Agenda

Dr. Vincent Martin is the Director of the FAO Office of Innovation (OIN), where he is responsible for leading the Organization’s innovation agenda as part of the Science and Innovation strategy. 

Dr. Martin brings 28 years of experience in science, research, and policy as they relate to issues surrounding agrifood systems. Prior to serving as Director of OIN, Dr. Martin served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Guinea. There, he oversaw 24 UN agencies, driving efforts towards the Sustainable Development Goals, leading humanitarian initiatives, and tackling critical matters in development, politics, peace, and security, always bringing innovation into UN programmatic interventions.

He also served as FAO’s representative to China and DPR Korea, where he played a key role by leveraging his knowledge of food security, global health and nutrition issues in shaping strategies for preventing epidemic diseases and foster agricultural policies for innovation. His work extended to spearheading innovative approaches at country and regional levels, developing new tools and approaches to address complex development issues, and strived to fulfill FAO’s mandate.

Before his work in China, Dr. Martin earned recognition as "Knight of the Order of the Lion" in Senegal for his notable contributions in the same fields, as FAO Representative and Head of the FAO Regional Hub for emergency and humanitarian interventions in the Sahel and West Africa. Dr. Martin started his career with CIRAD in Zimbabwe and then in the French Government. He first joined FAO in 1998, contributing to development and emergency programmes in epidemic prevention and control across Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia.

Dr. Martin's educational qualifications include a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine, a Diploma in Medical Epidemiology and Statistics, an MSc in livestock production and a Ph.D. in Agronomic Sciences and Biological Engineering. 

Brenda Mulele Gunde is the Global Lead for ICT4D at United Nations-International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). She is responsible for providing leadership and strategic, technical and policy advisory in adopting and integrating digital technologies to support smallholder farmers for the IFAD programme of work. Her career spans ICT leadership, business engagement and digital transformation to enable rural development. Before joining IFAD, she worked for UNICEF as Chief of ICT in Bangladesh and has an extensive background in the non-governmental sector, working as Director of ICT for SOS Children’s Villages East and Southern Africa and Regional Director of IT for World Vision Southern Africa Region, among other roles. She possesses a Master of Science in Sustainable Development from the University of London-SOAS and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in ICT Management from the University of Leicester.

Aminata Amadou Garba is Project Development Coordinator at the ITU Development Bureau. Her background is in ICT technologies, policies and infrastructure. She previously served as Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Africa and Director General of the Multi-Sector Regulatory Authority of Niger. She received the masters and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from McGill University, Canada.

Clinton is a Machine Learning Engineer at Amini, a Nairobi based startup building Africa's environmental data infrastructure. His work harnesses the power of AI and earth observation to find solutions to some of the most pressing and urgent environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change and food security. Prior to Amini, he worked at Edge Impulse as a Developer Relations Engineer, and co-founded Rhinos Lab, a wildlife conservation startup building AI powered camera traps to prevent poaching and human wildlife conflicts. In his free time, he leads the TinyML Kenya community, bringing together over 1000+ developers, researchers, and engineers with a shared interest in machine learning at the edge.

Paul has been the chairman of ICT4D.at since 2014 and in his spare time enjoys using his skills for the common good.  He graduated as a computer scientist with a focus on media informatics from the Vienna University of Technology, where he is currently also doing his PhD.  He works with INSO (the Research Group for Industrial Software) as a researcher and lecturer in the field of mobile technologies and ICT4D. He is currently employed as a software developer for mobile technologies within a fast growing Austrian company.   He has won several national and international awards for his innovative work at Os – a collective to tackle social issues through the use of ICTs

Henry is a national of the Netherlands with more than 20 years of experience in digital innovation. He has always explored new boundaries for the use of digital solutions for agrifood systems transformation and accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

He firmly believes digital technologies are a powerful means of implementing agrifood systems transformation through speed and scale of uptake; reduced deployment costs; growth in public awareness; delivery of innovation, connectivity, productivity and efficiency gains across sectors.     

In the framework of FAO’s work, it is about creating value and impact for achieving the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, the FAO Science and Innovation strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) action agenda, leaving no one behind. This means special attention for the most vulnerable people; women, youth and the rural poor.

He leads the FAO Programme Priority Area on Digital Agriculture that is part of the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31, and leads the Digital Agriculture Unit in the FAO Office of Innovation, and acts as Lead Technical Officer of the Global Network of Digital Agriculture Innovation Hubs.