A unique global dialogue about food: WURld Dialogue

Australian mathematician, writer and performer Simon Pampena will host the talk show. Just as he talks about maths with a good dose of humour, he will also ensure that this online dialogue won’t fail to entertain.

Martien van Nieuwkoop from the Netherlands is the Director for Agriculture Global Practice at the World Bank in Washington, USA. Nieuwkoop graduated from Wageningen University & Research in 1988 as a development economist. After two years at CIMMYT he started his position as agricultural economist at the World Bank. He has worked in Africa, South America and South Asia and understands the global discourses of the agricultural sector. He is also committed to improving the position of farmers. In a recent blog about the importance of climate-smart agriculture, Van Nieuwkoop emphasised that governments must use their policy and information activities to reach all parties involved, especially the farmers who form the front line of the food system.

Chun-Ming Liu from China is the Director General of the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agriculural Sciences. He is an expert in seed development and worked for the plant sciences group of Wageningen University & Research as a senior researcher from 1999 until 2005.

Arthur Mol from the Netherlands was appointed Rector Magnificus of Wageningen University & Research in 2015 and is an alumnus of the university. He completed his degree here in Environmental Protection in 1985 and completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Up until his appointment as Rector Magnificus, he was a professor of Environmental Policy at Wageningen University & Research for fifteen years and also spent time in China and Malaysia as a visiting professor. His most important research themes included globalisation, sustainable production and consumption and urban environmental policy. His research touched on topics such as how and in which format information can influence policy and how relevant administrators and other actors can use this information to steer policy.

Laurent G. Sédogo from Burkina Faso is a former government minister and WUR alumnus and has been involved with participation and rural development in his various positions. He completed his master’s degree in Geo-Information Science (GIS) at WUR in 1995 and his PhD in 2002 in which he combined local participation and regional planning for resource management with GIS. As a government minister in Burkina Faso, Sédogo served as the Minister of Farmers' Cooperative Action from 1988 to 1990, Minister of the Environment and Quality of Life from 2004 to 2008 and Minister of Agriculture, Water and Fisheries Resources from 2008 to 2013. After this he spent three years at the head of the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL). Currently Sédogo is the Director of the Dreyer Stiftung in Burkina Faso which helps alleviate poverty amongst the people in the Dano region.

Ruben G. Echeverría from Uruguay has no history at WUR but is certainly familiar with this domain. Echeverría is the General Director of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia which researches the improvement of food security, markets and resilience of natural systems around the world. Earlier in his career, the graduate agronomist worked on land reform, improving agricultural research and policy in Asia, Africa and South America, and setting up projects and funds for agricultural and rural development at the Inter-American Development Bank. From 2004 to 2009, he led the Scientific Council of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).