Washington, DC: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is pleased to announce a new operational structure intended to strengthen our research, delivery, and scaling collaborations with partners on evidence-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. The updated structure also facilitates cross-CGIAR collaboration in line with the mission of CGIAR to advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
“IFPRI’s new operational structure is closely aligned with the CGIAR Systems Transformation Science Group, and facilitates the important work of our staff, approximately 50% of whom work in developing countries alongside other CGIAR staff and partners, so they can better address a wide range of issues to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people,” indicates Johan Swinnen, IFPRI Director General and Managing Director of the CGIAR System Transformation Science Group.
IFPRI is moving from four divisions to seven research units, grouped under a Food and Nutrition Policy Department, headed by Senior Director Purnima Menon, based in IFPRI’s office in New Delhi, and a Transformation Strategies Department, headed by Senior Director Channing Arndt, based at IFPRI headquarters in Washington, DC. The Food and Nutrition Department houses three research units. Deanna Olney assumes the lead of the Nutrition, Diets, and Health Unit, ensuring that food systems and health systems research on nutrition receive adequate attention. Another unit on Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion, which will ensure sharper internal alignment of social science and economics research on these topics, will be headed by Dan Gilligan. Rob Vos serves as Director of Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit, which tackles research on market-related forces – local, national, regional and global – that shape food systems and consumer behaviors.
Four additional research units are housed in the Transformation Strategies Department. James Thurlow will serve as Director of the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit which situates agrifood systems within global and local economies, environments, and development processes. It uses innovative analytical tools to anticipate trends at global, national, and local scales. Paul Dorosh is heading the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, which anchors work done across IFPRI’s regional and country offices and deepens our partnerships with policy leaders and shapers around the world. An Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit, to be headed by David Spielman, will be dedicated to the important topic of addressing policy and scaling challenges related to agricultural technologies and innovations. Claudia Ringler assumes the lead of the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, focused on tackling environmental policy and the multiple issues affecting food, land, and water systems.