Bénédicte de la Brière is a Senior Economist, focal point for Governance and Service Delivery in the Office of the Chief Economist for Human Development. At the World Bank, she has worked on social assistance in MENA and LAC. Last year, she was on leave at the FAO, leading research about the productive impacts of social cash transfers in Africa. She was a DFID adviser to the Ministry of Social Development in Brazil during the first Lula government . She holds a Ph.D from UC Berkeley in Agriculture and Resource Economics and undertook post-doctoral research at IFPRI on intra-household impacts of rural development and social interventions