Samuel Benin is the Acting, Director for Africa in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. He conducts research on national strategies and public investment for accelerating food systems transformation in Africa and provides analytical support to the African Union’s CAADP Biennial Review. Sam originally joined IFPRI in 2004 as a Research Fellow and Leader of the Uganda Strategy Support Program for the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of key agricultural and rural development strategies. He later relocated to the Washington, DC, office to lead the research program on Pro-Poor Public Investment, focusing on assessing the impact of public investments, policies, and programs on poverty reduction, growth, and other human development indicators in Africa. He then managed the inter-Center Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) for the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and the Statistics on Public Expenditures for Economic Development (SPEED) database. Sam then became a Senior Research Fellow in 2017 and Deputy Division Director of the Africa Regional Office later that year, assisting the Director in managing the office’s research portfolio and providing intellectual leadership and guidance for strategic research areas and capacity building activities. Sam earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Ghana, Legon, a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a PhD from the University of California, Davis, specializing in Econometrics, Natural Resource Economics, and Development Economics.