Meet our Team | SERVIR

Chief of Party, ICRISAT

Paul Bartel

Paul is the Chief of Party for the SERVIR West Africa 2 Hub. He is responsible for the implementation of a program that engages seven regional institutions to develop the capacity of decision-makers to use geospatial information for evidence-based decisions and to establish a regional Earth Observation market place. Paul Bartel is a US citizen. A resource economist, holding masters degrees from the University of Florida and University of Oregon. He has established geospatial networks throughout Africa, particularly focusing on food security and natural resource management. Paul has held senior positions with USAID and the US Department of State. He has also held field positions in Morocco, Somalia, Mali, Botswana, Niger, Afghanistan and Haiti.

ICRISAT

Paul Bartel

Land Use Land Cover Change & Ecosystems

Foster Mensah

CERSGIS

Foster Mensah

Galamsey, Charcoal Monitoring and LULC Harmonization, CERSGIS

Foster Mensah

Foster Mensah is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS) based at the University of Ghana, Accra. His professional career spans over 20 years, with experience in land use and land cover database development and policy.

Foster has previously worked as Senior Applications Specialist at CERSGIS (2000 – 2008). He has worked as project manager on multi-stakeholder projects for the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, the African Development Bank, Department for International Development (DFID), UK, and the Government of Ghana. He has also provided earth-observation satellite remote sensing data analysis and GIS support to a number of applied research projects including the Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Since July 2016, he has been working on the jointly USAID/NASA SERVIR West Africa Program as the Team Lead for Land Cover, Land Use and Ecosystems. Foster has a Bachelor’s degree in Geomatic Engineering, and post graduate degrees in Integrated Geo-Information Production, Geography and Resource Development. He is now the Lead Land Use and Land Cover Service with the second phase of SERVIR West Africa Program. Email: fmensah@ug.edu.gh

P-Locust, AGRHYMET

Idrissa Halidou Maiga

Within the framework of SERVIR-West Africa, the Entomologist’s role is the scientific coordination of the “Locust Monitoring” service development for a timely localization of areas at risk of Desert Locust outbreaks, for early warning and preventive management of the plague in West Africa.

The main tasks are to animate the community of locust monitoring practitioners and end-users with capacity building to take charge of the tools to be developed. To this end, he ensures the scientific coordination of (i) the development of a prediction model for the Desert Locust transient presence, (ii) the dynamic and the updating of gregarigenic areas and (iii) the study of gregarization thresholds.

Co-Chief of Party, AGRHYMET

Bako Mamane

Science and Data Lead, ICRISAT

Kidia Gelaye

Kidia Gelaye is the Science and Data Lead for SERVIR West Africa Phase II. His role is supporting West Africa regional partners in enhancing awareness and accessibility to geospatial data and providing technical and scientific support for valuable user-driven services, data, models, and tools. Before joining SERVIR West Africa, Kidia was an assistant professor at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia. He has extensive expertise in agriculture water management, mitigating soil salinity in irrigated lands, irrigation design and planning, irrigation’s environmental impacts, and data science. Kidia is keenly interested in ecological big-data science, cloud computing, and remote sensing and machine learning applications in water and agriculture. Kidia has contributed to peer-reviewed publications. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Water and Environment from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria.

Science and Data Co-Lead, AGRHYMET

Mansour Mahamane

Mansour is a Senior research scientist and remote sensing expert with over 15 years of experience in academic research on Ecosystem service modelling. Currently Data and Science Co-Lead at SERVIR WA and has the primary operational responsibility to support the consortium in improving awareness and access to geospatial data, products, and tools through appropriate platforms; developing new high-quality data at the user’s request, tools, applications and models to address the priorities on the ground; and for the program’s data sharing components.

Crop monitoring & WENDOU, CSE

Mamadou Adama Sarr

Adama holds a Doctorate degree in Physical Geography (Climatology option) at the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in France and a postgraduate diploma in remote sensing at the University of Quebec in Montreal in Canada. He is currently an expert associated in the Ecological Monitoring Center (CSE) in Dakar, Senegal, where he coordinates and participates in the implementation of various national and regional projects/programs related to Earth Observation data applied to the Environment. Adama is a lecturer at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis in Senegal.

Groundwater Mapping, AGRHYMET

Jamilatou Chaibou Begou

Hydrologist with a proven experience in hydrological modeling, Jamila holds a PhD in climate change and water resources. She has an in-depth knowledge of GIS applied to water resources management and flood risk assessment. Before joining the program, she worked for the German cooperation agency (GIZ) in Niger where she coordinated the flood communication component in support to the Niger River Basin Authority. She joined the SERVIR WA program in 2020 as the consortium’s principal hydrologist expert where she coordinates and participates, with service leads, in the co-development of services to addressing development challenges specific to water and water-borne disasters.

Jamila loves teaching hydrology to students at AGRHYMET and she always lives these moments as a real success.

User Engagement Lead, ICRISAT

Pierre C. Sibiry Traore

A systems scientist specialized in agricultural risk control and value chain orchestration, Sibiry is by training a physical geographer and a remote sensing expert. With Manobi Africa, he developed the agCelerant concept of phygital agriculture, which captures the emergent opportunity for robust, physically based, digitally driven solutions to secure the sustainability, transparency, and honorable sourcing of tomorrow’s food systems.

Sibiry developed and co-led several innovative projects such as NADiRA and STARS, raising R&D grants from USAID, DARPA, ESA, the European Commission, the World Bank, IsDB, BMGF, IDRC and others. Sibiry published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and developed several innovative partnerships involving the CGIAR, national agricultural research systems (NARS), NGOs, the private sector and academia. More recently, Sibiry developed a vibrant partnership with AIMS-NEI, developing internship and employment opportunities for AI/ML graduates in the agriculture and space sectors.

Seconded to the private sector as a principal in-business researcher, Sibiry is the Global Cluster Lead for Digital Agriculture at ICRISAT.

User Engagement Co-Lead, AGRHYMET

Assoumana Boubacar Toukal

As the User Engagement Co-Lead, Assoumana Boubacar Toukal undertakes a broad set of technical tasks to support the development of studies, assessments, and trainings for end-users of geospatial and earth observation services, tools and applications, including sectoral studies specific to the priority sustainable development areas of the SERVIR-West Africa project, in order to fully understand the end-users of SERVIR-West Africa products and services. Prior to that, he worked with Mercy Corps as a Program Manager on resilience to environmental shocks and conducted stakeholders mapping. He has experience in project management, stakeholders mapping, food security and natural resource management assessment and holds a certificate Project Management for Development (PMD PRO) level 1 examination (APMG International). Boubacar T. Assoumana holds a PhD in Climate Change and Agriculture from a Germany German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)-funded project called WASCAL, hosted by the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Cape Coast, Ghana.

Communication Lead, CSE

Thioro Codou Niang

Mrs. Thioro Codou Niang has more than 15 years’ experience in the field of communication and marketing for development. She is the Coordinator of the Communication, Marketing and External Relations Unit of the Centre de ‘Suivi Ecologique’, Senegal. She holds a MSc in Communication and Management of International Business, and a MSc in Social Marketing with a specialty in Environment and Sustainable Development.

Mrs. Niang has proven experience in the development of “Community of Practice” used for sharing experiences and practices related to knowledge management. She is using this experience to contribute in improving the performance and effectiveness of different projects and programs in Senegal and other countries in the sub-region and above.

Mrs. Niang set is a founder of a Network of Information and Communication Professionals in Environment based in West Africa. She is also the Vice President of Women in GMES & Africa. The main objective of this initiative is to strengthen the involvement and active participation of women in the field of Earth observation.

Communication Co-Lead, ICRISAT

Agathe Diama

Agathe is Head Information and Smart Food Coordinator for ICRISAT in West and Central Africa. She is a social-anthropologist by training. She also holds a specialized MBA in Communication and a diploma in journalism. Ms. Diama has over 18 years’ experience in communication. In 2008, Agathe was a visiting journalist of the US Presidential election in 2008 with the International Center for Journalism (ICFJ in Washington DC and Ohio State); of Oklahoma State University (Nurturing the fourth estate project). Agathe has also attended the Knowledge Management Academy of the International Labour Organization Training center (ILO), Torino, Italy. Prior joining ICRISAT, Agathe worked with the Voice of America, Africable Television and many other as Journalist. She worked with the International Finance Corporation – IFC (World Bank Group) as Communication Specialist and with the Office of the National Auditor in Mali. Agathe is a founding member of the Women in Science and Research (WIRES) of the CGIAR.

Monitoring and Evaluation Lead, ICRISAT

Moussa Sayo Issoufou

Moussa Sayo Issoufou is an agronomist by training (Bachelor of Agriculture Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria), with a professional Master’s degree in project management. Sayo is a monitoring and evaluation professional (more than 10 years’ experience) with extensive USAID Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning procedures, and requirements experience. As a monitoring and evaluation practitioner, he has developed many project tools including M&E plans, research and surveys protocols, databases, trainings and supervising field staff, managing teams, data collection, data quality assessment (DQA), data analysis, reporting in accordance with donor directives, strong mixed methods research skills and proficient in a wide range of analysis tools, including ArcGIS and QGIS for spatial data, Excel, SPSS, Open Data Kit” ODK”, etc. He is very familiar with the Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach, knowledge management (KM) practices, Development Data Library process. In all his M&E work, Moussa is very gender and social inclusion sensitive and responsive.

Regional Finance Manager, ICRISAT

Yaya Mbaye Seck

Yaya is the Regional Manager – Finance and Accounts of ICRISAT in West and Central Africa. He is in charge of the finance and grants management of the SERVIR WA 2 project. A Malian, Yaya holds a Master degree in Business Administration – Specialty Finance and Management control obtained at Institut Supérieur d’Informatique Appliquée et de Management (ISIAM), Agadir (Morocco), with honors. Prior to joining ICRISAT he works for FAO in Mali as Operation Officer of the ECTAD project (Budget, finance, reports and monitoring) and as Senior Auditor at Pyramis Audit & Conseil, responsible for the Execution of audit, organization and advisory missions under the supervision of experts. Yaya also worked with Banque de l’Habitat du Mali (BHM) as Trainee accountant and with West Africa Esmisa (WAE) as Trainee marketer (Monitoring the evolution of product sales in different markets).

Commune-level development planning, ISESTEL

Patrice Sanou

Patrice is a PhD degree graduated scientist in Geography, minor Space technology. He is Professor emeritus in earth observation technologies and geography, lecturer at the university Joseph Ki Zerbo in Ouagadougou, University of Nazi Boni in Bobo-Dioulasso, Institut Panafricain pour le Développement Région Afrique de l’Ouest-Sahel (IPD/AOS) and ISESTEL. He is a professor and an international expert in natural resources management, climate changes and geospatial analysis. He is acting in various international initiatives such as the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) program. Since 2019, Patrice is member of the Africa Science and Advisory Group for Disaster Risk reduction (AfSTAG-DRR) at African Union. He led SERVIR-West Africa activities during the first phase in Burkina Faso where he encouraged the local governments in the use of the Earth Observation data while building their new communal plan of development. The commune of Bobo-Dioulasso took advantage of the partnership to promote Patrice as the international scientific expert of GIZ (UE) in developing the actions plan to access the sustainable energy and the climate (PAAEDC). For his various accomplishments in geospatial science and high education Patrice was distinguished as the best alumni by South Dakota State University Geography Convention and honored in Burkina Faso with a medal of Knight of Order in Academic Palms.

Bridging the gap between agriculture and food security (AFS) and weather and climate (WAC)

VAKHTANG SHELIA

Dr. Vakhtang Shelia is a Research Assistant Scientist at the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Global Food Systems Institute of University of Florida. He has research experience in the field of Agrophysics, and Agro meteorology, focusing on the simulation of agricultural systems and yield forecasting methods. In the SERVIR WA program, Dr. Shelia will participate in activities related spatial yield forecasting using the CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Toolbox (CRAFT) for both seasonal prediction and long-term climate change impact assessment, and adaptation for food and nutrition security, and in strengthening their linkage to seasonal forecasting by the Weather and Climate service area.

Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI)

Jamilatou Chaibou Begou

Capacity building, AFRIGIST

Glory Enaruvbe

My research interests include the use of geospatial information technology for the monitoring, control and management of soil, vegetation and other environmental resources. I am also interested in climate-smart agriculture among smallholder farmers in rural Africa as a tool for mitigating food insecurity in tropical Africa.

SDG Mapping, CSE

Amadou Moctar Dieye

Amadou holds a PhD in Geospatial Sciences and Remote Sensing (South Dakota State University, USA), a Diploma in Survey Engineering and a Masters in Geographic Information System and International Development (Clark University, USA). He was awarded a NASA Earth and Space Science PhD Fellowship (NESSF, 2007). He has over 25 years of experience in developing and conducting development projects in several countries in Africa. Former Technical Director at the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), Amadou continues his collaboration with CSE as an Associate Expert and Advisor. His areas of interest include GIS, assessment and modeling of environmental changes, vulnerability and resilience of communities and ecosystems, carbon assessment and climate finance. Amadou served among other as member of the Executive Committee of the Intergovernmental Group on Earth Observation (GEO) on behave of AfriGEO, the GEO Post-2025 Working Group and the Earth Observations for Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG) Board.

Small innovation grants, AIMS

Diane Divine Umuhire

Diane is an Industry Relations Manager within the Department of AIMS Industry Initiative (AIMS I) and Next Einstein Forum (NEF) of the Global Network Secretariat of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences – Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI). She is based in Senegal and in charge of the implementation of all activities related to the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) at AIMS Senegal Centre of Excellence. Diane facilitates industrial engagements and exploration of industry partnership opportunities across the AIMS network. She coordinates the employability transition of students and alumni. Before joining AIMS, Diane worked in Banking Sector with 10 years of experience in various positions mainly in Relationship Banking, Electronic Banking, Process Department, and Operations Department. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and different certifications in several areas. Divine is fluent in English, French, and Kinyarwanda.

Agriculture and Food Security

Mamadou Adama Sarr

Water and Water-Related Disasters

Jamilatou Chaibou Begou

AIMS

Charles Lebon Mberi Kimpolo

Dr. Charles Lebon Mberi Kimpolo is the Director of the Industry Initiative and Head of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) at the Global Network Secretariat of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences – Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI). For the last couple of years, Charles brought strategic oversight and direction to the AIMS Industry Initiative across the Network, with the aim to broaden the scope and breadth of partnerships with industry in Africa and beyond. Charles leads the implementation of Work Integrated Learning programs at AIMS to develop new industry needs-driven capacity development programs and support AIMS graduates in their transition to employment, entrepreneurship and further study. Charles’s dream is to position AIMS-NEI as the industry’s leading academic partner in Africa that achieves industry and economic advancement of the continent. Charles is a passionate scientist, technologist and change agent with over 15 years of industry experience in data analysis, business intelligence and project management. Charles’s experience includes teaching and research in the field of Computational and Applied Mathematics. He also has hands-on experience in agile software development, delivery and consulting; and client engagement working in Africa, the United States and Asia. Charles holds a Ph.D. in Computational and Applied Mathematics from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in South Africa.

Financial Instruments

Pierre C. Sibiry Traore

ISESTEL

Patrice Sanou

AGRHYMET

Mahalmoudou Hamadoun

CSE

Taibou Ba

AFRIGIST

Lazarus Mustapha Ojigi

University of Florida (non-voting)

Gerrit Hoogenboom

Dr. Gerrit Hoogenboom is a Professor in Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Preeminent Scholar in the Global Food Systems Institute at the University of Florida, USA. He coordinates the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), a crop modeling system that is being used world-wide for agricultural systems analysis and decision support. In the SERVIR WA program, Gerrit Hoogenboom will lead cross-cutting activities that link weather and climate and earth observation data with agriculture and food security using both DSSAT and the spatial forecasting tool CRAFT. Emphasis will be on in-season yield forecasting as well as on long-term climate change impact assessment, adaptation, and mitigation.

Columbia University (non-voting)

Daniel Edward Osgood

Dan Osgood leads the Financial Instruments Sector Team at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University. He is an agricultural economics PhD UC Berkeley, 2000). His team drives forecast based action and insurance efforts around the world, supporting many of the index insurance projects that have gone to scale, from national level insurance to the millions of smallholder farmers purchasing index insurance contracts built through farmer-driven, science-based crowd at core processes. He has been involved in global policy processes such as the UNFCCC, with projects he works on highlighted by Ban Ki-moon in the opening speech at the 2015 Paris COP.

Scientific Officer (Earth Observation Services), ICRISAT

Janet Mumo Mutuku

Janet is using her expertise in deep learning, space technology, and Earth observations to apply open-source satellite imagery to improve agricultural planning in rural areas. Previously, she worked as a machine learning engineer, where she created intelligent systems for credit scoring, anomaly detection, and fraud detection in the financial service industry. In addition, she has worked on climate science and agriculture projects at ICRISAT, where she used satellite images for Land Use and Land Cover (LULC), e.g., mapping of mixed crop intensity in smallholder plots. Janet has a master’s degree in Mathematical Sciences (big data and computer security) from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Senegal and a BSc in Actuarial Science from the University of Eldoret in Kenya.

Scientific Officer (GIS and Remote Sensing), ICRISAT

Garba Boulamine Mounkaila

Garba, is an environmental agronomist, an expert in Remote Sensing & Geographic Information System (GIS) and drone operations. In this program, he uses his expertise to deploy and improve Earth Observation (EO) workflows through data procurement, curation, pre-processing, post-processing as well as uncertainty estimation, interoperability and quality of service. In doing so, his research contributes to understanding different types of remote sensing data needed for different types of services (including the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud resources, incorporation of innovations and emergent promising methodologies in service workflows). Garba also ensures compliance with open science & open data principles, making sure that scientific rigor in the development of EO-based services is observed. With all this scientific background, Garba is set to facilitate science interactions between all partners of SERVIR and support the program in the coordination of scientific publications on peer peer-reviewed journals.

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT ICRISAT

Victoria Asamoah

Victoria Asamoah is a strategic Executive Assistant with a demonstrated history of working in the Insurance, Education and Travel Industry. Her experience spans across Translation, Project Management, Research and Executive Support functions. Prior to joining ICRISAT, she worked with NSIA Insurance and the Department of Modern Languages of KNUST as the Executive Assistant and Administrative Assistant respectively.

Victoria holds a Bachelor’s degree in French, First Class Honours, from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and is a founding member of the Network of Administrative Professionals Ghana.

Topic: Strengthening the P-Locust platform for operational desert locust risk predictions at AGRYMET, Niger

Fatoumata Haidara

Fatoumata has a background in Applied Physics and holds advanced degrees in Machine Intelligence (AMMI) and Mathematical Sciences with a specialization in Big Data from AIMS Senegal. During her professional internship, Fatoumata completed a research thesis on “Projected changes in Drought characteristics across West Africa,” which provided her with practical experience in research and problem-solving. She is using her skills in machine learning and AI to help communities and systems become more resilient to the impacts of climate change and to find innovative solutions to environmental problems in the Sahelian zone.

Topic: Automating spatial crop production forecasts with dynamic EO products and feeder workflows at the University of Florida

Yacouba Ouedraogo

Yacouba is a junior data scientist with experience in data processing in the fields of health, biology, and climate change. He has two master’s degrees, one in applied mathematics from Universite Nazi Boni in Burkina Faso and one in Big Data from AIMS-Senegal. Throughout his career, Yacouba has worked at organizations such as the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (RCRCC-Netherlands), the African Center of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD-Niger), and the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS-Burkina Faso). This experience has given him expertise in using innovative tools to inform decision-making processes.

Topic: Developing tools and processes to reconcile satellite and model data with farmer-sourced information at ICRISAT Dakar and the Columbia University.

Das Dores Ngueussie Ngamini

Das Dores has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and a Master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Yaounde I. Her Master’s thesis focused on evaluating the impact of lead time on the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting model to forecast extreme weather events in Cameroon. As a result of this work, Das Dores received a fully funded scholarship to pursue another Master’s in Mathematical Sciences at AIMS Rwanda. At AIMS Rwanda, she worked on simulating the tropical cyclone Batsirai over Madagascar using observations and model predictions at different scales.

Topic: Machine learning algorithms for land degradation risk mapping and tracking to support sustainable land management at ISESTEL, Burkina Faso

Dénise Victoire Sagbo

Dénise is currently a SIG fellow working on a project that involves using machine learning algorithms to map and track land degradation risk in support of sustainable land management. The project will be hosted at ISESTEL. Dénise holds a master’s degree in Mathematical Sciences with a specialization in Big Data from AIMS Senegal and has completed

Topic: Using satellite data to monitor the quantity and quality of biomass in ephemeral water bodies at Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), Dakar, Sénégal

Mohamed Mounton

Mohamed holds a master’s degree in physics and a Master’s in mathematical sciences with a focus on big data and computer security from AIMS-Senegal. He also completed a graduate internship in computational ecology at the Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany. Previously, Mohamed worked with the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT through the Mathematical Sciences for Climate Resilience program, where he analyzed climate data to understand the patterns and environmental controls of ecosystem carbon flux in various biomes.

SERVIR Global Program Manager

Dan Irwin

Dan Irwin, a research scientist by trade, created the SERVIR program in 2005 and has led the team ever since. His passion is exploring how satellites and geospatial technologies help address pressing needs in developing countries across the globe. Outside of work, Dan enjoys travelling with his family and fostering community development projects in rural Guatemala.

Regional Science Coordination Lead

Emil Cherrington

Emil has been involved with SERVIR since 2006, shortly following the program’s inception in Mesoamerica, and joined the Science Coordination Office in 2016. His main area of interest is in the use of Earth Observation data for monitoring both land cover change and evaluating phenological patterns. He holds a double Ph.D. in forest ecology from AgroParisTech (France) and Technische Universität Dresden (Germany). In his spare time, he loves telling everyone about genetic genealogy.

Regional Science Associate

Jacob Abramowitz

Jacob holds a B.A. degree in Geography from Binghamton University and a M.S. degree in Earth System Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He is interested in international development, cartography, and large-scale land cover change, especially the impacts of commodity agriculture on the environment. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring the parks around Alabama.

Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration, ICRISAT

Bouba Traore

Flash Flood, AGRHYMET

Mohamed Hamatan

Seasonal Forecasting, AGRHYMET

Seydou Tinni Halidou

Financial Instruments Co-Lead

Daniel Edward Osgood

Capacity building

Glory Enaruvbe

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Amadou Moctar Dieye

Small Innovation Grants

Diane Divine Umuhire

Geospatial and Information Technology (GIT)

Eugene Brown

Scientific Officer (Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration), ICRISAT

Zaharadine Arzika Lele

Weather and Climate