Globally, agriculture is facing multiple challenges, including an increasing demand for food to feed a growing population, diminishing yields, and the degradation of natural resources and decline of biodiversity as a result of human activity. In addition, the impacts of climate change are posing new threats to the world’s farmers and our food systems.
Preparing the agriculture sector and building the resilience of small-scale farmers will not be possible without significant increases in climate finance. But it’s not only about increasing the cash flows – it’s also about ensuring they actually reach the small-scale farmers, small and medium enterprises, and cooperatives on the front lines of our food systems.
This second of three events hosted by IFAD and Devex will shine a light on the needs of small-scale farmers in the face of climate change, as well as the barriers hindering them from accessing climate finance. The session will also present key findings from a new joint report by IFAD and the Climate Policy Initiative tracking climate finance flows down to the level of small-scale producers.
David was a Lecturer in Nutrition and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (1982-1985) and Senior Lecturer in Health Systems at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (1985-1989). He joined the United Kingdom Government Foreign Office (Overseas Development Administration) as Senior Health Adviser for East Africa (1989–1990) and Chief Health and Population Adviser (1990-1997). He became Director for Human Development in the UK Department for International Development (DFID, 1997–1999). In 1999 David moved into the United Nations system starting as an Executive Director at the World Health Organization responsible for the Roll Back Malaria Project and the Office of the Director-General. He was Special Representative of the WHO Director-General for Health Action in Crises (2002-2005). He was then appointed as UN System Senior Coordinator for Avian and Pandemic Influenza (2005-2014), United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition (2008-2014), Coordinator of the Movement for Scaling Up Nutrition (2011-2014, as Assistant Secretary-General), UN S-G’s Special Envoy for the West Africa Ebola Outbreak Response (2014-2015), and UN S-G’s Special Adviser for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change (2016 – 2017,as Under-Secretary-General)). He was appointed, by the Director-General of WHO, as chair of the expert group on the reform of WHO’s work on outbreaks and emergencies in 2015. In October 2018, David received the World Food Prize together with Lawrence Haddad for leadership on nutrition.
David is currently Co-Director (since mid-2019) and Chair of Global Health at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College, London. He is Strategic Director of the Swiss-based social enterprise 4SD (Skills Systems and Synergies for Sustainable Development), established in 2017, training and mentoring leaders for sustainable development. Since June 2018 David has curated the Food Systems Dialogues as a contribution to the transformation of food systems: they have involved more than 1700 leaders in 29 locations within the last 18 months. From July 2018 David contributed to preparations for the UN’s September 2019 Climate Action Summit. David co-facilitated the coalition that advanced the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) workstream (co-led by China and New Zealand). David is co-chair of the forum on Climate Change and Health which will complete its work at the World Innovation Summit for Health, November 2020. From March 2020, David is appointed Special Envoy of WHO Director General on COVID-19.
Kamal Khera was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Brampton West in 2015.
A registered nurse, community volunteer, and political activist, Ms. Khera is passionate about improving the lives of those around her.
A first generation Canadian, Ms. Khera immigrated to Canada from Delhi, India, at a very young age. She attended York University where she earned an Honours Bachelors of Science in Psychology and an Honours Bachelors of Science in Nursing.
Drawn to helping others, Ms. Khera gained diverse experience in the health care field through her professional experience with the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, Peel Family Shelter, and William Osler Health System. Recently, she worked as a registered nurse in the oncology unit at St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto, which gave her a deep understanding of the issues that impact individuals every day.
Ms. Khera is an active member of her community. She previously served as chairperson of South Asian Canadians Heritage Foundation, a mentor and program coordinator with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peel, and an event coordinator with Sick Kids Foundation. She also hosted Youth Vision, a local TV talk show that explored issues surrounding young South Asian Canadians.
Director, Policy Unit, Irish-Aid
Michelle Winthrop is the Climate and Resilience Policy Lead within Irish Aid, the official Development Cooperation agency of the Irish Government. She is also a LEG member. Prior to joining Irish Aid, Michelle was Director of Programmes for Farm Africa, a British NGO working with on agriculture, forestry and market development in Africa. Michelle has also worked for many years before that as an adviser within the UK’s Department for International Development, in the UK, on secondment to the World Bank, and overseas. Michelle has worked and lived in Indonesia, Nicaragua, and for a long number of years in Ethiopia. Michelle has experience and expertise in climate change adaptation, smallholder agriculture, natural resource management, market-based approaches to development, gender and inclusion, and food security/vulnerability.
Honorable Professor Ruth Khasaya Oniang’o, PhD, SS (Silver Star), DSM (Distinguished Service Medal) has taught at Tertiary level since 1978 and received her 1st and 2nd degrees from Washington State University, Pullman, USA in 1972 and 1974, and her PhD from the University of Nairobi, Kenya in 1983.
From 1978-1990 Professor Oniang’o was a distinguished academic at Jomo Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya becoming the first Nutrition professor in Kenya and probably the first woman Nutrition professor in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. She has influenced the development of Nutrition training, research, development and discourse in much of Africa and has participated in consultations and on committees at the international level whose decisions have shaped global food security and nutrition.
Meike van Ginneken is the Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department at IFAD.
Prior to joining IFAD in October 2020, van Ginneken was Chief Executive Officer of the SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, a leading development organisation with 1,400 specialized staff working on agriculture, energy and water in 28 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Previously, she held various leadership positions in the water, agriculture and energy sectors during sixteen years at the World Bank in Washington D.C. and in field offices. Among others she managed the World Bank’s South Asia water programme of over US$5 billion and the World Bank’s US$4 billion energy programme in West and Central Africa.
She holds an MSc in change management from HEC Paris Business School in France and an MSc in water management from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
Dr. Barbara Buchner is Global Managing Director of Climate Policy Initiative, and also the Executive Director of its widely renowned Climate Finance program. Named one of the 20 most influential women in climate change and one of the 100 most influential people in climate policy, Barbara advises leaders on climate, energy, and land use investments around the world.
Barbara directs the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab) and its sister programs in Brazil and India. The Lab’s public-private approach solicits, shapes, and tests cutting edge climate finance instruments that resolve financing barriers hindering alternative energy, adaptation, and land use projects. Instruments from the Lab have mobilized over 2 billion US dollars for sustainable development in developing countries in just five years.
She is also the lead author on CPI’s Global Landscape of Climate Finance, which has set the benchmark for climate finance tracking, and Climate Finance in 2013-14 and the USD 100 billion goal – a joint report with the OECD that played a seminal role in the lead up to the Paris Agreement. In addition, Barbara built and directs the San Giorgio Group, which brings together key financial institutions actively engaged in green, low-emissions finance in collaboration with the World Bank Group, CLP (China Light & Power), and the OECD.
Barbara regularly speaks at high-profile events as an expert in climate policy and climate finance, and has presented at Climate Week, at the Climate Finance Ministerial, World Future Energy Summit, IRENA Assembly Ministerial Meeting, One Planet Summit, GLOBE Capital, as part of the GCF Private Sector Facility, at COP side-events, and at the BNEF Future of Energy Summit, among many others. She is on the Advisory Board of the BCFN Foundation, the Evaluation Board of the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Energy Innovation Fund, and a member of the One Planet Lab, created by President Macron to identify innovative solutions and actions, create new coalitions, and make specific recommendations on global challenges linked to climate change.
Barbara was promoted from Director to Senior Director in 2013, to Executive Director in 2016, and to Global Managing Director in 2020. Previously Barbara served as a Senior Energy and Environment Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and as a Senior Researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) where she was involved in a number of activities related to FEEM’s Climate Change Policy and Modelling Unit in the field of environmental economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Graz and was a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Originally from Austria, Barbara is based out of San Francisco.