Binta Bajaha is using her degree in Arts & Science to fight world hunger as a vital voice for the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP).
“U of T prepared me to play a pivotal role where I’m part of conversations that impact critical change, such as whether somebody is able to eat tonight” says Bajaha, senior advisor on gender, diversity and environmental sustainability.
WFP assists 80 million people around the world each year, delivering emergency food and working with underserved communities to improve nutrition and build resilience, whether that’s in the context of climate change or political instability.
“Foreign policies change all the time, but the average human is always full of decency,” says Bajaha, who earned her PhD in 2024 from the Women & Gender Studies Institute (WGSI). “Every person just needs an opportunity to flourish, which is what we strive to provide every day.”
Born in The Gambia, West Africa, Bajaha earned degrees in Canada — starting at just 15! At the London School of Economics & Political Science. Her role as a consultant at WFP in Rome sparked an interest in pursuing her PhD.
Bajaha chose U of T for its outstanding faculty and WGSI. She was inspired by a symposium featuring Associate Professor Marieme Lo, director of the African Studies Centre and her eventual PhD supervisor.
“That talk blew my mind!” says Bajaha. “I had to know more about this professor and the institution.”
Bajaha paused her work with WFP to focus on her dissertation: Sahelian Realities of Climate Change: Interrogating Intersectional Vulnerabilities, Resilience and Agency in a SeneGambian Anthropocene and she was the recipient of a SSHRC award from 2021-24 and the 2022–23 African Studies Senior Doctoral Fellowship.
She was also chair of the WGSI Graduate Student Union and won the WGSI Student Leadership Award in 2020.
“While at U of T, Binta touched many lives. She distinguishes herself not only by her sheer brilliance and stellar academic achievements, but by her commitment to student mentorship and community citizenship,” says Lo, whom Bajaha describes as her most influential mentor.
“I am confident Binta will bring novel approaches to addressing food insecurity and the climate crisis in regions at risk and will promote gender and climate justice to transform lives.”
WGSI Director and Professor Alissa Trotz, who is cross appointed with the Centre for Caribbean Studies, describes Binta as a dynamic and leading force in the institute, recalling when she organised a virtual graduate student conference in the first year of the pandemic.
“Binta is a wonderful example of the remarkable and diverse pathways of our graduates,” says Trotz. “She came in with extensive international professional experience and has returned to that work with commitment and fresh insights from her doctoral research.”
Mentorship and representation have had a profound impact on Bajaha’s journey, underscoring the importance of diversity in academia, and the powerful influence Black professors can have on racialised students.
“It’s incredible that I never had a Black instructor until U of T,” says Bajaha. “To finally have a woman who looked like me, thought like me and spoke like me, and who could teach me at the doctoral level was essential to my growth.”
Bajaha is conscious of her educational privilege and other spaces she occupies, using her worldview to remind and correct decision makers on the best approach to operations at WFP, convictions she carries in part from the theoretical knowledge she gained at U of T. This blend of academic insight and personal experience shapes her unique perspective.
“I was born Gambian, but I also chose to become a Canadian citizen because this country promises what I envision the world should be, with equitable opportunities for all,” says Bajaha.
“In that environment, fantastic things are bound to happen.”
