Lawrence James Haddad (born 17 June 1959), is a British economist whose main research focuses on how to make food systems work better to advance the nutrition status of people globally. He is the Executive Director of the

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. GAIN was developed during the UN 2002 Special Session of the General Assembly on Children. GAIN's activities include improving the consum ...

Early life

Haddad was born in Johannesburg to Lebanese parents and moved to England in 1961. After his parents split, he was brought up in North East London by his mother and grandmother. It was around this time that Lawrence became a

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

volunteer. He received good assistance at school. In 1980, Haddad graduated from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

with a degree in Food Science and Economics. At the encouragement of his professors, he went on to complete a Master's in Resource Economics at the

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...

in 1982. A development economist, Lawrence won subsequently a three-year fellowship to pursue his PhD at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

's Food Research Institute, which he completed in 1988.

Career

From 2009-2010, Haddad was the UK’s representative on the Steering Committee of th
High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE)
of th
UN’s Committee on World Food Security (CSF)
He was the President of the UK and Ireland’
Development Studies Association
from 2010 to 2012. From 2004-2014, Haddad served as Director of th
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
the world’s leading development studies institute. Before joining IDS in 2004, he was Director of the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division at th
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
from 1994 to 2004. Prior to that he was a Lecturer in quantitative development economics at the University of Warwick. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of GAIN, Lawrence was the founding co-chair and lead author of th
Global Nutrition Report (GNR)
from 2014 to 2016. Lawrence became the Executive Director of the

(GAIN) in October 2016. GAIN is an international organisation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. GAIN seeks to improve the consumption of safe and nutritious food from sustainable food systems for all people, especially the most vulnerable to malnutrition. On Monday, 25 June 2018, th
World Food Prize Foundation
awarded th
2018 World Food Prize
to Lawrence Haddad, and

David Nabarro Sir David Nunes Nabarro (born 26 August 1949) is a British Special Envoy on Covid-19 for the World Health Organization. He has made his career in the international civil service, working for either the Secretary-General of the United Nations ...

, former special adviser to the UN Secretary General. Announcing the awar
Ambassador Quinn
World Food Prize President cited the recipients for their "extraordinary intellectual and policy leadership in bringing maternal and child nutrition to the forefront of the global food security agenda and thereby significantly reducing childhood stunting" Most recently he was appointed by the UN Deputy Secretary General to lead nutrition work at the 2021 UN Food system Summit. Haddad was appointed

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

(CMG) in the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to international nutrition, food and agriculture.

Media

Lawrence is regularly featured in news media, social media and blogs such as

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''.

Selected bibliography

Journal articles

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References