January 29, 2020

Paul Winters, Associate Vice-President, Strategy and Knowledge Department

Thouraya Triki, Director of IFAD’s Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division

Paul Winters is Associate Vice-President, Strategy and Knowledge Department at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome, and has been with IFAD since 2015. From 2004-2015, he was a Professor in the Department of Economics at American University in Washington, DC, where he taught courses on impact evaluation, development economics, and environmental economics. Before American University, he worked at the International Potato Center in Lima Peru, the University of New England in Australia, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)in Washington, DC. He has published numerous journal articles, working papers, and book chapters in the areas of impact evaluation, migration, cash transfer programs, rural development, and smallholder agriculture. He has conducted field work and managed surveys in the Philippines, Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, and Kenya. From 2008 to 2015, he provided technical support to the Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness at the Inter-American Development Bank, helping design impact evaluations for IDB-funded projects.

Thouraya Triki is the Director of IFAD’s Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division. Before joining IFAD, Triki worked at the African Development Bank (AfDB) as Manager in the Microeconomics, Institutions and Development Impact Division, Chief Economist Complex, at its headquarters in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. She managed the division’s knowledge products as well as a team providing support to AfDB’s non-sovereign lending operations. From 2013 to 2017, she was Chief Country Economist at AfDB North Africa Regional Department based in Tunis, Tunisia, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship, public-private partnerships and financial sector development. She also played a leading role in setting up the AfDB PPP Hub for North Africa. From 2008 to 2013 Triki held a senior and then principal economist position at AfDB’s research department where she was part of the Additionality and Development Outcome Assessment (ADOA) team. Before joining the AfDB, Triki spent about 10 years in various positions in academia – teaching finance in Canada, France and Tunisia, and managing and consulting with private sector businesses. Triki holds a PhD in finance from HEC Montréal.

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April 23, 2019

The FAES Dean and the Managing Director of the Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security hosted the 5th Canada Food Brand Lab on April 23rd, 2019. This lab delved more fully into the relevance of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and adoption of global responsible investing principles to our consideration of the Canada food brand. The participants questioned whether this global change agenda to improve the well-being of people and the planet could influence the way Canada stewards its trusted food brand.

The Lab’s Outcome:

• The “sustainability” of Canada’s food production practices will be increasingly judged by global standards and metrics which, in turn, could affect Canada’s market access, national reputation and access to capital.
• The SDGs establish a global benchmark for sustainability that does not necessarily reflect the Canadian farming context but is shaping how others abroad may increasingly characterize Canada’s food image.
• Canada is not fully defending itself abroad by developing an updated narrative on its sustainability story. A lack of a good metrics framework, shared across its supply chains, is inhibiting this. In part, this may be enabled by deploying an SDG strategy for Canada’s agri-food sector.
• Institutional investors could become a major change agent. They are already assessing sustainability risk more rigorously and are setting bold portfolio targets to reduce carbon exposure. Eventually, they could assess how the food sector contributes to population health outcomes. By investing in agri-food companies based on new environmental, social and governance standards of responsibility, global and domestic pension funds could catalyze significant change across the agri-food sector.

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November 26, 2018

Nadia Ponce Morales, Talent Acquisition and Business Development Manager, EQWIP HUBs

Nadia Ponce Morales has more than 12 years of experience in the international development sector and she is passionate about advancing youth engagement.

As a founding member of the EQWIP HUBs project design team, she’s currently developing new partnerships and initiatives to attract young talent to one of 12 EQWIP HUBs innovation centers located in Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Peru, Tanzania and Senegal. The unique setting of EQWIP HUBs allows Canadian students and graduates with different levels of experience to share their knowledge and talent to solving the increasingly complex issue of youth unemployment and underemployment.

Having previously worked for global leaders in sustainable development, including Canada World Youth and SUCO, Nadia has successfully used her knowledge and expertise to create initiatives and projects that benefit young people and women in more than 15 countries. Nadia holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and a Graduate Diploma in Management and Sustainable Development. She is an alumna of the Governor General’s Canadian Conference on Leadership.

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October 12, 2017

Global Agri Connect is a flagship programme of National Skills Foundation of India (NSFI) organized every year. Global Agri Connects held in 2011, 2012, and 2013 were marked highly successful platforms where in GAC 2011 was organised on ‘Transformational Changes in Indian Agriculture: The Next Decade’, GAC 2012 was organised on ‘Hi-value Agriculture: A Gateway to farm prosperity’ and GAC 2013 on ‘Evolving Skill Dimensions: The lever to agricultural growth’. Every year the event brings together various stakeholders like corporate bodies, department of agriculture and various other government bodies to discuss and deliberate on various perspectives of agriculture that can protect the country from the trends of declining production & productivity. 

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September 24-27, 2017 - Québec, QC

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September 17-21, 2017 – Montréal, QC

Organized annually by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger, this five-day event brought together nearly 300 leaders from 50 countries, hailing from the political, humanitarian, community and institutional realms. The mission of the Forum was to help governments around the world build national school meal programs that are locally-sourced and country-operated. Attendees took part in various workshops and conferences designed to:

• Build the capacity of governments to implement national school meal programs;
• Engage businesses to strengthen supply chains and increase political will for school meal programs; and
• Strengthen the field – among non-profits, schools and researchers – to raise awareness and ensure strong support and resourcing for school meal programs.

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