News Overview

The double burden of malnutrition—the combination of undernutrition (stunting, wasting, and micronutrient deficiencies) with overweight, obesity, and associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—poses an increasingly urgent set of challenges around the world, now compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. A Dec. 1 IFPRI virtual policy seminar explored these problems and emerging solutions. “Optimal nutrition is critical to both population health and sustainable development,” said Francesco Branca,

BY KIBROM A. ABAY, GUUSH BERHANE, JOHN HODDINOTT AND KIBROM TAFERE Multiple studies have documented the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the poor and vulnerable. Over the past decade, rigorous evaluations have shown Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) yielding positive results in addressing household poverty and food insecurity in the low-income districts it targets. As the pandemic suddenly raised

Feeling poor relative to others can spur families to support women in pursuing work outside the household and to invest more in girls’ schooling, according to our new study. But that does not mean women become more empowered. In 2018, we conducted a survey experiment in Papua New Guinea to see how feeling economically left behind affects gender attitudes. We used

BY VALERIE MUELLER, ANDREW REID BELL AND HONOR DEARLOVE Climate change-driven sea level rise is expected to trigger growing waves of migration away from coastal areas globally. However, our new modeling study of future migration patterns in Bangladesh’s coastal zones—among the world’s most vulnerable to rising seas—contradicts this common assumption. Our modeling scenarios found no realistic level of flooding likely to cause

BY ELIZABETH BRYAN, ALEX DE PINTO, GREG SEYMOUR, PRAPTI BHANDARY AND FRANCESCA EDRALIN Bangladesh’s location on the Bay of Bengal, its low-lying coastal delta topography, and its intensive rice monoculture make it one of the most vulnerable countries worldwide to climate threats, including floods, sea level rise, and salinization. Climate adaptation strategies in the agricultural and food production sectors will

BY LORI BEAMAN, SYLVAN HERSKOWITZ, NIALL KELEHER AND JEREMY MAGRUDER Around the world, youth play sports wherever there is enough space to kick a ball or swing a bat: On fields, beaches, empty streets, or vacant lots. Few activities capture the excitement, energy, and imagination of youth as much as sports. Since the early 2000s, enthusiasm has grown for using

BY HONOR DEARLOVE The COVID-19 pandemic presents new challenges to publicly-funded food and agricultural research institutions, as government deficits and weakening economies threaten their traditional funding. A Feb. 2 IFPRI virtual policy seminar explored the ways that these organizations can move forward in a changed landscape, as well as the new opportunities that COVID-19 has created for realizing positive transformation in food

In the second half of this year, the United States will host the Summit of the Americas, the triennial hemispheric meeting of presidents and heads of state. This is the second time the summit will be held in the U.S. since the inaugural event in 1994. The gathering comes at a precarious time, with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)