Sophie Walker

Sophie Walker is the chief of party of Laos Microenterprise, a five-year activity funded by USAID focused on strengthening the competitiveness of agricultural microenterprises. Prior to this, Sophie was the chief of party of the USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded AflaSTOP project investigating aflatoxin in post-harvest storage and led the development and pilot of an innovative, low-cost mobile maize dryer, the EasyDry M500, accessible to smallholder farmers. This project won USAID’s Collaborating, Learning and Adapting Case Study Competition. Prior to joining ACDI/VOCA, Sophie helped establish the Eastern Africa Grain Council, which operates throughout 10 countries, to develop best practices in arbitration and trade tailored for Eastern Africa. She has helped implement various information and communication technologies in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Her more than 30-year career in international development has involved strengthening agribusiness value chains, such as coffee, rice, and maize, and applying market-led solutions to emerging economies.