Nazaire Idrissou Houssou is Senior Agriculture Economist within the Agriculture and Food Global Practice for Western and central Africa. A Benin national, he worked in a range of operations in agriculture, including sector policy dialogue, and is currently leading Bank-funded Agricultural Competitiveness and Diversification Project. Prior to joining the Bank in 2019, he served as an Economic Growth Specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID 2018-2019). From 2012 to 2017, he served as a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. He has published several articles in the field of agricultural transformation, mechanization, proxy means testing and targeting of input subsidy programs.