John Downes is a Master of Science in Global Human Development candidate (MGHDP ’21) at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University specializing in quantitative analysis. His development areas of interest are food security, environmentally sustainable strategies for poverty reduction, social protection, and measurement and knowledge generation. Before joining the GHD program John served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, where he worked with a cooperative of gardeners in the North of the country to introduce new nutritious crops, increase productivity, and promote environmentally friendly techniques. He speaks French fluently and continues to take a special interest in sub-Saharan Africa. John has a BA in both Social Science and French from the University of Michigan.