Visit of Dr Florence Wambugu, CEO, Africa Harvest to the Commonwealth Secretariat

Dr Florence Muringi Wambugu, a Kenyan biotechnologist and the CEO of Africa Harvest, was among the special invitees to the Commonwealth Day reception this year. She is a renowned scientist who is dedicated to fighting hunger, poverty and malnutrition in Africa. Dr Wambugu currently leads a consortium of eleven organisations in a North-South partnership supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to enhance micro nutrients in sorghum, in a project that has the potential to impact 300 million people in arid and semi arid tropics of Africa. She seemed a perfect fit for this year’s reception given the 2010 Commonwealth theme of “Science, Technology and Society.”

At the Secretariat, Dr Wambugu called on the Secretary General and interacted with officials of the Special Advisory Services Division and Communications and Public Affairs Division. The discussions centred around optimising Secretariat- Africa Harvest collaboration on agriculture related activities in Africa. Based on the Secretariat’s current work programme, two possible areas of collaboration were indentified.

1. Value chain development to assist farmers to market their excess production and to promote value addition (i.e. processing of crops).

2. Capacity building – of various actors in the value chain

It was agreed that these two activities could complement and enhance the work of Africa Harvest, and benefit farmers, processors and consumers in Commonwealth member countries. Various ways of operationalising the collaboration were also discussed. This may include Africa Harvest bringing the two listed areas to the notice of governments in countries where they work, leading to requests for technical assistance by governments from the Secretariat. Africa Harvest will also be encouraged to bid for short-term consultancy assignments when activities suited to the Organisation’s expertise come up at this end.

Established in 2002, Africa Harvest is a biotech not for profit organisation. It is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with branch offices in Johannesburg and Washington DC. Its mission is to ‘harness modern science and technologies to help Africa achieve food security, economic well-being and sustainable development’ and its vision is of ‘an Africa free of hunger, poverty and malnutrition’

Secretariat Links:

• Country Profile: Kenya

Related Websites:

• Africa Harvest