Currently serving as Ambassador at Large for Global Food Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Government of Spain. 

Former Director General for Sustainable Development Policies from 2018 to 2021. In this position, he has been lead author and strategist of the 2030 Agenda Implementation Action Plan of Spain, coordinating the Spanish Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum. Lead author of the Spanish Cooperation Joint Response Strategy to COVID-19 pandemic. 

He served in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary General from 2011 to 2017, including as Coordinator of the UN Secretary-General High Level Task Force on Global Food Security and as Team Leader of the UN Secretary General´s Special Representative for Food and Nutrition Security from 2016 to 2017, based in Rome. In this capacity, he was representative of the UN SG at the Advisory Committee of the Committee on World Food Security and at the Steering Committee of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program. He was part of the Milano Group on Sustainable Food Systems convened by UN SG Ban Ki-Moon in 2015 and made seminal contributions to linking ending hunger, poverty and climate-compatible sustainable food systems. Senior policy advisor on sustainable development to the UN Secretary General´s Special Advisor for the Post2015 Development Agenda Ms Amina J Mohammed from 2012 to 2016, leading on food security, agriculture and food systems, financing and climate change. Renowned as being part of the team facilitating the process leading to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, he was instrumental on crafting Ban Ki-Moon´s Zero Hunger Challenge and SDG 2. 

Before joining the UN, he was Deputy-Director General of Development Policies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Spain from 2007-2010, leading on Spain´s global response to the global food crisis. He coordinated the 2009 Madrid High Level Meeting “Food Security for All” and substantially contributed to the reform of the Committee on World Food Security. In this position, he was lead author of the 2009-2012 Spanish Cooperation Master Plan and was instrumental on the set up of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the L´Aquila Food Security Initiative, the UN Fund for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the „Spanish Fund for Cooperation on Water and Sanitation“. 

Full time Professor of Development Theory and Planning at the School of Agricultural Engineering and Environment at the Technological University of Valencia UPV (2000-2007) and Director of its Development Cooperation Centre (2004-2007). He founded and coordinated the Development Studies and Applied Ethics Research Group, his research and practice focuses on Sen‘s Capability Approach, development methodology, climate and sustainable development. 

An engineer by training, he holds a nationally awarded Ph. D on development planning and management. He is author or co-author of more than 50 publications including journal research papers, 3 books, book chapters and op-eds with a focus on rural development, climate and development effectiveness. With field level experience at project, program and policy levels on agriculture, rural development and renewable energy, in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Morocco, and Argentina, he has been advisor to national and subnational governments, social movements and NGOs on rural development planning, management and sustainable development policies. 

Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri is appointed as the Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the UAE. In this capacity, she leads the Ministry’s mission of spearheading the UAE’s drive to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, protect the country’s ecosystems, and enhance its food and water security through developing and implementing effective measures, policies, and initiatives.

Prior to her current role, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri was appointed as Minister of State for Food and Water Security. Her responsibilities included monitoring national food stocks and water supply, channeling investments in food and water technology innovation, and building international partnerships in this area.

Previously, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri held the post of Minister of State for Food Security, where she oversaw the development of the necessary infrastructure to achieve the country’s food security objectives in line with the UAE Centennial 2071.

Education and working experience

• Master’s in political science from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (PUC).
• Master’s in development from the University of Wisconsin, United States.
• Doctor in Contemporary History from the University of Valencia, Spain.
• Consultant on local and rural development for GIZ on: Guatemala, Colombia, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic.

 

Previous political positions­­­

• Founder and vice president of the Social Green Regionalist Front Party (FRVS).
• Mayor of Rancagua (1992-1996).
• Vice president of the Chilean Association of Municipalities.
• Member of the Parliament for District No.32 (O’Higgins Region) in two consecutive periods, between 2010 and 2022.
• President of the Decentralization Commission (created by Michelle Bachelet in 2014).

 

Personal and other professional activity­­­­­­

• Academic
• Regionalist
• Environmentalist activist
• Writer (Where his youth novel, Pichilemu Blues, and books on development and political analysis stand out)
• Was born on March 12, 1964, Rancagua, Chile.

The CV will be available at a later date.

Since 1 December 2022, Dr. Maria P. Neira is the Assistant Director-General, ad interim, of the Division of UHC/Healthier Populations. Dr. Maria P. Neira is ALSO the Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organization.
Prior to that she served as Under-Secretary of Health and President of the Spanish Food Safety Agency.
Dr. Neira began her career as a medical coordinator working for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). She then spent several years working in different African countries during armed conflicts.
Dr. Neira is a Medical Doctor by training, specializing in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases in Paris, France, Master of Public Health and a University Diploma in Human Nutrition, Epidemic Preparedness and Crisis Management.
Among many distinctions, she has been awarded the Médaille de “L’Ordre National du Mérite” by the Government of France and received an “Extraordinary Woman” award by HM Queen Letizia of Spain. In early 2019 and again in 2022, she was nominated among the top 100 policy influencers in the health and climate change.

 

 STINEKE OENEMA, is nutritionist and agricultural economist. She is the first Executive Secretary of UN-Nutrition, which was established in 2020. Central to her work is coherent and consistent nutrition policy, advocacy and programming in the UN system at both global and country levels. Before 2020, she was coordinator of the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), the predecessor of UN-Nutrition. From 2003 to 2015, she worked for an internationally operating NGO, being in charge of food and nutrition security policy and program development. Internationally and nationally, she chaired and facilitated several networks and multi-stakeholder groups. She was member of the editorial boards of the UNSCN Nutrition/News and the Right to Food and Nutrition Watch. As member of the first Independent Expert Group, she supported the development of the Global Nutrition Report during its initial years. She briefly worked at Wageningen University. In her early career, she worked for FAO and UNICEF in Ghana, Vietnam and Latin America.