Carlos E. Arce is a lawyer and development economist with over 30 years of experience working on issues of agricultural productivity and risk management. After working with various international agencies on agriculture and rural development, Carlos joined the World Bank addressing issues related to agricultural risk analysis, weather index-based insurance, and risk mapping applications. Today, he works as a consultant advising developing economies in agriculture policy and the design of agriculture risk management strategies and applications.
Åsa Giertz has led risk management work in Africa, Asia, and Central Asia, and support countries in identifying systemic risks and risk management mechanisms for their agriculture sectors.
Ms. Giertz has worked with agricultural development in the World Bank for the past nine years in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Central and South Asia regions. Her main focus is agricultural policy and she has contributed to numerous World Bank publications, including the 2013 flagship report Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential for Agribusiness, as well as supported a wide range of World Bank-financed investment projects.
Before joining the World Bank, Ms. Giertz worked for two years for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unite Nations (FAO) in Rome, and before that for the Swedish Private Sector and for the Swedish Ministry of the Environment. Ms. Giertz has a M.Sc. in Macro and Development Economics from the Stockholm University and a M.Sc. in Food and Nutrition Policy from City University London.
Sanna-Liisa Taivalmaa is the Senior Gender Specialist in the Agriculture Global Practice of the World Bank. Prior to joining the Bank, she was the Senior Advisor for Agriculture and Rural Development in Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. She has dealt with a variety of gender issues in agriculture, food security, rural development, and relief operations both at policy and field-level while working in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and a private consultant company. Sanna holds a Master’s degree in Agriculture and Forestry from the University of Helsinki. She has also studied tropical agriculture at the Universidad de Costa Rica and horticulture at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.