Biographies
Dr. Kibrom A. Abay is a Research Fellow in the Development Strategy and Governance Division at IFPRI, based in Cairo. He is a development and agricultural economist with research interests covering rural development, agricultural transformation, urbanization, food and nutrition security, and behavioral economics. Before joining IFPRI, he has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Copenhagen and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Dr. Abay received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Dr. Abla Abdel-Latif is currently the Chairwoman of the Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Development; a Member of the Central Bank of Egypt’s Coordinating Council and has been a Board Member of the National Bank of Egypt. She was honored with a membership of the Committee of Fifty. In addition to her teaching career as Professor of Economics at the American University in Cairo (AUC) for over twenty years, she has been a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum and has authored many publications in class A internationally refereed journals. Dr. Abdel Latif has also been a senior international expert in several UNIDO projects and other international organizations. She got her B.A. in Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC) and M.A and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.
Dr. Fadi Abdelradi is an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics in the Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University. He is an expert in the field of price transmission and econometric modeling. Dr. Abdelradi is a member of the European Association of Agriculture Economists, the International Association of Agriculture Economists, and the Egyptian association of Agriculture Economists. In 2014, he was a guest scholar at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, USA. He participated in several international specialized conferences in the field of agricultural economics and business. Dr. Abdelradi received his MSc and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Barcelona.
Dr. Channing Arndt has more than 25 years of experience in development economics with seven years of combined resident experience in Morocco and Mozambique. He has substantial research management experience including leadership of interdisciplinary teams and has taken leadership roles in major policy documents such as the design of a carbon tax for the National Treasury of South Africa, the Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change for the World Bank, and the Second, Third and Fourth National Poverty Assessments for the Government of Mozambique. Dr. Arndt’s research program has focused on agricultural development, poverty alleviation, and growth, market integration, gender and discrimination, the implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, technological change, trade policy, aid effectiveness, infrastructure investment, energy, bioenergy, climate variability, and the implications of climate change.
Dr. Clemens Breisinger is a senior research fellow at IFPRI, which he joined in 2006. Since 2011, Clemens has been leading IFPRI’s Middle East and North Africa team and is based in Cairo since 2016, from where he also leads IFPRI’s country strategy support program for Egypt. Both programs provide context-specific policy solutions, innovative analytical tools, and research-based public information and work closely with local institutions, such as the ministries of planning, social solidarity, agriculture; statistical agencies and universities; as well as with international organizations such as IFAD, FAO, USAID, and the World Bank. Dr. Breisinger received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany in 2006.
Dr. Nasredin Hag Elamin is currently serving as Country Representative for Egypt, FAO. He started his career in 1990 at the University of Khartoum, Sudan, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. He joined FAO in 1999 as Trade Economist where he worked extensively on trade analysis and policy advice and WTO issues in agriculture and food security. From 2004 to 2008 he served as Policy Officer for the FAO Regional Office for the Near East. Dr. Hag Elamin has extensive experience, with more than 30 years, in advising countries on policies, strategies, and programs for sustainable agriculture development and food security, trade policy, and agriculture-related issues of the WTO Agreements. He holds M.Sc. in Trade and Development and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Lancaster, England.
Ms. Hoda El-Enbaby is a consultant at IFPRI. Before that, she was a research fellow at IFPRI. Before joining IFPRI, Hoda was a Researcher at the Economic Research Forum (ERF), and earlier an Economist at 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). El-Enbaby is currently doing her Ph.D. in Health Economics and Policy at Lancaster University in the UK.
Ms. Hagar El-Didi is a Research Analyst at the Environment and Production Technology Division (EPTD). Ms. ElDidi 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.
Dr. Ismail El-Faramawi graduated in 1961 from the Faculty of Agriculture – Cairo University. For more than 50 years, he has wide experience in the field of agriculture and rural development. Since his graduation, he worked for international Italian companies namely: Italconsult, Bonifica, and Nuovo Castoro, he participated in the studies, designs, and implementation of several mega projects in the fields of land reclamation, cultivation, and mechanization both in Egypt and Jordan. Since 2002, Dr. El-Faramawi joined the technical unit of the Italian Cooperation in Cairo (Now called the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation “AICS Cairo Office”). As a senior agricultural expert, he participated in the design, formulation, monitoring, and evaluation of the projects financed by the Italian Cooperation in the fields of agriculture and rural development as well as the projects financed by the EU in the field of rural development and delegated to the Italian Cooperation for its formulation and implementation.
H.E Dr. Nivine El-Kabbag has more than 25 years of experience in the field of international cooperation, strategic management, and institutional development. Dr. El-Kabbag also had considerable experience in social policies and evaluation. Her graduate studies in international political economy and international relations in Canada complemented her practical experience in international organizations and in managing development cooperation agreements. Before her appointment as Minister of Social Solidarity in January 2020, she has worked as Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity for Social Protection and Development with a mandate to manage a number of files on top of the political state agenda including poverty alleviation, economic empowerment equity, gender mainstreaming as well as disability. Dr. El-Kabbag is currently managing the secretariat of the Ministerial Committee for Social Justice led by the Prime Minister. Ten years working for UNICEF enhanced her international experience on the development framework and specifically on women and children issues. Before joining UNICEF, Dr. El-Kabbag was the Deputy Director for America’s Development Foundation in Egypt and in National Council for Negro Women, which strengthened her skills in Advocacy, Governance, and Sound Management. She was also a Policy, Planning, and Monitoring Advisor for the General Secretary of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and for the National Council for the population. Dr. El-Kabbag is the founder and was the chairperson of the first Egyptian Research and Evaluation Network (EREN) in Egypt.
H.E. Dr. Hala El-Said is currently the Minister of Planning and Economic Development. She previously held the position of minister of planning monitoring and administrative reform from February 2017 to December 2019, and before that she was the former dean of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS), Cairo University, and a member of the board of the central bank of Egypt. Over her long academic career, Dr. El-Said played a dynamic role in bridging the gap between the university graduates’ knowledge and the skills required at the real workplace. Throughout her academic journey, she managed to achieve key milestones not only in the academic and research areas but also in the overall financial and banking sectors. Following her belief in the power of youth, she played a recognized role with youth: She was the initiator and co-founder of several students’ activities inside the University campus – namely, the simulation models.
Dr. Atef El-Shabrawy has more than 25 years of experience in innovation, development finance, and entrepreneurship. He occupied top positions like CEO-founder of the social Family Bank-Bahrain, advisor to the Bahrain Ministry of Development, General Manager at Bahrain Development Bank, Manager at the Egyptian Social Fund for Development, Advisor to Centennial Fund-KSA, Global-Expert-MENA region at ICSB. He is also the founder of (www.socialinnovationexpert.com).
Dr. Yasser El-Shayeb is the Chief Party of Center of Excellence for Water, AUC. Before serving in his current position, Dr. ElShayeb has managed the National EU ERASMUS+ Programme in Egypt, while giving a hand at the faculty of Engineering, as the Deputy Director of the Center for Advancement of Post Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering. He has also continued to practice and manage research in various fields: Landslide Research and Risk Assessment, Data Mining Applications for Knowledge Discovery, Heritage Information technology, Heritage Management, etc. Dr. ElShayeb is a graduate of the Mining Engineering Department of Cairo University where he practiced how to study archeological sites, using the tools of engineers.
Dr. 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. Dr. Gilligan’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. Dr. Gilligan holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland.
Mr. Hosam Ibrahim is a Senior Research Assistant. Before joining IFPRI he was a Senior Vulnerability Analysis Associate at the United Nations World Food Programme and a Researcher at the Dubai Economic Council. He holds BSc in Economics from the American University of Sharjah and MA in Economics from the American University in Cairo. His research interests include development economics, food security, labor and productivity, macroeconomic modeling and forecasting, internal conflict, and the political economy of natural resources.
Dr. Habiba Hassan-Wassef is a Trustee of the African Nutrition Society, a Council Member of the Federation of African Nutrition Societies, and is also the Vice-President of the African Society for Mycotoxicology. Policy related aspects of her career were developed through twenty years of service with the World Health Organization with the last 6 years at WHO Headquarters in Geneva. She is a graduate of the Cairo University Medical School (First Class Honors). She has obtained training in clinical, laboratory as well as public health nutrition research in Egypt, before further developing her academic career in France and the United States where she was a Whitehall Research Fellow at the Institute of Nutrition Sciences, Columbia University. On the local scene, Dr. Hassan-Wassef is a member of the National Codex Alimentarius Committee and a member of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood Expert Group formulating a national policy and strategy for Early Childhood Development.
Ms. Yumna Kassim is a Research Associate at IFPRI. Before joining IFPRI she was a Junior Research Fellow at the European Institute of the Mediterranean and at the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat in Barcelona. Ms. Kassim also worked with the Desert Development Center and the Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment (RISE) at the American University in Cairo (AUC), as well as the PsychoSocial Services and Training Institute in Cairo (PSTIC). She holds a BA in Middle East Studies from AUC and an MSC in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sustainability, with a specialization in Ecological Economics, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).
Dr. Sikandra Kurdi is a Research Fellow. Ms. Kurdi completed her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. She has designed and led various impact evaluations of social protection programs in Egypt and Yemen. Her research interests relate to the ways that informal institutions such as social capital, intrahousehold decision-making, and informal credit markets shape the impacts of social programs.
Ms. Ghada Abdallah currently holds the position of CAPMAS President Consultant. Ms. Abdallah was the Head of Economic Statistics and Mobilization sector from Mid 2017 till October 2020. During this time, the Economic statistics and mobilization sector has achieved many accomplishments such as the Financial Inclusion Survey which is currently in the data collection stage, a study on the impact of Covid-19 on the small, medium, and micro-enterprises, and the development of the Consumer Price Index. In addition to being the Director of the Economic Census 2017/2018 and publishing the National Account matrix and issuing SAM 2014/2015 in September 2019, she worked as Undersecretary for CAPMAS president office from 2012 till mid-2017. Under her supervision, many projects have been conducted such as supervising the process of CAPMAS celebration of World Statistics Day 2010 and 2015 and CAPMAS celebration of African Statistics from 2011 to 2016, preparing and organizing the fourth Arab Forum on Statistical Capacity Building in cooperation with PARIS 21.
Dr. Saad Mousa is the Supervisor of the Central Administration of Foreign Agricultural Relations at the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. Before that, he headed the Central Administration of Plant Quarantine, as well as the Plan Protection Research Institute. Dr. Mousa holds a Ph.D. in Insect BioTechnology from New Delhi University, India; and a master's degree in Economic Entomology from Mansoura University. He received the award for Best Scientific Paper in the international workshop held at the National Research Center for Biotechnology in 2017.
Dr. Racha Ramadan is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. In 2008, she worked as a research assistant at IFPRI- Washington, D.C. Since 2010, Dr. Ramadan has worked as an economic consultant for different international organizations such as the UNDP, World Bank, UN-ESCWA, UN-FAO, IFAD, and UNESCO. She is a fellow of the Summer Program in Social Science (SPSS) at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a member of the Associate Editorial Board of New Medit- A Mediterranean Journal of Economics, Agriculture and Environment. She got her Ph.D. in Economics, in 2010, from Toulouse School of Economics.
Dr. Mariam Raouf is a Senior Research Associate. Dr. Raouf worked in the Institute of National Planning and the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform. Ms. Raouf 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.
Ms. Leslie Reed began her tour as USAID Mission Director for Egypt in August 2020, after having served as Mission Director in several other countries such as South Sudan (one year ahead of starting Egypt’s tour in 2020), Ethiopia (2016-2019), and Uganda (2012-2016) During her missions across the past years with USAID, she has succeeded in leading the development of the mission’s new Country Development Cooperation Strategy in South Sudan and Ethiopia and in pioneering the Mission of Leaders Program in Uganda that received agency-wide accolades for empowering staff to lead at all levels, resulting in greater development results. Before joining USAID, Ms. Reed was a senior project finance officer and assistant general counsel for the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Ms. Reed is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Johan Swinnen became Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in January 2020. He is a member of the Champions 12.3 Leadership Group to Reduce Food Loss and Waste (SDG Target 12.3) and a Commissioner of the Food Systems Economics Commission. Dr. Swinnen was the Lead Economist at the World Bank (2003-2004) and economic adviser to the European Commission (1998-2001). He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University (USA). He is a fellow of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association & the European Association of Agricultural Economists; former president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. Dr. Swinnen’s extensive publications on agricultural & food policies, international development, political economy, institutional reforms, trade, and global value chains and his body of work have been widely cited.
*biographies are sorted alphabetically by the last name.
