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ID Geeks Podcast
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

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Ep 8: Systems Change Impact and the Power of People - with Doreen Ndishabandi

Doreen Ndishabandi is the Chief of Staff and Director of Government Relations for One Acre Fund,  Rwanda.  One Acre Fund supplies smallholders farmers with the financing, training, and market support they need to increase their yields and generate a gain in farm income.  Globally, One Acre Fund employs more than 8,500 staff who serve more than 1.3 million farm families each year, with an additional 1 million households reached through private and public partnerships. In her first four years at One Acre Fund, Doreen oversaw One Acre Fund’s country-scale engagements and partnerships with the Government of Rwanda, as well the program’s policy & partnerships, communications, and legal and compliance portfolios.

 For the last two years she has focused on two areas of organisational strategy: systems change impact and People. One Acre Fund’s systems change strategy aims to transform agricultural systems by leveraging the enormous existing potential and years of close partnerships with governments and private actors to address current market failures, advocate for farmer-centered policy change by elevating direct farmer voice, replicate systems-focused interventions that are backed by real evidence, and ensure a more gender-equitable agricultural system. Doreen is also overseeing the Rwanda program’s increased investments in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which in the past year has seen an overhaul of our leadership structures as well as equity-driven changes to our performance management and compensation and benefit systems. 

Doreen is a 2018 Skoll Foundation and Mastercard Foundation Emerging Leaders Fellow and an Opportunity Collaboration Global Skoll Foundation Fellow. Prior to joining One Acre Fund, Doreen worked on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) in Belize and has previously worked with the World Justice Project, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Rwanda, and Youth Action Africa. Doreen attended Tufts University and has a B.A in International Relations.

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Ep 7: Revolutionizing the Knowledge Economy - with Arun Shanmuganathan

Arun is a Kiwi-Indian entrepreneur living in Kigali, Rwanda.  He co-founded Hence, a tech startup that is helping to create a fair, efficient and transformative knowledge economy for people everywhere, initially by bringing data to the way companies work with their lawyers. Arun  also helped set up the Rwandan Mathematics Olympiad Program, working with the top mathematical problem solvers from across Rwandan high schools.  He believes that talent is universal but opportunity is not, and is striving to fix that.  He loves learning about and discussing mathematics, education, technology, data, talent and much more!

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Ep 6: Responsible investment and Development Policy- with Sarah Brewin

Sarah is a lawyer who advises developing country governments on laws, policies, contracts and treaties relating to responsible investment, particularly in agriculture.  Sarah is based in Rwanda where she worked for two years as a legal advisor to the Rwandan Ministry of Trade and Industry providing legal and policy advice on investment, competition, trade, industrial policy, intellectual property, and other areas of economic law.  Sarah has also worked as an embedded legal advisor to the Samoan Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour.  She now works for a think tank called the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Ep 5: Market Based Approaches to Development- with Emily Karol and Chris Nicoletti

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Ep 1: Farmer Rights, GMOs, and Agricultural Policy - with Dr. David Spielman

David Spielman is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. He joined IFPRI in 2004 and is currently based in Kigali, Rwanda, where he leads the Rwanda Strategy Support Program. David’s research agenda covers a range of topics including agriculture and rural development policy; agricultural science, technology, and innovation; plant genetic resources and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development. From 2010 to 2020, David was based in Washington, DC, where he led IFPRI’s research theme on science, technology, and innovation policy. From 2004 to 2010, he was based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he contributed to IFPRI’s work on strengthening agricultural innovation systems. Earlier in his career, he worked on agriculture and rural development issues for the World Bank (Washington, DC), the Aga Khan Development Network (Pakistan), and several other organizations. David received a PhD in Economics from American University in 2003, an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics in 1993, and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University in 1992.

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