ReSAKSS Closeout Event
On Thursday, February 23, 2023, USAID and IFPRI held a closeout event for the ReSAKSS initiative. ReSAKSS aimed to fill knowledge gaps and assess policy and investment options to accelerate agricultural growth and reduce poverty and hunger. The purpose of this event was to highlight the successes and lessons learned from USAID’s partnership with IFPRI worldwide under this initiative.
Assessing USAID's Feed the Future Program in Bangladesh: IFPRI's Insights from Population-Level Performance Surveys
At the event, IFPRI Country Representative for Bangladesh Akhter Ahmed presented, "Assessing USAID's Feed the Future Population-Level Performance in Bangladesh." The US Government launched the Feed the Future initiative to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. Bangladesh has one of the largest Feed the Future programs, with an investment of about $50 million per year.
Since 2011, IFPRI and USAID have partnered to assess the population-level performance of the Feed the Future program in Bangladesh. IFPRI achieves this by designing and implementing large, complex household surveys and analyzing the survey data.
IFPRI's data have provided valuable insights into areas for progress and opportunities for course correction. For example, between 2011/12 baseline and 2018/19 endline, IFPRI found that, while there were relatively minimal improvements in crop diversity, poverty declined from 40.6% to 25.2%, hunger dropped, and women's empowerment and gender parity improved substantially.
However, the world has changed a lot since 2018/19. To determine if and to what extent shocks like COVID-19 and climate change have affected the gains made thus far, IFPRI designed and conducted the 2022 Feed the Future surveys to assess changes since 2018/19 baseline. Analysis is ongoing.
Looking Ahead
Under the Feed the Future Bangladesh Research Activity, IFPRI will conduct the final round of surveys to assess the Feed the Future performance from 2018/19 baseline to 2024/25 endline. IFPRI will also conduct demand-driven research and policy analyses related to climate-smart agriculture, resilience and social protection, and other topics aligned with GFSS objectives.
In an increasingly complex world, USAID recognized IFPRI's vital role in improving capacity, enhancing impact, and driving actual change and reform on the ground, all made possible by IFPRI’s ability to generate and distill timely, data-driven insights. With continued investment in capabilities and research under initiatives like ReSAKSS, IFPRI and USAID can continue to make a significant impact in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in Bangladesh and beyond.