Mwanda Phiri

Mwanda Phiri is a Research Fellow at the Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR) where she is responsible for leading and coordinating research and policy analysis on trade and investment. Her research areas of interest include international trade, investment and finance, regional integration, inclusive and sustainable industrial development, structural transformation, and private sector development. She is a published author with more than 7 years of working experience part of which includes working knowledge of the government and the private sector having previously worked at the Ministry of Finance and Banc ABC (now Atlas Mara). Mwanda is actively engaged with the Government of Zambia, the private sector, Parliament, civil society organisations and many other key stakeholders and has provided input key national documents namely: Zambia’s Tariff Phase-down Schedule for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the 7th National Development Plan, the National E-Commerce Strategy and Action Plan, and the National Demographic Dividend Operational Plan

She has also collaborated with other foreign, regional and international organisations such as the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); the International Growth Centre; the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) and Centre for Competition Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED) based in South Africa; the Poverty Reduction, Equity and Growth Network (PEGNet) based in Germany; COMESA; the African Development Bank; and others.

Mwanda is a recipient of the UK Commonwealth Scholarship and holds a Master of Science in Economics and Public Policy obtained from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.