Birhan Sisay Demissie

Birhan Sisay Demissie is an assistant professor in the Institute of Disaster Risk & Food Security Studies at Bahir Dar University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Development Studies from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) in 2018. His Ph.D. thesis investigated the state and determinants of poverty, vulnerability and resilience in rural Ethiopia by applying a range of econometric models. In his Ph.D. thesis, Demissie found the continuing scourge of poverty in Ethiopia, weather shocks as the major drivers of poverty and resilience capacities as the key mitigation measures of adverse shock impacts.

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Advancing his Ph.D. research agenda, Demissie also investigated the impact of climate shocks on househol consumption and the real contributions of household resilience capacity in mitigating shock impacts during his one year (2020-2021) fellowship tenure at the Structural Transformation of African and Asian Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAAARS+) Fellows program. STAAARS+ Fellows program is a collaboration between Cornell University, Michigan State University (MSU), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Demissie is highly interested in using multi-topic quality datasets and applying inter-disciplinary resilience research methodologies in context specific geographical regions of Africa (e.g., Sub-Sahara Africa).

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