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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.

Ahmed Akhter

researcher spotlight

Akhter Ahmed

Akhter Ahmed is a Senior Research Fellow in the IFPRI’s Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit and Country Representative for IFPRI Bangladesh. He has worked on strategies for agricultural and rural development, social protection, and women’s empowerment to reduce poverty, food insecurity, and undernutrition in developing countries including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Malawi, the Philippines, and Turkey.

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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

Naureen Karachiwalla

Research Fellow

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Bio

Naureen Karachiwalla is a Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow at both the Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR) and the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP). Naureen’s research uses experimental and quasi-experimental methods to examine how public policy design can improve public service delivery and reduce poverty. She studies the role of career incentives in improving the quality of public services; the design, implementation, and market effects of public programs in reducing poverty; and the role of public and private investments in human capital with regards to education, mental health, and nutrition.

Before starting her PhD, she worked as an Economist/ODI Fellow at the Ministry of Education in Ghana. She obtained her PhD in Economics at the University of Oxford and was an AMID Fellow at Bocconi University in Milan. She also holds a master’s degree in Economics for Development with Distinction from the University of Oxford, and a bachelor’s degree with honors from McGill University, Montreal. Visit Naureen’s website here.

Languages spoken: English, French

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Publications

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Journal Article

Designing and implementing experiments within local bureaucratic systems: A cautionary tale from an educator incentive program

2025Asad, Saher; Habib, Masooma; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Kosec, Katrina; Leaver, Clare; ur Rehman, Attique
Details

Designing and implementing experiments within local bureaucratic systems: A cautionary tale from an educator incentive program

Collaborating with governments to co-develop pilot programs and integrate them into local administrative systems is increasingly regarded as a key strategy for achieving scalability and sustainability. This study examines a pilot initiative designed in partnership with the Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, offering important lessons for such collaborations. While the intent to operate within existing bureaucratic frameworks was commendable, it also limited the design and execution of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This paper explores institutional factors that hindered the RCT’s implementation, resulting in missed opportunities to evaluate critical design elements. The pilot centered on promotion-based incentives for educators and had null effects on a variety of educator and student outcomes. However, using unique video-based evidence, it objectively identifies the implementation challenges and describes the insights gained for more effective co-design and integration of future pilot programs within governmental systems.

Year published

2025

Authors

Asad, Saher; Habib, Masooma; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Kosec, Katrina; Leaver, Clare; ur Rehman, Attique

Citation

Asad, Saher; Habib, Masooma; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Kosec, Katrina; Leaver, Clare; and ur Rehman, Attique. Designing and implementing experiments within local bureaucratic systems: A cautionary tale from an educator incentive program. Education Finance and Policy. Article in press. First published online June 21, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00435

Country/Region

Pakistan

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Economics; Implementation; Incentives; Teachers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00435 Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Man vs. machine: Experimental evidence on the quality and perceptions of AI-generated research content

2024Keenan, Michael; Koo, Jawoo; Mwangi, Christine Wamuyu; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Breisinger, Clemens; Kim, MinAh
Details

Man vs. machine: Experimental evidence on the quality and perceptions of AI-generated research content

Academic researchers want their research to be understood and used by non-technical audiences, but that requires communication that is more accessible in the form of non-technical and shorter summaries. The researcher must both signal the quality of the research and ensure that the content is salient by making it more readable. AI tools can improve salience; however, they can also lead to ambiguity in the signal since true effort is then difficult to observe. We implement an online factorial experiment providing non-technical audiences with a blog on an academic paper and vary the actual author of the blog from the same paper (human or ChatGPT) and whether respondents are told the blog is written by a human or AI tool. Even though AI-generated blogs are objectively of higher quality, they are rated lower, but not if the author is disclosed as AI, indicating that signaling is important and can be distorted by AI. Use of the blog does not vary by experimental arm. The findings suggest that, provided disclosure statements are included, researchers can potentially use AI to reduce effort costs without compromising signaling or salience. Academic researchers want their research to be understood and used by non-technical audiences, but that requires communication that is more accessible in the form of non-technical and shorter summaries. The researcher must both signal the quality of the research and ensure that the content is salient by making it more readable. AI tools can improve salience; however, they can also lead to ambiguity in the signal since true effort is then difficult to observe. We implement an online factorial experiment providing non-technical audiences with a blog on an academic paper and vary the actual author of the blog from the same paper (human or ChatGPT) and whether respondents are told the blog is written by a human or AI tool. Even though AI-generated blogs are objectively of higher quality, they are rated lower, but not if the author is disclosed as AI, indicating that signaling is important and can be distorted by AI. Use of the blog does not vary by experimental arm. The findings suggest that, provided disclosure statements are included, researchers can potentially use AI to reduce effort costs without compromising signaling or salience.

Year published

2024

Authors

Keenan, Michael; Koo, Jawoo; Mwangi, Christine Wamuyu; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Breisinger, Clemens; Kim, MinAh

Citation

Keenan, Michael; Koo, Jawoo; Mwangi, Christine; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Breisinger, Clemens; and Kim, MinAh. 2024. Man vs. machine: Experimental evidence on the quality and perceptions of AI-generated research content. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2321. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169363

Keywords

Southern Asia; Artificial Intelligence; Communication; Research

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Digital Innovation

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial at endline

2024Leight, Jessica; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Hirvonen, Kalle; Rakshit, Deboleena
Details

Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial at endline

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and severe poverty, ongoing armed conflict, and recurring droughts and floods have created a humanitarian crisis characterized by a high level of inter nal displacement. Baidoa city—the site of this evaluation—hosts 517 sites for internally displaced per sons (IDP), with almost 600,000 households, and 64 percent of the individuals living in these sites are women and girls. According to the second Somali High Frequency Survey (Pape and Karamba 2019), IDP settlements (along with rural areas) face a particularly high level of poverty, exacerbated by high unemployment rates and the absence of income-generating opportunities. This brief reports on endline findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the project Building Pathways Out of Poverty for Ultra-poor IDPs and Vulnerable Host Communities in Baidoa, an ultra-poor graduation (UPG) intervention implemented by World Vision and funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). The project seeks to enable ultra-poor internally displaced households to graduate from extreme poverty and begin the upward trajectory to self-reliance for displacement-affected communities by enabling gender-sensitive, context-appropriate, and sustainable livelihoods in an urban setting. IFPRI is collaborating with World Vision to conduct the trial.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Hirvonen, Kalle; Rakshit, Deboleena

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Rakshit, Deboleena. 2024. Building pathways out of poverty in Baidoa: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial at endline. Learning Brief December 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168400

Country/Region

Somalia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Poverty; Conflicts; Natural Disasters; Displacement; Women; Unemployment; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Brief

Events

IFPRI @ CGIAR Science Week
IFPRI at External Event

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April 7 to 12, 2025

IFPRI @ CGIAR Science Week

When humanity has faced its greatest challenges, science and innovation have provided solutions. Today, major and connected global challenges threaten the sustainability of food, land, and water systems, with the most vulnerable people and communities at greatest risk. Recognizing the urgency of these challenges, CGIAR and the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) are […]

National Policies and Strategies for Food, Land and Water Systems Transformation (NPS)
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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May 17 to 18, 2022

National Policies and Strategies for Food, Land and Water Systems Transformation (NPS)

Virtual Event: May 17, 2022 – 9:00 AM to May 18, 2022 – 2:00 PM EAT. This event will introduce the NPS initiative and bring together key stakeholders to help plan a specific work program for Kenya in the next three years.

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)
IFPRI at External Event

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August 17 to 31, 2021

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)

Virtual Event: AUG 17, 2021 – 08:00 AM to AUG 31, 2021 08:00 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in the 31st Conference of Agriculture Economists organized by the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). 

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News

April 04, 2023 | In the News

The education spending multiplier: Evidence from schools in Pakistan (VoxDev) 

“Grants given to public schools in Pakistan increase test scores in both public and private schools as a result of increased competition,” writes IFPRI research fellow Naureen Karachiwalla and her co-authors in an article published by VoxDev.  The authors evaluate the LEAPS (Learning and Educational Achievement in Pakistan Schools) study which demonstrates the existence of a large […]

March 04, 2019 | In the News

What happens when you incentivise primary education in Uganda (VoxDev)

VoxDev published an op-ed regarding primary education incentivez in Uganda by Deputy Division Director Daniel Gilligan and Research Fellow Naureen Karachiwalla. Their research found that incentivizing teachers for achievement can increase education attainment when paired with adequate instructional resources.