 Maria Pia Rizzo  Christoph Kohlmeyer, Brian Baldwin Rome, 28 Jan. After six years of service the members at the Annual General Assembly and subsequent Board thanked Platform founding chairman Christoph Kohlmeyer for his outstanding and visionary leadership since the inception of the Platform. The Board in line with the Platform’s Charter then elected Maria Pia Rizzo as his successor.
The new Platform chair, Maria Pia Rizzo is Senior Officer in the Multilateral Office of the Directorate General for Development Cooperation at Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both closely involved with Italy’s overall international development assistance, and particularly with the Rome agencies, as well as being closely involved in the L’Aquila declaration and the subsequent process.
Accepting the position, Maria emphasized the commitment to continue on the pathway of her predecessor -- keeping an eye on the clear future challenges such as addressing global food security and nutrition, highlighting sustainable ways of agriculture and rural development, particularly in the light of the impact of climate change.
Increased awareness on the interlinkages of these challenges, said Maria, have created a greater common movement of different stakeholders who now wanted to translate them into actions at all levels to reach concrete results.
The new chair stressed the importance of inclusiveness and synergies among the different stakeholders to fight hunger in the world. Perhaps the biggest challenge of 2010, according to Maria, is therefore the questions of how to deliver on the high expectation of this movement and the role of the Platform: through better harmonization and alignment of members in the changing architecture of the system? Through member support to countries to better define their needs and ensure that we hear the voices of smallholders, especially women, to have an active role when national plans are drafted?
Maria emphasised that she would look forward to working closely with Platform members on these issues both in Platform events and other fora.
The Board also extended the term of Brian Baldwin (IFAD) as Platform vice-chair and chairman of the steering committee through 2010. |
