Executive Office

Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Distinguished Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists, and recipient of the Africa Food Prize in 2015, is the founder and Executive President of AKADEMIYA2063. He has over 30 years of experience in international development both as an academic and a practitioner. In his most recent tenure as the Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), he oversaw the institute’s two regional offices for West and Central Africa in Dakar and Eastern and Southern Africa in Addis Ababa. For most of the last 20 years, he coordinated the institute’s work program in the areas of food policy research, capacity strengthening, and policy communication as well as its partnership with African institutions dealing with the above areas.

As an Advisor to the NEPAD Secretariat from 2004 to 2007, he was instrumental in developing and guiding the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). In partnership with AUC, NPCA and the Regional Economic Communities, he mobilized and trained a critical mass of experts to provide the necessary data and analytical support to countries for the design and implementation of national investment plans.

Before his second tenure at IFPRI, which he entered for the first time in 1989, Dr. Badiane, a national of Senegal, was Lead Specialist for Food and Agricultural Policy of the Africa Department at the World Bank from January 1998 to August 2008. In addition to his role as advisor to the Vice President for the Africa region, he developed projects with an investment volume ranging from US$5 million to US$150 million.

Dr. Badiane has dealt with growth and economic development issues in Africa from a variety of angles. In addition to conducting research on development at IFPRI and financing development projects at the World Bank, he also taught Economics of Development in Africa, as adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies from 1993 to 2003.

Dr. Badiane received a master’s degree and PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Kiel in Germany. He is also recipient of a Doctoral Degree Honoris Causa from the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.

As Director of External Relations, Tsitsi Makombe leads the organization’s efforts to build, enhance, and maintain innovative and strategic partnerships. She cultivates relationships with a diverse array of partners and stakeholders including continental and regional organizations, national governments, non-state actor organizations, and investors.

Prior to joining Akademiya2063, Tsitsi was a Senior Program Manager with the International Food Policy Research Institute where she successfully managed diverse partnerships and multi-year projects and programs in support of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

She is a certified project management professional (PMP) with over 15 years of programmatic and research experience in African agricultural development. A citizen of Zimbabwe, Tsitsi received her M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and a B.S. degree in Agriculture and Natural Resources from Africa University.

Mr. Nyirimana Joseph is currently Senior National Director of AKADEMIYA2063. He has more than 35 years of experience in the field of rural development project management. For over 11 years, Mr. Nyirimana worked at the African Development Bank (AfDB) as an Agricultural Specialist at the Rwanda Country Office. In this role, he contributed to the identification, appraisal and supervision of around ten projects in Rwanda and Burundi and regularly contributed to the reviews of agricultural sector policies and strategies in the two countries.

Mr. Nyirimana was Coordinator of 2 projects funded by the World Bank within the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) in Rwanda: (i) the Agricultural and Rural Market Development Project (ARMDP) - USD 5 Million, which has contributed to the construction of 15 rural markets, the establishment of an extension system to stimulate the demand for fertilizers and the establishment of institutional and financial reforms that have encouraged the private sector to get involved in the distribution of fertilizers; (ii) The Rural Sector Support Project (RSSP) - USD 48 million, where Mr. Nyirimana contributed to its effective start-up mainly in the area of marshland development (carrying out of all technical studies on 4,000 ha and the start of works) and the operationalization of a rural investment fund of USD 7.5 million. After the Genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis in Rwanda, Mr. Nyirimana participated in emergency and rehabilitation operations in the country where he was a Program Officer at World Food Program (WFP). In this role, he participated in the operation of the massive repatriation of refugees in 1996 and thereafter to the country’s rehabilitation operations through the implementation of “Food For Work” projects.

From 1982 to 1993, he worked as Agronomist in various rural development projects in Burundi and Chad (including 6 years as a UN Volunteer). Mr. Nyirimana, who is a Rwandan national, holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering received in December 1981 at the University of Burundi, faculty of Agronomy.

Julia Collins is a Senior Associate Scientist with AKADEMIYA2063, based in Washington, DC. She supports a variety of ReSAKSS projects and AKADEMIYA2063 publications.

She previously worked at IFPRI as a Senior Research Analyst, contributing to support for National Agriculture Investment Plans and other ReSAKSS projects.

She earned her MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012 and holds a BA from Knox College in French and International Studies.