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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

Lilia Bliznashka

Lily Bliznashka is a Research Fellow in the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit. Her research focuses on assessing the effectiveness of multi-input nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions and the mechanisms through which they work to improve maternal and child health and nutrition globally. She has worked in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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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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Where we work

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

Director General’s Office (DGO)

Tamsin Zandstra

Research Analyst

Tamsin Zandstra

Bio

Tamsin Zandstra is a Research Analyst with the Director General’s Office (DGO) Unit, and is based at IFPRI-Washington, DC.

Director General’s Office (DGO)

Publications

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Working Paper

Banking systems, capital markets, and financing the transformation of food systems: The role of macroeconomics, regulations, and incentives

2025Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Zandstra, Tamsin
Details

Banking systems, capital markets, and financing the transformation of food systems: The role of macroeconomics, regulations, and incentives

Improving food systems requires significant expenditures and investments from both the public and private sector. In the case of public outlays, the decisions are taken by the government or by multilateral international organizations (with governments as their owners), while, obviously, private expenditures and investments depend on choices by the private sector. These private financial flows are guided by the decisions of consumers, producers, banking system institutions, and operators in capital markets. Public policy cannot dictate directly how those private actors act (for instance, governments cannot mandate that consumers must eat healthy diets), but it can influence those decisions through adequate macroeconomic, regulatory, and incentive frameworks. This discussion paper will focus briefly on some ideas about how those frameworks can reorient and expand current levels of funding towards food systems transformation, focusing particularly on banking systems and capital markets. First, it briefly analyzes the levels of financial flows in the banking system and capital markets. Then it looks at the role of macroeconomic policy in influencing the operations of food systems, followed by suggestions about other regulatory and incentive frameworks to create healthy, equitable, sustainable and climate-resilient food systems.

Year published

2025

Authors

Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Zandstra, Tamsin

Citation

Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; and Zandstra, Tamsin. 2025. Banking systems, capital markets, and financing the transformation of food systems: The role of macroeconomics, regulations, and incentives. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2349. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/175792

Keywords

Banking; Capital Markets; Financing; Food Systems; Economic Systems; Macroeconomics; Regulations; Incentives

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Book Chapter

Impact: Assessing the outcomes of IFPRI’s research

2025Yosef, Sivan; Zandstra, Tamsin; Place, Frank; Babu, Suresh Chandra
Details

Impact: Assessing the outcomes of IFPRI’s research

Food policy research plays an essential role in helping to achieve food security for all, promote sustainable and healthy diets, build efficient markets, transform economies, and strengthen food systems institutions and governance. This chapter examines IFPRI’s impacts over the last 50 years through providing independent, high-quality evidence to inform policy options, programs, and investments. Book link: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174108

Year published

2025

Authors

Yosef, Sivan; Zandstra, Tamsin; Place, Frank; Babu, Suresh Chandra

Citation

Yosef, Sivan; Zandstra, Tamsin; Place, Frank; and Babu, Suresh Chandra. 2025. Impact: Assessing the outcomes of IFPRI’s research. In Global food policy report 2025: Food policy: Lessons and priorities for a changing world, eds. Johan Swinnen and Christopher Barrett, Part One: Pathways to Progress, Chapter 2, Pp. 33-52. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174154

Keywords

Impact; Impact Assessment; Food Policies; Research; Capacity Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Book Chapter

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Working Paper

Honduras: The impact of COVID-19 and implications: Second report

2021Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Flores, Luis; Paz, Florencia; Piñeiro, Valeria; Zandstra, Tamsin
Details

Honduras: The impact of COVID-19 and implications: Second report

Due to the global pandemic generated by COVID-19 the government of Honduras declared a “state of emergency” in February (“Estado de Emergencia en el Territorio Nacional a través del Decreto Ejecu-tivo Número PCM- 005-2020, 10 de febrero 2020). The country suffered the first confirmed COVID-19 case on March 12th, 2020. The first death was registered on March 26, 2020. This document updates a previous report (Díaz Bonilla, Laborde, and Piñeiro, 2021) on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems in Honduras. First, it brings up to date the evolution of the pandemic, using different indicators. Second, it summarizes the main responses, costs, and fi-nancing. Third, it updates the evolution of key variables up to the time of this writing (June 2021). Fourth, there is a more detailed analysis of the evolution of some food value chains that are central for food consumption in Honduras. Fifth, main results for 2021 and 2022 of previous modeling work are briefly presented. A final section discusses considerations in light of the updated analysis.

Year published

2021

Authors

Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Flores, Luis; Paz, Florencia; Piñeiro, Valeria; Zandstra, Tamsin

Citation

Diaz-Bonilla, Eugenio; Flores, Luis; Paz, Flor; Piñeiro, Valeria; and Zandstra, Tamsin. 2021. Honduras: The impact of COVID-19 and implications: Second report. LAC Working Paper 22. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134533.

Country/Region

Honduras

Keywords

Central America; Latin America; Value Chains; Agricultural Value Chains; Policies; Covid-19; Health; Employment; Social Protection; Nutrition; Food Security; Social Safety Nets; Pandemics; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134533 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

School meals and school-based actions for people and the planet: Nourishing bodies, minds, and futures
Research Post
 | 
May 01, 2026

School meals and school-based actions for people and the planet: Nourishing bodies, minds, and futures

By Tamsin Zandstra, Aulo Gelli, Daniel Gilligan, and Eleanor Jones

Impacts on education and beyond.

AReNA’s groundbreaking research on links between agriculture, nutrition, and healthy diets
Research Post
 | 
September 11, 2025

AReNA’s groundbreaking research on links between agriculture, nutrition, and healthy diets

By Tamsin Zandstra and Derek Headey

In 2014, IFPRI and the Gates Foundation launched the AReNA project to bridge agriculture and nutrition research, addressing data gaps and advancing understanding of how agriculture can better improve diets and nutrition worldwide.

Transform Nutrition West Africa builds knowledge for decision-makers
Issue Post
 | 
March 07, 2025

Transform Nutrition West Africa builds knowledge for decision-makers

By Tamsin Zandstra, Roos Verstraeten, Ampa Dogui Diatta, Loty Diop, and Mariama Touré

Transform Nutrition West Africa (TNWA), led by IFPRI and funded by the Gates Foundation (2017–2021), served as a regional platform to support effective policy and programmatic actions to improve maternal and child nutrition in West Africa, focusing on Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Burkina Faso.

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