Jorge Andrade is a plant pathologist at the International Potato Center (CIP) and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers, and Bananas. He specializes in potato seed systems and late blight epidemiology with more than 20 years of experience in the Andes and several countries in Africa and Asia. Jorge holds a PhD in Plant Pathology from Cornell University in New York.

Doudou is a socio-economist working at IITA Bukavu for more than 8 years, he is involved in conducting and analyzing impact studies, value chains for agribusiness development and food security in the Grand Lac region and in DRC in particular. He conducted a baseline study of the Cassava21 project in Kinshasa City Province and its peripheries, Kwango Province, Kwilu Province and Central Kongo Province in DRC and in three provinces in Cameroon. He also worked with Food for hungry (Fh) in household surveys on Bacterial Wilt (BXW) identification and treatment methods in the chiefdoms of Ngweshe, Kaziba, Ciherano and Mwenga. He began his career with Louvain Coopération in the monitoring and evaluation of a food security project in Louvain Coopération’s intervention sites in South Kivu. 

Victorine Fornkwa is a Potato Specialist at the International Potato Center based in  Bafoussam, Cameroon. Victorine has over 15 years’ experience working in Research for Development teams with focus on crop improvement through plant biotechnology techniques and value chain development in Cameroon. She has participated in the capacity building of stakeholders across value chains like potato, banana, plantain, yam and cassava. Before joining CIP, Victorine worked as a tissue culture specialist in IITA and IRAD Cameroon. She has a MSc in Biochemistry and is currently pursuing a PHD in the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon focusing on potato disease diagnostics and biocontrol. 

Abby Love works on the Agriculture Systems Technical Support Unit at Mercy Corps, providing support to program design, development and implementation. Previously, she co-led Mercy Corps’ work on the Integrated Seed Sector Development in Africa (ISSD Africa) program, focusing on seed systems in emergency settings and conflict-affected areas, and led the capacity strengthening efforts on the USAID/BHA-funded SCALE Award. Abby has an MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics and a BSES in Environmental Economics and Management.

Margaret McEwan is a Senior Scientist at the International Potato Center’s regional office for Africa based in Kenya. A social scientist, Margaret has over 30 years’ experience working in multi-disciplinary teams focused on rural development, farming systems research, household food security and nutrition in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, North Sudan, Zambia and Mozambique. In research for development contexts she is concerned with how to engage multi-stakeholder partnerships in ensuring improved livelihood and nutrition outcomes, and in understanding the conditions required to up-scale technologies for greater impact. She has a MSc in Human Nutrition and is currently pursuing a PhD at Wageningen University and Research, in the Netherlands, focusing on the social-technical interactions which influence the institutional arrangements for sustainable sweetpotato seed systems.

Ojiewo is a skilled professional with about 20 years’ experience in international agricultural research focusing on basic, applied and adaptive plant breeding and seed systems research and development aimed at developing and delivering high-yielding, nutrient-dense, climate-smart, market-preferred varieties of vegetables, legumes and cereals.  Chris Ojiewo is the Seed Equal Initiative Lead under the One CGIAR Action Area on Genetic Innovation. He also leads Strategic Partnerships and Seed Systems for Dryland Crops at CIMMYT. He is co-chair for The Steering Group of the Africa Seed and Biotechnology Partnership Platform as well as the Chair for the Working Group on Seed Quality Assurance and Certification Systems. Currently he’s leading a transition process for Accelerated Variety Improvement and Seed Delivery for the Dryland Crops in Africa (AVISA) from a bilateral project into the OneCG Initiative System. Chris started his international agricultural research career as a technician on Vegetable IPM at ICIPE shortly after his undergraduate studies. He has worked on plant breeding and seed systems of several crops, starting his breeding/seed systems career as a scientist vegetable breeding/seed systems at the Word Vegetable Center before joining ICRISAT first as a scientist – groundnut breeding/seed systems then as senior scientist – chickpea breeding/seed systems and later as Principal Scientist and Research Cluster Leader for Seed Systems under the Accelerated Crop Improvement Program. Chris coordinated/led the development and implementation of Tropical Legumes (TLIII), HOPEII ( for cereals) and AVISA projects. His role in these projects involved 1) Discovery, applied and delivery research for legume and vegetable crop improvement targeting smallholder farmers, 2) backstopping national research programs especially in Eastern and Southern Africa in their crop improvement and deployment activities, 3) seeking project research funding, writing research proposals and reports and maintaining contacts with donors/investors, 4) long term training and co-supervision of MSc and PhD students 6) offering short training courses to technicians, extension staff and farmers 7) convening international workshops on topical issues and 8) co-developing national agricultural subsector strategies and policies. Chris has wide work experience in Africa and Asia, including Japan, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and Kenya, besides coordinating projects with partnership in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Senegal, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Taiwan. Together with various co-workers, he has researched and published over 100 scientific, technical and policy articles covering 1) Plant Developmental Biology 2) Plant Genetics 3) Plant Breeding 4) Horticulture 5) Crop Propagation and Seed Systems 6) Germplasm Characterization for Enhanced Management and Conservation, and 7) Food and Nutrition Security and Policy. Chris obtained his PhD from Okayama University, Japan, 2007 (Plant Breeding); M.Sc., Okayama University, Japan, 2005 (Plant breeding); BSc. (1st Class Honors), JKUAT, Nairobi, Kenya 2001 (Horticulture). He also did a post-doc at the same university (2007-2008).

Kwame Ogero is a Regional Research Associate at the International Potato Center (CIP), based in Mwanza, Tanzania. His work focuses on developing crop-specific models and decision support systems for understanding and managing seed degeneration in sweetpotato. This includes identifying scenarios whereby on-farm management, resistant varieties, and seed replacement management strategies would be most optimal within a sustainable seed system. He serves on the Committee of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops – Africa Branch (ISTRC – AB) as the Eastern Africa Representative. Before joining CIP, Kwame worked at ISAAA AfriCenter as a Program Assistant for the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB), Kenya Chapter. He holds a PhD from Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Wageningen, Netherlands, a MSc. degree in Agronomy from Kenyatta University and a BSc. Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Nairobi, both in Nairobi, Kenya.

Stephen Walsh is a senior agricultural advisor with the office of technical and program quality with USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs, formerly Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). He serves as the technical lead for two operational research grants aimed at improving small holder farmer access to seed technologies in humanitarian contexts. Prior to joining USAID he worked for several years designing, implementing, managing, and providing technical support for seed system activities and programs—for both true seed and vegetative propagated crops—for smallholder farmers. His seed system interest areas include how to build more responsive demand driven seed systems, promoting public and private sector engagement with an emphasis on small and informal sector actors, and strengthening the analytic tools and capacity of practitioners to better understand and design seed systems interventions.