News Overview

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

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 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

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 KEIJIRO OTSUKA AND SHENGGEN FAN While agricultural development has long been linked to increased food production and availability, improved farming productivity, and increased incomes for small farmers, the changing global landscape has resulted in agriculture playing a larger role in many other areas of human well-being, including reducing poverty, providing adequate nutrition, improving environmental sustainability, and promoting equity and

By SOKHNA SALL SECK Empowering women and girls and the recognition and respect of their rights is critical to secure, sustainable and equitable global food systems. A Nov. 23 virtual discussion, co-hosted by IFPRI and the World Economic Forum (WEF), identified evidence on what works in advancing those goals and how food systems transformation can also contribute to to gender equality. The event was part of

BY FRANCESCA EDRALIN When Ellen Piwoz joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007, the global nutrition field seemed to be struggling. The community “lacked a common narrative and agenda for action,” she said. It was also difficult to engage outsiders who did not understand the nutrition community’s techno-speak, and the field was also critically underfunded with a narrow donor base. Over the

BY SIDDHARTHA BASU, ALAN DE BRAUW, KHIN PWINT OO AND RUSSELL TOTH Surrounded by some of the largest consumer markets in the world, at the nexus of important trade routes, and with its own growing consumer markets, Myanmar has tremendous potential as an agricultural producer. Yet one persistent obstacle is the agricultural sector’s lack of access to financial services, which