Strategic Advisory Board

David Howlett (Chairperson)

Head of Policy, Global Resilience Partnership

David is working on policy and investment changes needed for people living in least developed countries to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change and other environmental risks. He has 35 years’ experience, including the last 16 years at UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), in climate smart agriculture policy, research and development across Africa, Asia and the Pacific. He has an academic background in chemistry, soil sciences, agriculture and environmental management.

Barbara Adolph

Principal Researcher, International Institute for Environment and Development

Barbara currently leads IIED’s Agroecology team and the GCRF GROW project Sentinel. She has over 25 years of experience in the design, implementation and review of research and development programmes for sustainable smallholder farming systems, working with and advised government agencies, research organisations, civil society organisations and donors.

Daniel McGonigle

Research Initiative Manager, Bioversity International

Daniel McGonigle works at the science-policy interface on the sustainable management of agricultural land. Before joining Bioversity, Dan worked for nine years at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in London, where he oversaw research and provided scientific and technical advice to policy makers on the impacts of farming on water, soil, air, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity.

Francesco Tubiello

Team Leader, Agri-Environmental Statistics, Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization (United Nations)

Francesco has 25 years’ experience in sustainable development and building capacity in environmental-economics for majority world countries. His main area of expertise is in assessing the linkages between agriculture, food security and climate change. At FAO, he leads data collection, analysis and dissemination of FAOSTAT data on land use, fertilizers, pesticides, greenhouse gas emissions, and agri-environmental indicators.

Lorenzo Giovanni Bellù

Team Leader, Senior Economist – Global Perspectives Studies Team, FAO.

Lorenzo has a PHD in Economic Policy and brings more than 20 years of experience at FAO UN. His key areas of expertise include: global and country-level long-term development processes and related implications for food and agriculture; socio-economic and environmental impact assessment of policies; policy impact analysis by means of Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) and other quantitative analysis tools.

Nalishebo Meebelo

National CAADP Expert (Zambia), PEMConsult

Dr Meebelo is the National Expert for Zambia in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). She has been advancing the CAADP processes at African regional and continental levels for more than a decade and is involved in domesticating the 2014 African Union (AU) Malabo Declaration. She holds a BA in Economics, an MBA and PhD in Business Studies.