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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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experts

Foresight and Policy Modeling

Josee Randriamamonjy

Senior Scientist

Bio

Josée Randriamamonjy is a Senior Scientist in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit and has been with IFPRI since 2006. Her research topics cover the driving forces affecting the global food system, their links to agricultural production, and related policy options to better achieve the reduction of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition, and she is currently working on employment, youth, and rural development. Previously, she worked in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division of IFPRI where her work focused on assessing the impacts of the UNICEF nutrition interventions in Ghana, and on poverty analysis in Mozambique. Prior to her work at IFPRI, she was in charge of the Modeling Service of the National Statistics Institute of Madagascar. She received a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University and a master’s degree in Economic Policy Management from Auvergne University (CERDI) in France.

Publications

Publications

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Journal Article

From food subsidies to cash transfers: Assessing economy-wide benefits and trade-offs in Egypt

2024Breisinger, Clemens; Kassim, Yumna; Kurdi, Sikandra; Randriamamonjy, Josée; Thurlow, James
Details

From food subsidies to cash transfers: Assessing economy-wide benefits and trade-offs in Egypt

Food is a vital part of poor households’ budgets and so subsidizing staple foods would appear to be an obvious pro-poor policy. Indeed, most countries in North Africa have prioritized large national subsidy programs for staple foods and fuels as their main social safety net. However, these programs account for significant shares of government spending and often drive fiscal deficits, especially when import prices rise. In this paper we use a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model to evaluate the trade-offs between reducing poverty and managing fiscal balances. The modeling framework allows us to measure the efficiency costs of subsidies compared to cash transfers – switching to the latter is an emerging regional trend. We analyze these issues through a detailed case study of Egypt, where efforts to replace food subsidies with cash transfers is already underway. Data is also available in Egypt to design scenarios that realistically reflect potential targeting effectiveness and administrative costs. We show that replacing broad food subsidies with targeted cash transfers of roughly equivalent fiscal costs can improve the welfare of the poorest households, but the continuation of fiscal deficits results in a deceleration of economic growth. The latter gradually reduces welfare gains for the poor and leads to substantial welfare losses for middle-income households who lose access to subsidies without benefitting from cash transfers. Our findings highlight the political challenges facing subsidy reform programs.

Year published

2024

Authors

Breisinger, Clemens; Kassim, Yumna; Kurdi, Sikandra; Randriamamonjy, Josée; Thurlow, James

Citation

Breisinger, Clemens; Kassim, Yumna; Kurdi, Sikandra; Randriamamonjy, Josee; and Thurlow, James. 2024. From food subsidies to cash transfers: Assessing economy-wide benefits and trade-offs in Egypt. Journal of African Economies 33(2): 109–129. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejad006

Country/Region

Egypt

Keywords

Africa; Northern Africa; Food; Poor Households; Budgeting; Staple Foods; Policies; Subsidies; Social Safety Nets; Government Spending; Prices; Cash Transfers

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejad006 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Journal Article

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Data Paper

2021 Social Accounting Matrix for Nigeria: A Nexus Project SAM

2023Pauw, Karl; Randriamamonjy, Josee; Thurlow, James
Details

2021 Social Accounting Matrix for Nigeria: A Nexus Project SAM

The 2021 Nigeria Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) follows IFPRI’s Standard Nexus SAM approach, by focusing on consistency, comparability, and transparency of data. The Nexus SAMs available on IFPRI’s website separates domestic production into 42 activities. Factors are disaggregated into labor, agricultural land, and capital, with labor further disaggregated across three education-based categories. The household account is divided into 10 representative household groups: Rural and urban households across per capita consumption quintiles. Nexus SAMs support the improvement of model-based research and policy analysis in developing countries and allow for more robust cross-country comparisons of national economic structures, especially agriculture-food systems.

Year published

2023

Authors

Pauw, Karl; Randriamamonjy, Josee; Thurlow, James

Citation

Pauw, Karl; Randriamamonjy, Josee; and Thurlow, James. 2024. 2021 social accounting matrix for Nigeria: A Nexus project SAM. Data Paper December 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Household Expenditure; Household Consumption; Economic Indicators; Labor; Sex-disaggregated Data

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Data Paper

Resource thumbnail

Data Paper

2019 social accounting matrix for Malawi: A Nexus project SAM

2023Kankwamba, Henry; Pauw, Karl; Randriamamonjy, Josee; Thurlow, James
Details

2019 social accounting matrix for Malawi: A Nexus project SAM

The 2019 Malawi Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) follows IFPRI’s Standard Nexus SAM approach, by focusing on consistency, comparability, and transparency of data. The Nexus SAMs available on IFPRI’s website separates domestic production into 42 activities. Factors are disaggregated into labor, agricultural land, and capital, with labor further disaggregated across three education-based categories. The household account is divided into 10 representative household groups: Rural and urban households across per capita consumption quintiles. Nexus SAMs support the improvement of model-based research and policy analysis in developing countries and allow for more robust cross-country comparisons of national economic structures, especially agriculture-food systems.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kankwamba, Henry; Pauw, Karl; Randriamamonjy, Josee; Thurlow, James

Citation

Kankwamba, Henry; Pauw, Karl; Randriamamonjy, Josee; and Thurlow, James. 2023. 2019 social accounting matrix for Malawi: A Nexus project SAM. Data Paper September 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Data; Households; Gender; Inocme; Production; Trade; Surveys; Commodities; Labour; Capital; Land

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Data Paper

Events

2018 International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research Conference (ICABR)
IFPRI at External Event

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June 12 to 15, 2018

2018 International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research Conference (ICABR)

IFPRI is participating extensively in the International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR) conference. Multiple changes in the structure of the food system and agriculture raise new opportunities and challenges for the agricultural sector.  In the developing world, these changes started in Asia and Latin America, and are rapidly emerging in Africa.  Urbanization and increased urban […]