CGIAR’s partnership with WFP has strengthened crisis response by embedding research into humanitarian operations. This collaboration has informed anticipatory action, social protection, and climate security strategies by generating actionable evidence. CGIAR’s technical expertise has shaped resource allocation, refined disaster preparedness, and enhanced resilience-building efforts implemented by the agency. Through co-designed analytical tools and policy insights, the partnership has helped WFP optimize responses to crises, benefiting vulnerable communities grappling with conflict and climate-related risks.
As crises grow more frequent, complex, and prolonged, it becomes increasingly important to enhance the effectiveness and integration of response efforts. Rolling out effective humanitarian response and resilience programs requires co-creation of a learning and monitoring agenda between humanitarian partners and knowledge and technical partners—thus allowing for timely and effective testing and evaluation of promising innovations and interventions. Building on decades of collaboration between CGIAR and World Food Programme (WFP), this new partnership initiative was launched in 2023 with generous funding from the Norwegian government. The partnership started by co-creating research priorities and a plan of action by CGIAR and WFP staff, which ultimately progressed to co-designing solutions with key stakeholders to ensure that the research was not only relevant, but also actionable and tailored to the needs and priorities of WFP and local partners. By embedding research within operational frameworks, CGIAR has played a crucial role in strengthening anticipatory action initiatives and social protection responses and advancing climate security interventions in sub-Saharan Africa.
We are really proud of this partnership with CGIAR, and also the support we are getting from NORAD to deliver on something as important as food security and climate resilience, and in Africa and in almost 14 countries. Let me just finish by saying that, [this] research program, it demonstrates that when researchers and implementers come together to analyze, to generate, and to apply evidence in real time, we create adaptable and impactful partnerships capable of addressing most of the urgent challenges that we see today. — Arif Husain, Chief Economist, World Food Programme
Strengthening anticipatory action
Through FCM, CGIAR provided direct technical and analytical support to WFP to inform and transform WFP’s crisis response strategies by shifting from reactive post-emergency aid to proactive pre-shock interventions. These efforts enhanced the evidence base for anticipatory action initiatives in vulnerable regions, and generated direct practical evidence on how to make anticipatory action gender responsive. Through conceptual and empirical cost-effectiveness analysis, CGIAR has supported WFP to identify optimal resource allocation across anticipatory and post-emergency responses as well as complementary responses to improve the effectiveness of anticipatory initiatives, including through early warning systems. CGIAR also provided technical support to WFP in assessing water and climate vulnerabilities in refugee-hosting communities in Nigeria and Ethiopia. In Nigeria, research focused on water system vulnerabilities in conflict-affected areas by identifying risks related to water availability and quality. In Ethiopia, CGIAR analyzed climate variability and water access challenges, integration of nature-based solutions in resilience and food security programs, knowledge and skill gaps in water resources management, and tools for flood mapping and management in drought-prone areas, generating a more robust anticipatory action framework for WFP. Related research in Mali informed WFP’s anticipatory action programming—now integrated into WFP’s Country Strategy Programme. These findings informed WFP’s programming, enhancing food security and disaster preparedness efforts and helping reduce the costs of emergencies for communities.
Informing social protection and school feeding programs through evidence-based policies
FCM’s research has been instrumental in enhancing WFP’s social protection strategies and school feeding programs across diverse contexts. In Somalia, CGIAR’s work provided critical insights for the Baxnaano safety net program—ensuring the next phase of the program is grounded in data-driven decision-making. The partnership informed the refinement of WFP’s approach to social protection, which helped shape the design of nutrition-sensitive interventions benefiting 1.2 million individuals, including 200,000 women. Similarly, in Kenya, CGIAR collaborated with WFP and the Kenyan government to evaluate the impact of their economic inclusion program. CGIAR worked with WFP on the evaluation design, to ensure its feasibility for WFP and that it addressed important evidence gaps, including those related to program sustainability and durability of impacts. Related work in Ethiopia and the Sahel region identified effective ways of targeting and integrating social protection and climate change adaptation strategies to enhance resilience. Altogether, this partnership generated important lessons to improve the targeting and design of national social protection programs as well as potential avenues to integrate these programs with development-oriented resilience-building and climate adaptations objectives.
Advancing climate security through multistakeholder collaboration and partnership
In partnership with WFP and other stakeholders, FCM co-designed analytical tools that enhanced understanding of climate and conflict vulnerabilities in various contexts. Through the Climate Security Observatory (CSO) and the Climate Security Sensitivity Tool (CSST), this partnership with CGIAR has provided actionable evidence to inform WFP’s programs and climate investments, with the objective of ensuring interventions are effectively targeted and conflict-sensitive. By identifying climate security hotspots in Mali and Kenya, CGIAR has helped WFP enhance resilience interventions and emergency preparedness. The CSST was also applied in Burkina Faso and Niger, where it was used to assess WFP’s Community-Based Participatory Planning (CBPP) approach and the Foreign Policy Instrument (FPI) Nexus Project. In Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, CGIAR worked closely with WFP and the Government of Mozambique to characterize the complex climate-conflict nexus and co-design environmental peace-building solutions addressing root causes of fragility.
Overall, by integrating research into operational planning, CGIAR has strengthened WFP’s capacity to implement proactive, data-driven interventions that safeguard vulnerable populations from conflict and climate-induced shocks. The actionable evidence generated by FCM has directly contributed to refining the design of WFP’s anticipatory action initiatives and social protection programs while also advancing the integration of responses across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus. To support these efforts, FCM facilitated technical capacity and knowledge sharing arrangements with WFP, including through secondments, through which CGIAR scientists are offering technical backstopping for WFP regional and country offices. Secondments from CGIAR to WFP were facilitated with the objective of strengthening the analytical capabilities of WFP regional and country offices.
