Nicola Francesconi originally joined IFPRI in 2005, as a Graduate Research Fellow (i.e. PhD student). From 2005 and 2008 he worked in Ethiopia under IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Support Program and the supervision of Dr. Eleni Gabre Madhin. In January 2009 he defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Development Economics of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Previous academic titles include a MSc on Food Quality and Agri-Business Management from the Scuola Superiore S.Anna, Pisa University, Italy, as well as another MSc in Livestock Production from Pisa University, Italy. After various consultancy work for multiple international organizations, he was hired in June 2009 as a post doctoral Fellow by the Development Strategy and Governance Division of IFPRI. He is currently based in Dakar, Senegal.