Brief Profile
Prof. Suresh Babu is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit and is the Head of IFPRI’s program on Learning and Capacity Strengthening. His research includes human and organizational strengthening of food policy systems, policy processes, and agricultural extension in developing countries. Over the past 32 years at IFPRI, Dr. Babu has been involved in institutional and human capacity strengthening for higher education and research in many countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, including, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. He coordinated IFPRI’s Central Asia program South Asia Initiative and was also the program coordinator for the Agricultural Open Curriculum and Learning Initiative (AGROCURI), a consortium of 40 partners from CGIAR centers, universities in developing and developed countries, and international organizations. Before joining IFPRI in 1992 as a Research Fellow, Dr. Babu was a Research Economist at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. He later spent 5 years in Malawi working as a Senior Food Policy Advisor to the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture on developing a national-level Food and Nutrition Information System; an Evaluation Economist for UNICEF-Malawi working on designing food and nutrition intervention programs; and Coordinator of UNICEF/IFPRI food security program in Malawi. He was also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malawi, where he helped initiate post-graduate programs by developing and teaching computer-based policy-oriented courses. Dr. Babu has published or in press 24 books and edited volumes, 110 refereed journal articles, 65 chapters in books and conference proceedings, and many working papers and pieces in popular press.