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