Dr Victor Afari-Sefa, a Ghanaian citizen, is a seasoned Agricultural Economist and Research for Development Practitioner. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany. With over 22 years of expertise, he's adept in research management, program design, implementation, feasibility assessment, impact evaluation, and resource allocation.
In March 2022, he assumed the role of Global Research Program Director – Enabling Systems Transformation at ICRISAT. He oversees R&D for six clusters: Technology Adoption and Impact Assessment; Markets, Institutions, and Policies; Agribusiness Innovation Platform; Nutrition, Dietary Behavior, and Smart Foods; Gender and Youth; and Knowledge Management and Capacity Development.
Previously, he served as West and Central Africa Regional Director of the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) from 2017 to 2022 in Benin. From 2011 to 2017, he led WorldVeg’s Global Theme on Consumption in Tanzania.
Victor's expertise extends to performance monitoring and impact assessment of agricultural value chains on smallholder livelihoods. He holds leadership experience in coordinating agricultural socioeconomic research globally, assessing production systems, value chain constraints, and interdisciplinary policy contexts. He emphasizes proactive planning for multidisciplinary research in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia to achieve set goals.
Victor advocates public-private partnerships to drive agricultural innovations, enhancing production systems, market efficiencies, agribusiness models, and policy reforms. He's skilled in integrated economic-biophysical modeling, optimizing agrarian water use at river basin levels for sustainability.
Previously, as a Monitoring, Evaluation & Impact Specialist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), he developed and implemented M&E frameworks for Sustainable Tree Crops (STCP) Production in West and Central African countries, primarily cocoa-based systems. He was also a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn, Germany.
Victor is a prolific author, co-authoring numerous grant proposals and publishing over 90 peer-reviewed articles in esteemed journals. Transitioning from academia, he remains connected as an adjunct Professor in sub-Saharan African universities.