Welcoming YPARD Egypt representative: Assem Abu Hatab

We are delighted to welcome our very first YPARD country representative for Egypt: Assem Abu Hatab.

Assem is an economist. After finishing his PhD, Assem worked as an assistant researcher in the College of Economics & Management of Northwest A&F University in China. Afterwards, he worded a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies of Brown University (USA). Moreover, Assem was a visiting scholar at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), the Chinese Center for Agricultural Policy (CCAP), and Corvinus University in Hungary.

Assem has been awarded multiple graduate fellowships and his research has received funding, including from the Research Council of Norway, China Scholarship Council, the Balassi Institute, the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education, and the Swedish Institute (SI).

In 2014, Open Society Foundations (OSF) awarded Assem the Civil Society Scholar Award. Likewise, the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development awarded him the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2013. He was also elected in 2013 as a member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA).

At present, Assem works as a lecturer in Economics and International trade at Suez Canal University in Ismailia, Egypt. Besides, Assem is a researcher in the agro-food policy and trade group in the Department of Economics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala.

His research interests revolve predominantly around international food, agricultural trade, trade policy analysis, food consumption and production and their linkage with food security, demand analysis, commodity markets, as well as rural and development economics. Exploring the determinants and impacts of China’s involvement in developing countries has always been a strong dimension in his research agenda.

His work in recent years has focused on the political economy of food and agriculture by looking at the role that food price volatility played in the emergence of the political unrest of 2011 in North Africa. More recently, Assem has been involved in a number of research projects, which focus on higher agricultural education, employability, and performance of graduates on the professional job markets.

Becoming YPARD national representative in Egypt represents a new challenge for him.

“Just as in most of other Arab countries, a current challenge is presented by the so-called ‘youth bulge,’ as the proportion of Egyptian youth is increasing significantly in comparison to other age groups. Given this trend, engaging youth in agriculture is pivotal to improving food security and economic well being of local communities.

Agricultural development agendas in Egypt should in turn be established to emphatically recognize Egyptian youth’s roles and potentials. Therefore, I believe that extending the work of YPARD in Egypt would significantly contribute through the activities and the opportunities it provides to young professionals to the ongoing efforts to empower the role of young Egyptians in agricultural and rural development.

Currently, we are spreading the word about YPARD to attract more and more young professionals in agriculture to join us. We have also participated in a number of conferences and workshops where YPARD was introduced to the audience.

Moreover, a Facebook group YPARD Egypt is to be lunched very soon to serve as a platform to network and exchange ideas about agricultural development in the country and to share opportunities available for young professionals in agriculture. As for future plans, we look forward to establish networks with agricultural education and research institutions, and youth organizations to collaborate in in promoting the role of youth in agriculture in Egypt”

We can’t wait to hear more from the Youth-in-Agriculture in Egypt and we trust that YPARD Egypt will be successful in mobilizing the youth through Assem’s leadership.

Welcome on board, Assem!

If you are from or based in Egypt and want to get involved in YPARD Egypt activities, please contact Assem at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..