Task Force Rural Africa – strengthening our partnership in food and farming

24 May 2018. First meeting of the Task Force Rural Africa – strengthening our partnership in food and farming. (see agenda)

The Group's role will be

• To provide expertise, advice and possible recommendations in relation to enhancing the role of the EU agrifood and agroindustrial sector in the job-creating economic, sustainable development of the African continent. 
• To identify means to accelerate economic impact through fostering responsible EU private investment in support of African agriculture, agri-business and agroindustries in a sustainable way, taking into account existing cooperation frameworks (in particular the EIP, the SB4A, the Abidjan Action Plan, and other types of development assistance, trade and investment agreements and instruments, cooperation in multilateral fora).

Members of this group were selected via a call for applications.

1. MICHEL Baudouin Belgium  BAUDOUIN MICHEL is an agro- economist. He holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Engineering, Economics and Rural Sociology from the Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux (Belgium). His professional work experience includes 24 years as Lecturer in Gembloux Agro Biotech (Belgium), 32 years in development cooperation working with the main donors in Africa and South Asia, as well as 6 years as one year as coordinator of the ECOFIN helpdesk for the European Commission (DG DEVCO).
   
2. WIECK Christine Germany
   Christine WIECK is an advisor GIZ an advisor to the German Development Cooperation and teaches at the University of Bonn, Institute for Food and Resource Economics
3. ENGEL Albert Germany 
   Albert Engel is Director of the Africa Department and former deputy Director General of the Sectoral Department of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für
   
   Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Born in 1958, he obtained higher education degrees in agricultural studies (Georg-August-University, Gottingen), rural development (Technical University, Berlin) and agricultural economics (Cornell University, Ithaka, New York). 
4. LOSCH Bruno France
   Dr Bruno Losch, lead political economist at Cirad, UMR Art-Dev and co-director of the Center for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn), based at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. Over the last three years, Bruno Losch has been working with NEPAD (Rural Futures Program), OECD, UNDP, AfDB (Africa Economic
   
   Outlook 2015), and ILO (emplyment in Africa). He joined the World Bank between 2005-2011 where he led the RuralStruc Program on structural transformation & rural change - a joint initiative of the World Bank, IFAD, and the french government. Previously, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute of International Studies (University of California-Berkeley), and in charge of Cirad's Family Agriculture Program (1998-2002).
5. ARNOLD Tom Ireland Mr Tom Arnold has been appointed the chairman of the Task Force.
   
   Tom Arnold is former Director General of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA). From August 2014 to February 2016 he was Interim Coordinator, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement; he was also Chairman of the Irish Constitutional Convention (2012-14) and Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide (2001-13). He has served on a number of governmental and non-governmental bodies at national, European and international level including the UN Millennium Project's Hunger Task Force, the Irish Hunger Task Force, the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Irish Government's Commission on Taxation, the Consortium Board of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, the International Advisory Board of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the NGO European Food Security Group, the Montpellier Panel and the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice.
6. RAMPA Francesco Italy 
   
   Francesco Rampa, an Italian national, is Head of Programme at ECDPM. He heads the Sustainable Food Systems team of ECDPM’s Economic and Agricultural Transformation programme. With a background in economics and international trade (graduated at Bocconi University and Master in Economics for Development at Oxford), his expertise and publications are in the fields of trade policies and development, political economy, innovation, food security and sustainable food systems.
7. BLOKLAND Kees Netherlands. 
   Kees Blokland has been vice-president of the Development
   
   Cooperation Committee (DCC) of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) in the period 2002 – 2006, and vice-president of AgriCord from 2008-2016. Since 2015, Kees Blokland is involved in the establishment of the agri-agency for Southern Africa, working closely with the confederation of Agricultural Unions from that region, SACAU. He is currently board member of AgriProFocus and AgriCord.
8. OWONA KONO Joseph Cameroon 
   
   Joseph OWONA KONO est président de l'Afruibana, secrétaire exécutif de l'Assobacam, député à l'Assemblée nationale du Cameroun.
9. ZVARIMWA Mashiri Zimbabwe
   After a career of more than a decade in Agri-business, Project Management, and International Development work in Southern Africa the focus of ZVARIMWA Mashiri is now on digital innovation in agriculture and how Ag-Tech start-ups and established organizations can collaborate to accelerate digital innovations and the Internet of Things (IoT), to transform the global agriculture value chain. He has successfully pioneered a cassava piloting project in South Africa that produced a bankable business case and is now commercialised by the Eastern Cap
10. BIKPO Céline Ivory Coast 
    
    Céline BIKPO est professeur titulaire Responsable de l’Institut de Géographie Tropicale (IGT) de l’UFR SHS - Unité de Formation et de Recherche de Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société de l’Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny
11. SPERANZA Chinwe Ifejika Nigeria
    Dr. Chinwe Ifejika Speranza is a Professor at the Department of Geography, University of Bonn and at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany. Her teaching at Bonn is mainly on environmental risks and vulnerability. Her research focuses on natural resources-based livelihoods, their interactions with social and ecological systems and the implications for building resilience and sustainability. The general thematic areas of her research are climate risks, resilience, vulnerability, actor perspectives, food security and agriculture. Her geographic areas of focus are sub-Sahara Africa, Switzerland and Germany. Prof. Ifejika Speranza is a Geographer with backgrounds in Climatology (BSc, Univ. of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria),
    
    Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (MSc, Univ. of Zurich), and Human Geography (PhD, Univ. of Bern). She is a Senior Research Scientist at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland. She has over 10 years’ experience in training Extension Officers in Kenya and Tanzania on drought and food security management, and is involved in science-policy activities. She is an associate fellow at the German Development Institute, Bonn, and a visiting Professor at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies of the University of Nairobi, Kenya. She is an editorial board member of Regional Environmental Change.