As deputy chief of party, Melba provides overall technical leadership and operational oversight for the Feed the Future Resilience Integrated in Nutrition and Agriculture (FTF RESINA) project, ensuring that the project meets its goals, targets and reporting requirements. She guarantees the identification of appropriate implementing partners, and that they are adequately guided and supervised to ensure that interventions generate the expected outcomes and impact. She sees to it that project interventions adhere to USAID, ACDI/VOCA and iDE technical guidance.

Melba earned a master’s in management from Isabela State University in the Philippines and a bachelor of science in agribusiness management from Benguet State University, Philippines. Before joining iDE full-time in 2017, she was agro-enterprise development specialist for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture based in Nigeria, and later managed two multi-country projects in Southern Africa. She was also senior advisor on private sector development for SNV Netherlands in Mozambique, project officer for the Development Academy of the Philippines, and marketing and enterprise development specialist for the Central Cordillera Agricultural Programme in the Philippines.

A devout Christian, she places a high value on honesty and trustworthiness.