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Leonard Mizzi is a long-standing and familiar face within the Donor Platform. Now stepping into the role of Co-Chair, he brings years of institutional knowledge and a deep commitment to the “Team Europe” approach to help steer the next chapter. Leonard is dedicated to championing the Platform as a vital and trusted informal space for donor coordination. He serves as co-chair alongside Thijs Woudstra, Head of Food and Nutrition Security for the Netherlands.
Leonard Mizzi
Adviser Food Systems, Directorate-General for International Partnerships, European Commission
Michelle Tang/GDPRD Secretariat: As someone familiar with the Platform’s evolution, what do you see as the single most important shift it must make to stay relevant amid today’s tightening global budgets?
Leonard Mizzi/European Commission: As Co-Chairs, we are trying to trigger a sense of hope in a context of uncertainty. Top priorities are to raise awareness of the full potential of the Platform that can bring like-minded partners around the table, coordinate better, and come up with targeted solutions. Bridging also the gap, public and private, is also an important role that the Platform can help steer in the coming months.
As Co-Chairs, we are trying to trigger a sense of hope in a context of uncertainty.
Michelle: The new Platform strategy emphasizes stronger donor coordination. How do you plan to take the lessons learned from the European Commission and apply them?
Leonard: We try to take a streamlined approach across the various Commission services and come up with a consolidated position. The idea is to rally behind the Commission services and the European Union (EU) in a not overly bureaucratic approach in order to have more coordination.
We know that public aid is shrinking. We need more qualitative impact of our limited public aid. The EU is discussing the future multi-financial framework, which kicks off in 2028. We are in the critical moment of identifying priorities, and clearly showing the return on investment (ROI) of investing in agrifood systems amongst other policy areas.
Targeted coordination and prioritization need to show returns not only for livelihoods and SDGs, but also for vulnerable communities. We need to make that happen at scale, because transformed agrifood systems linking to climate and biodiversity or health and education is also a key factor for development in our partner countries.
We know that public aid is shrinking. We need more qualitative impact of our limited public aid.
Michelle: You are co-chairing with Thijs Woudstra of The Netherlands. How will you combine your respective strengths to protect the Platform’s “safe space”?
Leonard: We bring complementary roles. Thijs brings the roots level, and I bring the interconnectivity across donors and UN level. Together we bring our expertise to put the Platform on the radar. It’s important that we rejuvenate the Platform, make it visible amongst other donors, including private sector, philanthropies, and new donors beyond G7/G20.
The first thing is to show that the Platform has an offer and can come up with solutions in the context of finance for development. The Platform’s value lies in its role as an interconnector between donors, financial institutions, the private sector, and philanthropies, creating a trusted space for dialogue and coordination.
Being the interconnector between donors, financial institutions, private sector, and philanthropies to create a safe space of dialogue is the value added of the Platform.
Michelle: A key pillar of the new Platform strategy is responsiveness. How can the Platform help donors stay ahead of emerging trends and market shifts?
Leonard: Clearly, being anticipatory is key. We know there are conflicting demands in a shrinking space. We need to bring the Platform community together with the think tanks to be in anticipatory action mode, and use foresight and horizon scanning.
We are departing from short-termism or ad hoc approaches. The critical area is how to bring innovative financial instruments to be investable in agrifood systems. We need to make the case for agrifood systems not only from an economic point of view, but also in terms of peace and security, migration, and defence. We do not want agrifood systems to be forgotten or fall through the cracks.
We need more coordination, make efficiency gains visible, include the private sector, and link more innovative finance to shrinking public funds.
Michelle: How do you see progress in the Platform between now and the end of 2027?
Leonard: We need milestone dynamics. How do we gauge progress in terms of events, activities, what other partners think of us, and opportunities where the Platform can come up with solutions?
We need to show that multilateralism still matters. Bilateralism is prevailing. We have trade agreements, investment protection agreements, and transactional approaches. Those will increase, but we also need to show that a multilateral approach can rally support and track progress in a granular way -to the benefit of the partners. That is why we have the technical working groups and an ROI approach.
We need to make the case for agrifood systems not only from an economic point of view, but also in terms of peace and security, migration, and defence.
Michelle: What is your vision for raising the profile of the GDPRD?
Leonard: We need more coordination, make efficiency gains visible, include the private sector, and link more innovative finance to shrinking public funds.
If we speak about fertilizers, costs are likely to increase for small and marginalized farmers, with an impact on planting seasons. This needs to be looked through El Niño dynamics, which has a climate component. That is the anticipatory reaction. The Platform needs to identify areas with think tanks, like-minded partners, the G7, G20, UN agencies, and the private sector, to come up with pathways considered at the highest level, then homegrown, pilot tested and proposed.
The challenge is where to come up with smart ideas in today’s geopolitical context. That is the benchmark: identifying a few areas of solutions and tracking whether they are being picked up at the multilateral level beyond conferences.
We need to show that multilateralism still matters.
Michelle: Could you tell us about your own career journey?
Leonard: I come from Malta and was always fascinated by small agricultural fields. I started as a student in public policy and then studied agricultural economics in Montpellier. I was a Commonwealth scholar and did my PhD in Reading. I joined the Maltese business community in Brussels in the mid-90s. After 20 years of mid management in the European Commission, most recently, I am an advisor on agrifood systems with a focus on the Rome based agencies and global issues.
I want to convey the message of hope to our younger generations. I connect often with students and trainees who would like a career in agrifood systems. We need to make it an exciting area, with AI and digital tools, but also make it realistic. Mentoring, guiding and helping young people engage is a way for the Platform to help young professionals build their skills set for tomorrow’s realities.
Read the announcement of the new Donor Platform’s new Co-Chairs.
