BY HƯƠNG (VANESSA) LÊ OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 In the spring of 2023, we taught a graduate level course titled “Agri-food Systems and Economic Development” at Georgetown University’s Global Human Development Program. As one of the assignments, we asked the students to write a policy brief on the impact of a major shock on food systems. This post by Vanessa
BY ELISHEBA KIRU AND AULO GELLI OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 More than 250,000 children in public primary schools in Nairobi will receive regular subsidized school meals provided by the county government. The Dishi Na County program is Kenya’s first in an urban setting. The national school meal program set up in 2009 serves more than 1.5 million children in rural drought-affected counties. In this
A new study published in Nature Communications sheds light on the critical relationship between food inflation and child undernutrition in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The study, conducted by Derek Headey and Marie Ruel of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), explores the impact of food price volatility on child health and nutrition, revealing important findings that call for immediate
BY ELSA OLIVETTI AND BRIAN MCNAMARA OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) can be made more sustainable, providing healthier diets and better livelihoods while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction. Across the region, many food systems actors have implemented a range of innovative solutions to pursue these goals—but it is not
BY NISHA TANEJA, SANJANA JOSHI, SANYA DUA, ABUL KAMAR, SUNIL SAROJ, DEVESH ROY, AND MAMATA PRADHAN OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 Informal cross-border trade in the Bay of Bengal region is an integral part of local economies and has many broader economic impacts. It is categorized into three types: Unregistered traders or firms that operate outside the formal economy; registered
BY RICKY ROBERTSON OPEN ACCESS | CC-BY-4.0 When I was child, back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I remember going to Sarett Nature Center in the southwest corner of lower Michigan, where I learned about the wonders of tropical rainforests, their destruction to make space for cropland, and the threat of global warming. Those ideas eventually provoked the question
Food loss and waste is caused by many factors, including inefficient production and supply chains, inadequate infrastructure, and consumer behaviors. Together, these problems undermine global food and nutrition security, exacerbating hunger and malnutrition and placing additional strains on natural resources. To mark this year’s International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste Reduction (September 29), we spoke with Rob
The current state of the global food system is increasingly being acknowledged as unsustainable, with far-reaching consequences for the environment and public health. The new book The Political Economy of Food System Transformation: Pathways to Progress in a Polarized World, co-edited by Danielle Resnick and Johan Swinnen and published jointly by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Oxford University