CFS appoints Experts’ Steering Committee
Will help reach better decisions on hunger
Rome, 3 September 2010 – The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has appointed 15 world-class experts to form the Steering Committee that will lead its new advisory body, the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE). The move is part of an ongoing reform of the international governance of food security and nutrition.
The Steering Committee will appoint ad-hoc expert teams to provide independent expert knowledge on food security-related topics. Its function will be to assess and analyze the current state of food security and nutrition and its underlying causes and provide scientific and knowledge-based analysis and advice on specific policy-relevant issues.
Varied backgrounds
Steering Committee Members were appointed by the CFS, an inter-governmental body of the UN, under an international nomination process. They come from a wide range of backgrounds related to food security and will serve for two years (see the full list of members below).
The CFS Plenary Session from 11-16 October will decide on a first list of topics to be commissioned from the HLPE for analysis.
The CFS was opened up to a wider group of stakeholders under a reform carried out last year to make it more effective, while its ability to promote policies that reduce food insecurity was also increased. Another objective of the reform was to ensure that the CFS based its decisions on food security on high-quality scientific knowledge and advice.
Better decisions
The Chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security, Noel De Luna, said: "The constitution of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition is an essential step toward better decisions on how to fight hunger and malnutrition and promote agricultural and rural development worldwide."
Steering Committee Members are:
Catherine Bertini (United States), former Executive Director, World Food Programme.
Derek Byerlee (Australia), Chairman of the Standing Panel on Impact Evaluation of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (Ethiopia), Director General of the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia.
Lawrence Haddad (United Kingdom), Director of the UK Institute of Development Studies.
Sheryl Lee Hendriks (South Africa), researcher at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Alain de Janvry (France), Professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Renato Maluf (Brazil), Associate Professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio Janeiro and President of the National Council of Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil.
Mona Mehrez Aly (Egypt), director of the Animal Health Research Institute of Egypt.
Carlos Perez del Castillo (Uruguay,) Chairman of the Consortium of CGIAR centres.
Roelof Rabbinge (Netherlands), Professor at the Wagenigen University in the Netherlands and Chairman of the Science Council of the CGIAR.
Maryam Rahmanian (Iran), research associate at the Centre for Sustainable Development in Iran.
Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (India), agricultural scientist acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century.
Huajun Tang (China), research professor and Vice-President of the Chinese Academy
of Agricultural Sciences.
Igor Tikhonovich (Russia), Director of the All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology at the Russian Federation.
Niracha Wongchinda (Thailand), senior fishery expert.
The Steering Committee will appoint ad-hoc expert teams to provide independent expert knowledge on food security-related topics. Its function will be to assess and analyze the current state of food security and nutrition and its underlying causes and provide scientific and knowledge-based analysis and advice on specific policy-relevant issues.
Varied backgrounds
Steering Committee Members were appointed by the CFS, an inter-governmental body of the UN, under an international nomination process. They come from a wide range of backgrounds related to food security and will serve for two years (see the full list of members below).
The CFS Plenary Session from 11-16 October will decide on a first list of topics to be commissioned from the HLPE for analysis.
The CFS was opened up to a wider group of stakeholders under a reform carried out last year to make it more effective, while its ability to promote policies that reduce food insecurity was also increased. Another objective of the reform was to ensure that the CFS based its decisions on food security on high-quality scientific knowledge and advice.
Better decisions
The Chairperson of the Committee on World Food Security, Noel De Luna, said: "The constitution of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition is an essential step toward better decisions on how to fight hunger and malnutrition and promote agricultural and rural development worldwide."
Steering Committee Members are:
Catherine Bertini (United States), former Executive Director, World Food Programme.
Derek Byerlee (Australia), Chairman of the Standing Panel on Impact Evaluation of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (Ethiopia), Director General of the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia.
Lawrence Haddad (United Kingdom), Director of the UK Institute of Development Studies.
Sheryl Lee Hendriks (South Africa), researcher at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Alain de Janvry (France), Professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Renato Maluf (Brazil), Associate Professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio Janeiro and President of the National Council of Food and Nutrition Security in Brazil.
Mona Mehrez Aly (Egypt), director of the Animal Health Research Institute of Egypt.
Carlos Perez del Castillo (Uruguay,) Chairman of the Consortium of CGIAR centres.
Roelof Rabbinge (Netherlands), Professor at the Wagenigen University in the Netherlands and Chairman of the Science Council of the CGIAR.
Maryam Rahmanian (Iran), research associate at the Centre for Sustainable Development in Iran.
Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (India), agricultural scientist acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century.
Huajun Tang (China), research professor and Vice-President of the Chinese Academy
of Agricultural Sciences.
Igor Tikhonovich (Russia), Director of the All-Russia Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology at the Russian Federation.
Niracha Wongchinda (Thailand), senior fishery expert.
CFS Chair Noel De Luna
