Gérardine Mukeshimana is Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where she brings deep expertise and a far-reaching global network built across agricultural and rural development, multilateral development banks and climate finance.

In her role, Mukeshimana shapes IFAD’s corporate strategic direction and drives institutional performance across the organization. She leads the operational delivery and development effectiveness of IFAD’s global sovereign and non-sovereign investment portfolios, while also overseeing corporate services, institutional planning, and budgeting. In doing so, she ensures that operational and corporate delivery remains tightly aligned with IFAD’s broader strategic priorities.

Before joining IFAD, Mukeshimana served for nearly a decade as Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, a tenure marked by sustained sectoral growth and transformative reform. She played a pivotal role in attracting private sector investment into agri-business and was instrumental in channelling climate finance toward agricultural development.

Mukeshimana’s career spans science, academia and international development. She worked as a Post-Doctoral Molecular Biology Scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute and as a Post-Doctoral Scientist in Genomics at Michigan State University. She taught in the Faculty of Agriculture at the National University of Rwanda and served as National Project Coordinator for the World Bank’s Rural Sector Support Programme in Rwanda.

Mukeshimana holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering from the National University of Rwanda, and both a Master’s degree and a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics, Crop and Soil Sciences from Michigan State University.