Mohamed Béavogui, an expert in agricultural finance, was elected as the first African General Manager of the African Risk Capacity in January 2015 during the 3rd annual Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Béavogui has over 25 years of international experience in development, and previous to his appointment with ARC was the Director of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization and Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Prior to joining IFAD, he worked for 7 years with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in New York as a Senior Project Management Officer and subsequently as Regional Director for West and Central Africa. Earlier, he worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Burundi as Chief Technical Adviser and in Rome. He is a member of several panels working on regional and global issues related to food security and rural development, and the recipient of several honors and awards.

Béavogui holds a Master’s degree in engineering from Saint Petersburg Polytechnic and undertook executive management training at Harvard Kennedy School.