This study examines the contributions of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) between 1993 and 2001 to analysis, outreach, capacity building, and training related to the role of rural finance in poverty reduction. The IFPRI multicountry research project on Rural Finance Policies for Food Security for the Poor involved data-intensive research by more than 14 research fellows on the impacts of access to rural financial services in countries. This report examines the contribution of the program within four countries where microfinance research and outreach activities were conducted and its contribution to global knowledge about rural finance and food security....It addresses issues of critical importance: (1) does microfinance have an impact on the poor, and is this impact achieved through better risk management as well as increased income generation?, (2) does the structure of financial service providers matter in supporting this impact?, and (3) how can the microfinance industry be made more sustainable?.... Malawi, Bangladesh, Ghana and Nepal were selected for analysis of research impacts." -- taken from Authors' Abstract.

"This report assesses the impact of IFPRI's work on the agriculture negotiations in the WTO's Doha Round. It is set against the context of IFPRI's mission which emphasizes food security and the interests of poor people in low-income countries and underlines the importance of active engagement in policy communications to link research work to policy action. The report also traces briefly the evolution of IFPRI's work on international agricultural trade more generally, noting its broad disposition to market-oriented policy prescriptions while illuminating the very different impacts of agricultural trade liberalization on individual developing countries through detailed research at the national and household level." -- from Author's Abstract

"The objective of this study is to attempt to characterize the influence and impact of IFPRI in relation to the Mexican PROGRESA/Oportunidades anti-poverty and human resource program with its conditional cash transfers (CCT)—conditional on specific investments in education, health, and nutrition. The paper first describes PROGRESA/Oportunidades and estimates of the impact and benefits-to-costs of this program; then discusses the challenges in assessing the influence and impact of IPRRI on and through PROGRESA/Oportunidades; and then presents the information sources used in this study to attempt to identify the influence and impact of IFPRI on PROGRESA/Oportunidades including interviews with 39 key informants as well as various published and unpublished studies and memos, publications in the popular media and on the internet and press releases and other documents. With this foundation it next explores the apparent influence and impact of IFPRI on PROGRESA/Oportunidades by considering four questions: Was the PROGRESA program design influenced by prior IFPRI research? Why was IFPRI chosen to undertake the initial impact evaluation of PROGRESA? How did the IFPRI evaluation of PROGRESA contribute to the program? Were there spillovers of the IFPRI evaluation of PROGRESA?

IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND) and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) have conducted research since 2003 on the critical links between nutrition, health, and agriculture. This evaluation considers the impact of the work carried out through 2016, looking at the research strategy, engagement, capacity building, and impact on programs and policies and global dialogue. Findings suggest that the Diet Quality and Health of the Poor program has been successful in developing and sharing valuable research, knowledge, and data, and has brought new issues and approaches to partners and stakeholders. Through a range of projects, the program has effectively engaged with stakeholders, partners, and governments to support capacity enhancement and to help shape national interventions to improve nutrition.

Marking IFPRI’s 40th year, this report draws on external sources of evidence to review the Institute’s policy influence and impact to date and provides recommendations to improve. The external evidence includes citations data, external program and management reviews commissioned by CGIAR, and a series of independently conducted impact assessment studies of many of IFPRI’s research programs and projects between 1995 and 2015. The report also reviews recommendations as to how IFPRI might improve its impact.

This paper evaluates the influence and impact that IFPRI research and related activities had on the initiation, evolution, and impact of the food for education (FFE) program in Bangladesh. It reviews the outputs from the IFPRI program and summarizes the perceptions of various stakeholders about the value and influence of these on the FFE program. A novel experimental evaluation methodology is used on household sample survey data to analyze the effects of FFE on schooling outcomes. Earnings functions are then estimated using national household income and expenditure survey data to assess the effect of schooling on earnings. Combining the two, the effects of the increased participation and duration of schooling (due to the FFE program) on lifetime earnings of children are derived. Using these incremental earnings figures, the internal rates of return for both national and private investments in the FFE program are estimated. From these, a conservative assessment of the economic value of IFPRI's contribution to the generation of the national benefits is made... We conclude that a very conservative assessment of the economic value of IFPRI's contribution to the generation of the national benefits estimated above is that the FFE program began one year earlier than it might have without the IFPRI input. Based upon the total cost of the IFPRI-FFE research program of US$151,000, the internal rate of return on this research investment ranges from 64-96 percent. of all the other benefits are added to this, clearly the IFPRI contribution has been an outstanding economic investment. These benefits might have been even greater had IFPRI had an explicit communications strategy with more timely and available publications, along with appropriate advocacy based upon a more thorough knowledge of the dynamic political economy of government decision making in Bangladesh." -- from Authors' Abstract