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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

Danielle Resnick

Danielle Resnick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit and a Non-Resident Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on the political economy of agricultural policy and food systems, governance, and democratization, drawing on extensive fieldwork and policy engagement across Africa and South Asia.

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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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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

Natural Resources and Resilience

Thomas Falk

Research Fellow

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Bio

Dr. Thomas Falk is a Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. An institutional economist by specialization, he has done extensive research on natural resource governance in the Global South. He has worked in the fields of economics of natural resource management, multi-level governance in social-ecological systems (SES), science–policy interaction, and trans-disciplinarity. His recent work focuses on conceptualizing and supporting behavioral change in system transformation processes. In this context, he studies the use of experiential learning games, conceptualizing and assessing their impact on institutional and behavioral change.

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Publications

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Report

Report on visioning workshop of the Banspal Bikas Mancha (Living Lab) supporting locally led climate action, Odisha, India

2025Paliya, Vaishnavi; Tripathy, Saswatik; Prusty, Kartik Chandra; Falk, Thomas; Chabay, Ilan
Details

Report on visioning workshop of the Banspal Bikas Mancha (Living Lab) supporting locally led climate action, Odisha, India

This report documents a one-day Vision to Action workshop organized by Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) with support of International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), held on August 18, 2025, in Banspal village, Keonjhar, Odisha. The workshop is convened as a foundation step towards establishing a Living Lab in Banspal and situated within the broader framework of the CGIAR Climate Action Science Program.

Year published

2025

Authors

Paliya, Vaishnavi; Tripathy, Saswatik; Prusty, Kartik Chandra; Falk, Thomas; Chabay, Ilan

Citation

Paliya, Vaishnavi; Tripathy, Saswatik; Prusty, Kartik Chandra; Falk, Thomas; and Chabay, Ilan. 2025. Report on visioning workshop of the Banspal Bikas Mancha (Living Lab) supporting locally led climate action, Odisha, India. CGIAR Research Program on Climate Action Workshop Report. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179914

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Capacity Building; Living Labs; Climate Change; Stakeholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Report

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Brief

Assessment of the facilitation process of establishing a living lab for co-creating locally-led climate action in Caquetá/Colombia

2025Falk, Thomas; Rodríguez, Luz A.; Vanegas, Martha; Nehring, Ryan; Calle, Johana; Lopez, Maria
Details

Assessment of the facilitation process of establishing a living lab for co-creating locally-led climate action in Caquetá/Colombia

One of the key ambitions of the CGIAR Climate Action Program is to support structures that enable affected people to take ownership of food system innovation processes and to determine their goals, strategies, and modalities. To this end, the program team adopts and expands the concept of living labs, understood as social spaces – virtual or physical – where stakeholders co-develop new ways of thinking and acting to transform collaboration and practices. In the Department of Caquetá, within the Colombian Amazon, the program supports a place-based and community-led living lab focused on inclusion, environmental justice, and peacebuilding—an initiative participants have termed the “Participatory Rural Innovation Lab: Towards a Sustainable Territory” (PRIL). This paper presents the results of an assessment of the early dynamics in PRIL’s development in light of the normative principles of the living lab approach. Moreover, it examines whether significant power and agency imbalances exist and to what extent contextual factors influence the process.

Year published

2025

Authors

Falk, Thomas; Rodríguez, Luz A.; Vanegas, Martha; Nehring, Ryan; Calle, Johana; Lopez, Maria

Citation

Falk, Thomas; Rodríguez, Luz A.; Vanegas, Martha; Nehring, Ryan; Calle, Johana; and Lopez, Maria. 2025. Assessment of the facilitation process of establishing a living lab for co-creating locally-led climate action in Caquetá/Colombia. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179912

Country/Region

Colombia

Keywords

Americas; South America; Capacity Building; Living Labs; Local Climate Action; Locally-led Action; Facilitation

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Brief

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Report

From vision to action (V2A): Advancing sustainable management of multifunctional landscapes in Akole, Maharashtra (India)

2025Barooah, Prapti; Falk, Thomas; Joshi, Rajashree; V S, Viswadev; Krishnan, Smitha; Kumar, Gopal; Malaiappan, Sudharsan
Details

From vision to action (V2A): Advancing sustainable management of multifunctional landscapes in Akole, Maharashtra (India)

The Vision-to-Action (V2A) approach was developed to support inclusive stakeholder conversations to create a shared vision for a desirable future, develop holistic and medium-term transition pathways towards sustainable living landscapes, and define realistic, collectively agreed-upon concrete action plans that outline the behavior changes required to transition from their current situation to the envisioned future. It is designed to foster action that is multi-actor (e.g., producers, traders, enterprises, consumers, policymakers), multidimensional (e.g., agricultural, environmental, economic, social), and multi-scalar (e.g., farm, landscape, system) to realize sustainable food system transformation. This method structures conversations to allow stakeholders to discuss and agree about who, what, when and where to engage in the sought transformation processes. The V2A process and results also point to opportunities and entry points for responsive external support including by research-in-development partners such as the CGIAR Science Program on Multifunctional Landscapes.

Year published

2025

Authors

Barooah, Prapti; Falk, Thomas; Joshi, Rajashree; V S, Viswadev; Krishnan, Smitha; Kumar, Gopal; Malaiappan, Sudharsan

Citation

Barooah, Prapti; Falk, Thomas; Joshi, Rajashree; V S, Viswadev; Krishnan, Smitha; Kumar, Gopal; Malaiappan, Sudharsan. 2025. Advancing sustainable management of multifunctional landscapes in Akole (Maharashtra), India. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178934

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Sustainability; Landscape; Multiple Land Use; Stakeholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Report

Blogs

Women’s participation yields benefits for water management: Insights from village dams in India
Research Post
 | 
September 29, 2025

Women’s participation yields benefits for water management: Insights from village dams in India

By Thomas Falk, Ivo Steimanis, Lara Bartels, Vishwambhar Duche, Björn Vollan, and Ruth Meinzen-Dick

A pathway to improve community stewardship.

Costs and benefits of using social learning games to support Indian communities in better managing their dams
Research Post
 | 
September 26, 2025

Costs and benefits of using social learning games to support Indian communities in better managing their dams

By Thomas Falk, Ivo Steimanis, Lara Bartels, Vishwambhar Duche, Björn Vollan, and Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Fostering stewardship of a key resource.

Understanding and supporting collective action in natural resource management through experiential learning games: Examples from three continents
Event Post
 | 
July 23, 2025

Understanding and supporting collective action in natural resource management through experiential learning games: Examples from three continents

By Hagar ElDidi, Thomas Falk, Juan Felipe Ortiz-Riomalo, Franziska Auch, Wei Zhang, and Upeksha Hettiarachchi

Fostering cooperative stewardship.

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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 […]

Scaling Up Experiential Learning Tools for Sustainable Water Governance in India
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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October 17 to 18, 2023

Scaling Up Experiential Learning Tools for Sustainable Water Governance in India

As a common pool resource, water is easily depleted if no effective coordination exists among users to ensure provision and regulate withdrawals. The Scaling up experiential learning tools for sustainable water governance in India project aims to enhance sustainable water management at scale by improving the capacities of rural communities to manage water more sustainably. […]

From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems
IFPRI Program/Country Event

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October 9 to 12, 2023

From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems

Conference: October 09, 2023 – 9:00 AM to October 12, 2023 – 6:00 PM IST. IFPRI is participating in the 2023 annual CGIAR gender research conference will take place in New Delhi, India.

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