Published on April 24, 2026 – Updated on April 24, 2026

The CERDI is pleased to welcome Ibrahim Elbadawi as a Research Fellow. He is already collaborating closely with our team, especially with Patrick Plane, and together they have coauthored several publications.

Ibrahim Elbadawi has held positions at the highest level in government, international organizations, and research institutions. He is the Managing Director of the Development Studies & Research Forum (DSRF), Dubai. From September 2019 to July 2020, he served as Sudan’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. In December 2020, the UN Secretary-General appointed him to the High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs.

Elbadawi was also a member of the Economic Research Forum (ERF) before becoming its managing director, a position he held for 7 years. The ERF is an international research institution that brings together a large network of researchers who focus on the economics of the Middle East and North Africa region. Previously, he was Lead Economist at the Development Research Group of the World Bank. He acted as the Research Director of the African Economic Research Consortium, an international research institution that connects researchers working on economics and public policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was a Professor of economics at the University of Gezira in Sudan from 1984 to 1989. He holds a PhD in economics and statistics from North Carolina State University and Northwestern University.

Ibrahim Elbadawi is an expert on macroeconomic issues, with regional expertise in Africa and the Middle East. He edited 13 books and special issues of economics journals and published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles on macroeconomics, growth, democratic transitions, the economics of civil wars, and peace building. He recently coauthored an academic article on real exchange rates and global value chains in the Review of World Economics with two of our researchers, Patrick Plane and Mariz Abdou.

To learn more about his research publications, visit his Google Scholar profile.