Nango Dembélé

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Former AFRE Assistant Professor International Dev.
Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Degrees:
Ph.D., 1994. Michigan State University
M.S., 1986. University of Michigan (Applied Economics)
B.A., 1979. Ecole Nationale D’Administration (ENA), Bamako, Mali (Maîtrise in Economics)

Bio-Info

In 2015 Dr. Dembélé was named Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali by Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
In 2014 Dr. was nominated and selected as an Africa Agricultural Role Model by the Modernizing African Food System Consortium
In 2012 Dr. Dembélé received a MSU/AFRE Distinguished Extension award for his work on policy extension with policy makers throughout West Africa and around the world.

Nango Dembélé has over 30 years of experience working on critical food policy issues in West Africa, with a particular focus on Mali. Since May, 2014, he has served as Minister/Food Security Commissioner of Mali. In that capacity, he leads Mali’s efforts to ensure reliable access to food for all of the country’s 15 million people, has implemented innovative reforms that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of Mali’s food aid and national food reserve programs, and serves as the top food policy advisor to the country’s President. From September 2013 through April, 2014, Dr. Dembélé served as Deputy Minister of Rural Development in charge of Livestock, Fisheries and Food Security. In this role, he worked intensively with local and international industries to attract private investment in different agricultural value-chains and to promote outgrower schemes

For 15 years prior to his taking on these high-level government positions, Dr. Dembélé served as an MSU faculty member based in Mali, where he coordinated MSU’s collaborative agricultural and food security research and outreach programs based in West Africa. In this work he made major contributions to the analysis and design of agricultural and food policies in the West African subregion. Examples include his helping design Mali’s internationally renowned Agricultural Market Information System, the ECOWAS regional Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program’s investment plan, the UEMOA regional agricultural policy, the Malian national CAADP plan, and serving as one of four co-authors (and the only African) of the UN’s High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition’s 2011 report, Price Volatility and Food Security.

For many years he was a member of Mali’s National Agricultural Research Council and has served as a consultant to, among others, the World Bank (contributing to the 2008 World Development Report on Agriculture for Development and to the reform of Mali’s Office du Niger rice program in the early 1990s) and to the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (on the foundation’s strategic plan for its West African activities over the period 2012-16). He has also mentored many young West African scholars who have carried thesis research under his supervision. In 2012 MSU’s Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics awarded him its Outstanding Extension award for his work on policy extension with policy makers throughout West Africa and around the world.

Prior to joining MSU’s faculty, he carried out research and extension on the economics of soil fertility in West Africa as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow (based in Burkina Faso) and served in the Malian Ministry of Public Finance as Deputy Treasurer in Tombouctou.

Students

Throughout his career he has served as adviser and mentor for numerous Malian colleagues and local/regional university graduate students.
- Kadiatou DEME. L’amélioration de la demande des céréales maliennes par la construction des normes de qualité : cas du mil. Memoire de DESS en économie rurale, Centre Ivoirien de Recherches Economiques et Sociales, Université d’Abidjan, 2001.
- Marthe DIALLO. Variabilité des prix et la sécurité alimentaire des ménages urbains au Mali : le cas du district de Bamako. Memoire de DESS en économie rurale, Centre Ivoirien de Recherches Economiques et Sociales, Université d’Abidjan, 2001.

Pubs Online

View Dembélé Publications at RePEc
View Dembélé Publications at Research Gate
View Dembélé Publication Access Statistics at LogEc (Econ Papers)
Selected publications, many downloadable:

Notable Doc/Pres

Price Volatility and Food Security. A Report by the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security. 2011. Benoit Daviron, Nango Dembele, Sophia Murphy, and Shahidur Rashid. UN Committee on World Food Security. Rome.
Agricultural Globalization in Reverse: The Impact of the Food Crisis in West Africa. 2008. John M. Staatz, Niama Nango Dembélé, Valerie Kelly, and Ramziath Adjao. Background paper for the Geneva Trade and Development Forum Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Michigan State University.
Presentation on Agricultural Globalization in Reverse: The Impact of the Food Crisis in West Africa. 2008. John M. Staatz, Niama Nango Dembélé, Valerie Kelly, and Ramziath Adjao. Geneva Trade & Development Forum, Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
Potential Food Security Impacts of Rising Commodity Prices in the Sahel: 2008-2009. 2008. Valerie Kelly, Niama Nango Dembélé, and John M. Staatz. A Special Report for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Washington, D.C.: FEWS NET.
Agriculture for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2007. John M. Staatz and Nango Dembélé. Background paper for the World Development Report, World Bank.
Market and Institutional Reforms to Enhance Technological Change in Agriculture: The Malian Experience. 2004. Niama Nango Dembélé. Presentation at U.S Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Outlook Forum. February 19 & 20.
Impact of the Malian Cereals Market Reform Program on Farmers. 2003. Niama Nango Dembélé, John M. Staatz, and Michael T. Weber. Policy Synthesis No. 57, Food Security III Cooperative Agreement. East Lansing: Michigan State University, Dept. of Agricultural Economics: May 2003.
The Impact on Farmers of Cereals Market Reform in Mali. 2002. Niama Nango Dembélé. Presentation to the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico. Official U.S. Government Side Event: Expanding Trade and Investment. March 20.
Mali’s Market Information System: Innovative Evolution in Support of a Dynamic Private Sector. 2000. Niama Nango Dembélé, James F. Tefft, and John M. Staatz. Policy Synthesis No. 56. Food Security III Cooperative Agreement. East Lansing: Michigan State University, Dept. of Agricultural Economics.
The MSU Food Security Project in Mali: 14 Years of Partnership Between Mali-MSU-USAID. 1999. James Tefft, Nango Dembélé, Josué Dioné, and John M. Staatz. Policy Synthesis No. 45. Food Security III Cooperative Agreement. East Lansing: Michigan State University, Dept. of Agricultural Economics.
Cereals Market Liberalization in Mali. 1989. John M. Staatz, Josué Dioné, and Niama Nango Dembélé. World Development 17 (5): 703-18.