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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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Elodie Becquey

Elodie Becquey is a Senior Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit, based in IFPRI’s West and Central Africa office in Senegal. She has over 15 years of research experience in diet, nutrition, and food security in Africa, including countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania.

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Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Moogdho Mahzab

Research Fellow

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Bio

Moogdho Mahzab is a Research Fellow with the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a development economist with research interests in environment, health, and political economy. Prior to joining IFPRI, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford Graduate Business School and Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Viginia. He also received the U.S. Fulbright Scholarship from Bangladesh to pursue a master’s in Policy Economics at Williams College.

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Brief

Brick kilns and agricultural productivity in Bangladesh: Evidence from satellite data and a natural experiment

2025Mahzab, Moogdho; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Mattsson, Martin; Anowar, Md Sadat
Details

Brick kilns and agricultural productivity in Bangladesh: Evidence from satellite data and a natural experiment

Bangladesh’s brick kiln industry plays a critical role in supplying construction materials for rapid urbanization. However, the sector remains largely informal and weakly regulated, with widespread extraction of fertile topsoil and substantial emissions of particulate matter and black carbon. These practices raise growing concerns about long-term environmental degradation, agricultural productivity, and food security. This policy brief summarizes new national-scale evidence on the impacts of brick kiln expansion on agricultural productivity in Bangladesh. Using satellite-based vegetation data covering more than two decades and a newly constructed geospatial inventory of brick kilns, the study provides causal estimates of how kiln establishment affects vegetation health and crop productivity over time.

Year published

2025

Authors

Mahzab, Moogdho; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Mattsson, Martin; Anowar, Md Sadat

Citation

Mahzab, Moogdho; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Mattsson, Martin; and Anowar, Md Sadat. 2025. Brick kilns and agricultural productivity in Bangladesh: Evidence from satellite data and a natural experiment. FCA Brief. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179197

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Drying Kilns; Bricks; Agricultural Productivity; Satellites; Data; Satellite Imagery

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Brief

Labor market and gender impacts of agricultural mechanization: Evidence from Bangladesh’s combine harvester subsidy program

2025Mahzab, Moogdho; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Karim, Md. Aminul; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Roy, Shalini
Details

Labor market and gender impacts of agricultural mechanization: Evidence from Bangladesh’s combine harvester subsidy program

Bangladesh’s Phase III agricultural mechanization subsidy program (2020–2024) distributed over 35,000 machines worth BDT 1,595 crore (USD 163 million), including nearly 9,000 combine harvesters (CHs) that accounted for 84% of machinery expenditure. Earlier causal econometric analysis suggests that high-allocation CH areas saw 6-13% yield gains, 38-70% lower labor costs, and 12-26% lower production costs. In this note, we explore the distributional consequences of subsidized combine harvesters, particularly along gender lines. As a result of the program, self-employment in agriculture increases by 5.3 percentage points; men shift from wage labor to own-account farm work linked to mechanized operations. Female self-employment in agriculture declines by 2.6 percentage points; overall female employment probability falls by 1.8 percentage points. Unlike men, women do not transition into non-agricultural employment, indicating limited capacity to absorb displaced female workers. Among those who remain self-employed, women increase their time allocation substantially—suggesting that while fewer women participate, those who do work more hours, likely in livestock and fisheries. Foreign migration increases by 6.1 percentage points in high-mechanization areas, suggesting households use freed labor for overseas opportunities.

Year published

2025

Authors

Mahzab, Moogdho; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Karim, Md. Aminul; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Roy, Shalini

Citation

Mahzab, Moogdho; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Karim, Md. Aminul; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; and Roy, Shalini. 2025. Labor market and gender impacts of agricultural mechanization: Evidence from Bangladesh’s combine harvester subsidy program. IFPRI Project Note. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178946

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Labour Market; Gender; Impact; Agricultural Mechanization; Subsidies; Combine Harvesters

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

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Brief

Impact of NGOs on women’s empowerment and voice in Bangladesh

2025Mahzab, Moogdho; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Kyle, Jordan; Simi, Sonjida Mesket
Details

Impact of NGOs on women’s empowerment and voice in Bangladesh

Bangladesh continues to experience persistent gender inequalities shaped by cultural, religious, and social norms. Within its patriarchal social structure, women’s roles are commonly limited to reproductive work or household-based productive activities. These tasks are essential to family well-being but unpaid, undervalued, and routinely overlooked compared to men’s work (Efroymson et al., 2007). These norms have historically constrained women’s visibility, mobility, and participation in the public sphere. The expansion of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) marked an important shift in this landscape. Bangladesh’s NGO sector is heterogeneous, with diverse organizational structures, management styles, and ideological orientations that span both service-delivery and movement-based models (Kabeer, 2002). The rapid growth of NGOs starting in the 1980s is driven largely by increases in donor funding, which signaled a move away from earlier approaches focused on promoting political mobilization and accountability of government toward more service-oriented delivery systems (Rahman, 2006). Over the last decades, many of these service-delivery organizations have incorporated advocacy and rights-based strategies into their work (Nazneen, 2008). Through these evolving programmes, NGOs highlighted and strengthened the contributions of underprivileged women as economic actors and active participants in development and political process. However, despite this progress, there is still no clear empirical evidence from Bangladesh that directly links the presence of NGOs to improvements in women’s agency, voice, and empowerment.

Year published

2025

Authors

Mahzab, Moogdho; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Kyle, Jordan; Simi, Sonjida Mesket

Citation

Mahzab, Moogdho; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Kyle, Jordan; and Simi, Sonjida Mesket. 2025. Impact of NGOs on women’s empowerment and voice in Bangladesh. IFPRI Project Note. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178930

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Women’s Empowerment; Gender; Impact; Non-governmental Organizations

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Events

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Towards Impact at Scale
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

December 2 to 4, 2025

Delivering for Nutrition in South Asia: Towards Impact at Scale

South Asia continues to face an enduring burden of malnutrition in all its forms—undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a steady increase in overweight and obesity and non-communicable diseases. Over 1 billion people in South Asia cannot afford a healthy diet. While many promising solutions have emerged, translating them into sustained, large-scale impact remains a challenge. This […]