Regassa Namara

Regassa Namara is senior water economist with over 32 years of research, development, management, and teaching experiences. He has a wide range of expertise including project planning, implementation, and evaluation. He holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of London (England) and University of Goettingen (Germany), respectively. At the World Bank, he contributed to several investment operations, mainly in irrigation and drainage, but also in other areas such as dam rehabilitation and safety, international water cooperation, and sustainable land and water management in different regions. He is currently a focal point for world bank’s farmer-led irrigation development initiative and leads several irrigation and drainage investment operations in Europe and Central Asia Region.  Prior to joining the World Bank, he served the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in different capacities including heading IWMI’s West Africa Regional Office in Accra, Ghana. He started his research and development career with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) in 1987. At EIAR, he developed and implemented Farming Systems Diagnostic Study projects with the objective of unmasking the reasons why smallholder agriculture is trapped in the state of low-input low-output production systems incapable of supporting farm families year-round. He consulted many national and international organizations including the African Development Bank and International Atomic Energy Agency on various topics of relevance to development. He has more than 100 scientific publications, about half of which are in peer reviewed journals, books, and proceedings.