Dr. Henry Musa Kpaka serves as Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security. Appointed in 2023 by President Julius Maada Bio, he leads the delivery of Feed Salone—the Government’s flagship programme to transform the national food system, reduce dependence on food imports, and position agriculture as a central driver of economic growth.
Since his appointment, Dr. Kpaka has focused on execution, advancing a coordinated, whole-of-government delivery approach to increase production and productivity, strengthen agricultural value chains, and unlock private sector participation. Under his leadership, Feed Salone is driving the expansion of domestic food production at scale while improving market systems and agricultural competitiveness.
A central priority of his tenure is mobilising investment across the agricultural value chain. Through structured partnerships with private investors and development finance institutions, the Ministry is supporting the growth of commercial farming, agro-processing, and input distribution systems—particularly in rice, poultry, and other priority commodities. His work places emphasis on job creation, especially for youth and women, and on improving farmer incomes.
At the international level, Dr. Kpaka is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF), where he works with partner countries to advance coordinated action on food security, climate resilience, and agricultural financing.
Prior to his ministerial appointment, Dr. Kpaka served as an embedded Advisor with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in the Office of the President, where he was Chief Technical Adviser to the Chief Minister. In this role, he coordinated national policy priorities with a focus on economic development and agriculture.
His earlier career spans leading international institutions. At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he supported agricultural policy and programme delivery across Africa and South Asia. At the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), he co-managed initiatives delivering improved technologies to smallholder farmers. He has also worked with the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on policy reforms to strengthen the business environment in developing economies.
Dr. Kpaka holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the London School of Economics (LSE), where he received the Firoz Lalji PhD Thesis Award. He also holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and International Development from Harvard University, and is an alumnus of Whitman College and the United World College.
