U.S. scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig, World Food Prize laureate and an expert on the relationship between agriculture and climate change, is IICA’s new Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development

New York, 27 September 2024 (IICA) - U.S. climatologist and agronomist Cynthia Rosenzweig, a World Food Prize winner whose globally renowned research has allowed for understanding the relationship between agriculture and climate change, was named a Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in recognition of her contributions to science and innovation.
 
During a ceremony in New York, IICA Director General Manuel Otero presented the Goodwill Ambassador diploma to Rosenzweig, who is also the recipient of the 2022 World Food Prize, considered the Nobel prize in the field of agriculture.
 
Through her work, the scientist has rallied global political will to help the agriculture sector transform itself to meet the challenges posed by the climate crisis while also improving farmers’ livelihoods and guaranteeing food security.
 
“Cynthia’s work has not only influenced but even shaped IICA’s agenda, given her pioneer work in examining the increasingly profound interaction between agriculture and the environment, which plays a strategic role in enabling the sector to serve as a guarantor of food security within a context of environmental and climate security. Cynthia’s work in this regard has been inspirational. I am certain that she will leave a powerful and unique imprint on her work as an IICA Goodwill Ambassador”, commented Manuel Otero upon presenting her with the title.
 
IICA’s Goodwill Ambassadors share the Institute’s commitment to work towards sustainable and equitable development, agreeing to embrace the challenge of lending their support to causes that seek to raise public awareness about the importance of food and nutritional security, as well as responsible production, which are all key issues on IICA’s agenda.
 
The voice of agriculture
 
A Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which has pioneered studies of the relationship between climate and agriculture, Rosenzweig visited IICA Headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica, in 2022.
 
On that occasion, she spoke to twenty ministers and secretaries of Agriculture of countries of the Americas, urging them to raise the voice of agriculture at the most important international forums for negotiation and discussion on environmental issues. She expressed her conviction that agriculture can play a key role and has unique potential to lead actions to address the climate crisis.
 
She explained that the region’s agriculture sector, which she described as innovative, has made significant strides in responding to climate challenges, through good practices such as soil and water conservation and management, crop diversification, early warning systems, increased crop rotation to prevent climate warming and pests, and improved pasture and cattle management.
 
 
In line with the scientist’s position, IICA brought the voice of the Americas to the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, and has assumed a leading role in the Conferences of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change since 2022.
 
At COP27 in Egypt, IICA installed, for the first time ever, the Home of Sustainable Agriculture of the Americas pavilion, to show the world the efforts undertaken by governments and producers in the Americas to increase the sustainability of their production activities. The pavilion was installed once again at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and will be present later this year at COP29 in Azerbaijan, thanks to a joint effort between public and private sector stakeholders and IICA.
 
Rosenzweig’s work has informed the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts of thousands of decision-makers in more than 90 countries. In 2010, she founded the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), a global, transdisciplinary network of more than 1000 leading researchers who study the impacts of climate on the agriculture sector, at the national and global levels.
 
Rosenzweig has not only led research at the global level, through her participation on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but at the national level as well, participating in New York city’s recovery efforts following Hurricane Sandy. She has authored more than 300 publications and is a researcher at the Columbia Climate School.
 
The list

The cadre of IICA Goodwill Ambassadors includes: Enrique Iglesias (former Ibero-American Secretary-General and ex-President of the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB); Maris Llorens (livestock entrepreneur and philanthropist); Keithlin Caroo (Founder and Executive Director of Helen’s Daughters); Hipólito Mejía Domínguez (former President of the Dominican Republic); Rattan Lal (2020 World Food Prize laureate); Michael Kremer (winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics); Hugo Sigman (Argentinian psychiatrist, business magnate and founder of Grupo Insud); Beatriz Paredes (Mexican senator); Jens Mesa Dishington (agricultural economist and modernizing force behind the Colombian agriculture sector); Susana Balbo (Argentina’s first female oenologist, who has been operating her own winery, Susana Balbo Wines, since 1999); Dennis McClung (Founder, President and Executive Director of Garden Pool); and Joachim von Braun (Professor for Economic and Technological Change at Bonn University in Germany).
 
The 2006 World Food Prize laureate and former Minister of Agriculture of Brazil, Alysson Paolinelli, who passed away last year, was also an IICA Goodwill Ambassador.

More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int