Ayako Ebata is an economist and mixed-methods researcher working at the intersection of value chains, equitable livelihoods, and sustainability. She is a co-founder of the Food Equity Centre (FEC) and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies.
Ayako’s research explores how commercial actors, activities and interests shape livelihood opportunities especially for marginalised people working in informal, food, and migrant-dominated sectors, and how economic, social, and environmental outcomes collide. Within this, Ayako brings a strong One Health perspective, focusing on trade-offs between poverty reduction, public health (e.g. food security, emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance), and environmental challenges (e.g. marine habitat loss, water pollution).
While grounded in low- and middle-income country contexts, Ayako’s work also engages with global challenges that affect high-income contexts, including the UK. She leads multi-partner, impact-focused projects across Southeast Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, and works closely with social and natural scientists — from economists and sociologists to veterinarians, medical scientists, mathematical modellers, biologists and epidemiologists — to deliver socially grounded, policy-relevant insights on precarious livelihoods and health.
She is a Senior Editor of Food Security, a springer journal focusing on improving food security around the world.
Teaching
Ayako convenes the Introduction to Quantitative Methods at the University of Sussex, and lectures on agricultural development, and commercial determinants of health in MA modules.
PhD Applications
Ayako welcomes PhD applications on the following topics:
- Research on commercial and non-state activities and their interaction with inequality, health and environmental issues.
- Identification of policy and other tools to develop economic sectors equitably.
- Innovative methodologies to account for trade-offs and synergies between multiple sustainability outcomes.
