Giacomo RAMBALDI

Giacomo Rambaldi is an independent consultant in the domains of digitalisation for agriculture and enterprise development. He has 43 years of professional experience in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean where he worked for various international organizations including the Technical Centre for Agricultural & Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), FAO and as long-term consultant on projects funded by the Italian Aid to Development and the European Commission. He holds an honours degree in agricultural sciences from the State University of Milan, Italy. 

Since 2021 Giacomo offers his services as an independent consultant in the domains of development cooperation, participatory mapping, digitalisation for agriculture, social media and enterprise development. 

In 2024, the project he currently supports, the Digital Agri Hub, was nominated as a 2024 WSIS Champion in the category e-agriculture. 

He worked for 17 years at CTA as a member of the Digitalisation for Agriculture (D4Ag) team where he coordinated and administered a stream of activities related to the deployment of participatory mapping and digitalisation for agriculture in ACP countries. He coordinated an award-winning project on drone technology for agriculture which influenced drone governance across the African Continent. This project was nominated as winner of the 2020 WSIS Project Prize in the category E-Agriculture. 

In addition, he has been leading Web2.0 and Social Media capacity building activities at CTA and received worldwide recognition for his work as recipient of the 2013 WSIS Project Prize in the category E-Agriculture. 

He also led activities in the domain of participatory GIS where he still animates a large community of practice. One of his Participatory mapping projects earned CTA the 2007 World Summit Award in the category e-culture. 

A project he managed for several years in Kenya earned the UNEP’s Saving the Drylands Certificate Award at the Third Conference of Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification COP3-CCD held in Recife, Brazil, 22-25, November 1999. 

Giacomo is co-author of the landmark report published by the African Union entitled “Drones on the horizon: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture”. The report forms the basis upon which the AU Executive Council issued the Decision EX. CL/Dec. 986-1007 (XXXII), recommending all Member States harness the opportunities offered by drones for precision agriculture.