Mr Joe Walsh Chairman of the Hunger Task Force

Joe Walsh was T.D. for the West Cork constituency until May 2007 and is the Chairman of the Hunger Task Force. He served as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food from 1987-1992.  He was appointed to the critical Government position of Minister for Agriculture and Food in 1992 and served in this position until 2004. During this period he demonstrated his outstanding leadership abilities while presiding over a period of unprecedented growth and development in the Irish food industry. 

Mr Kevin Farrell, Special Envoy for Hunger

Mr Farrell was educated at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and University College, Swansea. 

Mr Farrell worked for the World Food Programme (WFP) for almost twenty years (from 1989 to 2008) where he has held a number of key positions including Head of Great Lakes Operations in WFP Headquarters in Rome; Head of the WFP in Uganda and Somalia where he managed large and complex programmes; and most recently Head of the WFP in Zimbabwe from 2002 - 2008 where he established and developed one of the largest of the WFP operations in response to the emerging food crisis there.  

Prior to his work with the WFP, Mr Farrell also served as field director with Concern in Bangladesh and as Chief Executive Officer in the ISPCC in Dublin.  He also served as Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the UN Iraq Programme in Iraq and Director of Humanitarian Operations for the same Programme in New York. 

Mr Farrell has an excellent reputation, both nationally and internationally, and has a strong track record on hunger in the development context, particularly in Africa, which receives over 70% of Ireland’s development assistance.  Indeed, he made an invaluable contribution to the work Irish Hunger Task Force in his capacity as Task Force member.  He is well known to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and is very supportive of Ireland’s Aid programme.

Ms Nancy Aburi Development Communications Specialist

Nancy Aburi is currently living and working in her native Nairobi. She was previously the Head of Marketing and Communications at Self Help Development International, an Irish international development agency engaged in promoting and implementing integrated sustainable development programmes in rural Africa. She has also worked with Concern and Gorta and extensively with women's groups in Kenya engaged in implementing sustainable social enterprises.

Currently completing her MBA and Msc in Development Studies, she is personally involved and champions the empowerment and education of African women to enable them play an active role in improving their economic and social status.
 
Dr Pamela K. Anderson  Director General of the International Potato Centre, Lima, Peru

A native of the United States, Dr Anderson is an internationally recognized entomologist and ecologist who has worked at CIP since June 2002 as Deputy Director-General of Research.

An expert in emerging diseases of plants, Dr. Anderson has conducted research in aspects of virology, ecology, the production of food, human health and agricultural development for farmers of limited resources. She has spent more than 25 years working in various countries of Latin America, and for more than a decade has devoted herself to working in close coordination with national agricultural research systems.

One of her first tasks as Deputy Director of Research was to guide the development of a new vision for the Centre, redefining its programs of research and development to harmonize them with the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
 
Mr Tom Arnold Concern

Tom Arnold has been Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide since October 2001.  Mr Arnold has extensive international experience in agricultural and food policy, within both the governmental and non-governmental sectors. He has served as Chairman of the OECD Committee of Agriculture (1993-98) and Chairman of the OECD Working Group on Agricultural Policies and Markets (1990-93).  He was also Chairman of Euronaid, a network of the major European NGOs dealing with food aid and food security (1992-96).

In April 2003, Mr Arnold was appointed to the UN Hunger Task Force, one of a series of Task Forces set up by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and the UNDP Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown.  The Task Forces are charged with devising strategies to meet the Millennium Development Goals, agreed by world leaders in 2000.  The Hunger Goal is to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world, from the current 800 million to 400 million, by 2015.

Bono U2 lead singer and activist

The lead singer of Irish rock band U2, Bono was born Paul David Hewson in Dublin. Acknowledged as one of the best live acts in the world, U2 have sold over 140 million albums and won numerous awards, including 22 Grammies.

Bono is also a well known activist in the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. In 2002, he co-founded DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, africa) to raise public awareness of the issues in its name, and influence government policy on Africa. On behalf of DATA's agenda, Bono has lobbied U.S. Presidents and Congressional leaders, along with the heads of many other G8 nations. DATA is a founding member of ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, part of a global network of millions of people campaigning against extreme poverty.

In 2006, Bono and Bobby Shriver launched Product (RED) to raise money from businesses to buy AIDS drugs for people in Africa unable to afford them. Product (RED) has an ongoing relationship with a number of iconic global brands that sell (RED) products and donate a percentage of the profits directly to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Bono also helped launch EDUN, an ethically-sourced high fashion clothing company run by his wife Ali; EDUN produces clothing in developing countries including Africa.

Bono has received a number of awards for his music and activism, including the Legion D'Honneur from the French Government in 2003, Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2005 (along with Bill and Melinda Gates), and an honorary British knighthood in 2007.

Mr Kevin Farrell Director, World Food Programme in Zimbabwe

Professor Michael Gibney UCD

Michael Gibney is Professor of Food and Health in the College of Life Sciences in University College Dublin (UCD). He was Professor of Nutrition in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Trinity College Medical School and a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) until 2006. Professor Gibney is former President of the Nutrition Society and is Director of the Institute of European Food Studies at TCD. Professor Gibney was awarded the British Nutrition Foundation Prize in 2000.

Professor Lawrence Haddad  Director of the UK Institute of Development Studies

Professor Haddad was formerly Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) Division of Food Consumption and Nutrition.  He has conducted and led policy research at the intersection of poverty, food security and nutrition in many countries in Africa and Asia. He has written on social capital, the policy process, human rights, urbanisation, gender, agriculture, AIDS and social protection. Prior to joining IFPRI in 1990 he was a lecturer in development economics at the University of Warwick.

Mr Justin Kilcullen Trocaire

Justin Kilcullen was appointed the Director of Trócaire in 1993.  An architect by profession, Mr Kilcullen worked for many years in Africa and Asia.

From 1976 until 1981, he worked in low cost housing in Tanzania, and on the design and construction of refugee camps for Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees.  In 2002 he was awarded the Robert Matthew Medal by the International Union of Architects for his work on human settlements.   

Mr Kilcullen joined Trócaire as a project officer for Africa in October 1981.  He served as Trócaire representative in Laos from 1988 until 1992.  In March 1993 he was appointed Director of Trócaire.      
He is a past president of CIDSE - an international alliance of 16 Catholic development organisations in Europe, and North America and is currently the president of Concord, the confederation of European development NGOs, representing more than 1600 such organisations across the European Union.

Professor Denis Lucey UCC Chairman of Gorta

Professor Denis Lucey is Head of the Department of Food Business and Development and the Director of the Centre for Cooperative Studies at UCC. He joined the board of Gorta - the Freedom from Hunger Council in 1998 and became Chairman in 2002.

Professor Lucey’s first degree is in Agricultural Science and his PhD is in Economics. His major research and educational interests include Effectiveness of Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems (AKIS); Rural Development and Local Food Security; Building Effective Food Supply Chains and Food Markets; Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Alleviation; Interactions between HIV/AIDS and Food Security.

As a highly experienced Dean and University Vice-President he regularly chairs multidisciplinary meetings and was appointed by the Irish Government to State Boards regulating Higher Education finances and accreditation. He has represented Ireland on EU University-Industry Programme Committees and on OECD Working Groups on agricultural research, education and extension, frequently being elected Chair or Rapporteur at OECD conferences. He frequently assesses/monitors projects for the EU and World Bank. He is Vice-President of NATURA and is NATURA observer at FAO Council. His department at NUI, Cork spans farming, agribusiness and sustainable livelihoods issues.

Mr Aidan O'Driscoll Assistant Secretary General, Department of Agriculture & Food

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs Columbia University

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, Sachs is also President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance, a non-profit organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty.
 
Professor Sachs is widely considered to be the leading international economic advisor of his generation.  For more than 20 years Professor Sachs has been in the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world to benefit from expanding economic opportunities and wellbeing.  He is also one of the leading voices for combining economic development with environmental sustainability, and as Director of the Earth Institute leads large-scale efforts to promote the mitigation of human-induced climate change. 

Professor Sachs was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2004 and 2005, and the World Affairs Council of America identified him as one of the 500 most influential people in the United States in the field of foreign policy.

Jeffrey Sachs is delivering this year's Reith Lectures for the BBC.

Ms Josette Sheeran Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP)

Before joining WFP, Ms Sheeran served as Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs at the United States Department of State. There she was responsible for economic issues including development, trade, agriculture, finance, energy, telecommunications and transportation, with much of her focus on economic diplomacy to help developing nations advance towards economic self-sufficiency and prosperity.

Believing that effective policies to address global issues such as hunger and poverty must focus on long-term solutions in addition to urgent responses, Ms. Sheeran has developed several important US initiatives and aided development of critical multilateral projects to aid reconstruction in Afghanistan, in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake, and in Lebanon after the 2006 war.

WFP's new Executive Director has a 20-year track record as a management leader, as well as a distinguished background in media; she was managing editor of the Washington Times and has twice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror, including for foreign reporting.
 
Ms Sheila Sisulu UN World Food Programme

Ms Sheila Sisulu is the Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme and former Ambassador of South Africa to the United States. She is responsible for overseeing strategy, policy and program support for the organization's food security, safety nets, emergency relief, HIV/AIDS, school feeding, gender, and nutrition work. She is also responsible for the secretariat of the WFP executive board and relations with other United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. As South African ambassador in Washington, DC, much of Ms Sisulu's work involved raising awareness and seeking clarity on the US government's role in alleviating the poverty and suffering in southern Africa.