On account of wide-ranging supply chains and migrant labourers, traffic restrictions around borders can generate significant risks within the food supply system, resulting in local price spikes and significant food wastage. These impacts are felt most profoundly by the poorest segments of most societies who are disproportionately affected by higher food prices and labour movement restrictions. These food security risks are a very real part of the problem of pandemic management. The Chief Economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will discuss the potential impact of transboundary risk management on the problems of food security.
Máximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist and Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department at the FAO. Before joining this organisation in 2019, he served at the World Bank Group as the Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The discussion will be moderated by Timothy Swanson, Professor of International Economics and Co-Director of the Centre for International Environmental Studies at the Graduate Institute, and will be followed by a Q&A session with the public.
This event is organised in partnership with FAO Liaison Office Geneva and with the support of the Graduate Institute’s Centre for International Environmental Studies.
