The Africa’s Food Systems Forum (AGRF) secretariat is pleased to announce the appointment of Amath Pathé Sene the new Managing Director of the Forum.
As Managing Director, Pathé will be responsible for driving AGRF’s strategic growth and running the day-to-day business of its Secretariat as an independent, panAfrican, and multi-partner forum. He will continue to build on the great momentum already underway to take the AGRF a notch higher in its
vision and impact, by advancing and stewarding its multi-year strategy as agreed with the AGRA leadership and the AGRF Partners.
Pathé is an Agricultural Engineer by training and Climate and Environment Expert. He has over 18 years’ experience in the fields of agriculture, green finance & Agri value chains development, environment, climate change and sustainable natural resource management, food systems and nutrition security, rural development, and poverty reduction; rural infrastructure development; safeguards and de-risking public and private sector investments in sustainable agriculture. In his professional career, he has occupied various technical, managerial and leadership roles both at local, country, regional and global level, working across four regions in the World (Africa, South America, Central Asia and Europe).
Prior to joining AGRF, Pathé was the IFAD Lead Regional Environment and Climate Specialist for West and Central Africa based in Rome and later in Abidjan. He also acted as Director of the IFAD Abidjan sub regional office, and Country Director for Cote d’Ivoire, Niger, and Liberia. Before joining IFAD, Pathe was Policy Specialist on sustainable development with UNDP Global Policy Centre on Sustainable Development based in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). He previously worked with both UNDP and UNEP as Regional Program Advisor based in Nairobi (Kenya), providing technical assistance to African Countries on mainstreaming poverty, environment and gender objectives into national development and investment frameworks. Before that, he served as Program Officer and acting Team Lead with the UNDP Country Office in Mauritania.
Pathé’s other previous positions outside the UN include food security program and sub office manager in Afghanistan, a consultant with European Union in France and Agricultural Researcher at the Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute. He holds an MSc and post-graduate degree in Rural Societies, Territories, Sustainable Development and Natural Resources Management from Institut Agronomique Mediterraneen de Montpellier, France; an MSc on Agricultural Engineering from Ecole Nationale d’Agriculture de Meknes (Morocco) and MSc on Agribusiness, entrepreneurship and Gender from the Centre for International Agricultural Development Cooperation (Israel). Pathé speaks French, English, Portuguese, Wolof and Serer. He is a married and father to three awesome children.
