<p>One of Forbes’ “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and <i>TIME’s</i> “100 Most Influential People in the World,” Ertharin Cousin leads the fight to end global hunger – and inspires others to join this critical humanitarian relief effort.</p><p>A globally respected voice on a range of national and international political and humanitarian issues and operations, Ertharin is widely sought for her expertise on food, hunger, community development, and resilience strategies. As executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme from 2009 to 2017, Ertharin guided the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with 14,000 staff serving 80 million beneficiaries in 75 countries meeting urgent food needs—all while championing and serving as a global advocate for longer-term solutions to food insecurity and hunger.</p><p>From 2017 to 2019 Cousin served as the Stanford University Payne Distinguished Lecturer in Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Cousin retains a relationship with Stanford University as a Visiting Scholar in the Freeman Spogli Institute.</p><p>In 2018 and 2019 Cousin with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation initiated and led a research project exploring a theory of change for reducing malnutrition in poor and underserved communities (globally and domestically) through investment in market-based innovation solutions including agtech and foodtech. </p><p>With decades of leadership experience in the nonprofit, government and corporate realms, Ertharin shares her passionate, visionary outlook on a host of issues involving agriculture, food security, and nutrition through the lens of the global political, economic, and social state of affairs. She expertly equips audiences with strategies and knowledge to participate in the vital movement to find long-term solutions to hunger and food insecurity and help vulnerable populations around the world.</p>
Former Executive Director of the World Food Programme and Lecturer and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University
<ul><li><strong>Women's Leadership and Power When Just Leaning In Isn't Good Enough</strong></li><li>The notion that stepping up and pushing forward will open doors falls short for women in the international arena where cultural norms place roadblocks which limit and even curtail opportunities. The way forward requires a very different brand of feminism.</li><li><span style="color: rgb(62, 62, 60);"><strong></span>The Politics of Hunger<span style="color: rgb(62, 62, 60);"></strong></span></li><li>In 2019 approximately 821 million people experienced food insecurity or hunger according to the UN. During this same period, chronic undernutrition stymied the physical and mental development of 150 million children worldwide; while the “silent Hunger” challenge of micronutrient deficiency continued to rise with 2 billion people lacking regular access to adequate vitamins and minerals. At this same time the number of those suffering overweight and obesity alarmingly topped three billion. These numbers represent not only the hunger and malnutrition challenges of the developing world. The developed world, including the US., today faces a health crisis directed related to malnutrition. </li><li>We ask in 2020 how can anyone really be hungry or malnourished? Don’t we grow more than enough food to feed everyone on the planet? Particularly here in America, why doesn’t everyone benefit from a nation endowed with vast agricultural productivity? The data suggests the majority in our society “care” about the hungry and malnourished. Yet the appropriate role of government in addressing the problem historically and today remains steeped in politics. From the question of agricultural subsidies to favored commodities; from rural vs. urban priorities; from race to gender equality and access; from domestic security to foreign policy and our national security interests and finally from international trade and commodity markets to issues of food sovereignty and the right to food. The problems of hunger and malnutrition impact our politics and politics impact the who, when, where and too often even the why hunger and malnutrition persists in our world of plenty.</li></ul>