Dr. Julia Smith-Omomo is the IOM Somalia Livelihoods Programme Manager based in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Julia has over 14 years of experience in behavioural economics, value chain development and development finance in post-war contexts, and served as the development finance expert tasked with designing the Enterprise Development Fund with the IOM Iraq mission. Her research specializes in financial service provision in fragile and conflict affected countries and has been published in a number of edited volumes and reports. 

Prior to joining IOM, Dr. Smith-Omomo worked in statistical modelling, rural development and microfinance with the US Department of Agriculture, the Council on Foundations, FINCA, and the Empirical Studies of Conflict project at Princeton University. She has also served as the field operations director with Mavuno-Dr Congo and has been on the Board of Directors for multiple microfinance funds.  She is the author of “African Indigenous Financial Institutions: The Case of Congo and Liberia” and is currently on research teams running two randomized controlled trials on job creation and community spillover effects, and investment readiness interventions for small and medium enterprises in Iraq. She has a Ph.D in Post-War Recovery, and a M.A. with Distinction in Post-war Recovery from the University of York.