Dr Bertha Bangara-Chikadza is a macroeconomist, a lecturer in Economics, and Deputy Director of Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Malawi. She is a determined, focused, and energetic person who strives to accomplish her goals. She has won several awards, including the 2017 Carnegie Developing Emerging Academic Leaders (DEAL) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cape Town, where she assessed the efficacy of earmarking tobacco taxes for health. She was also awarded Carnegie Corporation PhD funding at the University of Cape Town in 2015, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Collaborative PhD Programme Scholarship at the University of Cape Town in 2011, and the World Bank master’s scholarship at the Australian National University. Her previous positions include researcher at OXFAM, Wadonda Consult, and the National Youth Council, as well as Government Budget Analyst for the Economics Association of Malawi (ECAMA) and OXFAM. She also worked as Policy and Business Development Officer at the Ministry of Industry and Trade for over 10 years, where she focused on reducing the cost of doing business in Malawi to enhance the flow of trade and regional integration among SADC and COMESA countries. Bertha is an evidence-based researcher, and part of her work has highlighted the inefficacy of the current Agricultural Inputs Programme (AIP), which hinders the commercialisation of the agricultural sector in Malawi. She has conducted qualitative and quantitative research across Malawi and has published three papers. Currently, Bertha’s research interests include the linkages between international trade agriculture and public policy; agricultural products marketing; agricultural value chains; and the synergies between gender, food security, inequality, and poverty alleviation.
