CGIAR System Council
Led by a Chair who is appointed by the System Council for a four-year term, the System Council is comprised of the following voting members and alternates, ex-officio non-voting members and active observers.
Pursuant to the CGIAR System Framework, all System Council members and Active Observers act in the interests of the CGIAR System.
Every three years, eligible Funders and developing countries* consult and agree upon their constituencies, which may comprise one or more governments or organizations. The current allocation of Funders is based on consultations undertaken in 2016.
The rules and procedures governing how each constituency operates are determined by the constituencies themselves.
Download: System Council Composition
Leadership, Ex-officio non-voting members |
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| Chair of the System Council (Serving a second four-year term effective from July 12, 2020) |
Juergen Voegele Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank |
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| Co-Chair |
Appointed by the System Council for each meeting from amongst its voting members |
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23 Voting members*CGIAR System Council constituency selection process *As per latest update on 18 September 2023 |
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| No | Constituency/Country | Member | Alternate (optional) |
| 1 | African Development Bank | Martin Fregene Director Department of Agriculture and Agro-Industry |
Innocent Musabyimana Chief Agricultural Technologies Officer and TAAT Coordinator |
| 2 | Australia | Wendy Umberger Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) |
Bosibori Bett Acting Director, Multilateral Engagement, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) |
| 3 | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Ruben Echeverria Senior Advisor, Agriculture Development |
Renee Lafitte Deputy Director, Crops R&D |
| 4 | Canada | Hong-Won Yu Director of Food Security Global Affairs Canada |
Flora Mak Deputy Director Agriculture and Food Systems Division (MSF) Global Affairs Canada |
| 5 | Crop Trust & IFAD |
Stefan Schmitz Executive Director of The Crop Trust |
Ron Hartman Director for Global Engagement, IFAD |
| 6 | East Asia and Pacific** (China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand) |
CHINA Zhai Lin Deputy Director General, Department of International Cooperation, CAAS |
INDONESIA Pending confirmation of representation |
| 7 | European Commission | Christophe Larose Head of Sector – Sustainable Agriculture Directorate-General for International Partnerships European Commission |
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| 8 | Germany | Jens Busma Head of Agriculture, rural development, BMZ |
Felicitas Röhrig Senior Policy Officer, BMZ |
| 9 | Latin America and Caribbean** (Brazil, Colombia and Peru) |
PERU Christian Alejandro Garay Torres Vice-Minister of Agrarian Development Policy and Supervision |
BRAZIL Pedro Luiz Oliveira de Almeida Machado Coordinator, Embrapa Labex Europe, Brazilian Agriculture Research Corporation. Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply |
| 10 | The Netherlands | Timmo Gaasbeek Senior Policy Officer Food Security, Department for Inclusive Green Growth, Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
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| 11 | Norway | Daniel van Gilst Senior Adviser, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) |
Lutgart Lenaerts Senior Adviser, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) |
| 12 | South Asia** (Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka) |
INDIA Himanshu Pathak Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) |
BANGLADESH SRI LANKA |
| 13 | Sub-Saharan Africa** (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda) |
NIGERIA Garba Hamidu Sharubutu Executive Secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) |
KENYA Eliud Kireger Director General, Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research (KALRO) Organization SUDAN |
| 14 | Sweden | AnnaKarin Norling Senior Research Advisor, Unit for Research Cooperation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) |
Madeleine Jönsson Unit for Research Cooperation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) |
| 15 | Switzerland | Manfred Kaufmann Global Programme Climate Change and Environment Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) |
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| 16 | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland | Alan Tollervey Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) |
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| 17 | United States | Robert Bertram Chief Scientist, Bureau for Food Security, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) |
Jerry Glover United States Agency for International Development (USAID) |
| 18 | West Asia & North Africa** (Türkiye and Iran; Member and Alternate rotates each 2 years) |
TÜRKIYE Mustafa Altuğ Atalay Director General for Agriculture Research and Policies, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry |
IRAN Mohammad Ali Ebrahimi Director General of Academic Relations and International affairs, Agricultural Research, Education & Extension Organization (AREEO) |
| 19 | The World Bank | Renaud Seligmann Director of Strategy and Operations, Sustainable Development Practice Group |
Julian Lampietti Manager, Global Engagement Unit Agriculture and Food Global Practice |
Additional Temporary Voting members*** |
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| No | Constituency/Country | Member | Alternate (optional) |
| 20 | Belgium | Carol Durieux Attaché, expert agriculture, food security and water, FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation |
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| 21 | Denmark | Hanne Carus Chief Adviser, Department for Evaluation, Learning and Quality |
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| 22 | Ireland | Patrick McManus Deputy Director, Policy Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland |
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| 23 | United Arab Emirates | Mariam Almheiri Chair, International Affairs Office, Presidential Court |
Fatema AlMulla Director of Partnerships and Special Projects at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment |
Ex-officio non-voting members |
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| The following 6 System Council seats are additional to the 2 ex-officio non-voting members held by the System Council Chair and the Co-Chair, the latter of whom is appointed by the System Council each meeting from amongst the voting members. | |||
| No | Organization | Member | Alternate (optional) |
| 24 | Chair of the CGIAR System Board | Lindiwe Majele Sibanda | |
| 25 | Executive Director of the CGIAR System Organization | Ismahane Elouafi CGIAR Executive Managing Director and Executive Director of the CGIAR System Organization |
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| 26 | Representative appointed by the Alliance/Centers – 1 | Roel Merckx Representative of the Alliance/Center Board Chairs |
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| 27 | Representative appointed by the Alliance/Centers – 2 | Mark Smith Representative of the Alliance/Center Directors General |
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| 28 | Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations | Selvaraju Ramasamy Head, Research and Extension Unit (AGDR) |
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Active Observers |
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| Active Observers have the right to participate in deliberations of the System Council and to propose agenda items and make presentations for such deliberations. Active Observers do not have the right to vote. | |||
| No | Organization | Member | Alternate (optional) |
| 29 | Global Forum on Agricultural Research | Ravi Khetarpal Chair |
Hildegard Lingnau Executive Secretary |
| 30 | CGIAR Independent Science for Development Council | Holger Meinke ISDC Chair |
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Invited Guests |
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Representatives of each of the following are invited to System Council meetings:
| No | Organization | Member | Alternate (optional) |
| 31 | France (holding voting rights) |
Bernard Hubert Chair, CRAI (Commission pour la Recherche Agronomique Internationale) |
Jean Albergel Executive Secretary, CRAI (Commission pour la Recherche Agronomique Internationale) |
| 32 | Japan |
Akiko Tejima |
Kosuke Minakuchi Deputy Director, Global Issues Cooperation Division, International Cooperation, Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| 33 | Mexico | Juan Bernardo Orozco Sanchez Director of Economic Studies of the Agri-Food Sector, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development |
- The Chair of the System Council’s Assurance Oversight Committee
- The Chair of the Standing Panel on Impact Assessment
- The Trustee of the CGIAR Trust Fund (the World Bank)