Dr. Agnes Kalibata is a distinguished scientist, policy maker and thought leader on the global stage. She is the Founder and Chair of Connect for Impact Advisory Group (C4Impact Advisory Group), a mission-driven Social Impact Advisory Firm that supports countries/governments to execute complex public and private sector Agriculture and Food systems program.
Between 2014 - March 2025, Dr. Kalibata was President of AGRA, an African-led organization that puts smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economies. In 2021, Dr. Kalibata served as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, to catalyse global food systems transformation to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement.
In 2023, she served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee of COP28 to the UNFCCC - she contributed to shaping and delivery of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action that was endorsed by 160 countries. Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata served as Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources from 2008 to 2014.
Dr. Kalibata is recipient of many prestigious awards including but not limited to the now Africa Food Prize (2012), an Honorary Doctorates from the University of Liège in 2018, and McGill University in 2019, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in April, 2019 and in 2024 she was the recipient of the Justus-von-Liebig Award for World Nutrition.
She is recognized for her work driving Africa’s agricultural transformation through modern sciences, effective policy and more recently, climate advocacy. Dr. Kalibata sits on various boards, councils and commissions. She holds a doctorate in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.