Dr Michael Samson is the Research Director of the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI), a global research institute based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has 37 years of experience working in social protection, and specialises in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating social protection strategies, systems, and programmes, with a particular emphasis on food security and nutrition. His experience in these areas includes work in 56 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific as well as many related books, journal articles and other publications, including the OECD’s policy guidance on social protection for inclusive growth.  He recently completed a twenty-country review of social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, commissioned by UNICEF, which focused on impacts on children, particularly food security. He has worked on the design and implementation of Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net programme, Ghana’s LEAP, Lesotho’s Child Grant Programme, Zambia’s Social Cash Transfer programme, Uganda’s SAGE, Nigeria’s child grants, Tanzania’s social action fund, South Africa’s Child Support Grant, and many other social protection programmes in Africa and around the world.  He leads a Sida-funded International Training Programme in Social Protection for Sustainable Development in ten countries in Africa and Asia, and other social protection training programmes, and  lectures at policy conferences and training workshops around the world.   He is also on the economics faculty at the Williams College Center for Development Economics in the United States, and he has a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.