Food Policy Research Capacity Indicators (FPRCI), 2010-2019

Food policy research plays a crucial role in guiding agricultural transformation in developing countries. To achieve food security goals, countries need to strengthen their capacity to conduct food policy research. Strong local policy research institutions help shaping evidence-based policymaking. Measuring national capacity for food policy research is important for identifying capacity gaps in food policy research and guiding the allocation of resources to fill those gaps. “Food policy research capacity” is defined as the ability to do socioeconomic or policy-related research in the areas of food, agriculture, nutrition, or natural resources. To measure this capacity, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed a set of indicators for the quantity and quality of policy research at the country level. IFPRI created the Food Policy Research Capacity Indicators (FPRCI) database in 2010 and has since continued to expand and refine it. Data are currently collected for 33 countries; data for Myanmar was added in 2017. A consistent methodology is followed to enable a comparison of values across time and countries. The database was most recently updated with numbers for 2019. Analysts/researchers counts the professionals employed at local organizations whose work involves food policy research or analysis. To introduce some uniformity, IFPRI also presents a modified quantification of this headcount: full-time equivalent analysts/researchers with PhD. To obtain an indicator of per capita food policy research capacity, this research capacity is then divided by the country’s rural population (full-time equivalent researchers per million rural residents). This helps to illustrate the impact of local food policy research in a country. This indicator was last updated in 2015. The quality of a country’s food policy research capacity is estimated by tallying the number of relevant international publications in peer-reviewed journals over a five-year period. IFPRI views this as a reflection of the local enabling intellectual environment for food policy research. This indicator allows for comparison across countries, as it ensures an internationally accepted standard of quality for publications. The final indicator is derived by dividing the number of international publications by the number of full-time equivalent researchers with a PhD, providing a measure of productivity.

粮食政策研究对于发展中国家的农业转型具有至关重要的指导意义。为实现粮食安全目标，各国需强化自身开展粮食政策研究的能力。实力雄厚的本土政策研究机构有助于推动循证决策的制定。评估国家粮食政策研究能力，有助于识别粮食政策研究领域的能力短板，并指导资源配置以填补这些缺口。
“粮食政策研究能力（Food policy research capacity）”被定义为在食品、农业、营养或自然资源领域开展社会经济或政策相关研究的能力。为评估该能力，国际粮食政策研究所（International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI）构建了一套用于衡量国家层面政策研究数量与质量的指标体系。该所于2010年创建了粮食政策研究能力指标（Food Policy Research Capacity Indicators, FPRCI）数据库，并在此后持续对其进行扩充与完善。目前该数据库收录了33个国家的相关数据，缅甸的数据于2017年新增入库。该数据库采用统一的方法论框架，以实现不同时间与国家间的数值对比。该数据库最近一次更新为2019年的相关数据。
研究人员会统计在从事粮食政策研究或分析工作的本土机构中任职的专业人员数量。为统一统计标准，国际粮食政策研究所还对该人头数进行了标准化修正：即拥有博士学位的全职当量分析师/研究人员数量。为得到人均粮食政策研究能力指标，研究人员将该研究能力除以该国农村人口数，即每百万农村居民对应的全职当量研究人员数量。该指标有助于阐释一国本土粮食政策研究的影响力，其最近一次更新于2015年。
一国粮食政策研究能力的质量，则通过统计其五年期内同行评议期刊上发表的相关国际学术论文数量来评估。国际粮食政策研究所将该指标视为本土粮食政策研究赋能型智力环境的体现，该指标采用国际公认的论文质量标准，可实现国家间的横向对比。最后一项指标则通过用国际学术论文发表数量除以拥有博士学位的全职当量研究人员数量，得到研究生产力的衡量结果。