Alice Ruwheza
Chairman | AGRA
Alice Ruhweza is a Global Thought leader, Systems Thinker and International Development Expert with nearly 30 years experience working at the intersection of social, economic and environmental policy and practice across multiple continents. She is currently the President of AGRA where she champions agrifood system transformation for People, Planet and Prosperity in Africa and Globally.
Prior to joining AGRA she was Senior Director for Global Policy Influence and Engagement at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF International) where she worked to ensure WWF and partner’s thought leadership and best practice proactively shaped and informed the sustainability agenda and key policy directions in Africa, Asia Paficif and Europe. Before she took on this role, she was the Africa Region Director where she led WWF’s Africa portfolio comprising 13 countries and over 600 staff.
Before WWF, Alice was Vice President of Programs and Partnerships with Conservation International, where she led a science-policy interface which provided data and diagnostic tools to help inform agricultural decisions and monitor outcomes around the world. She was also the Team Leader and Technical Adviser for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Global Environmental Finance Unit where she led a team of technical advisors supporting 44 countries to attract and drive over US $1 billion public and private finance towards their sustainable development priorities including Climate Mitigation and Adaptation; Sustainable Finance; Sustainable Energy for All; Nature Based Solutions to mention a few. She has also previously worked as a consultant for the UNFCCC (Bonn), the World Bank Environment Department (Washington DC), the Foundation for International Law and Development (UK), the Institute for European Environmental Policy (Brussels), to mention a few.
Alice holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Economics, and Certifications in Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; IMD Business School in Lausanne Switzerland; Oxford University, Said Business School and has attained the United Nations System Mastermind in Sustainable Development Leadership. She Co-chairs the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the Future of Nature and Security; and is an Advisory Group member of the World Economic Forum Strategic Foresight Group. She is former Board of Director of the CGIAR, Cochair of the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Aquaculture 2030 Working Group; and a former member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Scaling up Sustainable Finance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICS). She is a Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Program: a Henry Arnhold Conservation Fellow; and a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar. She is also an International UN Gender Champion, a member of the UNCCD Gender Caucus
