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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.

researcher spotlight

Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. She has extensive transdisciplinary research experience in using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. 

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Development Strategies and Governance

Mohru Mardonova

Research Assistant

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Bio

Mohru Mardonova is a Research Assistant in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in Dushanbe. Prior to joining IFPRI, Mohru worked with the World Food Programme’s Nutrition/ Research Assessment and Monitoring Unit, and with the Aga Khan Foundation’s Quality of Life project, and the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat Social Research Unit. As part of her bachelor’s thesis, Mohru  conducted a case study in Murghab, Tajikistan, analyzing water insecurity and its association with food insecurity. She received her bachelor’s degree in Global Economics from the University of Central Asia, and is certified as an IPC Acute Food Insecurity Level 1 Analyst.

Development Strategies and Governance

CV

Publications

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Working Paper

Migration and employment in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015 – 2023

2024Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Aliev, Jovidon; Mardonova, Mohru
Details

Migration and employment in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015 – 2023

Tajikistan’s economy is highly dependent on personal remittances (World Bank, 2023). Lack of formal well-paid jobs and of private business opportunities locally to earn sufficient household income has motivated people to migrate abroad since the beginning of the 2000s (Shimizutani and Yamada, 2023; World Bank, 2023). Since 2006, the value of personal remittances was more than 25 percent of the country’s GDP, and by 2022, remittances were an estimated 51 percent of Tajikistan’s GDP (World Bank, 2022; Figure 1). Remittances are thus key to poverty reduction in Tajikistan (World Bank, 2023), yet such large reliance on remittances, while providing major opportunities for households to exit poverty, also poses significant vulnerability to reenter poverty and food insecurity in case of any negative shocks affecting employment at the migration location. This study looks at changes in migration characteristics in twelve districts in Khatlon Province in the past 8 years, using data collected in 2015 and 2023; and at employment patterns in this area in 2023. The 2015 survey was administered during a time when many Tajik migrants were returning to the country as a result of worsening economic conditions in Russia. Indeed, as shown also in Figure 1, personal remittances dropped sharply between 2013 and 2015. In 2015 they were 27 percent of GDP, the lowest level in a decade (World Bank 2023). In contrast, personal remittances were at their highest relative to the country’s GDP in 2022.1 The 2023 survey, therefore, was administered during a time of relatively better conditions for migrants. Migrants were modestly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as after a sharp decline in employment and remittances in April and May 2020, they quickly returned to their former levels (Shimizutani and Yamada, 2021). Strong labor demand in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and an appreciation of the Russian ruble (before it depreciated again towards end of 2022) benefited labor migrants and the remittances they were able to send home (World Bank, 2023).

Year published

2024

Authors

Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Aliev, Jovidon; Mardonova, Mohru

Citation

Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Akramov, Kamiljon T.; Aliev, Jovidon; and Mardonova, Mohru. 2024. Migration and employment in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015 – 2023. Central Asia Working Paper 5. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152496

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Asia; Central Asia; Migration; Employment; Households; Income; Household Surveys; Socioeconomic Environment; Remittances

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Gendered farm work and decision-making: Quantitative evidence from Tajikistan

2024Mardonova, Mohru; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Mahrt, Kristi
Details

Gendered farm work and decision-making: Quantitative evidence from Tajikistan

Quantitative data collected in August and September 2018 in 12 districts of Khatlon Province, called “The Assessment of Nutrition-Sensitive Value Chains in the FtF ZOI in Tajikistan” were employed to analyze gender differences in participation in crop production and marketing activities, and to understand the association between women’s employment and their decision-making power at home. The dataset contains general information on the households’ farm activities, and detailed information of production practices for households’ main horticultural crops (vegetables, fruits, melons and cucurbitae).

Year published

2024

Authors

Mardonova, Mohru; Lambrecht, Isabel B.; Mahrt, Kristi

Citation

Mardonova, Mohru; Lambrecht, Isabel; and Mahrt, Kristi. 2024. Gendered farm work and decision-making: Quantitative evidence from Tajikistan. Central Asia Policy Brief 11. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145188

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Central Asia; Asia; Nutrition; Value Chains; Gender; Crop Production; Marketing; Women’s Empowerment; Employment; Decision Making

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Welfare and vulnerability in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015–2023

2023Lambrecht, Isabel; Pechtl, Sarah; Mardonova Tolibkhonovna, Mohru; Akramov, Kamiljon T.
Details

Welfare and vulnerability in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015–2023

Household survey data from February-March 2023 and February-March 2015 were analyzed to document changes in welfare of households in twelve districts of Khatlon Province, USAID’s Zone of Influence (ZOI), over the last eight years. Key findings: • Housing conditions improved, indicating improved living conditions. Only 1 percent of households had improved sanitation in 2015, but nearly half (49 percent) of all households did so in 2023. • Total consumption expenditures on food, non-food, and durables increased nearly 10 percent (in real terms) between 2015 and 2023 • Expenditures on food increased, but these were used to purchase more expensive food rather than improving dietary quality. This led to a stagnation in diet diversity among women of which 70 percent have inadequate dietary diversity. Household consumption patterns do show improvements over time. • Poverty declined by about 10.4 percent, but movements of households in and out of poverty between 2015 and 2023 suggest that a significant share of households are at risk of falling back into poverty in the face of adversity. • Correlates with consumption expenditures and poverty demonstrate that households with more household members, with fewer livelihood sources, and in more remote locations are worse off. Households with more women are more likely to be poor given women’s limited income generating opportunities. • Households that participated in agricultural development activities were approximately 12.7 percent less likely to be poor than other households. Recommended actions The findings underscore the importance of the priorities specified in the Government of Tajikistan’s Agri-Food System and Sustainable Development Program (ASDP), specifically strategic priority 4 on food security and safety, and motivate the following policy recommendations: • Continue to support healthy diets through improved access to food as well as behavior change communication related to dietary diversity and consuming healthy food. • Further research should serve to understand pathways to lifting farmers out of poverty, including analyzing what works and why when implementing agricultural interventions. • Continued efforts are needed to mitigate women’s disproportionate susceptibility to poverty and their vulnerability to poverty-induced outcomes.

Year published

2023

Authors

Lambrecht, Isabel; Pechtl, Sarah; Mardonova Tolibkhonovna, Mohru; Akramov, Kamiljon T.

Citation

Lambrecht, Isabel; Pechtl, Sarah; Mardonova, Mohru; and Akramov, Kamiljon T. 2023. Welfare and vulnerability in Tajikistan: Evidence from twelve districts in Khatlon Province, 2015–2023. Central Asia Policy Brief 1. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137030

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Central Asia; Asia; Foods; Housing; Surveys; Consumption; Households; Welfare; Hygiene; Livelihoods; Agricultural Development; Diet; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137030 Source record

Record type

Brief

Research

Topics/Countries