Dr. Agnes Kalibata served, from 2014 to 2025, as President of AGRA, an African-led and Africa-based institution that puts smallholder farmers at the centre of the continent’s growing economy. Together with public and private sector partners, AGRA is working to sustainably grow Africa’s food systems. AGRA is reaching 28 million farmers across 12 countries to ensure a food secure and prosperous Africa through rapid, inclusive, sustainable agricultural growth, improving the productivity and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa.
In complement to this work, Dr. Kalibata served as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. Through an inclusive multi-year process, she mobilized engagement of 166 countries and hundreds of institutions committed to food systems transformation to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. In 2023, she also served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where she played an instrumental role in shaping the delivery of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action that has been endorsed by 160 Heads of State and Government around the world.
Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata served as Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources from 2008 to 2014. During her tenure, Rwanda became a food secure nation and a shining example for other African countries to learn from and emulate. Her Ministry was able to grow the agriculture sector budget from less than USD 10 million to USD 150 million per year thereby reducing Rwanda’s global hunger index by over 50% in five years through a combination of investment in data, mapping, tracking and targeted investments.
Dr. Kalibata has a distinguished track record as an agricultural scientist, policy maker and thought leader. She is recipient of many prestigious awards including but not limited to the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize, in 2012, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège in 2018, an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University in 2019, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in April, 2019 for her work to drive Africa’s agricultural transformation through modern sciences and effective policy thereby improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
Dr. Kalibata sits on various boards, councils and commissions including the Global Commission on Adaptation, the Global Panel for Agriculture & Food Systems for Nutrition, the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum, the Malabo-Montpellier Panel, and the UN Food Systems Advisory Board, among others. She holds a doctorate in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.