Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics  People > Faculty > Donovan

Cynthia Donovan

Assistant Professor
International Development

Phone: 517 432-5181
FAX: 517 432-1800 
Email: donovanc@msu.edu
Office: 89 Agriculture Hall

Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1996
M.A., University of Minnesota, 1987
B.S., Swarthmore College, 1977

Cynthia Donovan joined MSU in the fall of 1999 as an assistant professor with the Food Security II Cooperative Agreement, focusing on work in Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia. She currently conducts collaborative research and training on market development and market information systems in Zambia and Mozambique. Recent research focuses on the effects of adult morbidity and mortality in rural areas to understand how development assistance can best be designed for areas hit hard by HIV/AIDS. She obtained her Ph.D. at MSU in 1996, with research on grain markets and food aid in post-war Mozambique. She has worked with development and policy issues in Latin America, Asia and Africa, associated with the International Food Policy Research Institute (1986-90), the West Africa Rice Development Association (1996-98) as Rockefeller Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 1999).

Professional Interests

  • Collection and use of household data for agricultural policy analysis
  • Analysis of rural household strategies to deal with morbidity and mortality
  • Design and assessment of agricultural market information systems
  • Food and cash cropping in small-holder agriculture
  • Economic analysis of production technologies, including conservation farming

Selected Publications

Bias, Calisto, and Cynthia Donovan. 2003. Gaps and Opportunities for Agricultural Sector Development in Mozambique. Research Report 54E. Maputo. MADER Directorate of Economics, Department of Policy Analysis (MADER/DE/DAP).

Donovan, Cynthia, Edson Mpyisi and Scott Loveridge. 2003. Smallholder Response to Population Pressure and Adversity in Rwanda. Chapter in the Handbook of Developmental Policy Studies. New York: Marcel Dekker Publishers.

Donovan, Cynthia, Linda Bailey, Edson Mpyisi and Mike Weber. 2003. Prime Age Adult Morbidity and Mortality in Rural Rwanda: Effects on Household Income, Agricultural Production, and Food Security Strategies. Kigali, Rwanda: FSRP, MINAGRI/DSA.

Funded Research Projects

  • MSU/USAID-Zambia Food Security Research Project (FSRP)
  • MSU/USAID-Mozambique Food Security II Research and Policy Dialogue Cooperative Agreement