IFPRI Policy Seminar

Ending Hunger and Malnutrition: Keeping Our Eyes on the Road

Organized by IFPRI in collaboration with the World Bank

IFPRI Seminar during World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings

April 22, 2025

While global agricultural commodity prices have come down from the high levels seen in recent years, the world remains far off track in meeting the SDG2 of ending hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Last year, close to 300 million people faced food crisis while the number of people on the cusp of famine doubled. Efforts to address hunger and malnutrition are facing considerable hurdles, including protracted as well as new conflicts, cuts in official development assistance, inefficiencies in the global financing architecture, an increasingly fragmented political landscape and multipolarizing international order. How can the world mobilize more public and private resources to tackle the current food crisis, create more robust value chain and trade channels, and set countries on a path towards peace, stability and economic growth?

Timed to align with the WB-IMF Spring Meetings, this event will convene policymakers, representatives of international organizations, private sector and food system experts for a stocktaking of where we find ourselves and to chart solutions towards more aligned domestic and international, public and private financing flows aimed at ending hunger and malnutrition. Picking up on the Spring Meetings’ core theme of jobs as a path to prosperity, the important role of jobs in food value chains and improved livelihoods for furthering food security and nutrition will also be explored.

This policy seminar will:

Take stock of recent data, trends and outlooks for food and nutrition security, with a focus on the most vulnerable countries.

Discuss challenges and opportunities in resourcing, regional and global cooperation, and innovation to bend the curve of hunger and malnutrition.

Examine research findings and share policy recommendations to prevent and prepare for food crises, while broadening the focus to strengthening value chains and markets in developing countries.

Opening Session

Moderator: Ruth Hill, Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions, IFPRI

Speakers

Shobha Shetty, Global Director, Agriculture and Food, World Bank

Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI

Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

High-level Panel on Challenges and Opportunities

Moderator: Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy; Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategy, IFPRI

Speakers

John Steenhuisen, Minister of the Department of Agriculture, South Africa

Arnel de Mesa, Assistant Secretary for Special Concerns and for Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the DA Spokesperson, Department of Agriculture

Alvaro Lario, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Gilles Morellato, Head of Official Development Assistance team at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs

Rania Dagash-Kamara, Assistant Executive Director Partnerships and Innovation, World Food Programme (WFP)

Deep Dive: The Role of Value Chains in Boosting Food and Nutritional Security

Moderator: Loraine Ronchi, Global Lead for Science, Knowledge and Innovation in Agriculture and Food, World Bank

Speakers

Alice Ruhweza, President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

Ayodeji Balogun, Group CEO, the Africa Exchange (AFEX)

Matthias Berninger, EVP, Head of Public Affairs, Sustainability and Safety, Bayer Global

Joseph Glauber, Research Fellow Emeritus, IFPRI

Closing Remarks

Martien van Nieuwkoop, Director, Agricultural Development, Gates Foundation

Links:

More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/ending-hunger-and-malnutrition-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-road/

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