Ernest is an international development enthusiast who believes in developing a new culture to leverage strengths and values that inspire transformational change and provide opportunities that place people at the center. He has special interests to address problems associated with climate change, women’s economic empowerment and food security, agriculture, and natural resources management through technological and social innovations. He has designed and coordinated a lot of initiatives related to capacity building, training programs development and research-action promotion in areas of climate change adaptation planning, food security, and women economic empowerment across Africa and North America. He is currently working to advance the Data-Driven Insights for Sustainable Agriculture (DISA), a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary partnership leveraging digital solutions to derive data-driven evidence in support of regenerative agriculture and other nature-based solutions. He is also the co-founder at Agri-Research Rwanda, a youth-led organization promoting digital and market-oriented agriculture in Rwanda.
Ernest has previously worked with McGill University’s Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food security and McGill’s institute of international development studies coordinating a broad range of international projects. He has also worked with Oxfam Rwanda and Beaconsfield city as a community development specialist and water use efficiency expert, respectively. Working on multidisciplinary projects in diverse contexts has equipped him with extensive experience in project management, research, and policy analysis. He holds a Master’s in Bio-resource engineering from McGill University, Canada and received an Executive master’s in business administration (Project Management) from the National Institute of Business Management, India and a Project management Professional (PMP) certificate from the Project Management Institute (PMI).
What Ernest likes to study
- Sustainable Development
- Critical & system thinking
- Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies
- Digital technology and innovation as tools for agriculture and food security in general
- Natural resources management.
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion principles
For the list of relevant research and publications, please see https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7075-8851
What Ernest recommends
The following are some interesting items you might want to check out:
(My list is not static but this is what I recommend for the moment.)
Hawken, Paul, ed. Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. Penguin, 2017.
The Secret of Singapore’s success by Kishore Mahbubani. China Content center. Meritocracy, Pragmatism & Honesty are the pillars which led to a radical and extraordinary transformation of Singapore. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJUkJKUx3Vo
Kiyosaki, Robert T., and Sharon L. Lechter. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! Business Plus, 2001.
Warren, Rick. The purpose driven life: What on earth am I here for? Zondervan, 2012.