The Secretariat of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR) has the pleasure of announcing that our leadership structure is now complete, with the onboarding of Prof. Dr. Hildegard Lingnau as Executive Secretary on July 1st.

Hildegard will take responsibility for the efficient functioning of the GFAR Secretariat and make sure that the Secretariat supports partners in GFAR's collective advocacy and actions - with particular attention to the voices and needs of farmers - to strengthen and transform agri-food innovation systems and processes.

Hildegard Lingnau is a development professional with more than 30 years of experience in research, policy development and management positions in institutions and countries all over the world: with one of the top ten sustainable development think tanks (German Development Institute, GDI), with governments in Latin America, Africa, Asia and in the Arab World, with German government and implementing organizations (BMZ, AA & GIZ) and with international organizations (WFP, OECD).

Before joining the GFAR, Hildegard served as WFP Deputy / Acting Country Director in Palestine (2/2019-6/2021), as Head of German Development Cooperation for Kenya and Somalia (1/2016-1/2019)  and as A5 Manager with the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) of the OECD (11/2011-12/2015).

Hildegard qualified as a Professor at Siegen University (Habilitation) and holds a PhD (Dr.rer.pol.) in Development Economics and a Masters (Diplom) in Political Sciences from the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin. She also studied at the Institut d’Études Politiques (IEP) Paris, the German University of Administrative Sciences (HfV) Speyer and completed postgraduate studies at the German Development Institute (DIE).

Hildegard is a member of the Advisory Board of the UNU Institute for National Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), the Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) and the German Association of University Professors (DHV).

Welcome to the team Hildegard!