Jessica Agnew is a PhD candidate at the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University in the School of Public and International
Affairs. She is in the Planning, Governance, and Globalization
doctoral programme, and the Masters of Public Health programme.
Jessica worked on the Grameen Danone Foods Ltd case to fulfil the
requirements of the master's programme in Food, Agricultural, and
Resource Economics at the University of Guelph, Canada. Her primary
focus in research has been on private sector approaches to addressing
malnutrition in developing countries. To date, she has conducted research
in Bangladesh and Kenya, working with both businesses and consumers.
Natasha Ansari is a Research Associate at the Collective for Social
Science Research, Karachi, Pakistan. She is one of the lead researchers
on the Value Chains pillar for the research programme Leveraging
Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) in Pakistan. She has
co-authored a book 'A Microcredit Alternative in South Asia: Akhuwat's
Experiment' (Routledge, forthcoming). She holds an undergraduate
degree in Economics from Mount Holyoke College, USA.
Haris Gazdar is a Senior Researcher at the Collective for Social
Science Research, Karachi, Pakistan. He has contributed widely to
social science research and policy debates in Pakistan and elsewhere,
and has taught as well as conducted academic research in the UK,
India, and Pakistan. Besides academic and consultancy assignments,
Haris has worked as an honorary adviser to research programmes,
government, and non-governmental organisations. His current research
interests include poverty, hunger and nutrition, and social protection.
He is also interested in innovative methods for making social science
research more democratic. Haris has an MSc in Economics from the
London School of Economics.
Spencer Henson is Professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural,
and Resource Economics and Director of International Development
Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada. He is also a Professorial
Fellow at IDS. His research focuses on food safety and quality, and
nutrition in developing countries. He has a particular interest in the
role of business-based strategies for enhancing nutrition in developing
countries.
Md. Sirajul Islam has a PhD in Agronomy from Bangladesh
Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. With more than
23 years' professional experience, including teaching, research,
consultancy, and development work on agriculture, Sirajul is now
Programme Head of the Agriculture and Food Security Programme
of BRAC, the largest NGO in the world. His work focuses on planning
and implementing BRAC's overall agriculture and food security programme, doing innovative, adaptive research on different crops,
rice-based agricultural and aquaculture technology validation, and
dissemination in the farmer's field. He has more than 45 publications in
national and international journals and proceedings.
Emily Janoch is the Deputy Director for Research, Innovation,
Evaluation, and Learning for the CARE USA Food and Nutrition
Security team, focusing on ways to better learn from and share
implementation experiences on eradicating poverty through empowering
women and girls. She has 11 years' experience in international
development, focusing on food, nutrition, gender, and social
accountability. She has a BA in International Studies from the University
of Chicago, and a master's degree in Public Policy in International and
Global Affairs from the Harvard Kennedy School, USA.
Md. Abid Ul Kabir is a Research Manager in the Agriculture and
Food Security Programme, BRAC, in Bangladesh. He is also a working
scientist in the Agricultural Value Chain study, BRAC's component
of Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA).
He has a BSc in Agriculture and an MSc in Environmental Science
(Bangladesh Agricultural University). With more than six years'
professional experience, his work focuses on managing agricultural
research projects on different crops and cropping patterns, planning and
executing agri-food value chain research addressing nutrition for poor
populations, and pursuing climate-adaptive research.
Elly Kaganzi is currently working as a Senior Technical Advisor
for Markets and Livelihoods for CARE USA. He has over 16 years'
experience in value chain analysis and agro-enterprise development
in East, West, Central, and Southern Africa, as well as India and
Bangladesh. He has experience in setting up and supporting pro-poor
enterprise development programmes for vulnerable people, and
developing and promoting economic strengthening programmes in
20 African countries. He holds a BA and a master's degree in Social
Sector Planning and Management from Makerere University, Uganda,
and a postgraduate degree in Economic Analysis and Management
from the University of Manchester, UK.
Mar Maestre is a Research Officer in the Business, Markets, and
the State Cluster at IDS. She is a social scientist and has worked on
private sector, market systems, and development for over ten years.
Her research specialises in systems thinking as well as participatory and
qualitative methods, to understand how different market pathways can
drive changes towards more sustainable and equitable outcomes (such
as nutrition). Her current projects focus on food systems and nutrition,
agri-food value chains, multi-stakeholder platforms, women's economic
empowerment, and inclusive business.
Rashid Mehmood is a Research Officer at the Collective for Social
Science Research, Karachi, Pakistan and has worked on social protection, education, nutrition, and food security. Rashid has an MA in
Economics from Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan and an MPhil
in Economics from the Applied Economics Research Centre, University
of Karachi, Pakistan. Prior to joining the Collective, he worked as a
teaching assistant in the Applied Economics Research Centre and as a
field researcher with various organisations.
Rohit Parasar is a Research Fellow working on the Leveraging
Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) programme. He
has a postgraduate degree in Economics from the Madras School of
Economics, Chennai, India. His master's dissertation was on analysing
a farmers' producer organisation in Rajasthan. His interests include
econometric analysis of datasets to understand agriculture–nutrition
linkages and studying agricultural linkages with formal markets and
value chains.
Nigel Poole originally trained at the University of Nottingham
and the University of Reading, UK. He began working in overseas
agriculture in Swaziland and then moved to Paraguay for 11 years.
He returned to the UK and switched to socioeconomics. Since 2007,
he has worked in the Centre for Development, Environment, and Policy
at SOAS University of London, where he is Professor of International
Development. Besides work on agri-food and nutrition value chains, he
leads the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA)
Afghanistan Working Group. Outside the UK, he is a Chairman of the
Board of Directors, CATIE, Costa Rica.
Md. Hasib Reza is a Research Associate at the Research and Evaluation
Division (RED) of BRAC, in Bangladesh. He is trained in applied and
behavioural economics. Hasib has more than five years' experience
in experimental and quasi-experimental research on different antipoverty
and livelihood development interventions, including agricultural
livelihood development, graduation of ultra-poor populations, migration
of rural households, and skills development of adolescents. He publishes
and presents his research findings nationally and internationally.
Bhavani RV has been working on food and livelihood security issues
at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai,
India for more than 15 years. Formerly a banker, she has a doctorate
in Economics from the University of Madras, and has worked as an
Officer on Special Duty in the National Commission on Farmers,
Government of India. Bhavani is currently Programme Manager of the
Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA) research
consortium, responsible for coordinating with partners as well as
oversight of research under LANSA at MSSRF.
Thomas Schaetzel is Nutrition Director at CARE USA, and has 25 years' domestic and international experience in nutrition, health, and food security, focusing on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, micronutrients, monitoring, evaluation, and community-based programming. Prior to joining CARE, he served as Senior Advisor for Nutrition and Agriculture at the Manoff Group, Technical Director of USAID's Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project, Nutrition Advisor for USAID's BASICS project, and head of the Micronutrient Initiative's South Asia Regional Office. He holds a PhD in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition (Tufts University), and an MS in Agronomy (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).