Ralitza Dimova obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, in January 2005. Since her graduation,she has worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Rostock, Germany) and the National Foundation for Gerontology in Paris and as a lecturer at Brunel University in London. In September 2010 she joined the University of Manchester as a Senior Lecturer in Development Economics. Her current research interests include education, employment and poverty dynamics in African countries like Malawi and Tanzania. As part of a three-year project, sponsored by the British Academy,she isin the process of building an academic network with researchers from Senegal, Benin and Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire.