We Connect Farmers

Benoit Thierry. I am an agro-economist who worked for UN/IFAD International fund for Agriculture Development. I graduated Engineer in Tropical Agricultural Economy from ISTOM, France (1987) and completed a Doctoral Programme in Human Geography from Sorbonne University, France (1988). In the late 80’s, I worked as a Project Manager in Bolivia and for the group AFVP in Western Mali. In the 90’s, I was the Regional Representative for West Africa with GRDR, an NGO specialised in remittances. From 1995, as Project Manager in Cambodia with GRET (Research Group for Technological Exchange) I managed a rural water and sanitation program and designed the Prey Nup polder scheme rehabilitation. I then became Rural Development Advisor for UNDP Cambodia monitoring the CARERE reconstruction programme from 1996 to 1999. From 2000, I was Portfolio Manager with UNOPS office in Kenya supervising IFAD projects in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. Since I joined IFAD headquarter in 2004, hI was a country programme manager successively in charge of Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar and setting up the knowledge network IFADAfrica. In October 2011, I moved to Asia division where I was successively in charge of Bhutan, Nepal, Thailand, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia and support the Farmers Organisations network in Asia-Pacific. From 2014 to 2016, I established the IFAD South East Asia/Mekong Hub covering 6 countries based in Hanoi. From 2016 to 2018, I came back to Rome headquarter covering Bangladesh the biggest IFAD portfolio and ensuring the function of Knowledge Management officer for Asia Pacific division (IFADAsia platform). Mid 2018 I was nominated Country Director and Head of Western Africa Hub based in Dakar Senegal and covering 7 countries.