Bertha Lilian Mkandawire

Lead, Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture – AGRA

Nutrition Working Group Co-Chair

As a global leader at the forefront of transforming Africa’s food and nutrition systems, Bertha Mkandawire brings over 20 years of experience driving evidence-based solutions that improve health, empower women, and strengthen climate-resilient agricultural systems.

Currently, Bertha serves as Lead for Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture at AGRA, Co-Chair of the Food, Nutrition, and Health Thematic Platform at the African Food Systems Forum, and Chair of the Nutrition Working Group under the Scaling Community of Practice, where she provides strategic leadership to advance inclusive, nutritious, and sustainable food systems across the continent.

Bertha’s work spans designing and scaling nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions, managing large and complex grant portfolios, influencing policy, and building powerful cross-sectoral partnerships with governments, UN agencies, research institutions, private sector, and farmer organizations. She has led successful initiatives on biofortification, maternal and child nutrition, community-based nutrition solutions, and agriculture-nutrition integration across Sub-Saharan Africa.

She is passionate about leveraging data, innovation, and collaboration to unlock healthier diets, reduce malnutrition, address climate and gender inequities, and ensure smallholder farmers and vulnerable populations can thrive.