CCARDESA Gets New Board of Directors

  • 25th July 2019
  • by secretary
Paepard

Outgoing Board of Directors
The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) has constituted a new board of directors as part of its governance restructuring process.
CCARDESA was established by SADC Member States to coordinate the implementation of agricultural research and development (R&D) in the SADC region. As one of the sub-regional organisations under the FARA umbrella, its the goal is to sustainably reduce food insecurity and poverty in the region as captured in SADC’s Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), the Dar es Salaam declaration on food security, and the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), developed by the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU-NEPAD). It operates within the framework of CAADP Pillar 4 which has the objective of enhancing the livelihoods of African farmers and pastoralists.
As a one of its constituent Sub-regional organizations, CCARDESA has leveraged continuous support from the Forum for Agriculturalresearch in Africa (FARA), in the area of institutional governance. In recent times, FARA has contributed to the restructuring of the CCARDESA Board of Directors, which is currently in a transition stage.
The Old Yields to New
Dr. Catherine Mungoma
The incumbent board of directors of CCARDESA is in the process of being replaced by a new one. In this transition phase, about seven members of the current Board, including the chairperson, Dr. Catherine Mungoma, who has been rendering commendable service to the southern African entity since 2017, will be replaced by a new one. Dr. Castro Camadara takes over from Dr. Mungoma as the new board chairperson.

Dr. Camadara started his work in academia and research at the Agostinho Neto University, for some 14 years in – Angola; where he was Professor and Vice-Rector of the University Centre of Huambo and coordinated the CGIAR-SADC led National Grain Legume Programme. He was a member and founder of the 1st National Research Council of Angola and also worked as Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture for more than a year. He is a founding member of ADRA (an Angolan NGO on Rural Development and Environment). He worked as freelance consultant for a while, doing consultancy work for EU, World Bank, INGOs, Government, among others, before joining FAO.
Dr. Castro Camadara 
Dr. Castro Camadara was with the FAO for more than seventeen years as FAO Representative in various countries managing multidisciplinary teams and large country and regional portfolios covering Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Forestry, Environment and Rural Development in general .One of his postings with FAO was in Addis Ababa-Ethiopia where besides being Sub-regional Coordinator for Eastern Africa, in charge of Coordinating 8 Countries, he also represented FAO at the African Union and UNECA. He is presently back in Angola and involved in consultancy and agribusiness.