Harold Alderman is currently a consultant to the World Bank, having spent 19 years at the World Bank as social protection advisor in the Africa region. He is also serving as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. His current research has focused on the linkages between nutrition and early childhood development and the means by which nutrition and social protection programs contribute to long-term economic growth.

Alderman received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1971, an M.A. in Nutrition from Cornell University in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard in 1984.