researcher spotlight

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.

TOPIC

Resilience

Economic, climate, and health shocks as well as conflict can be devastating for poor and vulnerable people who have limited resources and options. These shocks include food price hikes and financial crises, environmental and natural disasters, armed and political conflicts, and disease outbreaks. They can intensify the risk of food and nutrition insecurity, drive people into poverty or prevent them from moving out of poverty, and spur migration. Building resilience means helping individuals, households, communities, and countries prepare for, mitigate, cope with, and recover from shocks—so that they can not only bounce back but even become better off.

IFPRI’s resilience research examines the impact of different shocks and explores possible interventions to enhance human capital, policies for responding to and recovering from crises, and ways to create resilient food systems, economies, and societies. This includes extensive work on climate change, food prices, migration, and crises, including COVID-19 and the food, fuel, and fertilizer price increases associated with the Russia-Ukraine war. Research on women’s empowerment and gender equity also contributes to understanding resilience.

IFPRI’s research on this topic is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG1, SDG2, SDG9, and SDG11, and with the CGIAR Impact Areas on Nutrition, Health, and Food Security; Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs; Climate Adaptation and Mitigation; and Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.