Mahamadou Bassirou Tangara is an associate professor in development economics at the University of Social Sciences and Management in Bamako (USSGB). His research focuses on poverty, informal economy, and armed conflicts. He has done extensive fieldwork in Mali (Segou, Mopti, Gao, and Bamako). His main contribution in development studies is the understanding of the role of hydro-agricultural developments in poverty reduction. For more than 3 years, he has been interested in issues of armed conflict with the objective of contributing to the understanding of the relationship between armed conflict and the informal economy. In this area, his work focuses on understanding the economy in times of armed conflict. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and has been the recipient of several research grants and awards. For example, he has been awarded the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC); the MIASA Individual Fellowship Research 2022; and he is a recipient of the Pilot African Postgraduate Academy (PAPA) for the period 2020 - 2023.