Mamadou Biteye was the Managing Director for The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office. In this role, Biteye oversaw the Foundation’s work across Africa, which included initiatives in youth employment, health, philanthropy, agriculture and food security, among others.
Biteye has a wealth of expertise in the development sector in Africa. An agricultural economist by
training, he has over twenty-five years’ experience in strategic leadership, program development
and implementation, public policy analysis, advocacy and campaigning and community participatory
development.
Some noteworthy achievements from his career include co-designing a micro-finance programme
with Oxfam that is today improving the lives of over 700, 000 women in Mali and Senegal; Playing a
key role in the development of policy processes in West Africa e.g. the ECOWAS’ Convention on
Small Arms, and the ECOWAS’ regional mining directives. His accomplishments at the Foundation
include executing Digital Jobs Africa, an initiative to connect Africa’s youth to jobs in the ICT sector; Leading the design and implementation of YieldWise, a $130m effort to halve post-harvest loss in Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria; At policy level, convening the Leadership for Agriculture (L4Ag) network of African ministers of agriculture and ministers of finance, a platform to enable them work better together to invest more to transform the sector; Co-creating PIATA, a new $280m Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa, among others.
Biteye is an honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), awarded for
work done under Oxfam GB, where he had been Regional Director for West Africa before joining
the Foundation. He is a member of several advisory boards, including the World Economic Forum’s
Futures Council on Agriculture and Food Security.
Biteye holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University in the U.S, and
a Master’s degree and Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from The Crimean
Agricultural Institute in the Ukraine. He is also multilingual, speaking English, French, Russian,
Portuguese and Wolof.
Authored Content
Mar 19 2019 Blog Post Africa’s Voices on the AfCFTA: A Call for Inclusive Trade In November 2018, we were proud to organize the first ever Africa Trade Forum on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Nigeria. The convening examined the role that the AfCFTA could play in securing brighter futures for its bulging population of over 1 billion. The Agreement commits countries to removing tariffs on 90 […]
Nov 12 2018 Blog Post African Trade Agreement: Catalyst for Growth Africa is growing, but not fast enough. In order for more than 400 million Africans to rise out of poverty, continued economic growth across Africa’s 54 nations will have to increase an average of 7% annually or more. One strong engine for growth is trade. But when it comes to trade, Africa is the least integrated region […]
Oct 26 2018 Africa Meet Mamadou Biteye Meet Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director for Africa at the Rockefeller Foundation, who enjoys working with his colleagues who “are hungry for changing the world”.3:17
Aug 30 2018 Blog Post My Wish for the Agriculture Sector in Africa Next week, I and a few colleagues will attend the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Kigali, Rwanda. AGRF is an opportunity to reexamine and reflect on Africa’s agriculture sector in the presence of respected and esteemed colleagues. This year’s theme will facilitate a review of leadership in the sector, how we are measuring growth, […]
Dec 22 2017 Blog Post A Demand-Driven Training Toolkit for Youth Employment More than 60% of Africa’s population is under 25 years of age, making sub-Saharan Africa the world’s youngest region. By 2030, it will be home to more than one-quarter of the world’s under-25 population. As this young population – the best-educated and globally connected the continent has ever had – enters the world of work, […]