Tamara Billima-Mulenga

Tamara Billima-Mulenga is a Fall 2026 CEGA Fellow and PhD Student in Economics at the University of Zambia, where her research focuses on mining expansion, internal migration and labor market outcomes. She is an economist, policy analyst and quantitative researcher with more than 10 years of experience in impact evaluation, policy research and evidence-informed decision-making.

Most recently, she served as country manager for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Zambia and Malawi, leading research operations across three countries and overseeing impact evaluations, strategic partnerships and multidisciplinary research teams. She previously served as a research fellow at the Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR), researching labor markets, poverty, extractive industries and social development. Billima-Mulenga holds a master’s degree in economic policy management and a bachelor’s degree in economics, both from the University of Zambia.