Dr. Irine AKITE (Ugandan) is currently a Program Officer for Gender, Inclusion and Safeguarding at the Regional Universities’ Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) Secretariat. She has been a lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Gulu, Muni and Mountain of the Moon Universities in Uganda. Dr. Akite has also been an Agribusiness and Gender consultant working with both local and international organizations including Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), World Universities Services of Canada and CARE Uganda among others.
Irine, pursued a PhD in Agricultural and Applied Biosciences from Gulu University in Uganda having completed Master of Science in Agri-enterprises development in 2018 and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture in 2014. She has accumulated a wealth of experience in participatory and community action projects and research, Gender, Inclusion and Safeguarding as well as Agribusiness-driven interventions in the Agricultural sector. Particularly, she has been engaging with a community of smallholder farmers who received her mentorship through the different disciplines of Agribusiness and Value chains. Additionally, Dr. Akite supported refugees and host communities in the west-Nile region to develop farm based micro-enterprises and nutritious food composites to increase incomes and reduce malnutrition. She also worked with banana seed companies in Uganda and Tanzania in designing, implementing, and evaluating gender strategic interventions and developing gender equality policies to guide their mainstreaming agenda.
With research interests in market systems development and agri-food systems, Dr. Akite is extremely passionate about agribusiness and gender empowerment strategies that create wealth and assets for marginalised communities in both rural and urban settings. Finally, she has a vast interest in empowering vulnerable groups (women, youth, & refugees) in climate-smart businesses with enormous experience in engaging both private and public sector in designing, resource mobilization and implementing green agribusinesses, gender, and refugee empowerment projects to sustainably fight poverty, enhance food security, and conserve the environment. Please feel free to go through some of my research outputs on google scholar using this link, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fyfldKwAAAAJ&hl=en .