Yemi Adeyeye

I have an extensive combination of scientific, business, and policy-related experience in agriculture, food systems, and forestry, and across diverse institutional settings. For example, while at the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), I led strategic and operational processes, including identifying networks of community-led projects and linking them to investors/donors, which enabled community-led actions to deliver on crucial global objectives, such as the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration and the agenda 2030. I coordinated the GLFx team at the Nairobi, Bogor, and Bonn regional offices teams and designed the MELIA (monitoring, evaluation, and learning) systems for community-oriented programs. Before that, I was the Director of an international network at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). I coordinated 100 global staff members, led operational strategies, and supervised operations in 3 regional offices – Prague, Accra, and Beijing. I advised governments and agencies about policy and program development options for promoting young rural farmers' efforts toward realizing global development agendas such as zero hunger, poverty alleviation, and decent employment/economic growth. In these roles, I oversaw partner relations and fundraising efforts. These include building relationships and securing funding from agencies like the MasterCard Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. As the Coordinator of Youth Programs for the FAO World Forestry Congress (WFC) 2015, I facilitated relationships between multiple partner organizations to implement high-profile projects. I developed partnerships between organizations forming the core WFC youth engagement team. I coordinated proposal writing that resulted in funding support from Germany, Belgium, Brazil, and South Africa development agencies. These efforts resulted in the first-ever youth engagement in the WFC history, the 'We Love Forests' campaign, Forests2015 social reporting, three core congress youth programs, and contributions to 3 outcome documents available in 6 languages. I have conducted multistakeholder research engagement activities in Uganda, Nepal, Bolivia, and global fora for resource governance, including at the World Conservation Congress 2016. As a Ph.D. holder in International Forestry from the University of British Columbia, Canada, I have demonstrated expertise in analyzing and interpreting data, identifying relevant questions, conceptualizing, and identifying approaches to solving problems, and interpreting and narrating outcomes of inquiries. These attributes are requirements for developing data-driven strategies. In addition, given my lived experience across five continents, and my research/technical expertise in the politics of participation across scales of resource governance, I am skilled in developing trust-based and cross-functional relationships within multicultural contexts, identifying necessities for accelerating impactful interdisciplinary initiatives, and developing inclusive engagement programs. I have published articles, keynote addresses, and talks on these subjects.