MOTIVATION
FOODSECURE, a research project funded by the EC, analyzed how domestic and international policies affect food and nutrition security. As part of a consortium of 18 institutions, IFPRI, with the help of the CGIAR Research Program Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), provided high-quality research, models and databases, and access to a network of developing-country researchers, particularly in Africa. In the short term, IFPRI provided quantitative assessments to detect price spikes and excess volatility and to determine their associated impacts on household dynamics. Over the long term, the project focused on how the changing patterns of food security, bioenergy, and climate change affect global and household-level development. The project addressed a variety of specific European Union (EU) policies including development aid and policies on climate change, trade, agriculture, renewable energies, and sustainability and the role of international science and technology.
RESULTS
The project developed a toolbox to analyze the effects of short- and medium-term policies, thereby supporting EU policy makers and stakeholders in the design of consistent long-term strategies to ensure food and nutrition security. The consortium produced a number of scientific publications (in total 42, including 15 FOODSECURE working papers). FOODSECURE conducted workshops in 2014, including IFPRI-led technical workshops on modeling food and nutrition demand and measuring and predicting price volatility.
OUTCOMES
- FOODSECURE generated a relevant and much-needed knowledge base. Its researchers were invited to give presentations at trainings for the World Bank Institute in 2014 on "Challenges of Achieving Food Security" and for the OECD in 2013 on "Shared Approaches to Measuring the Agricultural Policy Environment."
- Research findings on price volatility and its links to food and nutrition security supported the EU’s policy going into the G20 Summit in 2011. At the summit, leaders endorsed the creation of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which was launched in 2011 to increase transparency on available food stocks and warn policy makers of price fluctuations in G20-member countries.
For more information on the partnership between IFPRI and the EC, please see this brochure.
