Connor Cobb
Transforming and Assisting Agricultural Projects at the World Bank
I was fortunate to work on two World Bank projects this summer in Kenya. The first was the recently approved National Agricultural Value Chain Development Project, where I worked to provide recommendations around the integration of Cold Chain technology into key value chains targeted by the project. In the process, I worked extensively with a team from the FAO, as well as other Cold Chain experts in the private sector. I was also lucky to work on another project in rural Kenya: a qualitative analysis of the World Bank’s 1 million farmer platform. In the process, I spoke with farmers from 5 counties in the North Rift Valley about their experience using their mobile devices to access crop and weather information, and markets.
Through my internship, I had the unique experience of working both with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, and Multilaterals, as well as Ag tech startups, and farmers themselves. My experience was made possible and deeply influenced by my classes in GHD, particularly Food Systems Transformation and Global Development, taught by World Bank Agriculture Global Practice manager, Julian Lampietti.