Leadership
In 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit to raise global awareness and land global commitments and actions that transform food systems to resolve not only hunger, but to reduce diet-related disease and heal the planet. The Secretary-General is calling for collective action of all citizens to radically change the way we produce, process, and consume food.
He has put in place several structures to support the Summit process. Preparations for the Summit are being led by a diverse team of key players in agriculture, policymaking, business, food aid, and indigenous communities.
Updates on the Summit processAdvisory Committee
The Advisory Committee provides strategic guidance and feedback on the Summit’s overall development and implementation. The committee is chaired by the UN Deputy Secretary-General and comprises Member State representatives, as well as senior officials of relevant UN agencies, other international organizations and a wide range of individual experts, including farmers, indigenous peoples, civil society, researchers, academics, young people and business leaders.
Amina Mohammed
Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations, Chair of the Summit Advisory Committee
Ms. Amina J. Mohammed is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group.
Prior to her appointment, Ms. Mohammed served as Minister of Environment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where she steered the country’s efforts on climate action and efforts to protect the natural environment.
Ms. Mohammed first joined the United Nations in 2012 as Special Adviser to former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with the responsibility for post-2015 development planning. She led the process that resulted in global agreement around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Ms. Mohammed began her career working on the design of schools and clinics in Nigeria. She served as an advocate focused on increasing access to education and other social services, before moving into the public sector, where she rose to the position of adviser to three successive Presidents on poverty, public sector reform, and sustainable development.
Ms. Mohammed has been conferred several honorary doctorates and has served as an adjunct professor, lecturing on international development. The recipient of various global awards, Ms Mohammed has served on numerous international advisory boards and panels. She is the mother of six children and has two grandchildren.
Agnes Kalibata
Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit
Chavannes Casseus
Coordinator of Mouvement des Paysans de la 3E Section (MP3K), Haiti
Christine Gould
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Thought for Food, United States
David Beasley
Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)
David Nabarro
Strategic Director, 4SD, United Kingdom
Elizabeth Nsimadala
President, Pan-African Farmers Organization, Uganda (PAFO)
Estrella “Esther” Penunia
Secretary General, Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development, Philippines
Gerda Verburg
Coordinator, Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, Netherlands
Gilbert Houngbo
President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Inger Andersen
Chair, UN Task Force, and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Joachim von Braun
Chair, Scientific Group, and Professor at the University of Bonn, Germany
Myrna Kay Cunningham Kain
President, Fund for Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean (FILAC), Nicaragua
Peter Bakker
President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Netherlands
Qu Dongyu
Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Ruth Richardson
Executive Director, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Canada
Shamshad Akhtar
Former UN Under-Secretary General, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), Pakistan
H.E. Thanawat Tiensin
Chairperson, Committee on World Food Security
Member State Representatives
Ambassador María del Carmen Squeff
Argentina
Ambassador Walton Webson
Antigua and Barbuda
Prof. Nie Fengying
China
Ambassador Satyendra Prasad
Fiji
Ambassador Céline Jurgensen
France
Ambassador Zoltán Kálmán
Hungary
Ambassador Giorgio Marrapodi
Italy
Ambassador Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah Sr
Liberia
Ambassador Omar Hilale
Morocco
Ambassador Victor L. Vasiliev
Russian Federation
Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh
United Arab Emirates
Ms. Jennifer Harhigh, Charge d'Affaires ad interim
United States of America
Scientific Group
The Scientific Group is an independent group of leading researchers and scientists from around the world. Its members are responsible for ensuring the robustness, breadth and independence of the science that underpins the Summit and its outcomes.
Joachim von Braun
Bonn University, ZEF
Joachim Von Braun is the Director of The Center for Development Research (ZEF), at the University of Bonn.
Professor Joachim Von Braun is an economist, with a Doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the University of Göttingen, Germany. He is Professor for Economic and Technological Change at the University of Bonn, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, member of the Academy of Science of North-Rhine Westphalia, of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), of the National German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and of the African Academy of Sciences.
He is also the Vice-President of the NGO “Welthungerhilfe”, Co-Chair of the International Advisory Committee on Bioeconomy, and member of the Board of AGRA and of GAIN. He serves as Chair of the Scientific Group of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021.
Von Braun was Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) based in Washington, DC, USA from 2002 to 2009. His research addresses international and development economics topics, including markets and trade, poverty, health and nutrition, agriculture, and science and technology. He was President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).
Among awards received by Joachim, are a honorary Doctoral degree from the University of Hohenheim, and the Bertebos Prize of the Swedish Academy of Agricultural Sciences for his research on food security, and the Justus von Liebig Prize for his research on international nutrition.
The Science behind the SummitProf. Kaosar Afsana (Vice Chair)
BRAC University
Prof. Louise Fresco (Vice Chair)
Wageningen University & Research
Prof. Mohamed Hassan (Vice Chair)
The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
Dr. Mario Herrero Acosta
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Dr. Ousmane Badiane
Akademiya2063
Prof. Patrick Caron
University of Montpellier
Prof. Martin Cole
Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and HLPE Steering Committee of CFS
Dr. Ismahane Elouafi
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
Prof. Frank Ewert
Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
Prof.em. Lisa Sennerby Forsse
Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA)
Prof. Sheryl Hendriks
University of Pretoria
Prof. Thomas Hertel
Purdue University
Prof.em. Elizabeth Hodson de Jaramillo
Pontifica Universidad Javeriana
Prof. Jikun Huang
Peking University
Dr. Marta Hugas
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
Dr. Andrew Kambugu
Makerere University, Infectious Disease Institute
Prof. Kaoru Kitajima
Kyoto University
Prof. Rattan Lal
Ohio State University
Prof. Hoesung Lee
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Dr. Uma Lele
International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE)
Prof.em. Urs Niggli
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)
Dr. Lynnette Neufeld
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and International Union of Nutrition Scientists (IUNS)
Dr. Claudia Sadoff
CGIAR
Prof. Jean-Francois Soussanae
Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRAE)
Prof. Morakot Tanticharoen
National Science & Technology Development Agency of Thailand (NSTDA)
Prof.em. Aman Wirakartakusumah
Bogor Agricultural University (IPB))
Prof. David Zilbermann
University of California Berkeley
Dr. Maximo Torero
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (ex-officio)
UN Task Force
The Task Force is responsible for ensuring a strategic and coordinated engagement of the UN System throughout the preparatory process to the UN Secretary-General’s Food Systems Summit. Chaired by the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, membership runs across the UN system as well as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organizations. The chair represents the Task Force on the Summit Advisory Committee.
The strategic coordination of the Task Force focuses on mutual learning around existing efforts of participating entities (e.g., programmes, tools, initiatives, knowledge products). It supports the exchange of knowledge and experience gained through the Summit process, particularly through engagement in the action tracks, and will help lead on Summit follow-up.
Inger Andersen
Chair, UN Task Force, and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Inger Andersen was appointed Executive Director of the UNEP by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in February 2019.
Between 2015 and 2019, Ms. Andersen was the Director General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Prior to joining IUCN, Ms Andersen held various leadership roles at the World Bank and United Nations. Most recently, she was Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, and previous to that Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the CGIAR Fund Council. Throughout Ms Andersen’s 15-year career at the World Bank, her managerial roles focused on water, environment, and sustainable development with special emphasis on Africa and the Middle East. Previous to the World Bank, Ms. Andersen worked at the United Nations for 12 years, starting in the UN Sudano-Sahelian Office working on drought and desertification issues, and was then appointed UNDP’s Water and Environment Coordinator for the Arab Region.
Ms Andersen’s educational background includes a BA from London Metropolitan University North and a MA degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London with specialisation in development economics.