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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

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Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His work focuses on the relationships among poverty, nutrition, food security, agriculture, the environment, production, and migration—analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic levels, primarily using quantitative methods.

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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 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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What’s New

Pathways to power in fragile settings: Rethinking women’s roles in agriculture and food systems
IFPRI Blog
 | 
April 25, 2025

Pathways to power in fragile settings: Rethinking women’s roles in agriculture and food systems

By Agnes Quisumbing, Jordan Kyle, Katrina Kosec, and Catherine Ragasa

Difficult circumstances also offer opportunities.

U.S.-China trade war 2.0: What are the implications for global oilseed markets?
IFPRI Blog
 | 
April 21, 2025

U.S.-China trade war 2.0: What are the implications for global oilseed markets?

By Joseph Glauber, Juan Pablo Gianatiempo, and Valeria Piñeiro

Key agrifood products may see abrupt shifts.

Overcoming policy, finance, and technology supply constraints to unleash small-scale irrigation in Nigeria
IFPRI Blog
 | 
April 14, 2025

Overcoming policy, finance, and technology supply constraints to unleash small-scale irrigation in Nigeria

By Bedru Balana, Musa T. Yakasai, Nuruddeen M. Musa, Augustine Iraoya, and Claudia Ringler

Bringing human-centered design to smallholder agriculture.

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Journal Article

Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

2024Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; Chen, Kevin Z.

Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries

Despite the well-studied nutritional benefits of dairy for child linear growth, dairy is less consumed in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where the prevalence of child stunting is high. Previous studies have suggested the cost of dairy as a potential barrier to increased dairy consumption in these countries. Surprisingly, little research on the association between dairy consumption and child stunting in LMICs focuses on the role of trade policies, particularly the liberalization of dairy trade. To explore this, we use representative cross-country individual data on child stunting from 2006 to 2020 and link it with country-level dairy trade data. We find that a 10% decline in dairy tariff rates reduces the risk of stunting by 7.78%. Our results are robust to a subsample analysis excluding countries which joined the WTO after 2000 and to an alternative clustering method. As a falsification test, our results show child stunting is not linked with tariffs for coffee and tea. Heterogeneity analysis indicates the associations are more pronounced for boys, children aged 3–5, and children from households with lower socioeconomic status. Although we did not find significant rural–urban differences, the associations are indeed stronger for households without cattle and for countries in Western Africa, South East Asia and Europe and Central Asia. Mechanism analysis suggests that dairy tariffs are positively correlated with milk prices, while they are negatively associated with dairy import values. Lower dairy tariffs are also found to be linked with higher probability of child dairy consumption. Our findings highlight the importance of removing tariff barriers in reducing the cost of dairy and promoting dairy consumption in LMICs. This study has implications for repurposing dairy trade policies in creating nutrition-sensitive agriculture.

Year published

2024

Authors

Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; Chen, Kevin Z.

Citation

Liu, Xinghua; Liang, Yue; and Chen, Kevin Z. 2024. Dairy trade liberalization and child stunting: Evidence from low- and middle-income countries. Food Policy 122(January 2024): 102554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102554

Keywords

Child Stunting; Data; Milk; Trade Liberalization; Trade Policies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2023.102554 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Journal Article

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

2025Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso

Undernutrition in women and young children in Burkina Faso is a critical problem. Egg consumption is low despite many households raising poultry. The Soutenir l’Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l’Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l’Économie Rurale (SELEVER) project, an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention, promoted egg consumption and sales to investigate the impact of poultry production on child nutrition. Multisectoral nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs address nutrition deficits but lack comparable cost information. This study estimates the costs of the SELEVER program, an integrated poultry and nutrition intervention. The study estimates the program’s economic costs using a standardized methodology from the Strengthening Economic Evaluation for Multisectoral Strategies for Nutrition (SEEMS-Nutrition) consortium, which aligns financial and economic costs along program impact pathways, allocating costs by activities and inputs. We conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups on time allocation and beneficiary out-of-pocket costs. Incremental economic costs were calculated by combining expenditures and economic costs. The total incremental program cost was USD$18,084,727.68 over 5 years, with annual incremental costs of USD$209.20 per direct beneficiary and $796.26 per household. Major cost drivers included overhead (18%), poultry extension (17%), training (16%), household counseling (7%), technical assistance (7%) and microcredit (6%). Total input costs were dominated by personnel (51%), supplies (13%), agricultural inputs (10%) and overhead (9%). We present the total incremental costs of a multisectoral nutrition intervention to generate revenue with poultry. The costs per beneficiary were higher than similar interventions, underscoring the need for cost-effectiveness evaluations of multisectoral nutrition programs. A standardized cost methodology facilitates comparisons with multisectoral nutrition interventions and builds the evidence base.

Year published

2025

Authors

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; Levin, Carol

Citation

Margolies, Amy; Pedehombga, Abdoulaye; Twalibu, Aisha; Nwabuikwu, Odiche; Wun, Jolene; Kemp, Chris; Gelli, Aulo; and Levin, Carol. 2025. The costs of a multisectoral nutrition program implemented through a poultry value chain platform in Burkina Faso. Maternal and Child Nutrition 21(2): e13791. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791

Country/Region

Burkina Faso

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Nutrition; Poultry; Value Chains; Children; Costs; Gender; Sustainability; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13791 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Journal Article

Journal Article

Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs

2024
Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Neena; Chauhan, Alka; Dwivedi, L. K.; Kapur, Avani; Pedgaonkar, Sarang; Shukla, Ritwik
…more Chakrabarti, Suman; Singh, Shri Kant; Menon, Purnima

Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs

Background High coverage of nutrition-specific interventions is critical to meet global nutrition targets, and it is imperative to understand how to attain it. We examined trends and inequalities in the coverage of interventions in India and the role of the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) in achieving improvements. Methods We conducted trends and equity analysis of 30 interventions using two rounds of National Family Health Survey data (2015–2016, n=1 78 874, and 2019–2021, n=1 70 697). We also compared coverage between states that received incentives and monitoring under NNM and those that did not. We reviewed programme documents and grey literature to construct a policy timeline to trace pathways to coverage improvement and consulted with stakeholders to confirm interpretation of findings. Findings Between 2016 and 2021, coverage improved significantly for nearly all interventions (~1–22 percentage points (pp) during pregnancy, ~7–20 pp during delivery/postpartum and~5–17 pp during early childhood). Improvements in coverage were higher among the poor and in rural areas compared with the rich and in urban areas, respectively; wealth and residence gaps narrowed for most interventions. These improvements could be traced to community mobilisation, technology and monitoring under NNM. Improvements in coverage of growth monitoring and counselling were higher in states that received additional incentives and monitoring under NNM. Stakeholders concurred that the improvements in coverage were likely driven by NNM. Interpretation Focused policy attention and programmatic efforts improved coverage and reduced inequities indicating an inclusive approach. Persistent coverage gaps for certain interventions require further inquiry.

Year published

2024

Authors

Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong Hong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Neena; Chauhan, Alka; Dwivedi, L. K.; Kapur, Avani; Pedgaonkar, Sarang; Shukla, Ritwik; Chakrabarti, Suman; Singh, Shri Kant; Menon, Purnima

Citation

Avula, Rasmi; Nguyen, Phuong; Christopher, Anita; Gune, Soyra; Bhatia, Bhatia; Chauhan, Alka; et al. 2024. Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: role of national programs. Assessing progress on the coverage of interventions in the first 1000 days in India: Role of national programs. BMJ Global Health 9(12): e015246. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015246

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Data; Maternal and Child Health; Nutrition; Research Methods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2024-015246 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Journal Article

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2024 Year in Review

Explore highlights from IFPRI’s 2024 research and outreach, including our work on food security and healthy diets, responding to conflicts and building resilience, and major outputs from our regional and country programs. Click through the interactive review to view videos, blogs, events and more.

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IFPRI and CGIAR

IFPRI is a Research Center of CGIAR,  the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network. IFPRI researchers collaborate closely with researchers from other CGIAR Centers, and our work contributes to the CGIAR mission of delivering science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.

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Experts in Our Field

IFPRI’s experts work around the world to provide the evidence that supports effective policies to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.

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Meet a Researcher

Emily Schmidt is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her research focuses on the intersection of development economics and geographic information systems (GIS) with an emphasis on the dynamic process of rural land transformation, rural employment diversification, and agricultural production outcomes on household welfare. Her most recent research explores household livelihood strategies in Papua New Guinea, including linkages between agriculture, poverty, and nutrition outcomes among rural smallholder farmers.

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From our video channel

Faces of IFPRI: Agnes Quisumbing

This video features Agnes Quisumbing, Senior Research Fellow. Agnes reflects on 30 years of policy research based on extensive fieldwork in Asia and Africa, the importance of working together to solve tough problems, and of learning from women and men’s lived experiences. She also shares her favorite IFPRI memory, and what keeps her passionate about her work.

“Faces of IFPRI” is a new series of interviews with IFPRI colleagues around the world, showcasing the diversity of talent, geographies, and research interests across the Institute.

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Our Events

2025 Global Food Policy Report: Food Policy Research for a Brighter Future: Looking Towards 2050
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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May 28, 2025, 9:30 – 12:30 pm

2025 Global Food Policy Report: Food Policy Research for a Brighter Future: Looking Towards 2050

Also streaming on Conflicts, extreme weather events, and rising inequality have hindered progress in accelerating economic growth, eradicating poverty, hunger and malnutrition, further exacerbated by reductions in international development assistance and growing geopolitical tensions. Although national policies are of tantamount importance for addressing food system challenges, international and regional collaboration and consensus remain essential in […]

Ending Hunger and Malnutrition: Keeping Our Eyes on the Road
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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April 22, 2025, 9:30 – 12:00 pm

Ending Hunger and Malnutrition: Keeping Our Eyes on the Road

While global agricultural commodity prices have come down from the high levels seen in recent years, the world remains far off track in meeting the SDG2 of ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Last year, close to 300 million people faced food crisis while the number of people on the cusp of famine doubled. Efforts […]

Two Years of Crisis: Impact and Pathways to Recovery and Resilience
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April 14 to 15, 2025

Two Years of Crisis: Impact and Pathways to Recovery and Resilience

The Sudan conflict, now entering its third year, continues to devastate the country’s socioeconomic fabric. As of January 2025, more than 8.8 million people were internally displaced, and over 3.3 million had sought refuge in neighboring countries. Conservative reports estimate over 32,000 fatalities occurred between the start of the war on April 15, 2023, and […]

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Making a Difference Blog Series

West Africa faces significant problems with various forms of malnutrition, especially among women and children. In 2017, the region had the highest rate of under-five wasting (low weight-for-age) in Africa—8.5% compared with the continent’s mean of 7.4%. The rate of stunting (low height-for-age) waw also extremely high at 31.4%. In 2017, 52% of women ages 15-46 suffered from anemia.

In response, IFPRI, with funding from the Gates Foundation, established Transform Nutrition West Africa (TNWA)—a regional knowledge platform to facilitate effective policy and action on maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in West Africa with a focus on four countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. TNWA ran from 2017 to 2021.

Tamsin Zandstra, Roos Verstraeten, Ampa Dogui Diatta, Loty Diop, and Mariama Touré explore TNWA’s research, work, and long-term impact in West Africa.

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