The Nordic Africa Institute

Cookies on nai.uu.se

We use cookies to ensure that our website functions as smoothly as possible and to understand how visitors interact with it. You can choose to accept all cookies or select specific ones. You can change your preferences at any time.

Check how we at NAI use cookies on our website

Assem Abu Hatab

Senior Researcher

Assem, photo.

Assem Abu Hatab is a professor specializing in development economics, with a specific focus on the economics and sustainable management of food systems. His research revolves broadly around examining the sustainability and resilience of food systems in the face of nature-induced changes and external shocks, with quantitative methods and a special focus on low- and middle-income countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Research

Abu Hatab is an applied economist with broad empirical interests, focusing on the food and agriculture sectors. His research interests focus on food policy, food security and sustainability, the governance of the food system and the agri-food sector, and the political economy of food and agriculture in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and the Middle East. His current research addresses question regarding agrifood system transformation focusing on the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and economic shocks, and their implications for smallholder farmers, urban households and the small- and medium-scale enterprise sector.

Abu Hatab is author or co-author of over 100 journal articles in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, including Food Policy, World Development, Food Security, multiple book chapters and dozens of working papers and policy briefs. He has been a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. (FAO), the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the CGIAR system. He is consulted by these organizations frequently on issues relating to the economics of food systems, food security and nutrition.

Current positions and affiliations

Abu Hatab holds a PhD in Economics and he studied Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Sciences, and Development Economics at Suez Canal University (Egypt), Northwest A&F University (China), and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway). Over the course of his career, Abu Hatab has held academic positions at several prestigious institutions, including the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden), the Centre for Middle East Studies at Lund University (Sweden), Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University (USA), Northwest A&F University (China), and Suez Canal University (Egypt).

He has also played a key role in global policy discussions, serving as a lead author for the 6th IPCC Assessment Report; and as a member of the drafting team for the 19th report of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) “on Strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems to achieve food security and nutrition in the context of urbanization and rural transformation.” Additionally, he served as a Coordinating Lead Author for the special report by the Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC) on the climate-water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus. In 2022, the Swedish Government appointed him to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). In 2025, he was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Council of Egypt’s Future Agency for Sustainable Development, where he advises on economic and trade-related issues.

Abu Hatab’s research has been supported by a range of prominent funding organizations, including the Swedish Research Council (VR), the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas), the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), the EU (e.g., Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, and ERA-NET COFUND ICT-AGRI-FOOD), the Belmont Forum, the Norwegian Research Council, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the Egyptian Science and Technology Development Fund.

Beyond academia, Abu Hatab provides consultancy services to leading international organizations, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the CGIAR system (notably its Livestock Program), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), among others. His advisory work focuses on food systems economics, food security, and nutrition, leveraging his interdisciplinary expertise to shape policy and program development.

Publications

Full list of publications (Google scholar) External link, opens in new window.

 

Download high resolution photos

Missing alt-text 10.05 MB
assem_hires.jpg
Missing alt-text 5.47 MB
Assem_studio.jpg