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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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Where we work

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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Innovation Policy and Scaling

Guush Berhane

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Guush Berhane is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His research focuses on policies and innovations to promote agricultural transformation, rural livelihoods, and well-being, and on the impact of social protection interventions in mitigating food insecurity and vulnerability. Much of his research is based on econometric and quasi-experimental impact evaluation methods. His most recent work extends to understanding welfare outcomes in conflict and fragility settings and interventions to facilitate post-conflict rehabilitation and rebuilding. He has ongoing research in Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Between 2009 and 2020, he was part of IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) based in Ethiopia and has extensive experience in designing and conducting large-scale household surveys as well as wider engagements with policymakers and communities. His work has been published in journals including the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, World Development, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Land Use Policy. Guush holds a PhD in Economics and a master’s degree in Development Economics from Wageningen University, Netherlands.

Publications

Google Scholar Citations

RePEc Author Profile

Publications

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Other

Community-Based Cash Transfer in fragile and conflict-affected communities

2024Abay, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu
Details

Community-Based Cash Transfer in fragile and conflict-affected communities

This project evaluates the impact of community-based cash transfers on household welfare in conflict affected and fragile settings. We aim to address the following important questions: (1) Can Community-Based cash transfers improve food security and subjective well-being of beneficiaries in conflict-affected settings? (ii) Can relatively small community-based cash transfers improve mental health and stress in the face of recurrent conflicts? (iii) Do welfare impacts of community-based cash transfers vary by how they are targeted? (iv) Are community-based transfers more impactful for improving welfare outcomes in conflict affected communities? (v) What is the impact of community-based cash transfers on trust in local governance and social cohesion in the presence and absence of conflicts? To address these questions, we design a cluster-based Randomized Control Trial (RCT) and randomly assign communities into control group and community-based cash transfers involving different targeting approaches.

Year published

2024

Authors

Abay, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu

Citation

Abay, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu. 2024. Community-Based Cash Transfer in fragile and conflict-affected communities. AEA RCT Registry.

Keywords

Cash Tranfers; Conflicts; Social Welfare

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12795-1.0 Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Other

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Journal Article

Shocks and stability of risk and time preferences among poor rural households in Ethiopia

2024Meles, Tensay Hadush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Berhane, Guush; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum
Details

Shocks and stability of risk and time preferences among poor rural households in Ethiopia

This paper examines the effects of shocks on temporal stability of risk and time preferences of rural households within a developing country context characterized by frequent droughts, chronic food insecurity, and low levels of education. Leveraging a three-wave large and diverse household panel data that elicits preferences every two years for more than 6,500 individuals from over 5,600 sample rural households in Ethiopia, we analyze the effects of droughts (self-reported) and rainfall shortfalls on household risk and time preferences. Our findings show that households become more risk-averse and impatient after experiencing drought and rainfall shocks; the change in risk preferences is more notable among households that experience recurrent droughts and multiple covariate shocks during the same period.

Year published

2024

Authors

Meles, Tensay Hadush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Berhane, Guush; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Citation

Meles, Tensay Hadush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Berhane, Guush; and Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum. Shocks and stability of risk and time preferences among poor rural households in Ethiopia. Journal of African Economies. Article in press. First published online May 6, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejae005

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Food Insecurity; Households; Poverty; Rural Areas; Shock

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejae005 Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Journal Article

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Other

Evaluating alternative targeting of social assistance in fragile settings

2023Abay, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu
Details

Evaluating alternative targeting of social assistance in fragile settings

This research project aims to address three research objectives. First, we aim to evaluate the performance of alternative targeting approaches including Proxy Means test (PMT), Community-Based Targeting (CBT) and Peer Targeting (PT) in fragile and conflict settings. We measure their relative performance in terms of identifying the poor. Second, we test the performance of alternative variants of community-based targeting approaches under different selection conditionalities and budget constraints. We evaluate the impact of alternative designs to CBT on the breadth and depth of social assistance transfers distributed to members of the community. Third, we evaluate decision-making and negotiation processes in CBT when real incentives are involved and in the absence of actual cash transfers.

Year published

2023

Authors

Abay, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu

Citation

Abay, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel; Tafere, Kibrom; and Taffesse, Alemayehu. 2023. Evaluating alternative targeting of social assistance in fragile settings. AEA RCT Registry.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Conflicts; Poverty; Cash Transfers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12677-1.1 Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Other

Blogs

Grappling with compounding crises in domestic fertilizer markets in Africa: The case of Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 16, 2024

Grappling with compounding crises in domestic fertilizer markets in Africa: The case of Ethiopia

By Kibrom Abay, Thomas W. Assefa, Guush Berhane, Gashaw Tadesse Abate, and Charlotte Hebebrand

Local effects of global shocks persist.

Ethiopia’s social safety net effective in limiting COVID-19 impacts on rural food insecurity
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 28, 2021

Ethiopia’s social safety net effective in limiting COVID-19 impacts on rural food insecurity

By Kibrom A. Abay, Guush Berhane, John Hoddinott, and Kibrom Tafere

A survey shows such programs can be effective in addressing the impacts of sudden shocks.

Events

2023 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting
IFPRI at External Event

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July 23 to 25, 2023

2023 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting

Event: July 23, 2023 – 8:30 AM to July 25, 2023 – 4:15 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in the 2023 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting.

2021 ReSAKSS Conference
IFPRI at External Event

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November 15 to 17, 2021

2021 ReSAKSS Conference

Virtual Event: Nov 15, 2021 – 07:00 AM to Nov 17, 2021 – 10:30 AM EST. IFPRI is participating in the virtual 2021 ReSAKSS Conference. 

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)
IFPRI at External Event

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August 17 to 31, 2021

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)

Virtual Event: AUG 17, 2021 – 08:00 AM to AUG 31, 2021 08:00 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in the 31st Conference of Agriculture Economists organized by the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).