Food security leader calls for women's voices in convenings

The Rockefeller Foundation has published an article about CGIAR EMD Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, where she advocates for the inclusion of women’s voices in global food security discussions. The article highlights her call for gender equity as a crucial component in addressing food system challenges.

As a freshman in high school in Marrakesh, Morocco, Ismahane Elouafi determined to become one of her country’s first female fighter pilots.

Persuading her parents was only Challenge No. 1. Once enrolled in a special aeronautics school, she faced an extra four hours of daily tutoring in physics and mathematics plus athletic training after her regular classes.

Her commitment, tested, didn’t waver. She persevered for three years.

As she and a handful of other female fighter-pilot hopefuls graduated from high school and prepared for aviator training, the military reversed its earlier decision. Women, it said, could not become fighter pilots. “I was 17 years old, and I found it unjust,” she said. “I still do.”

Not only was her dream dashed, but by this time, exams for admission to colleges such as engineering or architecture were over.

Only the agriculture program was still available, so that’s where Elouafi found herself.

And she excelled. She led the nonprofit International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai.  She then became the Chief Scientist at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and now Executive Managing Director of CGIAR, the world’s largest publicly funded agriculture research system which emerged from three convenings at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center.

Read more: “Food Security Leader Calls for Women’s Voices in Convenings”

Author: Masha Hamilton
PHOTO: CGIAR