Tanik Joshipura is an economist specializing in long-run comparative economic development and food security. His PhD at Wageningen University and Research involved a cliometric inquiry into the origins and drivers of food import-dependence in sub-Saharan Africa. He has more than two years of fieldwork experience, and has previously worked in SME development, non-profit management and impact evaluation in East Africa and the United States.

Tanik grew up in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. He earned his bachelors in economics the United States and his masters in sustainability and growth economics at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. His career started in Uganda, where he helped design and evaluate microfinance programs for rural women entrepreneurs. He then worked in Tanzania for almost two years in non-profit management, impact evaluation and the design of financial empowerment programs for women. Tanik has also worked in the San Francisco area for a community development financial institution, assisting in the impact evaluation of the organization’s loans portfolio.

After joining KIT in May 2024, Tanik has been involved in various impact evaluation processes based on the cocoa sector in West Africa. He strives to bring a more macroeconomic and food-security focused thematic specialization to the Impact Economics team.