How is African leadership transforming landscapes?

Read the highlights from this interview here. Alternatively, listen back on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music, or via the audio player below.

By 2050, a quarter of the world’s population will live in Africa. The continent and its people have an increasingly crucial role to play in deciding our planet’s fate – and our own.

For the first time in its 52-year history, an African woman is steering the ship of a CGIAR research center, CIFOR-ICRAF. Her mission is to “transform lives and landscapes with trees.”

In this exciting and exclusive interview, Éliane Ubalijoro, the new CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF and director general of ICRAF, shares her personal and professional journey across three continents that has led up to this important position of leadership.

Listen back to learn about the deep connection with landscapes she forged while growing up in Rwanda, her journey studying and teaching global health in Canada and Europe, and her work to combat poverty and food insecurity across the Global South.

In this GLF Live, find out how our new CEO envisions the future of our planet, and what needs to change – from replenishing our soils to the importance of public and private sector partnerships by also giving women, elders, youth and Indigenous Peoples a seat at the table.

Dr. Éliane Ubalijoro is the CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF and director general of ICRAF. She holds a bachelor’s degree in general agriculture and a master’s and doctorate in molecular genetics from McGill University. She has worked as a scientific director in the biotechnology sector, where she focused on molecular diagnostics before pivoting to public-private sector partnerships to improve the lives of women and smallholder farmers in emerging countries.

Dr. Ubalijoro has been recognized for her outstanding contributions to promoting science as a global public good. She is a recipient of the International Leadership Association’s 2022 awards in women and leadership for outstanding practice with broad impact and an International Science Council fellow. She serves on several boards, including the Crop Trust Executive Board, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) Special Policy Study on Post 2020: Global Biodiversity Conservation, and Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council, among others.