• vision
• mission
• CGIAR

IFPRI's vision is a world free of hunger and malnutrition. The vision is based on the human right to adequate food and nutrition and recognition of the inherent dignity of all members of the human family. It is a world where every person has secure access to sufficient and safe food to sustain a healthy and productive life and where decisions related to food are made transparently and with the participation of consumers and producers.

IFPRI's mission is to provide policy solutions that cut hunger and malnutrition. This mission flows from the CGIAR mission: "To achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, policy, and natural resources management." Two key premises underlie IFPRI's mission. First, sound and appropriate local, national, and international public policies are essential to achieving sustainable food security and nutritional improvement. Second, research and the dissemination of its results are critical inputs into the process of raising the quality of the debate and formulating sound and appropriate food policies. IFPRI's mission entails a strong emphasis on research priorities and qualities that facilitate change:

• identifying and analyzing alternative international, national, and local policies for improved food security and nutrition, with an emphasis on low-income countries and poor people and on the sound management of the natural resources base that supports agriculture;
• contributing to capacity strengthening of people and institutions in developing countries conducting research on food policies; and
• actively engaging in policy communication, making research results available to all those in a position to apply or use them, and carrying out dialogues with those users to link research and policy action.

IFPRI places a high priority on activities that benefit the greatest number of poor people in greatest need in the developing world. In carrying out its activities, IFPRI seeks to focus on vulnerable groups, as influenced by caste, class, religion, ethnicity, and gender.

IFPRI is also committed to providing international food policy knowledge as a global public good; that is, it provides knowledge relevant to decisionmakers both inside and outside the countries where research is undertaken. New knowledge on how to improve the food security of low-income people in developing countries is expected to result in large social benefits, but in most instances the private sector is unlikely to carry out research to generate such knowledge. IFPRI views public organizations and the private sector in food systems both as objects of study and as partners.

Given the large body of national and international food policy research, IFPRI's added value derives from its own cutting-edge research linked with academic excellence in other institutions, such as other CGIAR centers, universities, and other research institutes in the South and North, and from its application of this knowledge to national and international food policy problems.

IFPRI is one of 15 food and environmental research organizations supported by the CGIAR. The centers, located around the world, conduct research in partnership with farmers, scientists, and policymakers to help alleviate poverty and increase food security while protecting the natural resource base. They are principally funded through the 58 countries, private foundations, and regional and international organizations that make up the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

• CGIAR