Bertha Mkandawire Munthali

SUMMARY OF BERTHA'S CAREER Bertha Mkandawire is currently serving as the Lead for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture at AGRA, where she champions the integration of nutrition considerations into agricultural practices and programs, collaborating with internal stakeholders, external partners, and contributing to strategic fundraising and advocacy. Throughout her distinguished career, Bertha has held various influential roles and has extensive experience spanning over 15 years across multiple African countries, notably in the areas of food, nutrition, agriculture, and education. Her roles have included: Principal Investigator for the Seasonality, Women’s Time Use, and Nutrition Outcomes panel study under Kyoto University's International Rural Development Lab, exploring how seasonal labor demands influence nutrition outcomes for women and children in Malawi. FAO Consultant responsible for developing Food-Based Dietary Guidelines for Botswana. Co-Principal Investigator on FANRPAN’s Zinc and Iron Bio-fortification of Beans research in Kenya, focusing on breeding, utilization, and community nutrition education. Co-Principal Investigator on research exploring the use of insects as food and feed within community-led nutrition-sensitive agriculture initiatives in Malawi. Director of Programmes at Winrock International Malawi, overseeing efforts to eliminate child labor in tobacco production. Nutrition Advisor at FANRPAN, leading food and nutrition policy research and advocacy in Pretoria. Nutrition Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Malawi and Zambia, managing national nutrition activities, nutrition education programs, and mainstreaming nutrition in agriculture policies. Nutrition Advisor with the World Food Programme Zambia on a SUN-funded project promoting complementary feeding using local indigenous foods. National Nutrition Coordinator at the Christian Health Association of Malawi, managing moderate acute malnutrition through screening and rehabilitation initiatives. Programme Manager for Action Against Hunger Malawi, developing functional screening, referral, and rehabilitation systems for moderate malnutrition at the community level. Her consultancy experience includes engagements with the Government of Botswana, African Development Bank in Zambia and Mozambique, IFAD Zambia, and USAID-funded INGENAES project, supporting nutrition mainstreaming and harmonization of agriculture and health sector messaging. Bertha’s academic credentials include a PhD (ongoing) at Kyoto University, focusing on agriculture production, nutrition outcomes, and women's time use, alongside an Erasmus Mundus Joint European Master’s Degree in Comparative Local Development and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education (Nutrition major). Her expertise encompasses nutrition-sensitive agriculture programming, policy development and analysis, project design and evaluation, malnutrition management, and extensive collaboration with diverse international donors and stakeholders, enhancing nutrition-specific and sensitive interventions across Africa