Policy Seminar | IFPRI Policy Seminar
Tackling extreme poverty and financing for food systems in Africa
Organized by IFPRI and partners on the margins of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings
October 17, 2025

Join speakers from IFPRI, IFAD, UNU-WIDER and the World Bank for a high-level seminar exploring two major African priorities – poverty reduction and food systems transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. Speakers will highlight the need to make progress on reducing poverty in fragile and conflict-affected areas across the continent, and the need to examine how most effectively to finance food systems amidst declining external funding flows.  

An inaugural World Bank- UNU-WIDER report on poverty and fragility, being previewed at this seminar, indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa has become the epicenter of the poverty–fragility nexus, with some 70% of people in fragile and conflict affected areas now living in the region and half of the world’s extreme poor projected to reside in fragile SSA states by 2030.

The Africa Report on External Development Financial Flows to Food Systems, recently released by IFAD, AKADEMIYA2063, and IFPRI—analyzes the volume and composition of development finance directed toward African food systems, and implications of decreasing external flows, also for national financing strategies.

This timely discussion will spotlight urgent financing needs and policy pathways to reduce poverty in the most vulnerable regions of Africa and strengthen food systems across the continent. It will also underscore the critical role of robust evidence and data-driven analysis in guiding effective financing strategies and policies —particularly as governments and development partners confront the dual pressures rising fragility and declining external flows. By grounding decisions in rigorous research, stakeholders can better align resources with impact and chart more resilient, equitable paths forward.

Opening Remarks
Luis Felipe López-Calva, Global Director, Poverty Global Department, World Bank Group
Patricia Justino, Director Designate, United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Report Presentations

Breaking the Fragility-Poverty Trap (World Bank Group, UNU WIDER)
Maria Eugenia Genoni, Senior Economist, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank

Africa Report – External Development Financial Flows to Food Systems (IFAD, AK2063 and IFPRI): Key Findings
John Ulimwengu, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

High-level Panel

Kamal Gutale, Permanent Secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia
Enilde Sarmento, Macroeconomist-Adviser, International Monetary Fund (IMF); member of Mozambique’s delegation to the annual meetings; former National Director, Directorate of Economic Policies and Development, Ministry of Economy and Finance
Diane Menville, Associate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Financial Operations Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Ana María Ibáñez, Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI

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

More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/tackling-extreme-poverty-and-financing-for-food-systems-in-africa/

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Tackling extreme poverty and financing for food systems in Africa

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.

Tackling extreme poverty and financing for food systems in Africa

International Food Policy Research Institute

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