Todd Benson, who joined IFPRI in 1999 as a Research Fellow, conducts research on poverty, poverty mitigation, and household economic vulnerability both at the scale of the household and from broader spatial perspectives (poverty and vulnerability mapping). His research also explores the institutional frameworks within which food and nutrition security can be assured in sub-Saharan Africa.

Before coming to IFPRI, he was a geographer/socioeconomist in agricultural research with the government of Malawi focusing on soil fertility management in smallholder agricultural systems. Benson holds a B.A. in environmental studies and water resources from Cook College of Rutgers University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in geography from the University of Minnesota. He is a U.S. citizen.

• Pathways from Poverty
• Nutrition Policy Process

• Malawi
• Tanzania
• Chad
• Kenya
• Uganda
• Nigeria
• Ghana
• Ethiopia
• Mozambique
• Sub-Saharan Africa

• Crossing boundaries to reduce malnutrition? An institutional study of agriculture and nutrition in Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria & Ghana
  2004. Benson, Todd; Palmer, Tammy; Satcher, Robin; Johnson-Welch, Charlotte. Agriculture-Nutrition Advantage project report.
• Africa's Food and Nutrition Security Situation - Where are We and How Did We Get Here?
  2004. Benson, Todd. IFPRI 2020 Discussion Paper no. 37. Washington, DC: IFPRI
• Poverty in Malawi, 1998.
  2004. Benson, Todd; Machinjili, Charles; Kachikopa, Lawrence. Development Southern Africa 21 (3): 419-441.
• Malawi: An Atlas of Social Statistics
  2002. Benson, T. International Food Policy Research Institute and National Statistical Office, Government of Malawi. 2002.
• The Determinants of Poverty in Malawi, 1998
  2002. Mukherjee, Sanjukta; & Benson, Todd. World Development. 31 (2): 339-358.