WEBINAR: Preventing a health crisis from becoming a food crisis, learning from the COVID-19 pandemic experience: What role can partnerships between FAO and academic institutions play?

1 July 2020.  Preventing a health crisis from becoming a food crisis,

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic experience: What role can partnerships between FAO and academic institutions play? Academia Perspectives Roundtable.

Recording forthcoming

The purpose of this virtual event was to create a forum for partners from academic and research institutions, Member representatives, and FAO staff to engage in an open dialogue to better understand opportunities for leveraging partnerships to help prevent a health crisis from turning into a food crisis, learning from the COVID-19 pandemic experience.

• Marcela Villarreal, Director, Partnerships Division, FAO, Moderator
• Opening remarks, Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General, FAO
• Setting the Scene, H.E. Mohammad Hossein Emadi, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to FAO and Rome-Based Agencies

Panelists

• Dr Patrick Stover, Vice Chancellor, Texas A&M AgriLife; Dean, Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Director, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Texas A and M University System (United States).
• Dr Shenggen Fan, former DG of International Food Policy Research Institute; Chair Professor and Leader of National Innovation Team on Food Economics and Policy, China Agricultural University.
• Dr Harold Roy-Macauley, Director General, AfricaRice Center (Cote d’Ivoire).
• Prof. Louise Fresco, President of the Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands).
  The current crisis is highlighting the role of science in society. There is a need to underweight with research  the trade offs in for example the shadows of shortening the food chains (and not having the needed food safety check)
  
  The academic world has excellent young researchers which have new competencies and are conversant with technology and such expertise could respond to the need of  scientific evidence based on (big) data). 
  
  FAO has to bring together academia, private sector and policy.
  
  
• Dr Pascal Bergeret, Director of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier, International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), (France).