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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

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researcher spotlight

Samuel Benin

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.

Where we work

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Innovation Policy and Scaling

Thomas Assefa

Associate Research Fellow

Bio

Thomas Woldu Assefa is an Associate Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. He is a Development Economist with research interests including agricultural technology adoption, rural development, agricultural transformation, behavioral economics, agricultural extension and advisory services, food and nutrition security, and survey methods and measurements. Most of his research involves experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluation methods, and he has extensive experience in designing and implementing large-scale household surveys and randomized controlled trials. In his recent work, Thomas has focused on understanding smallholder farmers’ fertilizer adoption decisions and innovating methods to minimize measurement errors in development economics research. Before joining IFPRI, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Georgia (UGA), as a consultant for the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and was an IMMANA postdoctoral research fellow, a program administered by Tufts University. Thomas received his MSc from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and holds a PhD from the University of Georgia, US.

Innovation Policy and Scaling

Publications

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Book Chapter

Ethiopia

2020Berhane, Guush; Ragasa, Catherine; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Assefa, Thomas Woldu
Details

Ethiopia

This chapter takes stock of the provision of extension services in line with the country’s development and suggests ways such services might contribute to accelerating agricultural growth and poverty reduction in the years ahead. Ethiopia has invested significantly in its extension system, in line with national policies that place a high priority on boosting agricultural production and productivity. Ethiopia is considered a leading country globally in the provision of extension services to farmers and has the highest extension agent-to-farmer ratio of any country. Ethiopia presents an interesting case, as it is one of few African countries to have placed agriculture at the forefront of its economic development policies, having invested heavily in the sector over the past two decades. Unlike many countries where private-sector extension services expanded following drastic public funding cuts to their extension systems in the 1980s and 1990s (Zhou and Babu 2015), Ethiopia’s extension system remains predominantly public.

Year published

2020

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Ragasa, Catherine; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Assefa, Thomas Woldu

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Ragasa, Catherine; Abate, Gashaw T.; and Assefa, Thomas Woldu. 2020. Ethiopia. In Agricultural extension: Global status and performance in selected countries, eds. Kristin Davis; Suresh Chandra Babu; and Catherine Ragasa. Part 2: Performance of Extension Systems, Chapter 6, Pp. 185-223. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896293755_06

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Advisory Services; Agricultural Extension; Technology; Extension Systems; Livelihoods; Agricultural Development; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896293755_06 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Book Chapter

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Journal Article

Assessing community health information systems: Evidence from child health records in food insecure areas of the Ethiopian highlands

2020Hirvonen, Kalle; Berhane, Guush; Assefa, Thomas Woldu
Details

Assessing community health information systems: Evidence from child health records in food insecure areas of the Ethiopian highlands

Objectives: This study assessed the completeness of child health records maintained and collected within community health information system in Ethiopia. Methods: A household listing was carried out in 221 enumeration areas in food insecure areas of Ethiopia to determine the presence of a child less than 24-months. This list of children was then compared against the information stored at the local health posts. A household survey was administered to a sample of 2155 households that had a child less than 24-months of age to assess determinants and consequences of exclusion from the health post registers. Results: Out of the 10,318 children identified during the listing, 36% were found from the health post records. Further analysis based on the household survey data indicated that health posts that had adopted nationally recommended recordkeeping practices had more complete records (p < 0.01) and that children residing farther from health posts were less likely to be found from the registers (p < 0.05). Mothers whose child was found from the registers were more likely to know a health extension worker (p < 0.01), had a contact with one (p < 0.01), and their child was more likely to have received growth monitoring (p < 0.05). Conclusions for Practice: The incompleteness of the data collected at the health posts poses a challenge for effective implementation of the national health extension program and various complementary programs in Ethiopia.

Year published

2020

Authors

Hirvonen, Kalle; Berhane, Guush; Assefa, Thomas Woldu

Citation

Hirvonen, Kalle; Berhane, Guush; and Assefa, Thomas Woldu. 2020. Assessing community health information systems: Evidence from child health records in food insecure areas of the Ethiopian highlands. Maternal and Child Health Journal 24(8): 1028–1037. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-02943-1

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Health; Child Health; Assessment; Health Services; Food Security; Information

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-02943-1 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Evaluation of the nutrition-sensitive features of the fourth phase of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme

2020
Berhane, Guush; Golan, Jenna; Hirvonen, Kalle; Hoddinott, John F.; Kim, Sunny S.; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Abay, Kibrewossen; Assefa, Thomas Woldu; Habte, Yetimwork; Abay, Mehari Hiluf
…more Koru, Bethlehem; Tadesse, Fanaye; Tesfaye, Haleluya; Wolle, Abdulazize; Yimer, Feiruz
Details

Evaluation of the nutrition-sensitive features of the fourth phase of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme

This study assesses progress in the implementation of the nutrition-sensitive interventions of the fourth phase of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP-4) and its impact on: (1) the pathways underpinning children’s nutritional status; and (2) the roles it plays in reducing the malign effect of seasonality on the nutritional status of women and pre-school children. The analysis is based on four rounds of household survey data, conducted in March and August 2017 (baseline) and March and August 2019 (endline). These surveys focused on households with a child less than 24 months of age (index child) and his/her mother (index mother). In 2017 and 2019, the survey teams visited more than 2,500 households in 264 kebeles in 88 PSNP woredas in the Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regions.

Year published

2020

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Golan, Jenna; Hirvonen, Kalle; Hoddinott, John F.; Kim, Sunny S.; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Abay, Kibrewossen; Assefa, Thomas Woldu; Habte, Yetimwork; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Koru, Bethlehem; Tadesse, Fanaye; Tesfaye, Haleluya; Wolle, Abdulazize; Yimer, Feiruz

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Golan, Jenna; Hirvonen, Kalle; Hoddinott, John F.; Kim, Sunny S.; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Abay, Kibrewossen; Assefa, Thomas Woldu; Habte, Yetmwork; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Koru, Bethlehem; Tadesse, Fanaye; Tesfaye, Haleluya; Wolle, Abdulazize; and Yimer, Feiruz. 2020. Evaluation of the nutrition-sensitive features of the fourth phase of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme. ESSP Working Paper 140. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133685

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Programmes; Health; Households; Capacity Development; Nutrition; Infant Feeding; Child Feeding; Children; Food Security; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133685 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper