2 July 2008: New drivers, new players in ACP rural development - Profiles of panelists and discussants

Hannah Edinger – Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Stellenbosch

Hannah Edinger is Economist at the Centre for Chinese Studies. She has been involved in a number of research projects for the Centre for Chinese Studies(CCS) with focus on foreign aid, trade and investment. Recently, she formed part of the research team that investigated how China delivers development assistance to Africa, a research undertaking completed in February 2008 for DFID-China. She regularly prepares briefings for the Centre’s Private Sector Research Unit and has also been editor of the monthly China monitor, the Centre’s flagship publication since 2006. Hannah also holds the position of Senior Manager: Research at Frontier Advisory (Pty) Ltd, South Africa’s leading research and strategy consulting firm that specialises in emerging markets. Frontier Advisory provides business strategy solutions on behalf of listed and multinational clients in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Hannah obtained a BComm degree, majoring in Economics and Statistics, a BComm Honours degree in Economics (cum laude), and MComm in Economics (cum laude) from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. In her Master’s dissertation Hannah focused on the growing global imbalances and the net deflationary bias in the international financial system with specific focus on the United States and China.

Olga Sulla – The World Bank

Olga Sulla is a macro and financial sector economist, currently working with the World Bank’s Managing Director covering Africa, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asia regions. Prior to this, she was with International Finance Team in Development Economics (DEC) Vice Presidency at the World Bank. She acquired 14 years of experience in policy-making and research activities and worked on issues related to development assistance and aid architecture as well as private capital flows to developing contries. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2000, she worked as an economist at the Central Bank of Israel with Monetary Policy and Capital Markets department, being directly involved in the process of significant economic reforms.

Ms. Sulla also served as an Advisor at the office of the Dutch Executive Director at the Board of the World Bank for two consecutive years during which she led the constituency’s strategy on agriculture, Trust Funds and Partnerships.

Waven William – Seychelles National Assembly

H.E. Mr Waven,Winslow William was elected four times as member of the Seychelles National Assembly for Grand Anse Mahe District. Chairman of the district Seychelles People Progressive Front committee (of the ruling party for 19yrs), Hon. William has been also Chairman of the Seychelles National Assembly International Affairs Committee since mid 2005, up to now. Member of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly from 2006 up to now, he was CO-president of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly from 2006 up to 2007. He participated in two fact finding missions, Madagascar in July -August 2007 and end of April 2008 in his own country for the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Within the same context he also participated in parliamentary exchange visits to Mauritius, Madagascar, Ethiopia, China, Brussels, Germany, Rwanda, Namibia and Ljubljana.

Dr. Akin Adesina - Vice President, Policy and Partnerships, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Dr. Akin Adesina is Vice President (Policy and Partnerships) for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a bold new entity established by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of bringing a green revolution to Africa, and lifting millions of poor farmers out of poverty and food insecurity. Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is the Chairman of AGRA. He is a distinguished agricultural economist, with over 20 years of professional experience in African agriculture. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics (First Class Honors) from the University of Ife, Nigeria. In 1988 he obtained his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, USA, where he won the Best PhD Thesis Award for his innovative thesis work. Dr. Adesina won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship in 1988, which initiated his career in international agricultural development. He has worked variously in senior research positions in International Agricultural Research Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Dr. Adesina received the Outstanding Black Agricultural Economist Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association in recognition of distinguished academic and management contribution to the field of agricultural economics and international agriculture. He was awarded on September 1, 2007 the prestigious Yara Prize for African Green Revolution in Oslo, Norway, for his leadership on the green revolution for Africa, and especially his pioneering work with developing rural agrodealer (rural input suppliers) networks that are now supplying affordable farm inputs to millions of poor farmers across Africa. Dr Adesina has also been selected as 2008 College of Agriculture Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award winner by Purdue University. for his efforts to galvanise African governments, donors and agribusinesses to work towards a green revolution in Africa through working with rural entrepreneurs across every village in Africa.

Motofumi Kohara - JICA

Motofumi Kohara is Director General of the Rural Development Department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which he joined in 1979. Mr. Kohara has a 30 years of experience on the implementation of technical cooperation projects in agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector at JICA, where he has formerly been Director of Forestry and Fisheries Development Survey Division, Deputy Resident Representative at JICA Philippines Office, Director of the Budget Division and Director of General Affairs Division. Currently, he is responsible for the management and implementation of all the agriculture and rural development projects.

Mr. Kohara holds a B.Sc. in Fisheries from the Tokyo University of Fisheries

Christoph Langenkamp - Global Donor Platform for Rural Development

Mr. Christoph Langenkamp, a German agronomist, holds considerable international experience in the area of rural development and food security. Starting in 1989, he worked seven years with farmers and farmers’ organisations in Kenya, chiefly on irrigation and agroforesty issues. Thereafter, he managed the agricultural rehabilitation and food security programme of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Somalia. In 1998 he joined the European Commission – managing food security and rural development programmes for Somalia. In 2005 he moved to Brussels, managing natural resource programmes targeting the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states. Since 2007 he is the task leader for agricultural and rural policies of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, an initiative of 30 leading donors, international finance institutions and development organisations.

Rudolf Buntzel - Concord

Rudolf Buntzel, Ph.D. in economics and agricultural sociology from the University of Heidelberg/Germany, works for the Church Development Service EED in Germany as expert for rural development. Since over 30 years, he is running different development programmes of the Churches, located in Germany, as the director of the Centre for World Food Matters of the Protestant Council of Churches. He wrote his thesis from field research in Tanzania. As evaluator of development projects he has done extensive evaluations of projects in all continents. In the last years his task focuses on lobby activities with the German government, European Commission and international organisations on issues of the global food crisis. In 2002, he joined the European Commission, DG Trade for 7 months on a special assignment on trade and development issues. He is the author of various books such as Genetic Engineering for Development or Global Chicken.