Bio Data:

Farai Chigaru is a lecturer in economics at the University of Malawi and a research associate with the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Industrial Development (SARChI) at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He earned his PhD in Economics from Peking University, China. Farai’s research focuses on understanding structural transformation at the micro-level, looking at sectoral shifts in labor allocation among households facing precarious conditions in developing economies. Recently, UNDP honored him with the “Sciencepreneur of the Year” award for his groundbreaking work in Malawi, where he developed a Python-based software tool that guides economic diversification for developing countries. This was done by developing an algorithm that identifies growth sectors characterized by comparative advantage—a critical innovation for driving structural transformation in developing countries.