2009 Capitol Hill Forum
A Dialogue:
Advancing Agricultural Development and
Addressing the Global Food Crisis — Present and Future
11:30 am
March 3, 2009
Speakers
Christopher Delgado
Agriculture and Rural Development, Strategy and Policy Advisor, World Bank
Christopher Delgado is the Strategy and Policy Adviser for Agriculture and Rural Development of the World Bank. He also task manages the coordinating Secretariat for the Bank's Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP), which is presently channeling $1.4 billion to 40 countries. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (Chad), university researcher (Michigan) and teacher (Johns Hopkins Nitze SAIS), he came to the Bank in 2006 from nearly 27 years at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where he published extensively on food and agricultural policy. He has held posts in Puerto Rico, Burkina Faso, and Kenya, and also led research projects in a dozen other countries of West, East and Southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. From 2003 until joining the Bank, he was a joint appointee (with IFPRI) of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, where he directed ILRI's Markets Theme.
Josette Lewis
Director, Office of Agriculture, USAID
Josette Lewis was recently appointed Director of the Office of Agriculture, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, USAID, which provides technical leadership to the agency in areas such as technology development and delivery, agribusiness development, and agricultural policy. She has spent fourteen years in the central technical bureaus of USAID (currently EGAT) working on programs in the agriculture sector. Prior to becoming Director of the Office of Agriculture, Dr. Lewis served as the Agency's Senior Biotechnology Advisor for eleven years, overseeing USAID's biotechnology activities globally, with an emphasis on Africa. Dr. Lewis joined USAID as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Technology and Diplomacy Fellow working on farmer-participatory sustainable agriculture research. Dr. Lewis has also managed an Israeli-Arab collaborative research grants program.
Congresswoman Betty McCollum
(D-MN): House Appropriations Committee, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Congresswoman Betty McCollum is a Democrat, serving her fifth term in Congress representing Minnesota's Fourth District. As a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, she is a strong supporter of investments that reduce extreme poverty and hunger, while improving the status and health of women and children around the world. She works to promote effective U.S. leadership in confronting the global AIDS pandemic, and is an active supporter of the Peace Corps. Throughout her public career, Betty McCollum has been a champion for excellence in education, protecting the environment, expanding health care access and fiscal responsibility. She works to defend workers' rights and civil liberties at home, while ensuring human rights are protected around the world. In addition to her work on the House Committee on Appropriations, she also serves on the House Budget Committee. She is Senior Democratic Whip within the House Democratic Caucus.
Cheryl Morden
Director, NALO, IFAD
Cheryl Morden Cheryl Morden is the Director of the North American Liaison Office of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In that capacity, she works to mobilize resources, influence policy, and build partnerships on behalf of IFAD's efforts to enable the rural poor to overcome poverty. Prior to joining IFAD, she served as Director of Policy and Communications for the International Center for Research on Women. Until 1998, she was the Associate Director for Development Policy for Church World Service and Lutheran World Relief. She has managed policy advocacy initiatives and education and mobilization campaigns involving coalitions of non-governmental and international organizations on a variety of international development issues, including foreign aid reform, hunger and food security, and gender and development.
Robert Paarlberg
Professor, Wellesley College and Harvard University, representing the Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Robert Paarlberg is the Betty Freyhof Johnson '44 Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, and a Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has consulted on African agriculture recently for IFPRI, USAID, COMESA, the Department of State, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Paarlberg is also a member of the Board of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Research Council and has published books on agricultural trade negotiations, environmentally sustainable farming, U.S. foreign economic policy, the reform of U.S. agricultural policy, and policies toward genetically modified crops. His latest book (2008) is titled "Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa."
Connie Veillette
Senior Professional Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Connie Veillette currently serves as a Senior Professional Staff Member for Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind) on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Previously, she was a Specialist in Foreign Assistance at the Congressional Research Service, where she researched foreign aid issues and advised Congress on policy options. She began her public service working for a Member of the House Appropriations Committee in a variety of capacities, the last 10 years as Chief of Staff. She is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University teaching classes in International Relations, Legislative Politics, and Congress and Foreign Policy. She is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School Program for Senior Government Managers, and the Stennis Center Congressional Staff Fellows Program. In 1999, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded her the Verdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit).
Agriculture and Rural Development, Strategy and Policy Advisor, World Bank
Christopher Delgado is the Strategy and Policy Adviser for Agriculture and Rural Development of the World Bank. He also task manages the coordinating Secretariat for the Bank's Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP), which is presently channeling $1.4 billion to 40 countries. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (Chad), university researcher (Michigan) and teacher (Johns Hopkins Nitze SAIS), he came to the Bank in 2006 from nearly 27 years at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where he published extensively on food and agricultural policy. He has held posts in Puerto Rico, Burkina Faso, and Kenya, and also led research projects in a dozen other countries of West, East and Southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. From 2003 until joining the Bank, he was a joint appointee (with IFPRI) of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya, where he directed ILRI's Markets Theme.
Josette Lewis
Director, Office of Agriculture, USAID
Josette Lewis was recently appointed Director of the Office of Agriculture, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, USAID, which provides technical leadership to the agency in areas such as technology development and delivery, agribusiness development, and agricultural policy. She has spent fourteen years in the central technical bureaus of USAID (currently EGAT) working on programs in the agriculture sector. Prior to becoming Director of the Office of Agriculture, Dr. Lewis served as the Agency's Senior Biotechnology Advisor for eleven years, overseeing USAID's biotechnology activities globally, with an emphasis on Africa. Dr. Lewis joined USAID as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Technology and Diplomacy Fellow working on farmer-participatory sustainable agriculture research. Dr. Lewis has also managed an Israeli-Arab collaborative research grants program.
Congresswoman Betty McCollum
(D-MN): House Appropriations Committee, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Congresswoman Betty McCollum is a Democrat, serving her fifth term in Congress representing Minnesota's Fourth District. As a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, she is a strong supporter of investments that reduce extreme poverty and hunger, while improving the status and health of women and children around the world. She works to promote effective U.S. leadership in confronting the global AIDS pandemic, and is an active supporter of the Peace Corps. Throughout her public career, Betty McCollum has been a champion for excellence in education, protecting the environment, expanding health care access and fiscal responsibility. She works to defend workers' rights and civil liberties at home, while ensuring human rights are protected around the world. In addition to her work on the House Committee on Appropriations, she also serves on the House Budget Committee. She is Senior Democratic Whip within the House Democratic Caucus.
Cheryl Morden
Director, NALO, IFAD
Cheryl Morden Cheryl Morden is the Director of the North American Liaison Office of the International Fund for Agricultural Development. In that capacity, she works to mobilize resources, influence policy, and build partnerships on behalf of IFAD's efforts to enable the rural poor to overcome poverty. Prior to joining IFAD, she served as Director of Policy and Communications for the International Center for Research on Women. Until 1998, she was the Associate Director for Development Policy for Church World Service and Lutheran World Relief. She has managed policy advocacy initiatives and education and mobilization campaigns involving coalitions of non-governmental and international organizations on a variety of international development issues, including foreign aid reform, hunger and food security, and gender and development.
Robert Paarlberg
Professor, Wellesley College and Harvard University, representing the Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Robert Paarlberg is the Betty Freyhof Johnson '44 Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, and a Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has consulted on African agriculture recently for IFPRI, USAID, COMESA, the Department of State, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Paarlberg is also a member of the Board of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Research Council and has published books on agricultural trade negotiations, environmentally sustainable farming, U.S. foreign economic policy, the reform of U.S. agricultural policy, and policies toward genetically modified crops. His latest book (2008) is titled "Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa."
Connie Veillette
Senior Professional Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Connie Veillette currently serves as a Senior Professional Staff Member for Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind) on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Previously, she was a Specialist in Foreign Assistance at the Congressional Research Service, where she researched foreign aid issues and advised Congress on policy options. She began her public service working for a Member of the House Appropriations Committee in a variety of capacities, the last 10 years as Chief of Staff. She is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University teaching classes in International Relations, Legislative Politics, and Congress and Foreign Policy. She is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School Program for Senior Government Managers, and the Stennis Center Congressional Staff Fellows Program. In 1999, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded her the Verdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit).
