IFPRI-Egypt is made up of globally renowned experts with extensive technical expertise in policy research, capacity strengthening and communication to reduce poverty and to improve food and nutrition security in Egypt. The team draws upon a unique set of skills, with demonstrated analytical, technical, interpersonal skills, and collective experience implementing research and building capacity in Egypt and the Arab world.
Sikandra Kurdi is a Country Program Leader/ Research Fellow. She completed her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Paris School of Economics. Her dissertation work looked at the impacts of the Labor Intensive Public Works program in Yemen on household incomes and the use of store credit for coping with shocks.
email: s.kurdi@cgiar.org
Kibrom A. Abay is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, based in Washington DC. He is a development and agricultural economist with research interests including rural development, agricultural transformation, urbanization, food and nutrition security, and behavioral economics. Most of his research involves impact evaluation methods. Some of his recent studies examine the behavioral and inferential implications of mismeasurement in household surveys. Much of his current research focuses on Africa south of the Sahara and the Middle East and North Africa region. Before joining IFPRI, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Kibrom received his PhD in Economics from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark
email: k.abay@cgiar.org
Clemens Breisinger is a Program Leader and Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI’s Development Strategy and Governance Division, which he joined in 2006. Since 2011, Clemens is leading IFPRI’s Middle East and North Africa team and he was based in Cairo from 2016 to 2021, where he also established and led IFPRI’s country program office for Egypt. Since 2021, Clemens is also the country program leader for Kenya, based in Nairobi, and co-leads the establishment of IFPRI’s new country program office in Sudan. The country programs develop research-based policy solutions, build coalitions for policy change and co-create innovative analytical tools in close collaboration with ministries of planning, social solidarity, agriculture; statistical agencies and universities; as well as with regional and international partners such as AGRA, the European Union, UN agencies, USAID, and the World Bank. Clemens’ research, capacity building and policy advisory work covers a broad range of issues related to foods system transformation and poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, climate change, conflict, and social protection. Together with colleagues and partners, Clemens produced more than 100 publications that are widely read and quoted by local and international media. Clemens received his PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany in 2006.
email: c.breisinger@cgiar.org
Fatma M. Abdelaziz is a Senior Research Associate and Project Manager. During her 10 years work at IFPRI, she managed several development projects in Egypt, Tunisia and Sudan funded by USAID, FAO, IFAD, EU. Fatma’s project and research scope involves different cross cutting development topics that include Social Policy, Gender equality and Woman Empowerment, Food and Nutrition Security, Industrial and Value Chain Development, Digitization Literacy for Smallholder Farmers, among others . She also managed the IFPRI Egypt Seminar Series, that feature research-based policy dialogues, with the aim to identify and provide evidence-based policy solutions in Egypt. Prior to her work at IFPRI, she worked as a consultant with the UNDP and PwC. Fatma is currently a PhD candidate at Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS), Department of Social Sciences, Development Economics Group and holds an MSc in Public Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC). Fatma’s Research interests include public policy and development economics, with a special focus on cluster-based development and digital agriculture for smallholders.
email: F.Abdelaziz@cgiar.org
Mariam Raouf is a Senior Research Associate. She holds a BA and Master of Science in Economics from the faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS). She also completed her Ph.D. in Economics in 2016 from FEPS, Cairo University. Her dissertation focused on the impact of financial openness on total factor productivity growth in selected countries in the MENA region. Raouf worked in the Institute of National Planning and the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform. Her research interests include macroeconomics, economic growth, national accounts, and international finance.
email: M.Raouf@cgiar.org
Basma Yassa is a Research Associate. Before Joining IFPRI she has worked as an Economist in the Governance and Economic Research Unit in the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation. She has also worked as a Senior Teaching Assistant in the Economics Department at the American University in Cairo. She has completed her Master’s Degree in Economics in International Development at the American University in Cairo. She holds a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Economics at FEPS, Cairo University. Her research interests are Applied Development Economics, Public Policy Evaluation, Macroeconomics, Labour Economics, and International Trade.
email: B.Yassa@cgiar.org
Mogeda Ramadan is an HR & Administration Officer. She graduated from the Faculty of Commerce- Cairo University- Major Accounting and has a Human Resources Management Diploma from the American University in Cairo and studying MBA online at the University of the People. She worked as a Senior Secretary at the Program Support Unit (PSU)- in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) at the Canadian Embassy. Later she worked as an Executive Assistant on a project Support to the Primary Schooling Project (STEPS II)- funded by CIDA– a 5 years Project and is aimed at enhancing the quality of Primary Education in Upper Egypt ( Sohag, Qena & Assuit Governorates). Worked as Senior Executive Assistant at the Early Childhood Education Enhancement Project (ECEEP)-Canadian Assistance Team – funded by CIDA- the aim of this project was to enhance the quality of education at the Kindergarten stage in Upper Egypt Governorates. Worked as Administration Associate at ICARDA Cairo office for three and a half years, responsible for the office overall Administration and Financial procedures.
email: M.Ramadan@cgiar.org
Mohamed Ali Abdel Gawad is Program Assistant. He holds a Diploma in Travel and Hotels from Orman Tourism and Hotels, Egypt. Mohamed started as a Driver with Ericsson company, after that he worked in the UNICEF office as a driver in Egypt until he joined IFPRI Egypt.
email: Mohamed.Ali@cgiar.org
Ali Abdelhadi is a Senior Communications Specialist based in IFPRI's office in Cairo, in charge of the communications and public affairs activities in the region. Ali is also acting as the office’s communication liaison between IFPRI’s office in Cairo and IFPRI’s headquarters as well as other country and regional offices. Ali has over 7 years of experience in communications event planning and marketing. Before joining IFPRI, Ali worked at Vodafone Group, Magrabi Foundation, Fair Trade Egypt, and Nawaya Egypt. Ali holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Mansoura University, Egypt.
email: a.abdelhadi@cgiar.org
Nada Shokry is a Research Associate. Before Joining IFPRI, she worked as an Economist at Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) in Maryland, USA. She has also worked as a Consultant for both IFPRI and the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES) as well as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Economics Department at the American University in Cairo and at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) Business Department in Alexandria. She holds both her MA and BA degrees in Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC) and has completed a graduate certificate program in healthcare data analytics from University of Connecticut in the USA. Her research interests are Applied Development Economics, Public Policy, Macroeconomics, Health Economics and International Economics.
email: n.shokry@cgiar.org
Nina Jovanovic is an Associate Research Fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division based in Cairo, Egypt. Her dissertation looked at the effects of technology adoption decisions made by smallholder farmers with incomplete information. She completed her PhD in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in 2023.
email: n.jovanovic@cgiar.org
Abdallah Amer, MSc, is a Senior Research Assistant in the Development Strategy and Governance Division (DSGD) at the International Food Policy Research Institute's Egypt office joined 2 years ago. He specializes in data management, monitoring, and cleaning, with extensive experience in both quantitative and participatory research. Abdallah has participated at numerous applied research projects across rural Egypt and has over two years of fieldwork experience in agriculture and agricultural digitalization, focusing on developing smart agri-tools to facilitate farmers' work. Additionally, his work addresses food insecurity and promotes good food habits in Egypt, involving several quantitative surveys and research on these topics. Abdallah holds a double bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in development economics from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University in France.
email: a.tarek@cgiar.org
Mariam Dawoud is a Program Manager at the IFPRI-Cairo Office. Mariam joined IFPRI in 2024. She has actively coordinated and managed main projects, Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity (EIBC), among others within the Egypt Strategy Support Program. She is responsible for managing the implementation of IFPRI projects in Egypt by liaising between internal and external cross-country stakeholders.
Before joining IFPRI, Mariam worked as a Project Manager with the office of Sponsored Programs, Center of Applied Research on the Environment and Sustainability, and the Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She has led many dynamic applied research projects in sustainability in the contexts of development, education, governance, and gender equality, resource management, as well climate change and climate security for across Egypt. Her project management background and work addresses heritage and climate adaptation, climate change, environmental sustainability, urban agriculture, food security, water sanitation, and education. She holds a master’s degree in heritage conservation and site management from Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg in Germany.
email: m.dawoud@cgiar.org
Linda Steinhuebel-Rasheed is a research fellow with the Development Strategies and Governance Unit, and is based in Cairo, Egypt. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of rural transformation processes, including questions related to agricultural development, household decision-making, market access, and farm-environment interactions. Linda received her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 2019.
email: l.steinhuebel-rasheed@cgiar.org
Ganna Hassan is a Research Assistant at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), her research interests include Public Policy Evaluation, Applied Development Economics, Inequality and Poverty Reduction and Applied Econometrics, with a focus on topics relevant to social protection and food and nutrition security in the MENA region. She is currently working on social protection projects in Egypt and Yemen. Before joining IFPRI, Ganna worked in the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team in a USAID-funded project, implemented by DAI aiming at enabling MSMEs through simplifying tax policies, regulations and processes for MSMEs. In addition, she worked at LYNX Strategic Business Advisors, as an Economic Researcher and Policy Analyst where she worked closely with stakeholders from the public as well as the private sector. Ganna holds her bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, the French section at Cairo University and she is currently aiming to successfully obtain her master’s degree.
email:g.hassan@cgiar.org
IFPRI-HQ Staff
Olivier Ecker is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Olivier is an economist specializing in development strategy and policies for poverty reduction and food and nutrition security in the Middle East and North Africa region and Sub‐Saharan Africa. Before joining IFPRI in 2009, he worked as a Research Associate in the Department of International Agricultural Trade and Food Security at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Olivier received his doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the University of Hohenheim.
email: O.Ecker@cgiar.org
Hagar ElDidi is a Research Analyst at the Environment and Production Technology Division (EPTD). She holds a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo and an MSc in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sustainability, with a specialization in Ecological Economics, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research interests include equitable and sustainable communal governance of natural resources, environmental justice, rural development, and food security for vulnerable communities.
email: H.Eldidi@cgiar.org
Daniel Gilligan is Deputy Division Director in IFPRI’s Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division. His research addresses the economics of household investments in childhood nutrition and education in developing countries, as well as the impact and cost-effectiveness of social protection and agricultural and nutrition interventions. Much of his research is based on experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations.
Two recent projects address (i) the role of information and social networks in the diffusion and sustainable adoption of biofortified crops, and (ii) parental incentives to improve cognitive outcomes for children attending early childhood development centers. Dan’s research has been featured in The New York Times, the Economist, The Atlantic online, and blog posts at the World Bank and The Guardian online. Dan holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland.
email: D.GILLIGAN@CGIAR.ORG
Zhe Guo is a senior GIS coordinator in the Environment and Production Technology at the IFPRI which he joined in 2007. Guo earned B.S. in soil sciences from China Agricultural University, M.S. in Ecology and Geography from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Maryland, and Ph.D. in Geography from George Mason University. His research focuses on spatial data analysis and modeling, machine learning applications in agriculture, spatial database development, monitoring and classification using big data, and ecosystem modeling and evaluation.
email: z.guo@cgiar.org
Brian Holtemeyer is a Research Analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute. He holds a BA in Math/Economics from the University of Minnesota and a MS in Data Science from George Washington University. At IFPRI he recently has been working on microsimulations in Tanzania and running the CGE simulations for the AIDA project. His research interests include data science, data visualization, cluster computing, econometrics, and computable general equilibrium modeling.
email: B.Holtemeyer@cgiar.org
Naureen Karachiwalla is a Research Fellow in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND) and is a non-resident Fellow at the Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR). She obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oxford and was an AMID Fellow at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.
Her research focuses on empirical development microeconomics, and within that sphere, on public and labor economics. Her research interests include incentives and accountability in the public sector, education, social protection, and technology adoption. Her work has been published in the Journal of Public Economics and Economic Development and Cultural Change, among others, and has focused on incentives and accountability in China, Uganda, and Pakistan, as well as caste and learning outcomes in Pakistan, agricultural technology adoption and counterfeiting in Uganda, and nutrition and social protection in Bangladesh and Egypt.
email: n.karachiwalla@cgiar.org
Jef Leroy, a Belgian citizen, is a Senior Research Fellow in IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division. He studies the impact of two large-scale integrated food and nutrition programs in Burundi and Guatemala on maternal and child nutrition and health. He is also involved in research on the impact of aflatoxin on child linear growth in Kenya and Mexico and studies the measurement of linear growth retardation. Before joining IFPRI in July 2009, he was a research associate at the Center for Evaluation Research and Surveys at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. In Mexico, he worked on the impact evaluation of large scale programs, including the impact of Mexico’s urban and rural Oportunidades programs on child nutrition and health, and the impact of the Programa de Apoyo Alimentario (a cash and in-kind transfer program) on household food consumption and women's weight. He has also conducted research on child mortality.
Jef Leroy has a Ph.D. in International Nutrition (Cornell University, USA) and MSc in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences (Ghent University, Belgium).
email: J.Leroy@cgiar.org
Alejandro Nin Pratt is Agricultural Economist at IFPRI since 2005. His research topics are development, economic growth and growth linkages, and poverty, agricultural productivity, and trade. He has also worked in the international trade of livestock and livestock products and sanitary measures affecting trade and their impact on domestic markets, smallholder producers, and poverty.
Alejandro received his B.S. degree in Agronomy (1987) and M.S. in International Economics from the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics (specialties: trade and production) from Purdue University in 2001. After obtaining his degree he worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue. In 2002 he moved to Africa where he worked for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ethiopia and Kenya. In 2005 Alejandro joined IFPRI in Washington DC, USA.
email: a.ninpratt@cgiar.org
Nicostrato D. Perez is a Research Fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute. He obtained his PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 1995.
He has more than 30 years of research experience, working in various capacities in national and international agricultural research centers including the International Rice Research Institute, The WorldFish Center, Philippine Rice Research Institute, and the Center for Development Research of Bonn University in Germany. Geographically, his work covered the regions and countries of Southeast Asia (Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam); South Pacific (Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu); Africa (Ghana and Burkina Faso); Germany, India and the USA.
His research interests are water and food security, adaptation to climate change, sustainable intensification, and economy-environment policy modeling. He is part of the team that developed, and currently maintains and applies IFPRI’s IMPACT model in policy research of global, regional and national agriculture; climate change mitigation and adaptation; land-use planning; and investment in food security and agricultural development.
His recent works include: the role of agricultural technologies in global food security; climate change adaptation strategies for the agricultural and fisheries sectors; upscaling climate-smart agriculture; impact assessment of climate shocks and extreme events; and investment requirements to achieving nutrition and food security objectives.
email: N.Perez@cgiar.org
Josée Randriamamonjy is a Senior Research Analyst at the Development Strategy and Governance Division of IFPRI since 2006. Her research topics cover the driving forces affecting the global food system, their links to agricultural production, and related policy options to better achieve reducing poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Previously she worked in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division of IFPRI where her work focused on assessing the impacts of the UNICEF nutrition interventions in Ghana, and on poverty analysis in Mozambique. Prior to her work at IFPRI, she was in charge of the Modeling Service of the National Statistics Institute of Madagascar. She received her M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University and her M.A. in Economic Policy Management from Auvergne University (CERDI) in France.
email: j.randriamamonjy@cgiar.org
Claudia Ringler was appointed Deputy Division Director of IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division in 2011. From 1996 until her current appointment, she served in various other research positions in that division. She currently co-leads the Institute’s water research program and is also a basin theme leader in the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems
Dr. Ringler received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from the Center for Development Research, Bonn University, Germany, and her MA in International and Development Economics from Yale University. Her research interests are water resources management-in particular, river basin modeling for policy analysis and agricultural; and natural resource policy focused at sustainable agricultural productivity growth. Over the last several years she has also undertaken research on the impacts of global warming for developing country agriculture and on appropriate adaptation and mitigation options. Dr. Ringler has field experience across Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. In Asia, she has worked on natural resource management and agricultural technology policy in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China (Yellow River Basin), India, Indonesia, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam (Dong Nai and Mekong River Basins). In sub-Saharan Africa, she has worked mainly in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa and on the Limpopo, Nile and Volta River Basins; and in Latin America on Chile (Maipo River Basin) and Brazil (Pirapama Basin). Ringler has been part of a series of Project and Program Advisory and Steering Committees; and International Assessments, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, and the UNEP-led GEO-V Assessment. She is currently a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Water Systems Project (GWSP). Dr. Ringler has more than 80 publications in the areas of water management, global food and water security, natural resource constraints to global food production, and on synergies of climate change adaptation and mitigation.
email: c.ringler@cgiar.org
Timothy Thomas worked as an economist/consultant for 10 years at the World Bank before joining IFPRI in March 2010. His primary research was with land use and land use change, principally as it resulted in tropical deforestation. Other areas of research included economic impact of urban areas on associated rural areas; the impact of weather related shocks on household well-being; and spatial interpolation of data. Tim has been using GIS for 10 years, and is interested in all sorts of spatial, geographical, and locational issues in the study of economic development.
email: Tim.Thomas@cgiar.org
James Thurlow is a development economist whose research focuses on the interactions between policies, economic growth, and poverty, primarily using computable general equilibrium and micro-simulation modeling. Past research focuses on evaluating public investments and policies; rural, regional and urban development; and climate change and other external risks. He has worked with governments and researchers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Bangladesh, Peru, Tunisia, and Vietnam.
email: j.thurlow@cgiar.org
Liangzhi You, a senior scientist, joined IFPRI in 2000 to conduct research on agricultural science and technology policy. Liangzhi earned a B.S. in hydraulic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, and an M.S. in environmental economics and Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining IFPRI, Liangzhi was a research assistant at Johns Hopkins University. Liangzhi is a citizen of China.
email: l.you@cgiar.org
Xiaobo Zhang is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division at IFPRI. Zhang earned B.S. in mathematics from Nankai University, China; M.S. in economics from Tianjin University of Economics and Finance, China; and M.S. and Ph.D. in applied economics and management from Cornell University in January 2000.
Zhang joined IFPRI in 1998. He has published widely in the fields of economic growth, income distribution, public investment, and rural industrialization in China and other developing countries. He is a Co-editor of the Chinese Economic Review. He was selected as the president of the Chinese Economists Society from 2005 to 2006.
email: x.zhang@cgiar.org
Key Collaborators
Hoda El-Enbaby is currently an independent researcher. Prior to that, she was a research associate at IFPRI. Before joining IFPRI, Hoda was a Researcher at the Economic Research Forum (ERF), and earlier an Economist at an investment bank (Beltone Financial). She holds a Master of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC). Hoda is currently doing her PhD in Health Economics and Policy at Lancaster University in the UK. Her research interests include health, gender, labor and development economics.
email: h_enbaby@aucegypt.edu
Manfred Wiebelt is a senior research fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, an adjunct professor of economics at Kiel University, and director of the Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet). Before joining the Kiel Institute in 1989, he held research positions at the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University and at the Centre for International Agrarian Development in Heidelberg. His research interests are trade and agricultural policy in developing countries, pro-poor growth, management of natural resources, and empirical general equilibrium analysis.
email: Manfred.Wiebelt@ifw-kiel.de
