Global Food Policy Report
IFPRI Policy Seminar
2025 Global Food Policy Report | Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World
May 28, 2025

Over the last 50 years, the world’s food systems have evolved tremendously amid major economic, environmental, and social changes. Throughout this period, policy research has played a critical role in providing evidence and analysis to inform decision-making that supports agricultural growth, better livelihoods, and improved food security, nutrition, and well-being for all.

IFPRI’s 2025 Global Food Policy Report—a special edition marking the Institute’s 50th anniversary. This year’s flagship report examines the evolution and impact of food policy research and assesses how it can better equip policymakers to meet future challenges and opportunities.

Despite meaningful progress over the last half-century, conflict, climate change, rising inequality, and geopolitical tensions remain major challenges to reducing poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. As we approach 2050, policy research and analysis will be essential to help build sustainable healthy food systems in this changing world.

Thematic presentations from IFPRI’s leading researchers will explore the role of evidence in shaping policies over the past 50 years, as well as the potential for research to address emerging challenges and opportunities.

A keynote lecture by Michael Kremer, Chair of the Innovation Commission and joint winner of the 2019 Economics Nobel Prize, will address innovations for the future. Following these remarks, a distinguished panel of experts will discuss priorities for policy research in the decades to come.

Welcome Remarks
Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director, CGIAR

Unveiling of IFPRI’s flagship Global Food Policy Report
Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI
Christopher B. Barrett, Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University 

Thematic GFPR presentations
James Thurlow, Director, Foresight and Policy Modeling (FPM) Unit, IFPRI
Ruth Hill, Director of Markets, Trade and Institutions (MTI) Unit, IFPRI
Steven Were Omamo, Director, Development Strategies and Governance (DSG) Unit and Director for Africa, IFPRI
Shalini Roy, Senior Research Fellow, Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI) Unit, IFPRI and Agnes Quisumbing, Senior Research Fellow, Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI) Unit, IFPRI
Stuart Gillespie, Nonresident Senior Fellow, IFPRI and Deanna Olney, Director, Nutrition, Diets, and Health (NDH), IFPRI
David Spielman, Director, Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS) Unit, IFPRI

Keynote Address and Strategy Discussion: A Focus on Innovations for the Future
Michael Kremer, Professor in Economics; Director of Development Innovation Lab; and Faculty Director, Development Economics Center, University of Chicago; and 2019 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences

Forward Looking Panel Discussion on Food Policy Research Priorities
Moderator: Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy; Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategy, IFPRI
Alice Ruhweza, President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Ramesh Chand, Member, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog)
Joan Matji, Global Director, Child Nutrition and Development, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Ruben Echeverria, Senior Advisor, Agriculture Development, Gates Foundation
Santiago Alba-Corral, Vice-President, Programs and Partnerships, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
Marianne Grosclaude, Practice Manager, Agriculture and Food Global Practice, World Bank

Moderator
Charlotte Hebebrand, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, IFPRI

Links:

More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/2025-global-food-policy-report-food-policy-research-for-a-brighter-future-looking-towards-2050/

Subscribe IFPRI Insights newsletter and event announcements at www.ifpri.org/content/newsletter-subscription

Global Launch: 2025 Global Food Policy Report

Introductory Remarks by Geraldo B. Martha Jr., Coordinator, Embrapa, Labex-USA
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.

 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018 - GMartha

Speaker: Marcos Sawaya Jank, President, Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance and IFPRI Board member
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.
 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018  - M.Jank

What happens when a child is malnourished? Can such a child ever “catch up” later in life? Why does urbanization and obesity seem to go hand in hand—and what does this mean for food production? We’ll explore big picture food system questions today on the Leading Voices in Food with our guest Dr. Shenggen Fan.

The Leading Voices in Food

Shenggen Fan on Hunger, Climate Change and the Hope of Innovation

Speaker: William A. Masters, Professor, Tufts University

Interventions and innovation can lower the price of individual foods, but healthy eating depends on access to a mix of foods from diverse sources. How has the overall cost of meeting dietary needs changed over time worldwide, and in Africa and South Asia specifically? What determines the cost of a healthy diet? And how does affordability affect dietary intake and health status in different locales?

To answer these questions, Changing Access to Nutritious Diets in Africa and South Asia (CANDASA) (https://sites.tufts.edu/candasa) has been using new food price indexes that account for food substitutions to meet nutritional needs to evaluate food systems all over the world, including in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, and Tanzania.

This seminar will present the outcomes of CANDASA’s work to date, with a panel discussion featuring field researchers from each country to discuss the local and global implications of their results.

Research by Tufts and IFPRI on this topic is supported by UKAid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

IFPRI Policy Seminar:  What is the Cost of a Healthy Diet? - 5/29/2019 - WMasters

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Established in 1975, IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 50 countries. It is a research center of CGIAR, a worldwide partnership engaged in agricultural research for development.

Global Launch: 2025 Global Food Policy Report

International Food Policy Research Institute

Related tracks