Expert: Léonce Ndikumana, professor of economics and director of the Africa Policy Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst - www.ndikumana.com
Available: Via phone or email; from on-campus VideoLink studio for TV interviews
Contact: Jared Sharpe – 413-545-3809 / [email protected]
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Léonce Ndikumana, professor of economics and director of the Africa Policy Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is available to discuss the economic impact the Ebola pandemic will inflict upon already-struggling West African countries such as Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
A former director of research and operational policy at the African Development Bank, and former chief of macroeconomic analysis at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Ndikumana is available to comment on:
• The dreary economic landscape of West Africa prior to the Ebola pandemic
• The costs associated with quarantine and containment efforts that West African countries are incurring
• The international economic assistance West African nations are receiving to prevent the Ebola virus from becoming a global epidemic
• How trade and travel restrictions on West African nations are further crippling their economies while they battle the pandemic
• The long-term impact West African economies may face due to the numbers of residents fleeing into neighboring countries, and the costs these refugees will exact upon their host nations
Ndikumana’s bio can be found below, and more information about him can be found at www.ndikumana.com. To schedule an interview, or to request comment on the economic toll Ebola is taking on West Africa, please contact:
Jared SharpeNews and Media RelationsUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstPhone: 413-545-3809Email: [email protected]www.umass.edu/newsoffice *********************** ABOUT LÉONCE NDIKUMANA
Léonce Ndikumana is a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is also Director of the African Development Policy Program at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). He was a recipient of the 2013 UMass Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity and was nominated as Spotlight Scholar also in 2013. He is a Member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy and an Honorary Professor of economics at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
He served as Director of Research and Operational Policy at the African Development Bank, and Chief of Macroeconomic Analysis at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Ndikumana's research specialization is in macroeconomics and economic development with a focus on: external debt and capital flight, financial markets and growth, macroeconomic policies for growth and employment, and the economics of conflict and civil wars in Africa. He is co-author of Africa's Odious Debt: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent, published also in French as La Dette Odieuse d'Afrique: Comment l'endettement et la fuite des capitaux ont saigné un continent, in addition to dozens of academic articles and book chapters on African development and Macroeconomics.
Ndikumana is a graduate of the University of Burundi and received his doctorate in economics from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
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