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Nsababera, Olive

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Nsababera, Olive Umuhire
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Last updated: August 20, 2025
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Olive Nsababera is an economist with the Poverty and Equity Global Practice where she works at the intersection of poverty, inequality, and migration. She joined the World Bank as part of the Young Professionals Program in 2020 and has since contributed to the analytical and advisory country programs of Burundi, Comoros, Seychelles, South Africa, Venezuela and Haiti. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked extensively on fragile, and conflict affected settings with a focus on understanding the impact of forced displacement on individual welfare, local economic development, the integration of migrants in host communities and how alternative data sources can be leveraged to advance informed policymaking in such data scarce contexts. She holds a BA in Economics from Yale University, an MPA from Columbia University, and a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.

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    Migration: Africa’s Untapped Potential
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-08-21) Abdel Jelil, Mohamed; Adhikari, Samik; Do, Quy-Toan; Kaila, Heidi; Marzo, Federica; Nsababera, Olive; Seshan, Ganesh; Shrestha, Maheshwor
    Migration in Africa is primarily driven by the search for economic opportunity, safety, and security, including from environmental hardships. However, migration’s potential to uplift African livelihoods remains largely untapped. While nearly 15 percent of the world’s migrant population is from Sub-Saharan Africa, two-thirds of Sub-Saharan migrants stay within Africa, and the majority move within regional economic communities. Africa is also home to a quarter of the world’s refugees, primarily hosted in neighboring countries. Africa is now at a pivotal crossroads. With a rapidly growing young population facing economic stagnation, conflict, and climate change, the continent’s workforce is expected to increase by 600 million people by 2050, making up a third of the world’s youth. In contrast, labor forces in high-income and upper-middle-income countries are set to decline by 200 million. This demographic divergence opens a window of opportunity for Africa to enhance its migration management systems. Realizing the potential of migration requires deliberate policies to address challenges and maximize the benefits of migration for both origin and destination countries, as well as for the migrants. Investing in migration systems can better support migrants across the migration cycle, from developing skills in demand domestically, regionally, and globally to ensuring dignity and safety in transit or at their destination. Increasing the number of legal migration pathways is crucial to disincentivize irregular movements and foster safe, orderly migration. Effective migration management also includes promoting integration in host societies and facilitating voluntary returns. This can be achieved through instruments such as bilateral labor migration agreements with destination countries. Entering these agreements as a unified bloc would strengthen individual countries’ bargaining power, improve conditions for migrants, and maximize the economic benefits of migration. Additionally, the empowerment and self-reliance of refugees and internally displaced persons call for increased collaboration among African nations.
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    Household Vulnerability and Preparedness for Disasters in Haiti
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-02-09) Canavire Bacarreza, Gustavo Javier; Carrasco, Naraya; Cardona Botero, Marlen Yamilet; Nsababera, Olive Umuhire
    This paper examines the socioeconomic factors correlated with vulnerability to natural hazards, using unique data from the High-Frequency Phone Surveys conducted in Haiti in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The results indicate a high overall exposure to hazards, with a significant number of individuals living in households facing the threat of multiple hazards. The analysis finds that disaster preparedness is generally low, with the poorest households experiencing the most significant challenges. Households in the bottom two wealth quintiles are less likely to have the necessary supplies to prepare adequately for and respond to disasters compared to those in the upper quintiles. Moreover, the level of education of the household head and access to the internet are found to be correlated with the likelihood of having better disaster preparedness. This suggests that higher levels of education and internet access play a significant role in improving preparedness levels among households. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of addressing socioeconomic factors when developing strategies to enhance resilience to natural hazards. By focusing on improving disaster preparedness among the most vulnerable households and promoting education and internet access, policy makers can mitigate the negative impacts of natural disasters on affected communities.
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    The Impact of Covid-19 on Household Welfare in the Comoros: The Experience of a Small Island Developing State
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-10) Mendiratta, Vibhuti; Nsababera, Olive Umuhire; Sam, Hannah
    This paper investigates the causal impact of a Covid-19 lockdown policy on the Comoros's household welfare, poverty, and labor market outcomes. The identification strategy uses the national government lockdown policy implemented to curtail the unexpected outbreak of Covid-19. The lockdown policy coincided with the 2020 Harmonized Survey on Living Conditions of Households data collection, lending itself to a quasi-natural experiment in which households that were interviewed before the lockdown policy fall into the control group, while those that were interviewed after the lockdown fall into the treated group. The paper explores the impact of the Covid-19 using descriptive regression analysis and estimates the causal impact using matching techniques. The analysis finds a reduction in household expenditure, increased poverty, and a reduction in the likelihood of employment. Investigation of differential impacts along the expenditure distribution finds larger impacts at the top of the distribution, suggesting that Covid-19 may have reduced inequality, although the poor were also negatively affected. The evidence also suggests that the ability to use assets as a coping mechanism was limited. In a context of limited safety nets and government interventions, stringent lockdown policies appear to increase the vulnerability of the poor.