This Congo Live episode focuses on gender issues in agriculture in DRC and across Africa, and our guest Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga discusses the role of women’s organizations in empowering rural women across the continent. Dr. Kinwa-Muzinga is a renowned author, scholar and lecturer.

Bio

Annie Kinwa-Muzinga, Ph.D. is Professor of Agribusiness at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville School of Agriculture. She earned her B.S. degree in Economics from the University of Kinshasa with a Financial Management emphasis (1988) and received both her MBA in Finance (1993) and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics with specialization in Food and Agribusiness Management and Strategic Management with a significant Marketing component from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2001).

Upon finishing her education, she joined the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 2002. She is currently the agribusiness program director. Her research area currently focuses on Gender Issues in Agriculture in DR Congo and Africa; Empowering Women through Rural Women Organization. She believes that to alleviate poverty in DR Congo and in Africa, we should tackle issues impacting women in rural areas.

In 2010-12, she served as Research Consultant on “Gender Assessment in Agriculture in DR Congo” with the International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI). This research examined the role women play in the production, agro-processing, and marketing of different agricultural commodities in DRC.