Hindi translation: Catalysts of Change: Women Leaders in Science - Saweda Liverpool-Tasie

CIMMYT has launched a ‘TED Talk meets fireside chat’-style series on women leaders. As Marion Wright Edelman said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” If we want more women leaders in science institutions like ours, we need to provide more opportunities to hear from women leaders about their life journeys, lessons, and insights. We seek to highlight women who are leaders in all sorts of capacities, fields and disciplines, because we believe that leadership styles can take many different forms.
This is our latest episode from the series Catalysts of Change, from Tuesday May 7th, 2024.
Presenting Name Saweda Liverpool-Tasie.
Saweda Liverpool-Tasie is a Professor of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at the Michigan State University Foundation. She is currently a visiting scientist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. Her research focuses on emerging issues related to the productivity and well-being of smallholder farmers within dynamic and transforming food markets in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as poorly functioning markets in the region.
Liverpool-Tasie is particularly interested in how the transformation of food systems in Africa is creating livelihood opportunities for Africans along food supply chains. She serves on the Advisory Board for International Agricultural and Food Development and is the principal investigator of two projects related to the transformation of Africa's food systems. One is the Research Supporting African Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to Provide Safe and Nutritious Foods (RSM2SNF), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the second is the Nigeria Agricultural Policy Activity, funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
Liverpool-Tasie will have a conversation with Mercy Mbugua, a seed systems specialist at CIMMYT. Her research focuses on the demand-side development of formal and informal cereal seed systems, as well as market intelligence to inform improvement. Mbugua previously held research and consulting roles in organizations such as Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, the Alliance of Bioversity International - CIAT, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and IITA. Mbugua's research work has primarily focused on seed systems, market intelligence, value chain development, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, food environment, and consumption behavior.