Dr Jonathan Newby is an agricultural and rural development economist with over 10 years' experience working in Southeast Asia on a range agricultural development and livelihood projects. He holds an honours degree in Natural Resource Economics and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Queensland, Australia. Since 2013 he has worked for the cassava program at the International Center for Tropical Agricultural (CIAT). He currently manages several projects on developing sustainable cassava value chains in Southeast Asia with activities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. He works as part of a multidisciplinary team identifying opportunities and constraints to enhancing livelihoods of smallholder cassava farmers through strengthening the linkages between farmers, industry, governments departments and research agencies.