11th African Day for Food and Nutrition Security

Dr Edward Addai the UNICEF Representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. A public health physician specialized in policy analysis, planning, monitoring and evaluation, he started his career as a clinician and district medical office in Ahafo Ano South, a small district in Ghana, and worked his way to become the Director of Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation in Ghana. Prior to taking on his current role, he was the Regional Chief of Programme Planning Monitoring and Evaluation at UNICEF ESARO, and before that, he was the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Global Fund. He is a systems thinker and an expert in results-based management and programme design. 

Christiane Rudert, Regional Nutrition Advisor for UNICEF, has been based at the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, in Nairobi, Kenya since July 2020, providing technical and strategic support on addressing all forms of malnutrition to the region’s 21 countries. Prior to this, she was a Regional Nutrition Advisor in the UNICEF East Asia-Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok for 6 years. Christiane has 25 years of professional experience in international nutrition and public health, having worked in Namibia, Zambia, Ethiopia and Mozambique and also UNICEF Headquarters in New York.  A UK national, Christiane holds an MSc degree in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/London School of Economics and a BA in Social Anthropology from SOAS, London. 

Joyce Maru is  a program coordinator and the Kenya Country Lead in the International Potato Center’s (CIP) Global Sweetpotato Program. Her responsibilities include leading capacity development, policy and advocacy, knowledge management, and stakeholder relations to take biofrtofication activities to scale up across 7 countries.  She has also served as a Communications for Development Specialist.  Prior to joining CIP, she worked at ILRI as a Capacity Development Specialist and as a Learning and Development Advisor at the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. She holds an MBA from the University of Teesside (UK), a Bachelor’s degree in Education from Kenyatta University, and is a Certified Instructional Designer, and is pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration in Leadership and Organizational Change at the United States International University (USIU)-Africa. 

As the country’s top nutritionist, Dr. Felix Pensulo Phiri is at the helm of the National Nutrition Response, where he has spearheaded development of the current Multi-Sector National Nutrition Policy and various strategies including Nutrition Education and Communication; Agriculture and Nutrition; Adolescent Nutrition; Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition; and Micronutrients. Dr. Pensulo Phiri has led the creation and filling of multiple nutrition positions in all of Malawi’s 28 districts, as well as increased nutrition funding. Internationally, he is a Member of the SUN Executive Committee. He recently obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham and already has four papers published on selenium and zinc.  

Ms. Magdalena Owusu Moshi, a Tanzanian national, is the Deputy Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Africa Global Office, liaison to the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa.  She has worked for the WFP for over 26 years. During 2018, she served as the Interim WFP Country Director, for the Republic of The Gambia.  From 2012—2018, she served as Deputy Country Director for WFP in Ghana. She has also worked as the Regional Programme Advisor at the WFP Regional Office in Cairo, Egypt, and was the Head of Programme in the WFP Country Office in Islamabad, Pakistan. In 2002, she served as the Emergency Coordinator in Maseru, Lesotho, and was the   Programme Advisor for WFP East Africa Bureau, in Kampala, Uganda she started her career at WFP Headquarters,  in Italy.

Mr. Lamin G. Barrow is the Director of the Joint Secretariat Support Office (JSSO) for the African Union Commission, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank. The JSSO is a coordination platform for those pan-African institutions. In this role, he is also the Bank’s permanent representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.  Since joining the African Development Bank in 2000, he has worked as Manager of the cabinet office of The President, Resident Representative in Ethiopia and Task Manager of the Bank’s NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility. 

Prior to that, he worked at the National Investment Board in The Gambia, where among other positions, he was Head of the Project Development Unit and Division Manager, Export Promotion.  Born in The Gambia, he holds a Master of Arts in Economic Policy from Boston University (USA) and is an alumnus of Executive Programs of Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Queens University, Canada.

Dr George Kembo is the Director of the Food and Nutrition Council of Zimbabwe. Founded in the year 2001, the Food & Nutrition Council is the lead agency under the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), tasked by the government with the responsibility of coordination, analysis and promotion of a cohesive national response to food and nutrition insecurity by multiple sectors and stakeholders in Zimbabwe. The council advises the government on food and nutrition security issues, serves as a “watch dog,” and supports and facilitates action to ensure commitments in food and nutrition are kept on track.