Bronwyn Irwin
Senior Technical Director, Enterprise Development
Bronwyn Irwin is an agricultural economist with in-depth experience in private sector-led agribusiness development. Her expertise includes analyzing and strengthening value chains, market analysis, developing public-private partnerships, association development, strengthening vulnerable populations’ safety nets through improved livelihoods, and market linkages. Over the past 10 years, Ms. Irwin has engaged in various facets of program management, including providing technical services and business development support in Africa, South America and the Balkans. She currently serves as senior technical director of enterprise development programming. She recently headed our Support for Food Security Activities Indefinite Quantity Contract, which is a five-year contract that provides USAID an efficient, rapid response mechanism to fund bilateral and regional agricultural development and food security programs in African countries. Previous to that role, she served as chief of party for the Restoring Economic Agricultural Livelihoods in Zimbabwe (REALIZ) program, which facilitated contract farming schemes between 6 firms and 2,400 horticulture farmers. Ms. Irwin took the initiative to integrate gender into the program and as a result 58 percent of the assisted farmers were women, which reflects the gender distribution of the targeted population. Before joining ACDI/VOCA, Ms. Irwin served as the indefinite quantity contract (IQC) manager for the Rural and Agricultural Incomes with a Sustainable Environment (RAISE) Plus IQC for DAI overseeing a consortium of 15 members. Other assignments include designing and managing an innovative U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) urban agriculture development project in Ethiopia; developing an HIV/AIDS mainstreaming plan for a natural resource management project in Malawi; providing field-based technical assistance to a PL 480 Title II food security initiative focused on improving agricultural production; and writing the agricultural sector guide for the USAID Global Development Alliance office. Some publications that she has co-authored include “Market Mechanisms to Achieve Food Security” for the USAID/Zimbabwe mission, “Strengthening the Role of AIDS-affected MSEs in Productive Markets,” published in Small Enterprise Development, and “Tourist Facility Development and Coastal Zone Management in Costa Rica,” in Regional Development and Planning for the 21st Century. Ms. Irwin has worked in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Albania, Macedonia and Croatia. She earned an M.S. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and a B.A. in international relations and Spanish from the State University of New York at Geneseo. She speaks fluent Spanish and intermediate French.
