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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

Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion

Heleene Tambet

Senior Research Analyst

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Bio

Heleene Tambet is a Senior Research Analyst in the Poverty, Gender and Inclusion Unit. She is an economist working on a diverse set of data-driven questions around the sustainability of food systems. At IFPRI, she has been supporting several large multisectoral evaluations, including Strengthen PSNP4 Institutions and Resilience in Ethiopia and mNutrition in Ghana and Tanzania. Her primary interests are agricultural practices and management of farming-related natural resources in the context of climate change. During her graduate studies, Heleene worked on projects that included evaluating economic and environmental impacts of an organic certification scheme and studying adoption of soil and water conservation practices after extreme weather events. She has an MS in International and Development Economics from the University of San Francisco.

Google Scholar Citations

Publications

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Journal Article

Using a list experiment to measure intimate partner violence: Cautionary evidence from Ethiopia

2024Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene
Details

Using a list experiment to measure intimate partner violence: Cautionary evidence from Ethiopia

While indirect response methods are increasingly used in surveys to measure sensitive behaviours such as intimate partner violence, important questions persist around how respondents understand and react to these methods. This article presents evidence from a list experiment measuring multiple forms of intimate partner violence in rural Ethiopia. We find that the list experiment does not generate estimates of intimate partner violence that are higher than direct response questions; rather, prevalence estimates using the list experiment are lower vis-à-vis prevalence estimates using the direct reports, and are sometimes even negative. We provide suggestive evidence that this pattern may reflect ‘fleeing’ behaviour by respondents who do not wish to be associated with statements indicating their exposure to intimate partner violence.

Year published

2024

Authors

Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; and Tambet, Heleene. Using a list experiment to measure intimate partner violence: Cautionary evidence from Ethiopia. Applied Economics Letters. Article in press. First published online January 31, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2024.2308579

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Domestic Violence; Behaviour; Measurement; Questionnaires

Language

English

Access/Licence

Limited Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2024.2308579 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of light-touch aspirations interventions in rural Ethiopia

2024Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Tambet, Heleene
Details

Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of light-touch aspirations interventions in rural Ethiopia

A growing literature in economics has analysed the effects of psychological interventions designed to boost individual aspirations as a strategy to increase households’ propensity to make long-term investments and thus reduce poverty. This paper reports on a randomised controlled trial evaluating a short video-based intervention designed to increase aspirations of adults in poor rural Ethiopian households who are beneficiaries of the Productive Safety Net Program, the main government safety net program in Ethiopia. Evidence from a sample of 5,258 adults from 3,220 households is consistent with the hypothesis that there are no significant effects of the intervention on self-reported aspirations for the household, educational investment in children, or savings nine months post-treatment. This suggests that the effect of light-touch aspirations treatments for extremely poor adults may be limited in this context.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; and Tambet, Heleene. Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of light-touch aspirations interventions in rural Ethiopia. Journal of Development Effectiveness. Article in press. First published online on March 31, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2024.2334214

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Economic Aspects; Psychology; Investment; Poverty; Social Safety Nets

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2024.2334214 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Journal Article

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Working Paper

Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-touch men’s engagement intervention to change attitudes and behaviors in rural Ethiopia

2023Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene
Details

Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-touch men’s engagement intervention to change attitudes and behaviors in rural Ethiopia

Graduation model interventions seek to address multiple barriers constraining households’ exit from poverty, however, few explicitly target unequal gender norms. Using a randomized control trial design, combined with three rounds of data, we investigate the impacts on gender equitable attitudes and behaviors of a graduation program that seeks to simultaneously “push” households out of poverty and improve unequal gender norms in Ethiopia. We find that at midline all treatment arms lead to improvements in men’s gender equitable attitudes and their engagement in household domestic tasks as reported by both men and women; but at endline, impacts are only sustained in the treatment arms that introduced men’s engagement groups after the midline survey to further promote improvements in equitable gender norms.

Year published

2023

Authors

Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Mulford, Michael; and Tambet, Heleene. 2023. Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-touch men’s engagement intervention to change attitudes and behaviors in rural Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2212. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137021

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Gender Norms; Men; Poverty; Households; Gender Equity; Behaviour

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137021 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
March 04, 2024

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia

By Kalle Hirvonen, Daniel Gilligan, Jessica Leight, Heleene Tambet, and Victor Villa

Safety nets can buttress households against climate shocks.

Events

SPIR II Learning Event
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

May 16 to 17, 2023

SPIR II Learning Event

May 16 and 17, 2023 (9:00am – 5:00pm Addis Ababa): The Strengthen PSNP5 Institutions and Resilience (SPIR II) Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Ethiopia is a five-year project (2021-2026) that supports implementation of the fifth phase of the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP5) in Amhara and Oromia regions and provides additional graduation model programming through complementary gender-sensitive livelihood, nutrition, and climate resilience activities to strengthen the program and expand its impacts.