This talk is part of the Yale MacMillan Center–Yale Center Beijing Dialogue Series: The View From— 

Event Time

Tuesday, November 10, 2026
8:00 pm-9:00 pm | China Standard Time (CST)

Tuesday, November 10, 2026
7:00 am-8:00 am | Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Participation Format

Registration is required to receive the ZOOM access link, which will be sent shortly to your registered email or phone number. Please enter the Zoom room 15 minutes before the starting time. Once the Zoom room reaches full capacity, latecomers will not be able to join the event. 

Registration and Fees

Please click “HERE” to register. Please send an email to yalecenterbeijing@yale.edu if there are any problems. If you encounter any payment issues, please attach a screenshot that identifies the issue. 

Ticket: Free

The language of the event will be in English, with AI-enabled captions in real time.

The Event

On November 10, the inaugural lecture of the Yale MacMillan Center–Yale Center Beijing Dialogue Series: The View From— will feature Anta Babacar Ngom Diack, a Senegalese entrepreneur, Member of Parliament, and 2026 Yale World Fellow. Drawing on her experience building one of West Africa’s largest agribusiness enterprises, opening Senegal’s first KFC location run entirely by women, and serving on the Law and Finance Commissions of the National Assembly, she will explore food sovereignty, youth employment and the building of effective institutions—what each looks like from inside a firm, a market and a parliament, and how they shape one another. For audiences in China whose work increasingly reaches across Africa and the Global South, this is an opportunity to look at the world from the perspective of Dakar.
 

The Speaker

Anta Babacar Ngom Diack
2026 Yale World Fellow

Anta Babacar Ngom Diack is a Senegalese political leader, entrepreneur, and public servant whose career bridges business leadership, democratic reform, and women’s empowerment across West Africa. Born and raised in the suburbs of Dakar, she spent over a decade building one of West Africa’s largest agro-industrial enterprises, driving regional food sovereignty and creating thousands of jobs for young people from low-income communities.

As franchisee and CEO of KFC Senegal, she opened the first franchise location run entirely by women, and another designed to employ persons with disabilities. She now serves on the Law and Finance Commissions of the National Assembly, where she works on budget review and legislation. She holds degrees from York University, Université Paris-Dauphine and Sciences Po Paris, and is a Knight of the National Order of Merit of Senegal.

The Moderator

Zhijun He MA ’28

Zhijun He is an M.A. candidate in African Studies at Yale’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, where he holds a full-tuition fellowship. A Graduate Affiliate of Pierson College, he convenes The View From—, the Yale MacMillan Center–Yale Center Beijing Dialogue Series. His research asks how state capacity is built and negotiated within imperfect institutions in Africa and the wider Global South. A graduate of UWC Changshu China, he earned his B.A. magna cum laude from Macalester College, Kofi Annan’s alma mater, where he was a Kofi Annan Scholar. He previously led the informal-economy track of the World Bank Youth Advisory Group. In 2024 he received the Xiangzhang Qingmiao Award from the School of Economics at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; in 2026 he received the Award of Excellent Abstract at the PKU–Yale Global Health Economics Summer Institute and chaired the opening roundtable at China Agricultural University’s Summer School of Country and Region Studies & Global Development.