The Steering Committee of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) has selected a new Chair for the period 2013-2016: Mr Juan Lucas Restrepo Ibiza, from Colombia.  Following an open and competitive search process, Mr Restrepo was selected by the multi-stakeholder GFAR Steering Committee during its 28^th meeting, held in Istanbul last week and he takes up the role with immediate effect.

 

Mr Restrepo has an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University and has great administrative experience in the public, private and producer federation sectors, where he has addressed various issues ranging from policy making to entrepreneurial development, strategies, planning, institutional change and project design and execution.

 

Mr Restrepo is the Executive Director of Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria (CORPOICA), the Colombian National Agricultural Research Corporation. CORPOICA is a decentralized public entity working through commissioned services, generating scientific knowledge and technological solutions through research, innovation, technology transfer and training of extension agents, for the benefit of the agricultural sector.

 

He previously served as Vice-Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia, has been Board Chair for the CGIAR Centre CIAT and was one of the lead negotiators of the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United States.  He served previously as chief commercial officer for the Colombian National Federation of Coffee Growers. In the private sector he has worked for Tetra Tech, Inc., as Business Development Manager for the Andean and Caribbean regions at Syngenta, and has served as a food marketing consultant.

 

Outgoing Chair Professor Monty Jones strongly welcomed Mr Restrepo’s appointment, saying that in coming to their decision, the Steering Committee members: “Recognized Mr Restrepo’s highly relevant spread of senior experience in diverse sectors and the dynamism and change he has clearly brought to agricultural innovation in Colombia. These are highly relevant skills as GFAR stands poised to play a vital global role in the transformation and practical strengthening of agricultural research, extension, education and enterprise towards achieving development outcomes around the world.”

 

In a short video he made as part of the selection process, Mr Restrepo highlighted, among other aspects, his commitment to the work of GFAR in now delivering the changes set out in the GCARD Roadmap into practical impacts on the ground. He emphasized the need for close linkage between the role of the Global Forum and that of major institutions such as the CGIAR, towards their shared objectives, making use of the GCARD meetings as milestones by which all concerned can track and share their progress; a “moment of truth in the flow of process” towards greater impacts from agricultural innovation in development (Watch the video here).

 

 

The Steering Committee also appointed Hon. Prof. Ruth Oniang’o as Vice-Chair of GFAR from the start of October 2013, when she will succeed the current Vice-Chair, Dr Claudio Barriga of Chile.

 

A graduate of Washington State University and the University of Nairobi, Prof Oniang’o was formerly Professor of Food Science & Nutrition at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, Nairobi. She was the first nutrition professor in Kenya and probably the first woman professor in this field in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. She is widely recognized as an authority in nutrition; over a remarkable and multifaceted career she has influenced the development of nutrition training, research and development discourse in much of Africa.

 

Prof Oniang’o is always at the forefront of policy debate and practical change in matters of healthcare, agricultural research, food and nutrition security. She previously took a sabbatical period for five years from her university career to hold senior office as a Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister for Education, Science and Technology in Kenya. She has served on a number of National Committees and Commissions including the Poverty Eradication Commission, the National Food Policy Committee, the World Food Summit and International Conference on Nutrition Committee, the National Standards Board, Early Childhood Development Committee, and Taskforce on Laws affecting Women and Children.

 

Twenty years ago she was also inspired to found Rural Outreach Africa, a grassroots-based development organization connecting research with rural communities to improve the livelihoods of poor rural people and which now runs rural development programmes in agriculture, gender, education, health, water and sanitation.

 

She is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, which she established to provide an avenue for publishing scholarly works by African scholars and others with interest in issues related to food, agriculture, nutrition and development and to serve as a capacity building effort for budding academics from around the world. 

 

Prof Oniang’o has also frequently served as a Board member of important international institutions, including the IFDC, IRRI, CIAT and Harvest Plus. She is Board Chair of the Sasakawa Africa Association (in which she succeeded its founder, the late Dr Norman Borlaug) and Sasakawa Fund for Extension Education, both of which are organizations mandated to assist smallholder farmers to enhance their livelihoods through agriculture. More details of her extensive experience are available here.