The Diplomat
The Spaniard Gabriel Ferrero was elected on Thursday as the new chairman of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), the main platform within the United Nations system for the fight against hunger.
Ferrero, who is Spain’s ambassador-at-large for food security, was elected by 73 votes out of 121 cast during the 49th session of the CFS.
The government had nominated Ferrero for the post last June, after he was appointed ambassador-at-large in April. Prior to that, he was Director General for Sustainable Development Policies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In announcing his candidacy, the Ministry emphasised that his professional career has been entirely dedicated to sustainable development and international cooperation.
Thus, he participated in the construction of the 2030 Agenda and in the promotion of the Zero Hunger Challenge during his time as advisor to the former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, when he was coordinator of the UN High-Level Task Force on Global Food Security and head of the office of the United Nations Special Representative on the matter.
In addition to being an aid worker, researcher and academic, he is also a professor on leave of absence from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the author of more than 50 publications.
With the participation of civil society and the private sector, the CFS adopts global agreements, guidelines and recommendations on policies, based on scientific evidence, on the most relevant issues for food security and nutrition in the world, explained Foreign Affairs. Its guidelines are submitted to the UN General Assembly and the FAO conference.
