Mr. Benard Onzima, Msc, PGD, Bsc.
Mr. Onzima has more than 16 years professional experience in programme development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, food security and resilience analyses. He is proficient in climate risk modelling, climate disaster risk financing and insurance for natural disasters at the micro, meso and sovereign levels having spent five years at the African Risk Capacity Group (ARC) leading the development and deployment of innovative Pan-African Disaster Risk Management solutions for climate resilience in Africa. As Head of ARC’s Technical Support Division, he led and managed a multi-skilled team of Risk and Vulnerability experts in the deployment of ARC’s multi-peril risk models and undertaking capacity development of in-country personnel in utilisation of ARC risk models among Member States. He has spent the last two years at the Agriculture Finance and Rural Development Department of the African Development Bank leading the development of complex climate disaster risk financing projects to support African Countries manage and build resilience to climate disasters. Previously, Mr. Onzima spent 10 years at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations where he contributed to the design and implementation of several agricultural development and climate change adaptation projects.
He has broad knowledge of the socio-economic and geo-political context of the developing world, is passionate about Africa’s development and, has worked effectively in multi-cultural environments, supervising and collaborating with a wide range of staff from diverse backgrounds, programme teams, partners and government departments over the years. He is a Member of African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAEE), Uganda Agricultural Economics Association (UAEA), Uganda Evaluation Association (UEA), the African Evaluation Association (AfREA), EvalForward – a Community of Practice on Evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development and the Disaster Risk Finance Community of Practice.
He holds a Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics, Post-Graduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management, Bachelor of Science in Agriculture – Agricultural Economics Major and other professional certificates.
