SEATTLE -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Catherine Bertini has joined the foundation’s Agricultural Development team within its Global Development Program as a senior fellow. Bertini has spent many years as a leader in humanitarian relief and nutrition policy. Bertini was the driving force behind reform of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), where she served as the executive director for 10 years.
"Catherine will help us work with our partners to develop a long-term, global effort to dramatically improve agricultural productivity and create opportunity for small farmers, particularly the women who often make up more than 70 percent of the agricultural labor force in Africa and South Asia," said Dr. Raj Shah, director of Agricultural Development at the Gates Foundation.
Bertini is credited with leading major efforts to empower poor women through the use of food aid. She was appointed executive director of the United Nations (U.N.) World Food Programme in 1992 upon the recommendation of President George H.W. Bush and was re-appointed with the support of the administration of President William Clinton. The institutional changes championed by Bertini during her leadership at the WFP were cited by the 36-government board of WFP as models of U.N. reform. Further, Bertini’s changes placed the food aid agency at the forefront of international agencies in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, and income.
Bertini was named the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate for her achievements with the WFP in ending famine and decreasing hunger.
Bertini’s earlier domestic work also created opportunities for the poorest segments of society. While working as assistant secretary of Food and Consumer Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bertini created a food package for poor breastfeeding mothers. Initiation of this package correlated directly with increases in the percentage of poor U.S. mothers who breastfed their infants. She also led the interagency effort to replace food coupons and welfare checks with electronic benefit cards.
Earlier in 1989, while at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as acting assistant secretary for Family Support, Bertini was responsible for regulations that strengthened education and training support for the poorest U.S. women.
For four years, Bertini also chaired the U.N. System Standing Committee on Nutrition. She was the Secretary-General’s envoy twice, first for drought in the Horn of Africa and then for humanitarian assistance needs in Gaza and the West Bank, and she served as U.N. Under Secretary-General for Management.
Bertini continues to organize assistance to increase the number of girls attending school in developing countries. She is a member of the Board of International Food and Agricultural Development, which advises the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the board of Save the Children, U.S. Last year, she co-chaired the Task Force on Agriculture of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She is on the faculty of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.