Keynote speakers
Dr. Jemimah M. Njuki
Dr. Njuki is the Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She is a globally renowned gender and agriculture expert. For the last 18 years she has carried out gender research, managed women’s economic empowerment programs in Africa and Asia, and trained researchers, NGO staff, and extension officers on gender equality. Previously, she led the Growth and Economic Opportunities (GrOW) program at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and served as Senior Program Specialist in the Agriculture and Food Security program at IDRC. In November 2020, Dr. Njuki was co-convener of the virtual Gender Summit on “Agriculture through the Gender Lens: From Surviving to Thriving in a Climate Changing World,” is convener of the East Africa Gender and Livelihood Network, and has been the chair of the Women in Agriculture Thematic Working Group of the African Green Revolution Forum for the last 6 years.
Prior to joining IDRC, she led the Women in Agriculture program at CARE USA. She also led the Poverty, Gender, and Impact program at the International Livestock Research Institute, and between 2003 and 2009, managed a multi-country program called Enabling Rural Innovation at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture.
Currently, Dr. Njuki is deputy chair of the Advisory Committee of African Women in Agriculture Research and Development (AWARD). She also serves as advisor on Women’s Economic Empowerment to the UN Women Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa and is the Custodian for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment for the UN Food Systems Summit 2021.
Dr. Njuki is the founding and current Editor of the Journal of Gender, Agriculture, and Food Security and has co-edited three books on gender and agriculture in the global south. She also writes and publishes widely in local and international media including Ms. Magazine, Thomson Reuters, and others on issues concerning women and girls. Articles can be accessed on https://medium.com/me/stories/public
Dr. Carolyn E. Sachs
Carolyn E. Sachs is Professor Emerita of Rural Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is cofounder of the Pennsylvania Women's Agricultural Network and a consultant for the FAO and UNESCO. Her research examines issues of gender and agriculture and gender and environmental issues. Dr. Sachs' first project involved exploring new women agricultural entrepreneurs and their opportunities and barriers to success.
In her research on food sovereignty, she pays particular attention to environmental sustainability and gender equality in rural farming communities. She is also engaged in a comparative international project on gender and climate change in India in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition, she works with gender and the food system exploring gendered work in the food system from farm to table. Her outreach interests include working with the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network (PAWAgN) to provide hands-on agricultural, entrepreneurship, and leadership training. She serves on an expert panel to the UN on Gender, Water, and Sanitation.
