Event Highlight

Bollinger Convening Addresses How Universities Can Help End Hunger and Malnutrition

By Katherine Noel
Posted Oct 04 2024
Glenn Denning at Bollinger Convening
SIPA professor Glenn Denning (left) in discussion with President Lazurus Chakwera, Prime Minister Garry Conille, and Ambassador Ertharin Cousin

 

The Columbia Climate School and School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) brought together world leaders, research scholars, and senior members of international organizations for a day of discussions on global food insecurity and malnutrition. The focus of the Bollinger Convening held on September 21 was to discuss how to harness the potential of universities to translate their scholarship to drive societal impact toward ending global hunger.

The conference took place before the UN Summit of the Future and Climate Week in New York City. Named in honor of former Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, the Convenings aim to deepen the university’s engagement in the world through leveraging scholarly knowledge to forge practical, evidence-based solutions, fostering dialogue across fields, and building innovative partnerships. The event was organized by Jessica Fanzo, professor of climate and director of the Food for Humanity Initiative at the Climate School, and Glenn Denning, professor of professional practice and director of the Master of Public Administration in Development Practice (MPA-DP) at SIPA.

“Food systems are increasingly vulnerable to land degradation, biodiversity loss, and many extreme weather events that are occurring around the world due to climate change,” Fanzo said. “While universities have always been recognized as hubs of innovation and learning, their potential for creating development impact has often been underutilized.”

Jeff Shaman, dean of the Climate School, and Keren Yarhi-Milo, dean of SIPA, touched on the interdisciplinary nature of food system issues in their opening remarks, stressing the importance of collaboration among economists, political scientists, agronomists, and climate experts. Dean Yarhi-Milo emphasized the interrelatedness of politics and hunger and spoke about strengthening the bridge between the public health, science, and policy communities.

The event kicked off with a World Leaders Forum introduced by Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong, featuring a conversation with president of Malawi Lazarus Chakwera and Haitian prime minister Garry Conille. The discussion also included Ertharin Cousin, founder and CEO of Food Systems for the Future, and was moderated by Denning.

President Chakwera explained how climate change and international conflict in Malawi have combined to create an environment where 5.4 million people – more than a quarter of the country’s population – are chronically food insecure. El Niño-induced dry spells have reduced food production and depleted stocks in the country, which is heavily dependent on rain-fed smallholder agriculture, and foreign wars have driven up the prices of essential farming equipment and fertilizers on the international market.

Chakwera was forced to declare a state of national emergency in each of his four years in office – many due to extreme weather events.

“Climate change is an enemy of food production,” Chakwera said. Malawi is investing in climate-smart megafarms and irrigation projects to increase agricultural production. He emphasized the need to move beyond subsistence farming into commercialization and greater private sector involvement to ensure long-term food security.

Chakwera also spoke about the essential role universities play as centers for policy development and research to drive innovation in the agriculture and climate resilience sectors. “Universities are indispensable to this equation, because these policies cannot be implemented to the standard and the speed that we require without their involvement,” he said. 

In Haiti, nearly half of the country’s 12 million people are food insecure. Of those, nearly two million are considered in an emergency state, and millions of children have some state of malnutrition, stunting, or conditions requiring emergency support because of potential long-term damage. 

“This is happening 45 minutes from the border of the richest country in the world, and it’s been happening for far too long,” Prime Minister Conille said. 

He attributed the country’s staggering food insecurity to poor governance, a deteriorating economy – Haiti is a country that went from being a major exporter of sugar to importing nearly 80 percent of what it consumes – and its continuous violence. Haiti’s population is 60 percent urban, and nearly 85 percent of the metropolitan area is controlled by gangs. 

“I’m learning more and more that you cannot address the food security crisis in a country like Haiti by focusing exclusively on areas related to food,” Conille said. “It has to be integrated into a broader effort to restore security, to rebuild the infrastructure, make sure you have elected officials and that you can stop corruption, and work with your international partners to look at all these areas that are relevant.” He also stressed that public-private partnerships and private sector investments are critical to fighting food insecurity in crisis-affected countries like Haiti and Malawi. 

“Even in countries in serious crisis like Haiti, even when you have so much fragility and you have this urgent security situation, countries in crisis offer incredible opportunities for private investors, if you know where and how to look, [and if the government, with its limited resources, can provide the right incentives and environment],” he said, citing mango and banana exports as two such opportunities in Haiti. 

Conille and Chakwera talked with Ambassador Cousin about the lack of granular data in food systems, something universities are uniquely positioned to provide to support smarter policy and investment decisions. 

In the following panel, Rosângela da Silva, First Lady of Brazil, sat down for a fireside chat with Angela V. Olinto, Columbia University provost, and Dr. Thomas J. Trebat, director of Columbia University Global Center in Brazil, to discuss a new global alliance on hunger and poverty that will be launched by her husband, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during the G20 Summit in Brazil in November. The alliance will be a major initiative of the G20, and will operate out of the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome and Brasília until 2030. 

“There are many initiatives to fight hunger, but they are fragmented,” she said. “We need to look at inequality from a place of solidarity.” 

Later in the afternoon, panels featured discussions on the role of research in addressing hunger and malnutrition, student perspectives on food system transformation, and how partnerships can be built to achieve greater success.