Natacha Akaliza

Bio: Natacha Akaliza joined the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute in July 2020 as a program consultant. Her efforts center around developing and implementing research and capacity-building programs to help advance smallholder irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Key focus areas include farmer-led irrigation, project implementation, and gender dynamics in agriculture.

Natacha recently participated in an exclusive mentoring and networking program organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She has also consulted for the World Bank, aiding in the development of country briefs for the Farmer Led Irrigation Development (FLID) country diagnostic reports.

Natacha enjoys applying her problem-solving skills to challenging real-world issues. She sees the potential in everyone and promotes inclusion and uplifting of others on a team. Natacha holds a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Science with minors in Food-Water-Energy in Society and Leadership and Entrepreneurship from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct research on irrigation methods and innovative solutions used by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Produce multimedia knowledge products on the entrepreneurial ecosystems that support irrigation services and other climate-smart agriculture solutions for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Support capacity building for entrepreneurs and for their supply chain partners involved in providing irrigation goods and services to smallholder farmers.