Dr. Ousmane Badiane is the Africa Director for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). In this role, he oversees the institute’s two regional offices for West and Central Africa in Dakar and Eastern and Southern Africa in Addis Ababa. He coordinates IFPRI’s work program in the areas of food policy research, capacity strengthening, and policy communications in Africa. He is also in charge of IFPRI’s partnerships with African institutions dealing with the above areas.

As an Advisor to the NEPAD Secretariat from 2004 to 2007, he was instrumental in developing and guiding the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). Before his current tenure at IFPRI, Dr. Badiane, a national of Senegal, was Lead Specialist for Food and Agricultural Policy for the Africa Region at the World Bank from January 1998 to August 2008. He previously worked at IFPRI as Senior Research Fellow from 1989 to 1997, when he led the institute's work on market reforms and development. While at IFPRI, he taught Economics of Development in Africa, as adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies from 1993 to 2003. Dr. Badiane received a Master’s Degree and PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Kiel in Germany. His awards include a Doctoral Degree Honoris Causa from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa and induction as Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economics.