Dr. Nalishebo Meebelo holds a PhD in Business Studies (focused on knowledge management within the sustainable development framework), an MBA with finance, and a Graduate Diploma in Business (Research Methodologies and Leadership Skills) from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. She also holds a BA in Economics with Public Administration from the University of Zambia.  Meebelo has a set of transitional skills and works with various research and data analytics software packages. She is also well poised in program/project management.

She currently heads the Secretariat of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI), and also co-Chairs the Task Force on Food and Nutrition Security Data and Hunger Hotspots in the context of the COVID -19 pandemic, under the Regional Food Trade Coalition hosted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

She has worked in the African agriculture arena for over 14 years, at national, regional, and continental levels, coordinating the implementation of African Union (AU) policy frameworks. She was the first Coordinator of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Business Council (CBC) in 2009, and later became Deputy Coordinator for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in the COMESA region until 2015. She coordinated the Secretariat of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition at the AU Commission from 2015 to 2017, and later became the National CAADP Expert for Zambia and the Kingdom of Eswatini, working on behalf of the AU Commission and AUDA – NEPAD, under a project titled ‘Policy Advice for Strengthening CAADP Implementation’ from 2018 to 2019.

She serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Agricultural and Food-system Resilience: Increasing Capacity and Advising Policy (GCRF-AFRICAP) programme; as Board Chair of the Nkoka Women in Agro-Business (Zambia); and as Member of the Membership and Mentorship Committee of the Zambian Chapter of the African Women in Research and Development (ZaWARD), having also served in other similar roles in the past. In her work, Meebelo has engaged with the African Union Commission, African and other global governments, Regional Economic Communities (both African and non- African), the Private Sector, Civil Society Organisations, Farmers’ Organisations, Universities and Policy Research Centres, Technical and Financial Development Partners/Donors and Philanthropies, Women and Youth across the African continent and beyond.