Ifpri Podcast

Despite significant progress in addressing hunger, malnutrition remains a major challenge in all regions of the world. Unhealthy diets are a major driver of all forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, overweight and obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies, as well as diet-related noncommunicable diseases. Worldwide, as many as 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. The imperative to transform our food systems to ensure sustainable healthy diets for all has never been stronger; meaningful change will require that we deploy high-impact, evidence-based solutions in context-specific ways that are adaptable, dynamic, and equitable. IFPRI’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report on Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Nutrition presents policy and governance solutions to strengthen diet quality and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries, and examines priorities for future research on food systems for better nutrition. Drawing on a substantial body of research on diets, agriculture, and food systems f

HYBRID POLICY SEMINAR Globalization of the Bioeconomy: Recent Trends and Drivers of Bioeconomy Programs and Policies Co-organized by IFPRI, International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB) and CGIAR MAY 7, 2024 - 9:00 TO 10:30AM EDT The bioeconomy approach to sustainable development holds great promise in reducing dependence on fossil fuels, addressing climate change, and promoting resource-use efficiency, thereby stimulating economic growth, enabling innovation, and improving food security. The bioeconomy is the production, utilization, conservation, and regeneration of biological resources, including related knowledge, science, technology, and innovation, to provide sustainable solutions (information, products, processes, and services) within and across all economic sectors and enable a transformation to a sustainable economy. Multilateral organizations have intensified their engagement in, and for, the bioeconomy. Under India’s lead in 2023, the G20 drew attention to the bioeconomy and, in 202

HYBRID POLICY SEMINAR Sudan at a Crossroads: Food Systems, Hunger, and Humanitarian Aid During Civil Conflict MAY 2, 2024 - 10:00 TO 11:30AM EDT In April 2023, Sudan descended into a violent civil war that has displaced more than 8 million people, destroyed critical infrastructure, and left half the country’s population in need of humanitarian assistance. More than one year later, the unresolved conflict threatens agricultural production, agroprocessing, and trade, exacerbating Sudan’s status as a failed state. Sudan’s trajectory is therefore relevant for the broader community of scholars and practitioners working to enhance food systems and food security in fragile states facing complex humanitarian emergencies. This IFPRI policy seminar will reflect on urgent data, analytical, and policy needs to mitigate food insecurity and revitalize food systems in Sudan. Several interrelated issues will be addressed, including options for policy engagement in the absence of a legitimate government, the viability of ba

POLICY SEMINAR Dairy and Nutrition in the Global South: Potential, Progress, and Obstacles Ahead APR 24, 2024 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EDT Malnutrition in early childhood is a major risk factor for premature death and disease, and is associated with 45% of all deaths of children under the age of 5. But malnutrition has important economic consequences too, by delaying learning and slowing down economic growth. Solving malnutrition requires multi-sectoral efforts, including more nutrition-oriented food policies. But how exactly can food policies improve nutrition? This policy seminar examines the potential of dairy development to improve nutrition outcomes, focusing on dairy’s sizable potential for reducing child stunting and other forms of malnutrition, and how dairy systems are being developed to help meet this potential. Speakers will present success stories that highlight diverse paths to progress, as well as major economic and environmental challenges to scaling up dairy production and consumption in the globa

POLICY SEMINAR Deepening Social Protection Systems: Enhancing livelihoods and health in Ethiopia APR 17, 2024 - 10:30AM TO 12:00PM EDT Twenty years after the establishment of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), a major social protection system, the country’s government, donors, and other stakeholders are implementing multidimensional graduation model programs that are designed to complement the PSNP’s monthly food and cash transfers. Graduation models include multiple interventions such as large asset or lump-sum transfers, training, savings promotion, and other forms of nutrition, health, or psychosocial support. These models aim to move beyond cash or food transfers to ensure minimum consumption levels and address the multiple challenges that can trap poor households in poverty. This event will present findings from a randomized controlled trial of Strengthening PSNP Institutions and Resilience (SPIR), a graduation model program embedded within the PSNP that is led by World Vision, in collab

CGIAR SEMINAR SERIES Post COP28 Priorities for Advancing Food Systems Transformation Co-organized by IFPRI, CGIAR, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) MAR 27, 2024 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EDT / 14:30 TO 16:00 CET Held in 2023, the planet’s hottest year on record, COP28 has been heralded for its strong focus on food systems, which are simultaneously threatened by and contribute to climate change. The COP28 Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, albeit non-binding, but endorsed by almost 160 countries, emphasizes the transformative potential of agriculture and food systems in responding to climate change and ensuring global food security. Insufficient climate finance represents a significant barrier to achieving climate-resilient and low-emission food systems. Given that smallholders produce the majority of the global food supply, special attention to their finance needs is critical. As the fifth policy seminar in the CGIAR serie

LAUNCH EVENT Global Food 50/50 Launch Event Co-organized by Global Health 50/50, IFPRI, and UN Women MAR 7, 2024 - 9:00 TO 10:30AM EST / 1:00 TO 2:30pm BST The Global Food 50/50 initiative monitors progress and holds food system organizations accountable for advancing gender-just and equitable food systems. This event marks the launch of the third annual Global Food 50/50 Report, which reviews the gender- and equity-related policies and practices of 51 global food system organizations to assess two interlinked dimensions of inequality: inequality of opportunity in careers within organizations and inequality in who benefits from the global food system. For the first time, the 2023/2024 Report expands its focus to address a policy area that plays a decisive role in promoting equality of opportunity in the workplace: the extent to which workplace policies recognize and support employees’ care responsibilities. The data reveal policy attention to parental leave, but other policies related to family needs, such

CGIAR SEMINAR SERIES Reforming Agricultural Policies and Farm Support to Advance Sustainable Food System Transformation Co-organized by IFPRI, CGIAR, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) 15:00 TO 16:45 CET FEB 29, 2024 - 9:00 TO 10:45AM EST In the recent COP28 Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action, world leaders affirmed that “agriculture and food systems must urgently adapt and transform in order to respond to the imperatives of climate change.” This declaration strengthens the growing global consensus that current food systems need urgent transformative change to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition and to make food production and delivery systems resilient and sustainable. Evidence-based policies are critical to steer such a transformation, which requires urgent action from governments around the world—both in the global North and the global South—to better align, reform, or repurpose current policies and public supp

POLICY SEMINAR Introducing the new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) FEB 22, 2024 - 9:00 TO 10:30AM EST The new Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) https://weai.ifpri.info/wemns/ is a streamlined tool for measuring women’s empowerment, intended for use in large-scale, multitopic surveys conducted by national statistical systems. WEMNS is designed to measure empowerment in households with all types of livelihoods, in both urban and rural areas, complementing the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) https://weai.ifpri.info/, which focuses on agricultural households. WEMNS was developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Emory University, Oxford University, and the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study Unit in collaboration with country partners and the 50x2030 Initiative, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development. This event will pre

SPECIAL EVENT From Commitments to Impact: Analyzing the Global Commitments Toward Promoting Food Security and Healthy Diets Co-organized by IFPRI and The Rockefeller Foundation FEB 6, 2024 - 9:00 TO 10:30AM EST Since the mid-2010s, progress in reducing food insecurity and improving diet quality has stalled. Multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have exacerbated the situation and put Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger further out of reach. There have been many calls for action to address the food and diets crisis facing vulnerable people around the world. The private sector has been called on to invest in transforming food systems—at an annual rate of $320 billion—while the development banks have been asked to align financial incentives with food system-related goals. While some of these actors have stepped up, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) opening of a food shock window to channel funds to countries beset by cri

BOOK LAUNCH Food Systems Transformation in Kenya: Lessons from the Past and Policy Options for the Future Co-organized by IFPRI, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), and CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS) JAN 8, 2024 - 4:30 TO 5:45PM EAT Food systems transformation offers a promising avenue to achieve the goals Kenya has set out in the Bottom-Up Economic Agenda (BETA). The new book Food Systems Transformation in Kenya: Lessons from the Past and Policy Options for the Future, edited by Clemens Breisinger, Michael Keenan, Jemimah Njuki, and Juneweenex Mbuthia, takes a critical look at Kenya’s whole food system, including food supply chains, the food environment, consumer behavior, external drivers, and development outcomes and considers the system’s history and experiences from other countries. With chapters authored by Kenyan and international experts, this collaborative work presents both a bird’s-eye view of the

IFPRI-AMIS SEMINAR SERIES Emerging Trends in the Global Soybean Complex Co-organized by IFPRI and Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) DEC 14, 2023 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EST Global changes in soybean production and consumption are reshaping global markets. Global oilseed prices have fallen considerably since last year’s record highs. World soybean production is likely to hit a record high in 2023/24, with global ending stocks projected to rebuild for the second consecutive year. Global soybean trade continues to be driven by China, which accounts for about 60% of total soybean imports. China’s domestic consumption has grown at about 4% per year over the past 10 years. In the United States, increased biodiesel production has diverted more soybean production to be crushed domestically for soybean oil, reducing soybean exports. As a result, Brazil and other suppliers have seen their market shares grow. In 2023/24, Brazil is projected to account for almost 58% of total soybean exports. This seminar will ex

POLICY SEMINAR From Farm to Table: Agrifood Systems and Trade Challenges in the Southern Cone Co-organized by IFPRI and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) DEC 12, 2023 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EST De la granja a la mesa: Sistemas agroalimentarios y retos comerciales en el Cono Sur Esta presentación será en español. Habrá traducción simultánea al inglés. Los sistemas alimentarios de todo el mundo se enfrentan a retos sociales, nutricionales y medioambientales graves, y deben evolucionar para cumplir nuevos y diversos objetivos interrelacionados. A medida las políticas públicas que se remodelan para apoyar esta transformación, hay que tener en cuenta dos factores fundamentales: (1) Se necesitan innovaciones tecnológicas que permitan satisfacer la demanda de una mayor productividad de forma respetuosa con el medioambiente. (2) Es esencial allanar el camino de los flujos comerciales internacionales, y esto requiere una mejora en las normas comerciales que permita facilitar los flujos desde

VIRTUAL RESEARCH SEMINAR The E-FooD Dataset and Food Security Simulators for Kenya and Nigeria: Innovative Tools to Support National Policies and Strategies Co-organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS) DEC 7, 2023 - 8:00 TO 9:00AM EST Recent global food price spikes and household income losses pose significant challenges to people’s food security and diets, raising important questions for governments and international organizations about how best to support households. The new Income and Price Elasticities of Food Demand (E-FooD) dataset [https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OXZ0H6] and Food Security Simulators (FSS) provide rigorous, yet easy-to-use tools for forward-looking evaluations of direct, household-level outcomes of economic crisis and policy responses. This webinar, organized by the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS), introduces the E-FooD dataset and FSS for Kenya [https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/NS1A7V] and Nigeria [https://doi.org/10.7910/D

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) cordially invite you to the launch of the report: Food Security and Agrifood Trade in Latin America and the Caribbean, La Seguridad Alimentaria y el Comercio Agroalimentario en América Latina y el Caribe. This publication aims to inform government representatives and other decision-makers who formulate and implement agrifood policies and programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. It should also be useful for private sector actors, including producers, agroindustry, and trade associations, and for researchers interested in agricultural policy and trade analysis. ------------------------------------------------------------------- La seguridad alimentaria y el comercio agroalimentario en América Latina y el Caribe Esta presentación será en español. Habrá traducción simultánea al inglés. El comercio intrarregional de alimentos en la región de América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) presen

POLICY SEMINAR Implications of El Niño 2023/24 for Africa South of the Sahara Co-organized by IFPRI, USAID Famine Early Warning Network (FEWS NET), and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center NOV 29, 2023 - 7:30 TO 9:00AM EST Climate scientists are anticipating an El Niño event in the upcoming boreal winter season (November 2023–February 2024), ending the recent three-year La Niña. In collaboration with USAID FEWS NET and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, IFPRI is hosting a presentation on the potential impact of the upcoming El Niño on the global agrifood system, with special emphasis on low-income countries in Africa South of the Sahara. The event will be organized around four short talks. Part 1 will examine the latest scientific outlook for the 2023 El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole climate patterns. Part 2 will focus on El Niño’s impact on global markets, particularly rice markets. Part 3 will provide a sub-national assessment for Ethiopia, Malawi, and Zambia of potentially affected

MARTIN J. FORMAN MEMORIAL LECTURE Tackling Obesity and Noncommunicable Diseases in Mexico: A Policy Approach 33rd Annual Martin J. Forman Memorial Lecture Hybrid Event NOV 21, 2023 - 9:00 TO 10:30AM EST Globally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has nearly tripled since 1975—among adults over the age of 18, more than 1.25 billion are overweight and 650 million are obese. Overweight and obesity affects more than 340 million children and adolescents ages 5 to 19 and nearly 39 million children under 5. These rates have risen significantly in low- and middle-income countries, as rising poverty and inequity, urbanization, and climate and humanitarian crises limit access to healthy diets, especially for the poorest and most marginalized. The 33rd Annual Martin J. Forman Memorial Lecture will feature Dr. Simón Barquera, the Director of Nutrition and Health Research Center at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP) who will address the growing obesity epidemic and alarming rate of diet-rela

POLICY SEMINAR Food System Repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine War 2023 Borlaug Dialogue Breakout session Co-organized by IFPRI and CGIAR OCT 26, 2023 - 1:10 TO 2:10PM EDT This session will examine the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine on food systems around the world. Russia’s February 2022 invasion triggered trade disruptions and dramatic price increases for energy, agricultural commodities, and fertilizers, which were already high following the COVID-19 lockdowns and value chain disruptions. While international prices have come down from the peaks seen in 2022, domestic inflation levels remain high in many low- and middle-income countries, and food and fertilizer affordability remains a challenge. The war has also led to a sizable drop in agricultural production in Ukraine, which has been an important exporter of grains and cooking oil. Given that 30 percent of Ukraine’s agricultural land may be riddled with land mines, production in this major breadbasket may not recover swiftly when hostilities cease.

BOOK LAUNCH The Political Economy of Food System Transformation: Pathways to Progress in a Polarized World Hybrid Event NOV 14, 2023 - 3:00 TO 4:30PM EST Amid rising geopolitical conflict, populism and nationalism, and clashes between empirical evidence and disinformation campaigns, many countries are trying to transform their food systems to achieve healthier, more sustainable outcomes. To accomplish this challenging goal, pathways to transform food systems must be grounded in a sound understanding of interest group dynamics, incentive systems, the role of ideology and coalitions, and accountability structures. The Political Economy of Food System Transformation, a new IFPRI and Oxford University publication edited by Danielle Resnick and Johan Swinnen, tackles this complex subject by integrating insights from a global set of interdisciplinary scholars. Their work encompasses food system policy issues relevant to diets and environmental sustainability at the local, national, and international levels. The a

CGIAR SEMINAR SERIES Can Sustainable Livestock Systems and Alternative Proteins Address the Climate Crisis? Co-organized by IFPRI, CGIAR, and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) NOV 7, 2023 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EST Climate change is severely impacting our food systems, making it increasingly challenging to provide food security and healthy diets for all people. At the same time, food systems contribute 25–30% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The livestock sector alone contributes about half of these GHGs, and has a large land and water footprint. The livestock sector is also the fastest growing agricultural sector in Africa and other parts of the Global South, where access to healthy, affordable milk, meat, and egg remains low. Clearly food system adaptation, including in the livestock sector, must deliver both mitigation and healthy diets. The CGIAR’s 2023 Achieving Agriculture Breakthrough report identifies seven key technological areas and approaches for driving real c