Prof. Isaac Kanyama- Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), Universite de Kinshasha, DRC
Dr. Lilian Kirimi- Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Kenya
Lilian Kirimi is a senior research fellow at Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development in Kenya, where she is the senior value chain and gender specialist. Her research specialization spans agricultural finance, production economics, economic development and institutional economics. Kirimi received her Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University.
Prof. Charles Jumbe – Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources (LUANAR), Malawi
Prof. Charles B.L. Jumbe is a Professor at the Centre for Agricultural Research and Development (CARD) in the Faculty of Developmenet studies in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Bunda College, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). He holds a PhD in Economics from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Prior to joining LUANAR, he worked as an economist in several government departments, including the Department of Economic Planning and Development in the Office of the President and Cabinet (1990–1993); Energy Planning Division, Ministry of Energy and Mining (1993–1996); and Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (1995- 1996). He has more than 25 years of research experience and has worked in natural resources management, energy (including renewable and non-renewable energy), agriculture, rural development, environment and climate change, food and nutrition security, forestry, household welfare, and poverty. He has worked for various organisations helping them to conduct baseline, mid-term, and endline evaluations of various development interventions. His research projects aim at informing policy and programme development to address developmental challenges faced by rural and urban poor communities in their efforts to fight poverty in a more sustainable manner.
Ms. Orcídia Tina Chiziane Vilanculos – Research Center for Agriculture Policy and Agri-systems (CEPPAG), Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique
Orcídia Chiziane Vilanculos is a Horticulture Value Chain Management Specialist, currently working as a lecture and researcher at Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Programmes (CEPPAG), which is part of Eduardo Mondlane University, the oldest and largest university in Mozambique. CEPPAG is a Mozambican Think tank that conducts Policy research on the Agricultural sector. Over the last five 5 years Orcídia has been actively involved in research in Agricultural policy analysis that resulted in policy recommendation to the Government of Mozambique, in the cotton, cassava, rice, maize and cashew subsectors. Orcídia is also a Research Director at the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Institutes (ReNAPRI), during this period has participated in analytical work involving partial equilibrium modelling for rice, maize, and soya beans annual outlook .Recently she has been working on estimate the impacts of climate change on Agricultural production in Mozambique.
Ms. Lulama Traub – Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Lulama is the former the Chair of the Technical Committee for the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI). She lectures at the University of Stellenbosch and conducts research with the South African Bureau of Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), where her research interests include outreach and capacity building programs in collaboration with Southern African universities and government agencies, mainly focusing on staple food marketing and trade policies and their effects on sustainable and equitable development.
Dr. Zena Mpenda – School of Agriculture Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania
Zena Mpenda is an is a lecturer Deputy Dean and Head of Department of Agricultural Food and Resource and Economics at the School of Agricultural Economics and Business studies (SAEBS) at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). She has majored in economics of food safety standards in agro-food exports for developing countries. She has worked and done consultancy and assists SMEs in product development and processing specifically on dairy products, cooking oil, fish and vegetables. She has researched in the fields of agro-processing, international food standards, waste management, value chain development, SMEs internal competences building, marketing and market competition. She has published on issues of economics of food safety standards in agro-foods export. She currently teaches quality control and standards, entrepreneurship development, environmental impact assessment (eLCA) and eco-design as a methodological course, econometrics, and mathematics for economics and statistics for graduate and undergraduate students.. She is also involved in the African Agribusiness Academy (AAA), a project that supports commercial activities of SMEs in East Africa by strengthening individual entrepreneurial capacities. She is also a team leader on a Value Chain project under a Building Stronger University program funded by DANIDA.
Prof. Jackline Bonabana-Makerere University
Jackline Bonabana-Wabbi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Economics (DANRE) in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) at Makerere University. She holds a PhD in Economics from Virginia Tech, USA. Her teaching load includes business economics, macroeconomics, and research methods at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She supervises undergraduate, masters and PhD student research. She has held various administrative positions in the University including Chairperson, Research and Publications Committee in the Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Economics. She often deputizes the head of Department, DANRE. Jackline’s past role as the Coordinator of Postgraduate Programs positioned her as a focal point for students, lecturers, supervisors and examiners. Over the years she has been instrumental in coordinating the identification of potential students for admission, matching student interests with available expertise, sourcing for external expertise where necessary, providing guidelines to graduate study programs and coordinating examinations among other roles. She has attended a number of curriculum development and capacity building workshops. She is coordinating efforts to strengthen institutional and individual capacity development programs including the USAID DANRE-KSU project at departmental level and the CAES-ISP – a college-level spin-off capacity building innovation scholars program supported by USAID BHEARD and Michigan State University (MSU). She is also involved with a number of research organizations and projects, both local and international. Her research interests are Development Economics, Agribusiness, and Resource Economics. She has published mainly in the field of resource economics.
Dr. Antony Chapoto- Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), Zambia
Dr. Chapoto joined the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) in July 2014 as the Research Director, coming from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) where he was a Research Fellow. As a Research Fellow, he worked under the Development Strategy and Governance Division based in Accra, Ghana with IFPRI’s Ghana Strategy Support Program. Prior to IFPRI, Dr. Chapoto was an Assistant Professor for five years and an Associate Professor for one year in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. During that time, he was stationed in Zambia under the Food Security Research Project in Lusaka as the USAID Chief of Party and Research Coordinator. His research interests focus on agricultural development issues in Africa, including agricultural technology and productivity, smallholder farm commercialization, home-grown medium and large-scale farmers, and food markets and policy. Dr. Chapoto has a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and a Masters in Agricultural Economics from the University of Zimbabwe.
Dr. Emmanuel Mwakiwa- Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension, University of Zimbabwe
Dr Emmanuel Mwakiwa is a senior lecturer and researcher. He has published in high impact referred international journals and has over 19 years’ experience in the agricultural sector. He has dealt with issues on food security, resilience, humanitarian to development paradigm, livestock, role of markets in humanitarian and food security programmes, and value for money and rural development issues. He also has experience working in Government, Private, NGO (national and international) and academic sectors. He has work experience in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Netherlands. He has vast experience in programme management, and has been already exposed to various donor systems and international organizations including African Union, European Union, FAO, USAID, DANIDA and IFAD amongst others.
Dr. Andrew Agyei-Holmes – Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research(ISSER), University of Ghana
Andrew Agyei-Holmes is a native of Akyem Tafo in the Eastern Region of Ghana and has lived and worked in the UK (National Energy Foundation) and in Tanzania (Mzumbe University) as a s Researcher. Between June 2015 and June 2018, he worked at the World Bank, Washington D.C, USA as a Consultant in the Chief Economist’s Office, Africa Region. Since the beginning of 2018, Andrew has been a Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana. His rich experience doing development research across continents has not only enhanced his ability to work with teams with multi-cultural backgrounds, but also appreciate the need to explain research outcomes within different regional and cultural contexts. He also participates fully in community service. For example, he nurtures younger people in his local church and teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Ghana. Andrew received his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2005 and a Master of Philosophy in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ghana in 2008. He also obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in International Development Economics from the Open University, Milton Keynes, England in 2014.
Dr. Thinah Moyo – Agricultural Trade Policy Institute (ATPI), Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)
Dr Moyo is an Agricultural Economist, with expertise in statistical packages for social scientists. My career interests include collection, analysis and dissemination of empirical evidence on smallholder farmer development, rural livelihoods, farmer market participation aimed at improving the quality of life of smallholder resource-poor farm families. I have research interests in Livelihoods, Poverty alleviation, Smallholder farmer development, Smallholder farmer market participation, Land issues and Comparative research particularly in the SADC and sub-Saharan Africa. Previously, I participated in a number of agriculture and rural development projects in a few SADC countries. In my career life, I have worked both individually and as part of research teams.