STAARS Fellows

Under the current Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) Fellows Program, PEP helps provide mentorship and capacity building to eight early-career African scholars.

PEP’s mentorship and capacity building support is facilitated through collaboration with Cornell University. Additional mentorship and capacity building support on gender-focused research is facilitated through collaboration with ICIPE. 

Following PEP’s unique capacity building model, the STAARS scholars are matched with selected researchers and faculty members serving as mentors to ensure high quality evidence and publications in the selected research areas. The mentorship models involve both study visits to Cornell as well as distance coaching. STAARS early-career scholars are selected through a competitive process based on their research proposals or research papers.

The STAARS fellows have jointly authored papers with their mentors at Cornell University on topics relating to structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. PEP supports the publication of these research findings as working papers and facilitates the participation of fellows in scientific and policy conferences.

The STAARS fellows and their research projects

Dr. Mulubrhan Amare, Ethiopia
With technical mentorship support from Cornell University

• Non-farm employment, agricultural intensification and productivity change: Empirical findings from Uganda

• Agricultural productivity and rural household welfare distribution in sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical results from Nigeria and Uganda

• Linkage between agricultural productivity and household welfare: Lessons from Nigeria

Dr. Abdoulaye Djido, Niger

• Patterns of labor productivity and income diversification in the rural farm and non-farm sectors in sub-Saharan Africa

Dr. Sènakpon Dedehouanou, Benin

• Spillovers from off-farm self-employment opportunities in rural Niger
  Original research carried out under the PEP PAGE initiative

• Diversify more or less? Household resilience and food security in rural Nigeria
  Mentorship from Cornell University under a separate CGIAR research fellowship led by IFPRI on Policies, Institutions and Markets

Dr. Tagel Gebrehiwot, Ethiopia
With technical mentorship support from Cornell University

• Impact of a productive safety net program on household dietary diversity and child nutrition in rural Ethiopia

Dr. Nkechi Owoo, Ghana
With technical mentorship support from Cornell University

• Food insecurity in Nigeria: Spatial mapping, socioeconomic determinants and child nutrition outcomes

Dr. Bethuel Kinyanjui Kinuthia, Kenya
With technical mentorship support from Cornell University

• Impact of agriculture technology adoption on farmer welfare in East Africa: Evidence from Uganda and Tanzania

• The Adoption and Dis-adoption of improved maize varieties in Tanzania

Dr. Kibrom Araya Abay, Ethiopia
With technical mentorship support from Cornell University

• Locus of control and technology adoption in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia

Dr. Beatrice Wambui Muriithi, Kenya
With technical mentorship support from ICIPE

• Does gender matter in the adoption of sustainable agricultural technologies? A case of push-pull technology in Kenya