The Tanzania Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) Baseline Evaluation Survey (TARBES) was implemented during February-April 2014 as part of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Africa RISING. The Africa RISING program aims to create—through action research and development partnerships—opportunities for smallholder farmers in Africa south of the Sahara to sustainably intensify their farming systems and to improve their food, nutrition, and income security. Initiated in 2012, the program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative. As part of the program, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) leads a sustainable intensification effort focusing on the cereal-based farming systems in the Guinea Savannah Zone of West Africa (Ghana and Mali) and East and Southern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia) while the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) leads the research activities focusing on the crop-livestock systems of the Ethiopian highlands. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been tasked with M&E of the three projects. Tanzania Africa RISING is being implemented in Babati, Kongwa, and Kiteto districts in Tanzania. The research activities are led by IITA. TARBES collected detailed household- and plot-crop level data addressing various topics: employment (agricultural and non-agricultural); health; agricultural land; crop inputs, harvest, storage, and sale; livestock ownership, feed, and water; agriculture-related challenges and coping strategies; credit and off-farm income sources; housing conditions and ownership of various durable assets; subjective welfare and food security; household-level food consumption; non-food expenditure; agricultural shocks; and child and women anthropometry. The community survey collected data on access to basic services; access to extension services; social organizations, mobility, and village-level shocks; access to natural resources; metric conversion units; and prices of crops and food items. TARBES covered 810 households and 25 communities drawn from the three project districts. Data was collected using structured questionnaires in multiple local languages through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (using Surveybe).

This study evaluates the impact of Africa RISING, a sustainable intensification (SI) program, implemented in Bougouni, Yanfolila, and Koutiala cercles in southern Mali beginning in 2012. Using a participatory action research framework, the program validated and promoted alternative SI options including fertilized groundnut and sorghum, crop-legume intercropping, intercropping of two compatible legumes, access to extension services, and fertilizer microdosing, while preserving ecosystem services in the face of projected population growth and climatic changes. Impact is estimated on several SI indicators and domains using two rounds of quasi-experimental panel data (surveys conducted in 2014 and 2022) and difference-in-differences techniques. The unique study design allows us to estimate the impact of Africa RISINg by comparing outcomes among program beneficiaries with two different counterfactual groups—one located inside program villages (within-village comparison) and another in non-program (control) villages (out-of-village comparison) on several indicators across five SI domains— environment, productivity, economic, human, and social. We also conduct a placebo test comparing non-beneficiaries in the two counterfactual groups. We find no statistically significant differences among households in the within-village and out-of-village comparisons, most likely because of misreporting of program participation. Overall comparisons between households in target and non-target villages show a positive impact of AR on environmental variables such as access to extension services, implementation of intercropping techniques, and adoption of improved crops; on productivity variables such as green bean yield; and on economic variables such as an increase in the non-agricultural wealth index; but no statistically significant effect on human and social indicators, namely household dietary diversity, food consumption scores, and nutritional indicators for children 0–59 months old and women 15–49 years old. Estimates based on within-village, out-of-village, and placebo comparisons suggest important insights about the challenges in assessing the impact of agricultural programs in general and, specifically, participatory multi-intervention programs in the presence of sample (self-)selection and spillovers. Our study highlights useful empirical lessons learned to inform future program design and impact assessments.

The Mali Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) Baseline Evaluation Survey (MARBES) survey was implemented during May-July 2014 as part of IFPRI’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Africa RISING. The Africa RISING program aims to create-through action research and development partnerships-opportunities for smallholder farmers in Africa south of the Sahara to sustainably intensify their farming systems and to improve their food, nutrition, and income security. Initiated in 2012, the program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative. As part of the program, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) leads a sustainable intensification effort focusing on the cereal-based farming systems in the Guinea Savannah Zone of West Africa (Ghana and Mali) and East and Southern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia) while the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) leads the research activities focusing on the crop-livestock systems of the Ethiopian highlands. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been tasked with M&E of the three projects. Mali Africa RISING is being implemented in Bougouni, Yanfolila and Koutiala cercles (the cercle is a type of administrative region), in the Sikasso region of Mali, within the FTF Zones of Influence. The research activities are led by IITA, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), ILRI, the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), and the International Center for Research in Agroforestry or World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), as well as local partners: L’Association Malienne d’Eveil et de Développement Durable (AMEDD), l'Association Malienne pour la Sécurité et la Souveraineté Alimentaires (AMASSA), and Mouvement Biologique du Mali (MOBIOM). MARBES collected detailed household- and plot-crop level data addressing various topics: employment (agricultural and non-agricultural); health; agricultural land; crop inputs, harvest, storage, and sale; livestock ownership, feed, and water; agriculture-related challenges and coping strategies; credit and off-farm income sources; housing conditions and ownership of various durable assets; subjective welfare and food security; household-level food consumption; non-food expenditure; agricultural shocks; and child and women anthropometry. The community survey collected data on access to basic services; access to extension services; social organizations, mobility, and village-level shocks; access to natural resources; metric conversion units; and prices of crops and food items. MARBES covered 705 households and 20 communities drawn from the three project cercles. Data was collected using structured questionnaires in multiple local languages through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing, using the Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro).

Africa is experiencing a rapid growth in urban population with a billion more people expected to live in cities by 2050. The extent to which urbanization contributes to improvements in the welfare of households and individuals depends on whether it is accompanied by the creation of remunerative employment opportunities and investments on essential infrastructure and services. Specific to child nutrition, urbanization can improve nutrition through its effects on the immediate and underlying determinants that include dietary and nutrient intake, diseases, household food security, environmental sanitation, and access to health services. The direction and strength of the association between urbanization and child undernutrition is therefore an empirical matter that largely depends on the type of urban settlements. This study examines linkages between urbanization and child undernutrition in Burkina Faso. Nutrition data are obtained from the Burkina Faso Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) con-ducted in 1998/99, 2003, and 2010. Nutritional outcomes of children 0-59 months old are measured using height-for-age z-score (HAZ), weight-for-height z-score (WHZ), and weight-for-age z-score (WAZ). Instead of relying on a binary urban-rural classification available in the DHS data, we construct two continuous indicators of urbanization based on remotely sensed data ‒ the size of urban area within 10 kilometers radius around the DHS cluster (urban extent) and the distance between the child’s DHS cluster and the boundary of the nearest urban settlement (remoteness).

Supply chains for nutritious (“protective”) foods in Africa south of the Sahara are often poorly developed, especially for perishable crops that are vulnerable to wastage. We used LSMS-ISA surveys and geographic information system (GIS) data to explore which factors predict production patterns of four protective food crops (pulses, nuts and seeds, vegetables, and fruits) relative to cereals and starchy roots and tubers (grouped under staples) in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, with a focus on potential inter-ventions to improve production, trade, and consumption of these foods. Plot-level irrigation adoption is the strongest predictor of fruit and vegetable production, along with precipitation, suggesting that water availability is a major precondition for pro-ducing these protective foods. In contrast, pulses and nuts and seeds can be grown in drier and warmer conditions. Better market access is also associated with higher production of fruits and vegetables, but the association is weaker than that of water access. Investing in and expanding irrigation-especially small-scale irrigation-has strong poten-tial to yield high returns in East Africa, especially for poor households that cannot afford to invest in capital-intensive irrigation technologies. Irrigation investments may need to be complemented by investments in roads, rural elec-trification, and cold storage chains to promote efficiency of postharvest supply chains and reduce marketing costs.

Childhood undernutrition manifests itself in various ways including stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies. Stunting (being too short for the child’s age) captures a state of linear growth retardation and cumulative growth impairment due to chronic nutritional deficiency and illness that deprive a fetus and child of required nutrients. Despite the global decline in stunting prevalence by over 25% since 1990, an estimated 22% of the 150 million children are currently stunted with significant regional and within region disparity. Stunting is largely an irreversible outcome that stifles individuals from fulfilling their full development and economic potential. It increases the risk of impaired brain development with implications for cognitive and non-cognitive functions, educational performance, productivity, and chronic diseases later in life. It also increases the frequency and severity of exposure to common infections with one in seven under 5 deaths linked to it. Stunting and other forms of undernutrition costs countries billions of dollars in lost revenue and healthcare outlays. This report presents results from a cost benefit analysis (CBA) of a package of nutrition-specific investments studied as part of The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition and Copenhagen Consensus exercise. The investments tackle the immediate causes of child undernutrition ─ inadequate intake of nutrients, diseases, and infections and include behavior change communication programs to promote breastfeeding and complementary feeding; supplementation of crucial micronutrients to pregnant women and young children; provision of complementary foods to children; and management of severe acute malnutrition. We focus on two developing regions with the highest burden of stunting globally ─ Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara (SSA). Economic benefits are modelled for a cohort of children born between 2015 and 2030 who will join the workforce at 18 years of age and retire when 60 years old. Two benefit streams (the value of avoided premature child mortality and lifetime earnings gains) and two costs elements (the cost of the nutrition investments and of delivering schooling) are considered. Benefit-cost (BC) ratios are estimated under alternative scenarios based on the returns to stunting reductions and cost elements considered. Besides discount rates previously used in the nutrition and economics literature (between 3% and 6%), we consider a 10% discount rate used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) for the sake of comparability of economic returns to these nutritional investments with that of other sectoral investments by MCC.

The Ethiopia Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) Baseline Evaluation Survey (EARBES) survey was implemented during June–July 2014 as part of the International Food Policy Research Institute's Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Africa RISING.1 The Africa RISING program aims to create—through action research and development partnerships—opportunities for smallholder farmers in Africa south of the Sahara to sustainably intensify their farming systems and to improve their food, nutrition, and income security. Initiated in 2012, the program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative. As part of the program, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) leads a sustainable intensification effort focusing on the cereal-based farming systems in the Guinea Savannah Zone of West Africa (Ghana and Mali) and East and Southern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia) while the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) leads the research activities focusing on the crop-livestock systems of the Ethiopian highlands. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been tasked with M&E of the three projects. Ethiopia Africa RISING is being implemented in Goshe Bado, Gudo Beret, Salka, Ilu-Sanbitu, Jawe, Upper Gana, Emba Hasti, and Tsibet kebeles in Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nationalities and People’s (SNNP), and Tigray regions of Ethiopia, within the FTF Zones of Influence. The research activities are led by ILRI. EARBES collected detailed household- and plot-crop level data addressing various topics: employment (agricultural and non-agricultural); health; agricultural land; crop inputs, harvest, storage, and sale; livestock ownership, feed, and water; agriculture-related challenges and coping strategies; credit and off-farm income sources; housing conditions and ownership of various durable assets; subjective welfare and food security; household-level food consumption; non-food expenditure; agricultural shocks; and child and women anthropometry. The community survey collected data on access to basic services; access to extension services; social organizations, mobility, and village-level shocks; access to natural resources; metric conversion units; and prices of crops and food items.

The Ghana Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) Baseline Evaluation Survey (GARBES) survey was implemented from May to July 2014 as part of IFPRI’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Africa RISING. Africa RISING aims to create opportunities for smallholder farmers in Africa south of the Sahara (through action research and development partnerships) by sustainably intensifying their farming systems and improving food, nutrition, and income security. Initiated in 2012, the program is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) leads a sustainable intensification effort focusing on the cereal-based farming systems in the Guinea Savannah Zone of West Africa (Ghana and Mali) and East and Southern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia) while the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) leads the research activities focusing on the crop-livestock systems of the Ethiopian highlands. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has been tasked with M&E of the three projects. Ghana Africa RISING is being implemented in Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions of Ghana, within the FTF Zones of Influence. The research activities are led by IITA and Wageningen University (WUR). GARBES collected detailed household- and plot-crop level data addressing various topics: employment (agricultural and non-agricultural); health; agricultural land; crop inputs, harvest, storage, and sale; livestock ownership, feed, and water; agriculture-related challenges and coping strategies; credit and off-farm income sources; housing condition and ownership of various durable assets; subjective welfare and food security; household-level food consumption; non-food expenditure; agricultural shocks; and child and women anthropometry. The community survey collected data on access to basic services; extension services; social organizations, mobility, and village-level shocks; access to natural resources; metric conversion units; and prices of crops and food items. GARBES covered 1,284 households and 50 communities drawn from the three project regions. Data were collected using structured questionnaires in multiple local languages through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (using SurveyCTO).

This report summarizes lessons from cross-country analyses of the impact of the Africa RISING (AR) program. Implemented in six countries—Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mali, and Ghana—AR aimed to provide pathways out of hunger and poverty for smallholders by sustainably intensifying their farming systems in order to enhance income and food security, particularly for women and children, while conserving or enhancing the natural resource base. Phase I (2012–2016) focused on the validation of demand-driven sustainable intensification (SI) innovations, while Phase II (2016–2022) focused on the scaling of a subset of validated SI innovations in partnership with development partners. Our impact assessment studies covered all program countries, except Zambia, and are based on two rounds of household panel survey data, excluding Ethiopia for which program effect is estimated using one round of survey data. Impact is estimated using the difference-in-differences method for countries with panel data or, for Ethiopia, based on simple comparison of outcomes between program beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The choice of impact indicators is guided by the Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework (SIAF) framework and survey data availability. Impact indicators encompass the five sustainable intensification (SI) domains discussed in the SIAF: environment, productivity, economic, human, and social.

As part of its Feed the future Initiative, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported the development of an innovative research for development project to promote the sustainable intensification of small-scale agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Smallscale agriculture represents the main economic activity of the majority of sub-Saharan African population. Therefore, to address global hunger and poverty, the Feed the Future initiative (FtF) developed Africa RISING (Research In Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation). Africa RISING is an agricultural research program aiming to provide pathways out of hunger and poverty for small holder families, in particular for women and children, through the development of farming systems that can sufficiently improve nutrition and income security, while conserving or enhancing the natural resource pool.