ODI theme pages highlight key narratives in international development and humanitarianism. To view some of our other theme pages, choose from the list below.
Our work is carried out within a number of programmes. If you are an individual or organisation wanting to work with ODI, visit the ODI Programme pages.
Food prices, after falling in real terms for more than 50 years, are rising. These price rises threaten to reverse the gains of the green revolution, pushing the near-poor back into poverty and forcing them to reduce food consumption and nutrition. At the national level, low income countries are faced by heavy increases in the cost of imported food, draining foreign exchange, importing inflation, and putting a brake on their growth and development. In addition, many parts of Africa in particular are still trapped in a vicious cycle of response to food crises - using emergency appeals to deal with predictable hunger.
For many years, ODI has been researching food and food-related issues, including food security and food aid. As the world adjusts to higher food prices, our focus is broadening to include work on:
Understanding the cause of food price rises, including the move to biofuels and the growing demand for food in China and India.
Developing policy advice on how to deliver economic growth that can raise incomes, and compensate for the higher cost of food.
Creating the right policies in agriculture to help farmers grow more food, and push prices back down.
