Lire Ersado was the World Bank’s Program Leader for the South Caucasus, Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA), based in Tbilisi. In his current role, Lire coordinates the Bank’s program covering education, health, social protection and labor, and jobs in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

Prior to this assignment, Ersado led social protection analytical and lending activities and policy dialogue in Egypt, Jordan, Oman, and Yemen. Previously, Lire managed regional and programmatic poverty monitoring and statistical capacity building activities in ECA. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Lire, an Ethiopian national, was a postdoctoral fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and has taught at Alemaya University. His areas of research and publications include: poverty and inequality; social safety nets; education and labor; and agriculture and rural development.

Ersado’s work has been published in several journals, such as World Development, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of African Economies, and Economic Development and Cultural Change, and in the Bank’s Policy Research Working Papers, among others.

Ersado holds a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech.