Committee on World Food Security

Date: 21 September 2021

Time: 13.00 – 13.30 (New York time) / 19.00 – 19.30 (Rome time)

Video recordingMedia Advisory

Ahead of the United Nations (UN) Food Systems Summit, the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) announced the next Steering Committee of its High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE). The CFS HLPE serves as the UN’s unique science-policy interface body on food security and nutrition. 

Modelled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), HLPE enjoys a high degree of legitimacy with its constituents, which include governments, civil society, private sector, and UN agencies. It provides high-quality, independent and impartial scientific evidence to CFS – UN’s foremost intergovernmental and multistakeholder platform on food security and nutrition through reports and issue papers that serve as the bases for CFS policy products, which are adopted implemented by its members and stakeholders.

HLPE is governed by a steering committee of 15 scientists drawn from academia, research institutions, the public and private sector, civil society and other constituencies. This Committee works with an extensive network of over 2,000 experts from a variety of academic disciplines. Membership to the Steering Committee is renewed every two years through an open nomination process that is based on scientific excellence. 

The next 15 members (eight women and seven men) are renowned scientists from Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, UK, Uruguay, and USA. More information on the Steering Committee members, including their biographies, can be found here.

Run of show:

• Welcome and introduction by Chris Hegadorn, Secretary, Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
• Overview of the work of HLPE by Martin Cole, Chairperson, HLPE Steering Committee
• "Role of science in fighting hunger and malnutrition: Need for a strengthened HLPE as the UN’s unique science-policy interface platform for food security and nutrition" by Ismahane Elouafi, FAO Chief-Scientist
• Presentation of the new Steering Committee membership by Martin Cole
• Q&A

HLPE Steering Committee members were also present at the press conference.

Contacts:

For more information and for interview requests, please contact Waiganjo Njoroge, CFS Head of Communications at [email protected] or +254 723 857 270

Please visit the HLPE website for more information: http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/en/