Asfaw, Etenesh
Etenesh B. Asfaw is a senior research fellow at the Center for Policy Research and Outreach (Agriculture and Rural Development) at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). She has a BSC in Agriculture Economics from Alemaya Agriculture University, Ethiopia, an MA from the Institute of Social Studies and a PhD (2019) from the University of South Africa in Development studies. Before moving to WIUT, she worked as a senior Agriculture Livelihoods and Conservation expert at the Packard Foundation in Addis Ababa.
Research Interest
Etenesh’s main research areas are agriculture economics, rural development, gender and youth issues, natural resource management, food security and smallholder farmers. She uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She researched farmers' collective action, agriculture transformation, and the political economy of land issues in Ethiopia. She analyses land rights and food security issues in agrarian nations. She also studied the economic, social, and environmental impacts of Uzbekistan’s government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, she is leading a research project on monitoring of green growth indicators of Uzbekistan.
Mentoring
She mentored BSC student’s thesis in agriculture extension and rural development as a lecturer at the Alemaya University of Agriculture. She currently mentors MSC and PhD students worldwide, researching her area of interest in Ethiopia and Uzbekistan.
Grants and consultancy
She has been successfully granted several project grants and consultancies from the World Bank, FAO, and the OECD.
Policy Engagement
She worked as a team member in several working groups on agricultural extension and natural resource management with the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia. In Tashkent, she participated actively in working groups involved in formulating the green growth strategy framework.
Awards
Scholarship award for Master studies by the Netherlands Government.
Scholarship award from the University of South Africa for PhD research