Dr Thulasizwe Mkhabela is the founder and director of Outcome Mapping – a company specializing in agricultural development consulting and investment mainly in the SADC region. Thulasizwe Mkhabela is an Advisory Board Member for the African Centre for Food Security (ACFS) – UKZN and is an Honorary Research Fellow for the School of Agricultural, Earth, and Environmental Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). He is also an Advisory Board Member of the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) Agri-Business Centre.
Thulasizwe Mkhabela holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University and is also an alumnus of the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of Swaziland (UNISWA- now UNESWA), University of Northwest, with a BSc in Agriculture, MSc in Agriculture (Crop Sciences) and Post-Graduate Diploma in Economics. He taught agricultural economics at Stellenbosch University for over five years and thereafter served as Senior Lecturer Extraordinaire. He has worked for the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) as a Senior Researcher, the KwaZulu-Natal Agribusiness Development Agency (ADA) both as Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Operations Officer (COO) for six years, and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) as Group Executive: Impact & Partnerships for three (3) years and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters.
He is now an Independent Consultant and Managing Director at Outcome Mapping. He is a seasoned agricultural development consultant with extensive experience in the conceptualisation, implementation and evaluation of agricultural development initiatives and land reform projects for more than 20 years. He is extensively involved in economic (especially agricultural development) policy and thought leadership alongside involvement in private equity investments in Africa. Thulasizwe maintains a keen interest in public policy issues in agriculture and rural development and is proactively engaged in professional discourses related to the evolving socio-economic system worldwide, with particular interest and expertise in agribusiness and food systems. Recently, he has been involved in mining and agriculture through social transition and Social Labour Plans.
Thulasizwe has published extensively both in peer-reviewed scientific journals and popular publications. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters. He has a regular Thought Leadership (Op-Ed) column in the Independent Online syndicated newspapers (including Pretoria News, Cape Times, Natal Witness, etc.) and has also featured occasionally for the Eswatini Observer. He is also a recognised expert in agricultural economic issues and a speaker of note, having appeared on both national and international TV and radio stations as a guest expert speaker.
thulasizwe.mkhabela@gmail.com; thula@outcomemapping.co.za; MkhabelaT1@ukzn.ac.za
