Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics Food Security Group

Solomon Mkumba is responsible for the management and coordination of the implementation of the project. Has 19 years international experience in agricultural development policy, urban policy, land and natural resource governance and food security working with the governments, UN and NGOs in several African countries. He worked as an Agricultural Policy Officer for FAO at the FAO Regional Office for Africa in Ghana where he coordinated FAO Technical Cooperation Programme with the African Union to support CAADP implementation, at the FAO Liaison Office to the African Union Commission in Ethiopia as a technical focal point, and at FAO Tanzania where he was seconded as a Policy Advisor to the Department of Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Agriculture in Dodoma. He also worked as a Programme Management Officer for the Human Settlements Programme of the United Nations (UN-HABITAT) based at its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya where he provided technical support to member countries on the development and implementation of national urban policies, and he also coordinated a joint UN-HABITAT/IFAD regional programme on land tenure in Eastern and Southern Africa. He also worked as a Regional Agriculture Sector Specialist for the Columbia University Global Center for Africa, Nairobi Kenya where he was technical lead for CU’s two agriculture projects: Millennium Villages Project in eight African countries, and the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) with six African universities. Between 2001 and 2009, he worked in humanitarian sector as a Food Security Advisor for Save the Children and Concern Worldwide in Malawi (2001 – 2006) and for Oxfam GB and World Relief in Sudan (2006 – 2009). He has also worked for short term assignments: as a Land Sector Lead for the Malawi Millennium Development Trust in the development of the ‘Land Productivity Project’ of the new Compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and as an Evaluation Expert for the African Centre for Social Research and Economic Development for the evaluation of the Malawi’s Government’s Weather Indexed Food Security Insurance Policy with the African Risk Capacity. Solomon is a PhD candidate Development Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, thesis: Understanding Compliance with African Union’s 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security – a case of Malawi and South Africa. He has MA Rural Development from the University of East Anglia and BSc Agriculture from University of Malawi.