle; Abate, Gashaw T.; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John F.; Leight, Jessica; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum
Details

Graduating from Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme: What have we learned?

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) – one of the largest social protection programs in Africa – has improved food security and strengthened recovery from shocks, yet it has achieved limited progress in raising incomes or diversifying livelihoods. In response, policymakers have layered graduation models onto the PSNP to promote sustainable self-reliance. This note synthesizes evaluation evidence from NGO- and government-led initiatives. NGO-led intensive, high-cost models increased assets and incomes in the short to medium term but rarely enabled households to exit the program. NGO-led lighter-touch approaches improved resilience but delivered minimal gains in overall well-being. Government-led efforts have faced persistent delivery challenges, including overstretched systems, weak credit access, and limited market linkages. Broader structural constraints, such as shrinking landholdings, scarce nonfarm opportunities, and recurrent drought and other shocks, further undermine the promise of graduation programming in this context. The review highlights six policy lessons on design, financing, and integration with broader development strategies to shape more effective approaches going forward.

Year published

2025

Authors

Hirvonen, Kalle; Abate, Gashaw T.; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John F.; Leight, Jessica; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Citation

Hirvonen, Kalle; Abate, Gashaw T.; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Hoddinott, John F.; Leight, Jessica; and Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum. 2025. Graduating from Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme: What have we learned? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2366. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176897

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Northern Africa; Food Security; Livelihoods; Poverty; Social Protection; Modelling

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Invest in climate adaptation – before disaster strikes
IFPRI Blog
 | 
June 06, 2025

Invest in climate adaptation – before disaster strikes

By Kalle Hirvonen and Olli-Pekka Kuusela

Approaches to build resilience amid global aid cuts.

Graduation from poverty: Can a big push program help conflict-affected households? Evidence from Somalia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 17, 2024

Graduation from poverty: Can a big push program help conflict-affected households? Evidence from Somalia

By Kalle Hirvonen, Naureen Karachiwalla, Jessica Leight, and Deboleena Rakshit

Moving from assistance to self-sufficiency.

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 04, 2024

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia

By Kalle Hirvonen, Daniel Gilligan, Jessica Leight, Heleene Tambet, and Victor Villa

Safety nets can buttress households against climate shocks.

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Events

Advancing Poverty Graduation in Fragile Contexts: A New Agenda for Research and Policy
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

January 21, 2026, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Advancing Poverty Graduation in Fragile Contexts: A New Agenda for Research and Policy

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. Multifaceted livelihoods interventions that target households in extreme poverty are extremely effective in reducing extreme poverty, with consistent gains in income, consumption, savings, […]

Worsening food insecurity, waning response capacity: Options for a better way forward
IFPRI Policy Seminar

 | 

July 2, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Worsening food insecurity, waning response capacity: Options for a better way forward

Food crises arise from the complex interplay of conflict, poverty, climate variability, and economic shocks, resulting in acute food insecurity among vulnerable populations. According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (2025), the number of people facing severe levels of acute food insecurity has tripled over the past decade, rising from around 100 million […]

Improving Diets and Nutrition through Food Systems: What Will it Take? A Dialogue on IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report
Series/Special Event

 | 

November 6, 2024, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Improving Diets and Nutrition through Food Systems: What Will it Take? A Dialogue on IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report

IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy flagship publication arrives at a pivotal moment, as the importance of addressing food systems for better nutrition continues to gain global recognition. With United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 29th Conference of the Parties taking place in November, the SUN Global Gathering on the horizon and the Nutrition […]

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News

May 30, 2021 | In the News

Evidence from 22 African countries shows low trust in authorities is affecting vaccine uptake )The Print)

The Print published an op-ed by Senior research fellow Kalle Hirvonen and his co-authors that states while immunization saves millions of lives each year, progress in vaccine coverage remains highly uneven, both between and within countries. Despite considerable progress over the past two decades, the situation is particularly worrying in Africa. Nearly half of the world’s unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children […]

November 13, 2020 | In the News

The height of the Chinese is the highest in East Asia, so who is at the bottom? (The Paper)

The Paper (China) published an article that referenced the IFPRI research on stunting in children, Evaluation of linear growth at higher altitudes (Jama Pediatrics). The study analyzed the height and age data of more than 950,000 children from 59 countries and showed that the growth rate of children living in an ideal family environment is the same as that of […]

September 24, 2020 | In the News

Living in high altitude areas, children are more prone to developmental delays (Sohu.com)) 

Sohu.com published an article on about new research on stunting in higher altitudes. According to Senior Research Fellow Kalle Hirvonen, “More than 800 million people live at altitudes of 1,500 meters or higher, and two-thirds of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. These two regions have most of the stunted children in the world, so understand that altitude […]

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