Ifpri Podcast

POLICY SEMINAR Disciplining Domestic Support NOV 30, 2021 - 09:00 AM TO 10:00 AM EST The upcoming WTO Ministerial in late November will provide yet another opportunity to address and reform agricultural domestic support. The domestic support pillar has been at the heart of the agricultural negotiations since they began in 2000, but it has proven challenging to achieve consensus on how to advance reforms. In fact, domestic support levels remain high and have risen in recent years. This event will discuss a recent report by IFPRI researchers that suggests that new disciplines could both reduce distortions and provide significant protection in the event of a subsidy war by reducing "leakage" in domestic support disciplines. Welcome Remarks: Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI Speakers: Joseph Glauber, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI David Laborde Debucquet, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI Discussants: Nelson Illescas, Director en Fundación, Instituto Para Las Negociaciones Agrícolas Internacionales (INAI)

PIM Webinar COVID-19 and agricultural value chains: Impacts and adaptations November 29, 2021 In 2020, researchers working under “Inclusive and Efficient Value Chains” (https://pim.cgiar.org/research/f3/) flagship under the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) developed a set of standardized questionnaires for assessing the impact of COVID-19 on agricultural value chains. The set includes questionnaires for farmers, traders, and processors. Despite their brevity (interview time of 25 minutes), the questionnaires cover the impact on scale of operations, employment, input use, production, small enterprise closures, profits, and welfare and food security of proprietors. They have been applied to eight value chains in Central America, Africa, and Asia. To deepen the understanding of how agri-food value chains have been adapting to the new reality, in 2021, the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub (https://a4nh.cgiar.org/covidhub/covid-hub-focus-addressing-value-chain-fractures/) working group on v

BOOK LAUNCH Advancing Gender Equality through Agricultural and Environmental Research: Past, Present, and Future Co-Organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) NOV 23, 2021 - 09:00 AM TO 10:15 AM EST The past decade has seen renewed, and more concerted and comprehensive interest in gender equality and women’s empowerment in the agricultural development sector. This momentum has created a unique opportunity to advance gender equality, and to institutionalize gender research within agricultural research for development (AR4D) organizations. A new book “Advancing Gender Equality through Agricultural and Environmental Research: Past, Present, and Future” is a part of this overall momentum and the growing body of evidence and ideas it is generating. The book marks a shift away from a typical, instrumentalist outlook focused on how gender analysis can contribute to research objectives, such as improved productivity. Over 55 gender researchers who contributed to t

SPECIAL EVENT Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Reflections from a Career in Research for Development Co-Organized by CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) and IFPRI NOV 22, 2021 - 09:30 AM TO 11:00 AM EST John McDermott, Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), presents experiences and insights gained over four decades of research, including reflections on academia and development in Africa; managing research teams and institutions; and setting the agenda and building partnerships at the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and health. He will also share thoughts about the future of research for development and engage with colleagues and audience members on future efforts toward addressing global development goals. McDermott has served as Director of A4NH since its inception in 2012. He will retire at the end of 2021. Keynote Speaker John McDermott, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4

PIM Webinar Agricultural extension and rural advisory services: From research to action November 11, 2021 Extension is a critical pathway from scientific discovery to durable impact at scale, as farmers and other actors in the rural economy learn, adapt, and innovate with new technologies and practices. This webinar presents selected findings from a synthesis of PIM research on agricultural extension and advisory services and provides recommendations for improving extension in the future. During the webinar the synthesis brief and accompanying infographic will be presented. Speakers will then highlight innovative interventions that can be applied and adapted to enhance extension performance. These interventions are organized by extension’s “best-fit” characteristics: governance structures and funding, organizational and management capacities and cultures, methods, and community engagement. It builds on previous PIM events such as Engaging youth and the private sector in extension and agricultural advisory

PIM Webinar Webinar 2: Methods for studying gender dynamics in value chains beyond the production node and single commodity analysis October 28, 2021 Second webinar in the series presenting results of six projects supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) in analyzing gender roles, responsibilities, and relations in agricultural value chains beyond the production node and a single commodity focus. See the whole series and recordings of both sessions at https://bit.ly/GDVCweb. Presentations and speakers: • Understanding the relationship between women’s empowerment and women’s increased participation in poultry value chains in Burkina Faso (Jessica Leight (https://www.ifpri.org/profile/jessica-leight), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)) • From oil palm mamas to market queens: Measuring the gender footprint of informal and formal market value chains in Eastern Region, Ghana (Emily Gallagher (https://www.cifor.org/research-staff/4500/emily-gallagher

MARTIN J. FORMAN MEMORIAL LECTURE Food and Youth: What I have learned from young people and their desire to fix the food systems they live in 31st Annual Martin J. Forman Memorial Lecture OCT 28, 2021 - 10:00 AM TO 11:30 AM EDT In this year’s Martin J. Forman lecture, UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore, an avid champion of children and young people’s rights, will reflect on the children and young people who have inspired her. She will recount their struggles with the food choices they are making and the food environments in which they are making these choices, and will share how young people are contributing to the transformation of global and local food systems. Ms. Fore will offer concrete next steps on how to ensure that children and young people are at the center of discussions on food systems transformation. Participants at the lecture will also have an opportunity to listen to youth representatives about their experiences and perspectives. The annual lecture commemorates the significan

BOOK LAUNCH The Road Towards the WTO MC12: A Latin America and the Caribbean Perspective Co-Organized by IFPRI and Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA) OCT 27, 2021 - 12:00 PM TO 01:00 PM EDT In the run-up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, major challenges face the governance of agricultural and food trade. In today’s context of change and uncertainty, the relative importance and urgency of traditional agricultural trade issues (including domestic support and market access) and the possibilities to progress with a multilateral strategy seem to have diminished. With the growing global focus on the environmental and nutritional dimensions of food systems and the global responsibility of all countries to contribute to food system transformation, attention must be paid to new agricultural trade issues that have gained greater urgency. The WTO, as the primary institution overseeing multilateral negotiations and trade, must identify the main elements and issues that can define i

PIM Webinar Innovations in agricultural insurance: Lessons learnt about managing smallholder farmer risks October 26, 2021 Market and weather-related risks pose significant challenges to smallholder producers. These risks can make production and incomes volatile from year to year, reduce food security, threaten assets and financial security, and make farmers hesitant to invest in new technologies or practices to increase long-term productivity and welfare. Agricultural insurance (https://www.ifpri.org/publication/building-resilience-through-climate-risk-insurance-insights-agricultural-research) has the potential to help farmers manage these risks. However, insurance markets in many developing countries are either weak or inaccessible to most smallholders. Innovative forms of agricultural insurance, such as index-based insurance (IBI), have gained attention in recent years as a way of overcoming many of the limitations of traditional forms of agricultural insurance, but questions remain regarding these tools

POLICY SEMINAR Ideas for confronting climate change today OCT 14, 2021 - 09:30 AM TO 10:45 AM EDT In the lead up to CoP26 (https://ukcop26.org/), IFPRI researchers put forward four ideas for confronting climate change in the context of food systems. Rapid-fire presentations will describe these key ideas: - research for the future of food systems under climate change - transforming food systems through clean energy access - engaging stakeholders in climate-smart landscape management - harnessing digital technologies to manage climate risks in food systems Saliem Fakir, Executive Director of the African Climate Foundation, will moderate the session, and engage the presenters on key questions about food systems and climate change. Jemimah Njuki, Director for Africa at IFPRI, will provide a holistic perspective and shed light on the synergies among the four ideas presented. Rapid Fires: Rui Benfica, Senior Research Fellow, CGIAR-IFPRI Jawoo Koo, Senior Research Fellow, CGIAR-IFPRI Claudia Ringler, D

POLICY SEMINAR Global Food 50/50 Report: Inaugural report on gender, diversity and power in the global food system Co-Organized by IFPRI and Global Health 50/50 OCT 5, 2021 - 08:00 AM TO 09:15 AM EDT In the lead up to the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, tens of thousands of people participated in a global civic experience to produce a shared framework of collective action. Gender equality and women’s empowerment were amplified as a lever of change and embraced as an area of work with the potential to contribute wide-ranging positive change in the transformation of food systems in the coming decade. The establishment of the Global Food 50/50 initiative is a response to broad stakeholder demands for a global food system that is accountable for progress towards gender equality. This event marks the launch of the inaugural Global Food 50/50 Report, which reviews the gender- and equity-related policies and practices of 52 global food system organizations as they relate to two interlinked dimensions of inequality: i

POLICY SEMINAR Developing Resilience to Climate Change and Achieving Food Security in West Africa: Follow up Action from the UN Food Systems Summit Co-Organized by West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) and IFPRI SEP 30, 2021 - 09:00 AM TO 10:30 AM EDT Organized by IFPRI and WASCAL, this collaborative seminar will address issues, constraints, and challenges to developing resilience to climate change and achieving food security in West Africa. Panelists will discuss specific action plans that will be needed for following up on recommendations from the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. Specific topics of presentations will include: Developing a resilience policy framework to address climate change; What do we know from the climate change research in food systems to guide national resilience policy; and Measuring and tracking for resilience programming: Translating resilience strategies at the landscape and farm levels. Discussion with the panelists will follow their in

SPECIAL EVENT Funding Food System Transformation in Developing Countries: An example from Ethiopia UNFSS Side Event -- Co-organized by IFPRI, The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, CGIAR SEP 23, 2021 - 09:30 AM EDT As countries develop national plans for food systems transformation, serious efforts are needed to mobilize the financial resources for design, implementation, and M&E. Ethiopia’s national plan, developed through Ethiopia’s UNFSS process, offers a valuable example of the evidence-based plans, investments, and activities that will require funding. This case will inform discussion of CGIAR work, developed for the UNFSS, on potential sources of funding for food system transformation activities. Specific examples to be discussed include mobilizing impact investors for climate change financing using CGIAR technologies; increasing access to finance for women in food systems; and using IMF issues Special Drawing Rights to guarantee zero hunger and pandemic recovery bonds. Speakers will refle

POLICY SEMINAR Making the most of intra-African trade: the 2021 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor Co-Organized by IFPRI and AKADEMIYA2063 SEP 23, 2021 - 09:30 AM TO 11:00 AM EDT African countries have diversified their exports and trade partners over the last decade, but agricultural trade still lags behind its potential. The pandemic and recent implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) present a critical challenge and an unprecedented opportunity for Africa. The newly launched 2021 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) (https://akademiya2063.org/publications/resakss/EN/AATM/Africa%20Agriculture%20Trade%20Monitor_2021_ENG.pdf) examines these recent events, as well as long-term structural issues, and offers recommendations for improving Africa’s competitiveness and increasing agricultural trade flows. The AATM has become the essential annual African agricultural trade publication, highlighting trends, competitiveness of Africa’s local and global value chains, and regional market int

PIM Webinar Myths About the Feminization of Agriculture: Implications for Global Food Security September 14, 2021 The feminization of agriculture is a term used to describe women’s increased roles in agriculture in many parts of the world. However, the changes occurring in the agricultural sector are more complex than this term suggests. In this webinar, we will present and discuss findings of a new paper on myths about the feminization of agriculture, which resulted from the PIM-supported project on Feminization of Agriculture: Building evidence to debunk myths on current challenges and opportunities. ( https://pim.cgiar.org/2018/10/11/feminization-of-agriculture-call-for-proposals-five-projects-selected/) Drawing on a wide range of literature, this paper debunks four common myths: 1) feminization of agriculture is the predominant global trend; 2) feminization is bad for agriculture; 3) the women remaining in agriculture are passive victims and not farmers; and 4) women farmers everywhere face similar ch

Food Security Portal Virtual Seminar Using Big Data and Machine Learning to Predict Poverty and Malnutrition for Targeting, Mapping, Monitoring, and Early Warning July 28, 2021, 08:00 am EDT Increasingly plentiful data and powerful predictive algorithms have heightened the promise of data science for humanitarian and development programming. As agencies increasingly embrace and invest in machine learning methods for poverty and malnutrition targeting, mapping, monitoring, and early warning, it is essential to recognize that different objectives require distinct data and methods. In this webinar, we highlight the differences between poverty and malnutrition targeting and mapping, the differences between structural and stochastic deprivation, and the modeling and data challenges of early warning systems development based on machine learning methods. We also present two studies that apply machine learning methods to predict poverty and malnutrition. This webinar is the second of a two-part webinar to present

Food Security Portal Virtual Seminar Better Measures of Land Surface Temperatures and Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) to Improve Monitoring for Drought-Stressed Crops and Crop Productivity July 20, 2021, 10:00 am EDT Weather and climate shocks (such as droughts, floods, and heat waves) can imperil climate-sensitive agricultural systems in food-insecure regions, threatening the livelihoods and nutritional status of vulnerable populations in these areas. Satellite remote sensing offers an inexpensive, timely solution to monitor conditions on the Earth’s surface and has become increasingly used to generate data used in decision-making by private and public actors. In this webinar, we discuss recent advances in two satellite products, land surface temperature (LST) and solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), that can significantly improve monitoring for drought-stressed crops and crop productivity. The spatial and temporal variation traceable through LST is critical for identifying the governi

PIM Webinar Measuring employment and consumption in household surveys: Reflections from three survey experiments July 13, 2021, 10:00-11:00 am EDT Programs and policies designed to improve the lives of the poor often rely on an understanding of peoples’ livelihoods and welfare that is based on information collected during long, multi-topic household surveys. These survey efforts are invaluable tools for development practitioners, but choices made by those designing these surveys can impact the information collected in ways that are difficult to predict. Increasingly researchers are incorporating experiments into survey work in an effort to better understand these methodological issues. For example, researchers can vary the order of questions to determine impacts of respondent fatigue, or test different versions of the same question to analyze how responses change. In this webinar, we review three such experiments and reflect upon what we have learned about choices in survey design and what questions still

POLICY SEMINAR Financing food systems transformation JUL 13, 2021 - 09:30 AM TO 11:00 AM EDT In the run-up to the UN Food Systems Summit, excitement is building around game-changing solutions emerging from the Action Tracks and country policy priorities identified in national dialogues. Development of these solutions is benefiting from the lens of the five UNFSS cross-cutting levers and the evidence-based focus provided by the Scientific Group. But implementation will depend on countries’ ability to access and adequately utilize funding for food systems transformation. This event, organized by CGIAR-IFPRI in coordination with the UNFSS Scientific Group, will bring together a group of experts to discuss options for mobilizing and utilizing funding to finance food systems transformation and achieve the related Sustainable Development Goals. Speakers will consider financing options from the perspective of consumers, value chain operators, international development funds, public budgets, banking systems, and c

PIM Webinar Feminization of Agriculture: Building evidence to debunk myths on current challenges and opportunities (Webinar No. 2) July 7, 2021 While the term “feminization” of agriculture is used with both positive and negative connotation, the reality is more complex. In order to get a better understanding of what is happening on the ground, research teams from across CGIAR have been working since 2018 to explore the dynamics and impacts of the feminization of agriculture in various cultural and geographic contexts and across different agricultural value chains. Learn more (and see links to the presentations and podcast): https://bit.ly/FemofAg2 Presentations: • Gender and feminization processes in wheat agriculture in South Asia (Cathy Farnworth (http://www.pandiawarleggan.com/cathy-farnworth-work), independent consultant) • Gender and Youth Employment in Agricultural Value Chains (Kate Ambler (https://www.ifpri.org/profile/kate-ambler), research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute)