News Overview

Shaping Global Agendas:  The IFPRI Food Security Portal’s Pathways to Impact

BY THOMAS FALK, VISHWAMBHAR DUCHE, RICHU SANIL, PRATITI PRIYADARSHINI, HAGAR ELDIDI, RUTH MEINZEN-DICK, AND BRYAN BRUNS OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 An emerging body of literature explores “serious games”— participatory behavioral games created for purposes other than entertainment—as learning tools and interventions for improving natural resource management. Such games, particularly when combined with other tools, have the potential to help agricultural communities

by Kate Ambler, Jeff Bloem, Alan de Brauw, and Julia Wagner Agrifood value chains are an integral part of food systems, moving food from farms where it is produced to retailers where it is sold to consumers. Agrifood value chains can be quite simple—consumers can buy directly from farms at farmers’ markets, for example—or they can be quite complex, involving

BY EMILY MYERS, FLOR PAZ, AND JENNIFER JOHNSON OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Research on gender and women’s empowerment in food systems and global development is central to IFPRI’s mission. Here we mark International Women’s Day (March 8)—with the theme “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”—with an account of our continuing efforts to develop and deploy metrics on women’s empowerment in

BY KALLE HIRVONEN, DANIEL GILLIGAN, JESSICA LEIGHT, HELEENE TAMBET, AND VICTOR VILLA OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 A growing body of evidence now suggests that global warming increases the risk of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and tropical cyclones (Seneviratne et al. 2021), and these shocks often force poor households to consume less or sell valuable assets, worsening

BY CATERINA RUGGERI LADERCHI, JOHAN SWINNEN, AND TAMSIN ZANDSTRA OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Every year, global food systems produce, process, transport, and market the food and agricultural products on which the world relies. However, these same global food systems also play a big role in—and face pressures from—climate impacts, environmental damage, food insecurity and malnutrition, public health problems, and

BY DEREK HEADEY AND MARIE RUEL OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 The real price of food has risen dramatically in 21st century, with the FAO food price index peaking at an all-time high in March 2022 at 116% above its 2000 value (Figure 1). While food inflation has long been a cause of concern for nutrition agencies in low- and

BY JOSEPH GLAUBER OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the war continues to disrupt agricultural production and trade in Ukraine—one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters—and poses an ongoing threat to global food security. Yet global commodity markets have adjusted to these disruptions, in part to due to increased