Dr. Jemimah Njuki is the Director for Africa at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She has over 20 years’ experience in the agriculture sector in Africa and Asia, working on gender equality and the empowerment of women. Previously she was Coordinator of the Growth and Economic Opportunities Program at IDRC (2020), Senior Program Specialist in the Agriculture and Food Security Program of IDRC (2013-2019), Program Leader for the Women in Agriculture Program at CARE USA (2012-2013), Program Leader for the Poverty, Gender and Impact Program at the International Livestock Research Institute (2009-2012) and a Senior Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (2003-2009). She has worked extensively in Africa including in Malawi (2004-2007), in Zimbabwe (2007-2009) and in Tanzania (2012-2013) as well as doing field research in many other countries.
She has published extensively in gender and agriculture journals on topics such as gender and technology, impacts of women’s time in agriculture on care giving practices and nutrition, indicators for women’s empowerment, tradeoffs between market development and women’s income control, approaches for linking smallholder women farmers to markets, gender transformative food systems. Her current research focuses on how to make food systems more equitable and gender transformative.
Dr. Njuki is currently leading the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Lever for the UN Food Systems Summit and is one of 60 named Champions for Food Systems. She has served as the Chair and is current Deputy Chair of the Advisory Committee of the African Women in Agriculture Research and Development (AWARD), is in the Technical Working Group for the Livestock Development Master Plan of the African Development Bank, and also services on the committee of the EU-AU Food Security Program. A national of Kenya, Dr. Njuki holds a PhD in Development Studies from the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, and a Bachelors Degree in Dairy, Food Science and Technology from Egerton University in Kenya.
