Staff Spotlight: Meet Anissa Msallem

Anissa leads Farm Africa’s Partnerships team and has been at Farm Africa since 2022. She began her career in financial services before transitioning to the third sector. Before joining Farm Africa she worked at WaterAid and Plan International UK. She is also a keen baker and singer, with a fondness for adventure…

What do you consider your greatest success of 2023?

The big success last year was our Mahale Mountains Challenge. We took a team of 12 senior executives from food businesses including Sainsbury’s and Aldi on a challenging six-day trek through the stunning Mahale Mountains in western Tanzania. The team raised £216,000 for Farm Africa’s work with smallholder farmers, which was a fantastic achievement!

What are you most looking forward to in 2024?

The London Coffee Festival on 11-14 April. As the Festival’s charity partner, this is a great opportunity to raise awareness and funds to support Farm Africa’s work such as helping coffee farmers improve the quality of their coffee, as well as get a fair price for it.

Our supporters might not be familiar with the responsibilities of a Head of Partnerships. Could you walk us through what a typical workday looks like for you?

My role is to raise funds through partnerships with companies, family trusts and foundations. A typical day involves holding meetings with potential new company partners. I respond to queries and support activities of existing company partners such as those in our Food for Good network. I also work with my team on projects like the London Coffee Festival and an overseas women’s challenge event we are planning in October 2024.

What are your hopes for the future, both for your team and Farm Africa?

Farm Africa’s work is more relevant than ever as the world focuses on how to tackle climate change for the benefit of people and planet. We have a real opportunity to work with businesses to create sustainable, transformational change for rural communities in eastern Africa and I’m excited to be working with my team to deliver this vision.