16 October, 2020 Rome - The global World Food Day ceremony in Rome introduced by FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and featuring high-level participants from around the world was followed by a lecture from Joachim von Braun from Germany.
The professor, Director of the Department of Economic and Technological Change at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), gave a virtual address on the "Role of Policy, Innovation, Bio-economy and SDGs in Agri-Food System Transformation," followed by a question-and-answer session. The event was webcast by FAO.
Professor von Braun is an applied and agricultural economist who helped found ZEF and later served as Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute from 2002 to 2009 before returning to the Center. His research encompasses a broad array of development economics topics including science, trade, poverty, famine and nutrition, and he is a member of the national science academies of China, Germany and the United States of America.