H.E. Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, an Angolan national, is a leading African Agronomist and Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission. Prior to her election in January 2017, she was Special Adviser to two Ministers in Angola: The Angolan Minister of Environment where she also served as Ambassador responsible for Climate Change and advisor to the Minister of Agriculture in charge of Food Security and Poverty Reduction. Ambassador Sacko was also the former Secretary General of the Inter- African Coffee Organization (IACO), Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire for 13 years. At IACO, she oversaw the coffee economy of 25 African Coffee producing countries and successfully championed the empowerment of small-scale coffee farmers across the continent by setting up Regional Centres of Excellence for capacity building of Member States, and Genetic Material Conservation among others. Ambassador Sacko is multilingual.