Washington -- To support Ethiopia's commitment to breaking the cycle of food crises and famine in the country through a pro-poor agricultural strategy, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) announces that Dr. Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin will lead IFPRI's Ethiopia Country Strategy Support Program, which will collaborate closely with the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI) and other Ethiopian institutions. Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin will be based in Addis Ababa beginning July 1.

"This new program, which is Ethiopia-driven and Ethiopia-owned, builds on IFPRI's longstanding involvement in the country and seeks to strengthen policy analysis and dialogue by helping to bridge the gap between knowledge and policy on agricultural and rural development issues," explained Dr. Joachim von Braun, Director General of IFPRI.

IFPRI has been actively engaged in Ethiopia for nearly 20 years and has conducted research on strategies or policies to promote productive and sustainable land management, improve markets and increase farmers' and traders' access to them, cope with famine, and develop pathways out of poverty, among many other projects.

"IFPRI has extensive experience with development strategy that places agriculture as the engine of economic growth and it is internationally recognized for its research excellence on rural development policy," said H.E. Ato Newai Gebre-Ab, Director of EDRI and Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister. "By partnering with IFPRI to develop a locally-based program, we hope to have improved access to its resources and expertise and thereby contribute to the implementation of Ethiopia's rural development strategy."

The three major pillars of the program include:

• Creating a rural economy knowledge support system to integrate knowledge and to conduct analyses on the rural economy, and to track the impact of rural investments and activities.
• Conducting actionable applied research to improve or fill gaps in knowledge on rural development.
• Strengthening policy analysis capacity through targeted training and related activities.

"IFPRI is prepared to undertake research and outreach activities in partnership with Ethiopian policy researchers on a range of rural development and food security issues identified by Ethiopia as a priority," said Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, who recently held a position as Senior Sector Economist in the Africa region of the World Bank in Washington, DC. Prior to that, she was a Research Fellow at IFPRI, where her work included research on the Ethiopian grain market.

"During their recent summit in the United States, the members of the G-8 endorsed IFPRI's efforts to develop strategic analysis and knowledge support systems for agricultural and market analysis in Africa," said Dr. Peter Hazell, a director at IFPRI. "Through our new program in Ethiopia, we hope to do just that and thereby support Ethiopia's commitment to achieving food security through agricultural and rural development.

For more information, contact:

• Michele Pietrowski, 202/862-5679
  m.pietrowski@cgiar.org