Dr Essa Chanie Mussa
Dr Essa Chanie Mussa
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow
University of Galway
essa.mussa@universityofgalway.ie
Profile
Dr. Essa Chanie Mussa is a Development Economist and ROSETTA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Galway. His fellowship project, SoProChild-Ethiopia, integrates development economics, data science, and public policy, harnessing emerging digital technologies and innovative research methods to advance evidence-based policymaking, reduce poverty, and improve child health outcomes in Africa and beyond.
Dr. Mussa has extensive experience across academia, consultancy, and international development. He has worked with UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, UNICEF Evaluation Office, UNICEF Ethiopia, CARE Ethiopia, the YADAM Foundation, and the Centre for Evaluation and Development (C4ED) on high-impact projects in several low- and middle-income countries, including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Sudan, and Cambodia. He previously served as Assistant Professor at the University of Gondar and as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Antwerp, and he is currently an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Gondar.
He earned his PhD in Development Economics from University of Bonn, an MSc in Globalization and Development from University of Antwerp, and a collaborative MSc in Agricultural and Applied Economics from Egerton University and University of Pretoria. His research has been published in leading journals such as Social Science & Medicine, PLOS ONE, BMC Health Services Research, SSM – Population Health, SSM – Health Systems, BMC Public Health, and the International Journal of Educational Development.
Contact Information
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/essa-chanie-mussa-87b59751/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EwS73MEAAAAJ&hl=en
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1780-4681
ROSETTA Project
Social Protection, Child Well-being and Poverty in Ethiopia through Machine Learning (SoProChild-Ethiopia)
Ethiopia faces one of the world’s highest burdens of multidimensional child poverty, with 88% of children under 18 experiencing deprivations in health, education, and living standards. One in four children also suffers from stunted growth due to chronic malnutrition. To address these challenges, Ethiopia has rolled out large-scale social protection programs such as the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) and Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI). Yet, critical questions remain about their effectiveness in reducing multidimensional poverty and improving child health outcomes, particularly due to persistent challenges in targeting and resource allocation.
The SoProChild-Ethiopia project will apply advanced Machine Learning (ML) techniques to predict child poverty and nutrition outcomes and to map hotspot areas of poverty and stunting across the country using socioeconomic and satellite imagery datasets. This innovative approach goes beyond traditional econometric methods by capturing complex, non-linear relationships between poverty, health, and environmental factors. While the evidence generated will directly inform the design and targeting of Ethiopia’s social protection interventions, the models developed will also offer adaptable tools for other low- and middle-income countries facing similar challenges.
The project aims to chart a new path for the ethical and effective integration and use of emerging digital technologies in development policy, ensuring that development interventions become more equitable, better targeted, and more impactful for the most vulnerable children. The project directly contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being).
ROSETTA Supervisor and Host Institution
Supervisor: Dr Edel Doherty
Host: University of Galway