Dr. Zenebe Uraguchi

May 2023 – to date: Prof. of Development Economics as well as Director of the Hugo P. Cecchini Institute for International Cooperation and Development, Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH), School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, International Agriculture (HAFL)

Teach economics and supervise research projects for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as provide courses to PhD students in the Business School's Winter PhD program at Bern University of Applied Sciences.

Develop and oversee international applied research projects and mandates using an inclusive systems approach, secure outside funding, and supervise a research team made up of PhD researchers and Scientific Collaborators

Collaborate with other universities in Switzerland as well as in Europe, Asia, and Africa to provide lectures and conduct seminars on economic development

Strengthen the expertise of the department and increase its visibility through publications and presentations, as well as in the application of inclusive systems approach.

Provide strategic and technical advice to national, regional, and international development organizations as well as private and government sector actors in the areas of inclusive and sustainable economic investments.

Serve as a member of the Research Commission Board of Bern University of Applied Sciences, contributing to research policy design and setting strategic goals.

MSc

BSc

PhD

Working in development contexts

(Rural) Development in Practice

Income Generation and Markets in Developing and Transition Countries

Project Planning and Management

How Do We Feed 9 Billion People

Understanding and Measuring Impact (PhD Winter School)

Geopolitics and the Green Economic Transition (Business School)

Institutional Economics: the impact of institutions on economy, how institutions evolve, and how they could be improved

Economic and Financial Analysis (EFA): value for money, efficiency of investments

Behavioral Economics mainly focusing on household economics (women, youth)

Systems Thinking and Development

Institutional Economics: Why do some countries thrive while others remain poor? Do markets require regulation to function efficiently? If markets provide an efficient means of transferring things, why do individuals establish enterprises? How are economic transactions conducted in the absence of a state capable of enforcing contracts and protecting property rights? Such and other questions about the organization and functioning of societies are the focus of Institutional Economics. I am keen to analyze and understand – focusing on a range of sectors from agriculture to technology/business process outsourcing, tourism, and others – the role of institutions (private, public, and civil society as well as the rules and norms thereof) in society in a systematic and structured way; the impacts of imperfect information, bounded rationality, and transaction costs; the application of institutional economics to a range of issues concerning economic exchange, the organization of economic activities and the behavior of economic actors.

Economic and Financial Analysis (EFA): Are you unsure whether a particular decision is the best one for your research, project, business, or public investment? Are you questioning if your decision will be worth the effort and resources to make it a success or impactful? Are you considering making a change to your research, project, business, or public investment, knowing that it might have consequences/impacts? In EFA, I am interested in (a) the estimated/projected benefits and costs of investments or projects; (b) the worthiness of investments or projects by providing indications/options of the merits (benefits > costs) of investing in a decision; (c) comparison of present and future values (benefits/costs) over time; (d) quantitative analysis of the value of investments or projects; and (e) understanding impacts of a decision on social and environmental aspects (externalities). Project topics can include both ex-ante and ex-post (evaluations) using different methods: cost-benefit, Difference-in-Difference (DID), Randomized Control Trials (RTCs), quasi-experimental design, or others (sense-making, the most significant change – MSC).

Behavioral Economics: As a complement or contrast to Institutional Economics, I am also interested in using/applying behavioral economics. Here I try to combine economics and psychology to understand how and why people behave the way they do in the real world. Such an approach differs from neoclassical economics, which assumes that most people have well-defined preferences and make well-informed, self-interested decisions based on those preferences. I take the household and/or individual members as the unit of analysis to understand structures, behavior, and their wider effect on society, including labor (employment), income generation, spending, and allocation of time. Research topics include priorities and aspirations of youth in food systems; the changing nature of the world of work; norms and values of parents in shaping the preferences of children in economic activities; migration decisions, the integration of immigrants into the labor market and society and their economic behavior; and others.

Economic Policy Analysis: My research specifically focuses on agricultural policy measures. Why has it taken countries for long to agree on agriculture despite extensive efforts by WTO to provide a framework for the long-term reform of agricultural trade and domestic policies? Why are farmers across the world protesting against policy measures of governments in agriculture? How can policy measures contribute to navigating different options and enable societies to address economic, food, and environmental goals? I am interested in (a) internalizing the historical background and shift of agricultural policy instruments; (b) understanding key concepts and processes, and their application across different countries (developing economies, transitional economies, and developed economies) in agricultural policy formulation and implementation; (c) explaining and applying direct and indirect instruments of agricultural policy. Possible topics include (a) a comparative analysis of the types of agricultural policies (direct interventions e.g., tariffs, or indirect interventions e.g., exchange rate); (b) practical cases of the focus of agricultural policy measures (aiming at farmers, consumers, and/or private sector actors) and their implications to food/nutritional security, economic development, and the green transition; (c) the scope of agricultural policy measures (general objective e.g., natural resources, specific aim e.g., performance, or policy goal e.g., privatization); and (d) alignment/contradictions of agricultural policy measures in terms of balancing policies with strategies and constraints (e.g., competition vs subsidies).

Systems Thinking and Development: Systems thinking is all about ensuring inclusive, sustainable, and scalable impacts. Yet for a long time, unsustainable and islands of successes have occurred in designing, financing, and implementing development initiatives. We hear time and again questions like: is what we do really effective? How sustainable is the change that development agencies make? And how many people does our work really affect? Are we really addressing the root causes of underperformance or just the symptoms? These are legitimate questions but there are few credible answers and thoughts on the effectiveness of development investments or initiatives. As a long-time advocate of systems thinking, my interest is approaching the challenge of development by synthesizing good development practices into principles and frameworks that can guide investments, projects, or other initiatives as well as the organizations facilitating them toward achieving aid effectiveness. In other words, systems thinking attempts to (re)define the role of organizations or institutions by shifting their roles from doing things by themselves to facilitating solutions to problems that individuals, communities, enterprises, and governments encounter. I am keen on collaborating, providing my “lived experience”, and learning from others (and bringing back the learning to teach students who are our future). My focus is the shift in thinking by asking key questions such as Why aren't different systems in agriculture, health, education, and infrastructure… providing solutions to development challenges – from unemployment to food insecurity, poor access to services like health and education, gender disparity, environmental degradation, etc.? The approach is strategic and helps us think about such and similar questions in the context of development investments, projects, and initiatives. It doesn't give us the answers, but rather frameworks that make critical questions more explicit and help to structure our discourse on effectiveness.

Uraguchi, Zenebe. (2023). Youth aspirations & how they shape interactions with food systems livelihoods: Albania, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia. Presentation. Presented at the CGIAR GENDER Conference 'From Research to Impact: Towards just and resilient agri-food systems', New Delhi, India, 9-12 October 2023.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe and Essam Yassin Mohammed (2020). “Introduction: financial inclusion”. In Mohammed, E.Y. and Zenebe Uraguchi (eds.). Financial inclusion for poverty alleviation: Banking on the unbanked. Routledge: UK.
•Mohammed, E. Y. and Zenebe Uraguchi (2020). “Conclusion: from here to where”, In Mohammed, E.Y. and Zenebe Uraguchi (eds.). Financial inclusion for poverty alleviation: Banking on the unbanked. Routledge: UK.
•Carter, J., Z. Uraguchi, et al. (2018) “Learning about women’s empowerment in the context of development projects: do the figures tell us enough.” In Sweetman, C., and Bowman, K. Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning. Practical Action Publishing.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe. (2016). Making markets work for the poor II – Enhancing sustainable income for vulnerable farmers in the Philippines, Rural 21, the International Journal for Rural Development.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe and Essam Yassin Mohammed (2016). ‘Harnessing Market Forces for Financial Inclusivity in Marine and Coastal Conservation: Lessons from Market Systems Development Approach.’ In Peter Mackelworth (ed.). Marine Transboundary Conservation and Protected Areas. Taylor & Francis: UK.
•Carter, Jane, Zenebe Uraguchi, et al. (2014). ‘Learning about women’s empowerment in the context of development projects: do the figures tell us enough?’ Gender & Development 22 (2): 327-349.
•Nurul, Mostafa, Zenebe Uraguchi, et al. (2014). Facilitating Sustainable Pro-Poor Financial Inclusion: The Experiences of Samriddhi in Bangladesh, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation.
•Dietz, M. Zenebe Uraguchi and Noor A. Naher (2013). Capitalization of Samriddhi's Experiences on Private Rural Service System, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2013) ‘Payments for Marine Ecosystem Services and Food Security: Lessons from Income Transfer Programmes’, in Mohammed, E.Y. (ed.) Economic Incentives for Marine and Coastal Conservation, Routledge Books.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe and Suresh Moktan (2013) 'From Resource Transfer Programmes to Systemic Approach to Food Security in Agrarian Societies: Issues and Economic Implications', in Munir A. Hanjra (ed.) Food Security: Quality Management, Issues, and Economic Implications, Nova Publisher, USA.
•Mohammed, E.Y. and Uraguchi, Zenebe (2013) 'Impacts of climate change on fisheries: Implications for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa' in Munir A. Hanjra (ed.) Food Security: Quality Management, Issues, and Economic Implications, Nova Publisher, USA.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2012) ‘Rural Income Transfer Projects and Rural Household Food Security in Ethiopia’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1.
•Shinkai, N. and Uraguchi, Zenebe (2011). ‘Regional Cooperation for Improvement of Trade Procedures: The Case of Japan.’ In Y. Duval and Prabir De (eds.) Studies in Trade and Investment, 71, The Asian-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTeT) and the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT), New York.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2011). ‘Social Protection for Redistributive Justice: Socio-economic and Political Drivers of Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in Bangladesh and Ethiopia’, Centre for Social Protection, Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, Brighton.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2010) ‘Food Price Hikes and Seasonal Intra-Household Coping Strategies: Assessing the Role and Vulnerability of Women in Agrarian Societies, Evidence from Bangladesh and Ethiopia’, Gender & Development, Vol. 8. November.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2010), ‘The Role of Aid in Some Aspects of Food Security: Micro Analysis,’ Forum of International Development Studies, Vol. 39, March.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe. (2004). Problems of Regionalism in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Overview. Paper prepared for the University of Waterloo.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2004). ‘Trajectories of Women, Environmental Degradation and Scarcity: Examining Access to and Control over Resources in Ethiopia,’ in Annan-yao, Elizabeth and Bashaw, Zenebe (eds.), Gender, Economies, and Entitlements in Africa, Gender Series No. 2.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2002), ‘Food-for-Work Programmes, the State and the Third Sector,’ in Gidron, B., Q. V. Ufford, and A. Kello (eds.) NGOs dealing with refugee resettlement in Ethiopia, NIRP Research for Policy Series 12, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam.
•Uraguchi, Zenebe (2001), ‘NGO–Government Relations: Conflict and Co-operation in Development Management for Rehabilitation of Demobilized Soldiers: The Case of Eastern Tigray, Ethiopia,’ Africa Development, Vol. XXVI, No. 1 & 2.

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