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Martin Fisher
Dr. Martin Fisher is the co-founder and CEO of KickStart International, a nonprofit social enterprise advancing affordable irrigation for smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1991, KickStart’s MoneyMaker pumps have enabled more than 400,000 farming families to shift from rain-fed to irrigated agriculture, lifting over 1.5 million people out of poverty and helping build food and income security.
Dr. Fisher holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. His career began in Kenya, where he worked for 17 years on rural water, sanitation, and education initiatives before co-founding KickStart (then ApproTEC). His focus has been designing practical, income-generating tools and partnering with governments, NGOs, and agribusinesses to make them accessible at scale.
His leadership has received global recognition, including honors from the Skoll Foundation, Schwab Foundation, Time Magazine, and Stanford University. Dr. Fisher has previously spoken at events hosted by Global Citizen, the Skoll Foundation, the Africa Food Systems Forum, the Water for Food Global Conference, and the World Water Forum.
Sessions
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Rethinking the SDGs in a climate crisis - Innovation and partnerships for the next decade22-Oct-2025Development2030 Stage
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