Dorothy Mukhebi

Dorothy serves as Deputy Director, Operations, at African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD). She provides strategic leadership to achieve AWARD’s mission of building a more gender responsive agricultural innovation system. She was previously the Mentoring Coordinator and then Director of Programmes at AWARD, where she was instrumental in setting up a vibrant mentoring/fellowship programme. She has also supported various partners in establishing mentoring initiatives using the AWARD model. She has over 40 years’ experience working with African agricultural networks. Before AWARD, she worked as Coordinator of the Regional Agricultural Information Network (RAIN) of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). She started her career as a Planning Officer with the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, and later served for 10 years as a Programme Manager with the African, Caribbean and Pacific / European Union (ACP/EU) Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), based in Wageningen, The Netherlands. She previously worked with the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya. Dorothy holds a master’s in information sciences from Loughborough University of Technology, U.K., and a bachelor’s in agriculture from the University of Nairobi. Her hobbies include reading, travelling, photography and jogging.

“I am excited about the African Food Fellowship to learn and share experiences on building capacities especially of young people. I am passionate about reducing hunger and poverty on the African continent and it is exciting to contribute to building transformative leaders with potential of making a positive change.”

Dr. Debisi Araba

Debisi is a public policy, innovation and strategy specialist. He serves on the Montpellier Malabo Panel of experts – an eminent group of global experts – working together to enhance African and European government support of national and regional agricultural development and food security priorities in Africa. Most recently, he was the Managing Director of the Africa Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), where he led global strategy, partnerships and programmes for Africa's premier platform for agriculture and food systems transformation to achieve the vision and goals laid out in the AU Malabo Declaration, the SDGs, and Africa’s Agenda 2063.

Previously, he was the Africa Region Director at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a member of the CGIAR, the consortium on international agriculture research. At CIAT, he led the mission to increase prosperity and improve human nutrition in Africa through leveraging markets for improved productivity, competitiveness, human nutrition and health; transforming farms and landscapes for sustainability and deploying insights to de-risk agriculture for improved investment planning, resilience and access to private capital.

He has also served as the Senior Technical Adviser on Environmental Policy to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria, where he co-authored Nigeria’s National Agricultural Resilience Framework, co-created the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, and led global and national partnerships in the development of insurance and climate-smart strategies for the agricultural sector.

Debisi has a doctorate degree from the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, an MA in Public Administration from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, an MSc in Clean Technology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and a BA in Physical Geography from the University of Ibadan.

Eunice Mbeneka Mutua

Eunice is an entrepreneur and agricultural market and investment specialist with experience founding, advising and managing agribusiness enterprises, promoting horticultural trade, implementing agroprocessing projects and leading industry lobbying efforts. In her current role as Managing Director at Select Fresh Produce Kenya, she leads the company’s teams in growing its fresh and dry produce import and export business. As an Associate Director East Africa for T&T Corporation, she advises the multinational company on agroprocessing and investments in the region. Eunice has over 15 years of experience in various industries, including security, local and global money movement and advisory consulting at PwC where she focused on business management, risk management, finance, strategy and operations. Her major achievements include being nominated to represent AgriSMEs in the Presidential Round Table and participation in Budget allocation planning for the Ministry of Industrialisation for the last two terms. A mentor and a lay leader in her church, Eunice dedicates her free time to charity work and community service. She holds a BSc in Finance and Banking from Kampala International University and an MA in Strategic Management from Daystar University.