Dr Amos Namanga Ngongi is a Cameroon national born in Buea on 3 September 1945. Educated in Sasse-Buea at the St Joseph's College, he gained a BSc (Hons.) degree in Agriculture from the California State Polytechnic University in 1968 and Masters and Doctorate degrees in Agronomy from Cornell University in 1973 and 1976 respectively. Dr Ngongi began work with the West Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture in 1964. In 1975 he proceeded to Kumasi, Ghana, where he led a joint Cornell University/Soil Institute Ghana project on soil fertility. He returned to Cameroon in 1978 and became Assistant Chief of the Projects Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, with supervisory responsibility over several publicly owned agricultural enterprises.
Dr Ngongi was assigned to the Cameroon Embassy in Rome in 1980 as First Secretary to be responsible for relations with food and agricultural agencies such as the FAO, IFAD and WFP, before being promoted to Counselor in 1981. He played a number of important roles within these various organisations, including Vice Chair of the Programmes Committee of FAO and a member of the Executive Board of IFAD. He was named as Chairman of the African Group of representatives to the food agencies in 1983.
In 1984 Dr Ngongi joined the WFP as Head of East and Southern Africa. He held several positions in that organisation including Secretary of the Executive Board, Director of Development Programmes, Acting Assistant Executive Director in charge of Operations and was appointed Deputy Executive Director in 1994. He was appointed Under-Secretary General, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and Head of the Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001, a position held until 2003. After retiring from the United Nations for four years, Dr Ngongi was appointed President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa in 2007.
