Research Directors

Dr. Damas Philip
Chairperson

Dr. Gabriel Elepu
Vice Chairperson

Prof. Peter Quartey
Finance Chairperson
Prof. Peter Quartey holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Manchester (UK), MSc in Quantitative Development Economics (University of Warwick, UK), MPhil. Economics (Ghana), and BA Economics (Ghana). He is a Professor in Development Economics and the immediate past Head, Department of Economics and Director (Economic Management Programme), University of Ghana.
He served as the Deputy Director, Centre for Migration Studies (University of Ghana). Prof. Peter Quartey served as the Head, Economics Division, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana and is currently the Director, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana.
Prof. Peter Quartey was the Management Board Chairman, University of Ghana Cooperative Credit Union (2012-2015) and Vice Management Board Chairman (2009-2012). He is currently the Vice National Advisory Board Chairman, the Hunger Project (Ghana) and a Board Member, Agricultural Development Bank Ltd and the Executive Chairman of Startrite Montessori School Ltd.
He has published extensively and his research interests are: Financial and Monetary Sector, Private Sector Development including SMEs, Development Finance, Migration and Remittances and Poverty Analysis. He has consulted for both local and international institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, OECD, USAID, Overseas Development Institute, DFID and many others. He is a member of the African Economic Research Consortium and the Global Development Network.

Dr. Anthony Chapoto
Chairperson of Technical Committee

Prof. Marie Ndambo Nyange
Board Member
Prof. Nyange has been a Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Economics and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) – Congo DRC, since 2014. Prior to this appointment, Prof. Nyange was the assistant and Head of Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Economics at UNIKIN from 1999 to 2013. Prof, Nyanje has vast experience in the fields of local economic development, knowledge management formulation, management and evaluation of development projects, and forest governance.
Her competence in these areas, have seen her serve as an expert on Technical Unit of the National Assembly, i.e as an expert at the Technical Secretariat for National Consultations, and as the President of the African Women Entrepreneurs African Model Forest Network from 2013 to date.
Prof. Nyanje is affiliated to a number of professional insitutions incuding but not limited to; the Association de Scientifiques du Congo (ASC), Association de Professeurs de l’Université de Kinshasa (APUKIN), and Réseau Africian des Forêts Modèles (RAFM).

Dr. Thabbie Chilongo
Board Member

Dr. Lourenço Manuel
Board Member

Salomo Mbai
Board Member
Prof. Edward Mutandwa
Board Member

Mr. Chance Kabaghe
Board Member
Chance Kabaghe has been the Executive Director of Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), since 2012 when it transitioned from the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). He has a BSc and MSc Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Zambia and London University (WYE College) respectively with more than 25 years’ experience in agricultural policy and agribusiness management and analysis. He is one of Zambia’s leading agribusiness practitioners and professionals.
His career has bridged multiple worlds – in agri-business, government, public policy and academia – all at very high levels and with impressively broad impact in key areas affecting agricultural development. In the business world, he played a key role in the promotion of hybrid maize seeds while serving as Marketing Director cum Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Zambia Seed Company Limited (ZAMSEED) during the period 1985 to 1995. He continues active involvement in many of Zambia’s major agri-businesses, serving as Director and Chairman on multiple agribusiness corporate boards including Seedco which is a leading seed company in Zambia and the Sub-Saharan African Region.
In government, he served as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock where he was in charge of agricultural policy, planning and marketing. He was the first Executive Director of Zambia’s Food Reserve Agency, where he was instrumental in establishing Zambia’s market-friendly system of strategic food reserves. Drawing from his early career in the academic world as a university lecturer at the University of Zambia School of Agricultural Sciences, Mr Kabaghe has emerged as a key leader in national and regional agricultural policy debates.
As Chief Executive Officer of IAPRI, he is responsible to the Board Directors for the direction and management of the Institute’s research, capacity building, stakeholder consultation, coordination and general administration and financial management. At the regional level, he is the Chairman of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Institutes (ReNAPRI) in Eastern and Southern Africa which is comprised of nine (9) countries.
Mr Kabaghe has in the past been involved in the development of many agricultural policies in Zambia such as the Agricultural Marketing Bill, Food Reserve Act, Agricultural Credits Act, and the Cotton Act etc. He also sits on the COMESA Business Council (CBC) where he chairs the Agricultural Committee.
Previously he was appointed to lead the Michigan State University run FSRP from 2009 until it was transformed in 2012 into IAPRI in order to enhance the interface between empirical policy analysis and transmission of these findings to key stakeholders especially policy makers, policy implementers and the private sector.

Prof. Thomas Jayne
Board Member
Prof. Jayne’s career has been devoted to working with African colleagues to promote effective policy responses to poverty in Africa. Jayne is Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute in Lusaka, Zambia, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.
He has mentored dozens of young Africa professionals and played a major role in building MSU’s partnerships with African research institutes, serving as co-director of several grants from the Gates Foundation focusing on building sustainable research capacity in Africa.
He has over 25 years of experience conducting research on agricultural productivity and markets. Jayne sits on the editorial boards of two professional journals, received a top paper award in 2004 by the International Association of Agricultural Economists, co-authored a paper awarded the T.W. Schultz Award at the 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists Triennial Meetings, received the 2009 Outstanding Article Award in Agricultural Economics, and co-authored a paper awarded First Prize at the 2010 tri-annual meetings of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.
Jayne also received a Research Excellence Award in 2011 from MSU’s Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics Department. He currently serves on the advisory boards of several initiatives dedicated to building institutional capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, including the Global Development Network’s Global Research Capacity Building Program, and the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes in Eastern and Southern Africa

Prof. Ferdinand Meyer
Board Member
Prof. Meyer is currently the Director of the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) in South Africa. BFAP specializes in the field of commodity and supply chain modelling, scenario planning, risk analysis, consumer economics and food price inflation.Apart from advising policy makers, agricultural producers and the agri-business sector within South Africa, BFAP also publishes an Annual Agricultural Outlook, comprising of a 10-year outlook for 44 agricultural commodities. Prior to this position he served as a Commodity Market Analyst responsible for the development and maintenance of a multi-market simulation model for the South African field crops, meat and dairy industry. This also included various models measuring price transmission and market integration as well as supply chain models.
Prof. Meyer has extensive experience lecturing students in undergraduate classes addressing agricultural marketing, econometric modelling and commodity price analysis. As a senior lecturer, he supervised both Masters and PhD students, of which 9 have graduated over the past 4 years. With a number of articles published in international journals and local journals, he is proud to note that Four Best Papers Awards have been received at international and national conferences under his supervision

Prof. Gideon Obare
Board Member

Ms. Orcídia Tina Chiziane Vilanculos
Research Center for Agriculture Policy and Agri-systems (CEPPAG), Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique

Ms. Lulama Traub
Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
