Energy innovation and infrastructure advancements across sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly expanding opportunities for truly systemic change in agriculture – and in ways that matter for our development goals of inclusive growth, food security, and women’s empowerment.   

Join technical specialists Hoai Huynh and Dan White from USAID’s Energy Opportunities for Agriculture Systems and Food Security Project as they share practical learning from GP Tech and ACDI/VOCA’s year-long research and learning initiative focused on post-harvest/off-farm opportunities. The activity included field work in Senegal and Kenya and integrated a focus on gender dynamics, female empowerment and low emissions development. USAID/Senegal’s Arvil Gonzalez will also reflect on why this Mission has embraced productive energy as central to achieving its ambitious agricultural transformation goals, and USAID’s Augusta Abrahamse will provide perspectives from Powering Agriculture’s Energy Grand Challenge. Julia Bradley-Cook from USAID's Africa Bureau will moderate.

Augusta Abrahamse is the Program Manager for Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge and is an Energy Specialist in USAID's Energy Division. A physicist by training, she is passionate about the intersection of science and development and believes no area is riper for the integration of the than that of energy. Before joining USAID, Augusta worked at the Universidad Privada Boliviana in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where she conducted research in solar photovoltaics and taught classes ranging from Alternative Energy to Sustainable Development. Augusta holds a PhD in Physics from UC Davis and a BA/BS in International Studies Studies nd Physics from American University.  

Julia Bradley-Cook is a Climate Change Advisor in USAID’s Africa Bureau through the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. A trained ecosystem scientist, she focuses on climate smart agriculture, landscape-scale carbon management, climate information services, and clean energy in agriculture value chains.  She has previously conducted research for Climate Central, Inc, the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, and the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre

Hoai Huynh is Vice President at Green Powered Technology (GPTech) and leads its international development programs. He serves as the Team Leader on E4A and has been engaged in project management and identification of technical energy opportunities in the agriculture value chain,  including policy, planning, and partnership opportunities  for case studies in Senegal and Kenya, complementing ACDI VOCA’s market development and gender integration work.  He is an engineer who has over 20 years of experience managing and implementing environmental and energy programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Eurasia region.

Arvil Gonzalez is an Environment Officer with USAID/Senegal. 

Dan White is technical director for agriculture at ACDI/VOCA, and deputy team leader for the E4A activity. In that role, Dan identified market systems development impacts of clean energy innovations in Kenya and Senegal. He has designed and implemented market systems development and applied research activities across Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, and Southeast Asia.