Ippei Tsuruga is Representative of JICA USA Office and Member of JICA Social Protection Network. Ippei completed a MA in Poverty and Development at IDS in 2009. Having been trained through the ILO Social Security Academy Master programme,  working experience at ILO and JICA, he is actively involved in JICA’s assistance strategy development and research activities on social protection and poverty. He has been experienced on social protection, child labour, multi-/bi-lateral aid modalities, project management, a variety of management tasks both in research and operation. His research interests include social protection reforms, poverty targeting, cash transfers and poverty measurement.