Daniel Handel

Daniel has 17 years of experience in international development with a focus on economic growth, cash transfers and impact evaluation. Prior to joining 3ie, Daniel spent 10 years as a USAID foreign service officer with assignments in Washington, Rwanda and Nicaragua. As the lead of the USAID's evaluation team, he worked to improve the quality and use of evaluation in order to improve the effectiveness of USAID programming. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor on Aid Effectiveness in USAID’s Global Development Lab with the primary responsibility of expanding the work he began in Rwanda of ‘cash benchmarking’ — comparing the impact per dollar of traditional programs with what could be achieved with an unconditional cash transfer. In Rwanda, Daniel also conducted research and program design on causes of malnutrition, led private sector engagement, and managed impact evaluations. He began his foreign service career in 2010 as an economist at the USAID mission in Nicaragua. Daniel has also worked as an economist for the Institute of Policy Studies in Sri Lanka.

Daniel has an M.A. in Economics from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and a B.A. in History from Brandeis University.