Catherine Karanja

Program development and partnerships professional with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of agricultural development, food systems transformation and partnership strategy across East and Southern Africa. I currently lead business development with a portfolio of public bi/multilateral agencies at One Acre Fund, where I drive country-led partnership building.

My training background is in Disaster Mitigation and Sustainable Development with a Masters in Development Communication. Over the years, I have worked in humanitarian and development contexts implementing rural livelihood projects across Eastern and Southern Africa. This experience has shaped my interests in agricultural development and food systems transformation — particularly in building the multi-stakeholder partnerships needed to drive collective sustainable change. Leveraging my expertise in strategy development, stakeholder engagement, and team leadership, I have effectively steered program strategies and operational plans, mobilized resources for diverse initiatives and enhanced grant management systems contributing to sustainable economic and agricultural development of communities across Africa. Looking ahead, I am drawn to the evolving conversations around blended finance, ecosystem building, and what genuine locally-led development looks like in practice. I am actively deepening my expertise at the intersection of strategy consulting, partnership building, and systems-level change — and I am interested in opportunities that sit in this frontier.