Dr. Susan Kaaria is the Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD). She has over 20 years of experience in international development, working with various organizations promoting gender equality and women empowerment in agriculture. Dr. Kaaria started her career as an Agricultural Extension Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture in Kenya. Since then, she has worked with various organizations, implementing global and country programs on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Dr. Kaaria holds a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Minnesota, a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State University in the USA, and a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the University of Eastern Africa in Kenya. Before joining AWARD, Dr. Kaaria was the Team Leader for Gender at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. She was also a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation Office for Eastern Africa, managing a diverse portfolio of grants to expand livelihood opportunities for poor households in Eastern Africa. Dr. Kaaria has also worked as a Senior Scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.

Dr. Michèle Mbo’o-Tchouawou is a native of Cameroon and the Deputy Director of AWARD. She provides overall leadership in the development, management, strategy, quality, and managed growth of AWARDs programs. She previously worked at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), contributing to the broader agenda on gender and equity for livestock and agricultural development. As part of her responsibilities at ILRI, Michèle supported collecting and compiling data and updating the CAADP M&E indicators for the East and Central Africa region as per the CAADP results framework. Dr. Michèle holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Master’s in Networks Economics and Information Management from the University of Paris-Sud 11, France. She also received a Master’s in Management and International Trade from the University of Clermont-Ferrand II, France, and a BSc. in Business Administration from HEC (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales), Rabat, Morocco.

Nicoline de Haan is a senior researcher with more than 15 years of expertise in gender, rural livelihoods, agriculture, and natural resource management. She is presently the Director of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform.

Previously, she served as the leader of the gender team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Before ILRI, she led the work on gender, poverty and institutions under the CGIAR program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) examining the implications of inequity in access and control over natural resources, and finding options to ensure inclusive benefit sharing. In her previous position at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) she led the global socio-economic team on animal health, where her main responsibility was reducing the impact of animal diseases on the livelihoods of smallholders, and especially women impacted by avian influenza. She holds a PhD in rural sociology from University of Missouri, Columbia, USA.

Elena Ruiz Abril is the Regional Policy Advisor for Women’s Economic Empowerment in UN Women’s Regional office for West and Central Africa. She is a gender specialist with degrees in Economics and Gender Analysis of Development and more than 20 years of experience working for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Prior to joining UN Women WCRO, she worked for the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and several UN agencies in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. She has spent most of her career working on women’s economic empowerment conducting policy analysis, dialogue and reform, advising public and private sector institutions, and supporting advocacy and programmatic work to improve women’s access to economic opportunities, and to strengthen women’s economic rights. In her recent work at EBRD, she spearheaded the IFI’s work on gender responsive investment climate reform, and was instrumental in the design of the Bank’s flagship Women in Business Program to support women entrepreneurs’ access to bank finance in 19 countries. She also led the Bank’s efforts to remove legal barriers to women’s participation in the labor market in Central Asia.

Dr. Maureen Miruka is currently the Director, Gender Equality, Youth and Social Inclusion at CIMMYT. Previously, the Senior Director of Program Quality and Partnerships at CARE USA. She is a leader and change maker on gender equality and women’s rights in food systems. Maureen is was also the lead author of CARE’s flagship gender transformative approach, the Farmer Field and Business School.