SESSION 9 AGENDA & SPEAKERS

H.E. LE MINH HOAN recently has been appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam since 8 April 2021. He was previously Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from September 2020 to 8 April 2021. He was born in Dong Thap Province with a passion to develop his hometown. He was experienced with a wide range of technical and political positions in province including Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Head of National Assembly Delegation of Dong Thap. 

The Minister is also well-known as a favorite writer with many attractive articles on agriculture and rural development with comprehensive and multi-angle views.

Alwin Kopse is head of the International Affairs & Food Systems of the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG). He was appointed Deputy Assistant Director-General of (FOAG) in October 2018. He is also associate head of the Directorate for Markets & Internaitonal Affairs. Since 2016 Alwin has been co-leading the Sustainable Food Systems Programme of the One Planet Network (formerly known as the 10Year Framework of Programmes for Sustainable Consumption and Production), an initiative of the UN established at the Rio +20 Conference in 2012. Alwin Kopse holds a MLaw of the University of Berne and an MSc in Public Policy and Management of the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). Before joining the FOAG in 2015, he was founding director of a consultancy firm in strategy development, sustainable development and change management. Before that, he held leadership positions at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and in various organizations in civil society, the industry and in the public sector. 

Born in Thua Thien Hue where it was surrounded by forests and unique species, Thinh has developed his love for nature since his early age. That urged him to pursue his first Bachelor in Biology and later a master in Forestry and a PhD in Gibbon study. Thinh joined WWF-Viet Nam in 2004, taking several important positions before becoming Country Director in 2012 and recently CEO. Under his leadership, WWF-Viet Nam has grown from a small office with under 80 staff to the largest and most credible conservation organization in Viet Nam with 2022’s annual income of more than $16 millions USD, expanding its working areas to 28 provinces & cities.

The recent important commitments of Viet Nam Government including Leader Pledge for Nature, Net Zero, 30x30 Initiatives… have the contribution of WWF-Viet Nam under Thinh’s excellent advocacy strategy. Thinh has a great passion for primates and unique species in Viet Nam. He discovered a new species of gibbon named after him as the Northern Yellow-cheeked Gibbon (Nomascus annamensis Thinh et al.). In 2022, Thinh received the highest award from Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for extraordinary individuals who had made outstanding contributions to the development of Viet Nam's conservation.

Dr. Kalibata has served as the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) since 2014,where she leads the organization’s efforts with public and private partners to ensure a food secure and prosperous Africa through rapid, inclusive, sustainable agricultural growth, improving the productivity and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. From 2019-2021, Dr. Kalibata also served as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, a catalytic process at the start of the Decade of Action to improve food systems around the world to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement.  Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata was Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) from 2008 to 2014, where she drove programs that moved her country from a food insecure to a food secure status and became a reference point for other countries that sought to deliver agriculture transformation. Dr. Kalibata also sits on various boards, councils and commissions including the Global Commission on Adaptation, the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, the Global Panel for Agriculture & Food Systems for Nutrition, the Global Agriculture & Food Security Program (GAFSP), the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum, the Malabo-Montpellier Panel, the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions and the Global Commission on Climate Overshoot, among others. Dr. Kalibata has a distinguished track record as an agricultural scientist, policy maker and thought leader,andsheholds a doctorate in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is recipient of many prestigious awards including but not limited to the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize, in 2012, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège in 2018,  an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University in 2019, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in April, 2019 for her work to drive Africa’s agricultural transformation through modern sciences and effective policy thereby improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In 2022, she received an Awarded from World Farmers Organization recognizing her leadership in mobilizing farmers’contribution to the Food Systems Summit. In November last year, Dr. Kalibata received the Planetary Health Award through the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in  recognition of her leadership in working to ensure food security and prosperity for smallholder farmers through inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agriculture and food systems. Under Dr. Kalibata’s leadership, AGRA is committed to impacting 28 million small holder farmers in the next five years (to 2027). AGRA’s new Strategy focuses on empowering and building the resilience of farmers, working with the private sector to make market systems deliver services to farmers, and ensuring that the investments in smallholder farmers are sustained through support to governments’ ability to make evidence-based decisions for their people. 

Mogesh Sababathy is a youth climate advocate from Malaysia, working towards posi;ve change in environmental protec;on among young people. He is the Founder of Project Ocean Hope, which aims to ins;l ocean literacy principles through local perspec;ves, empower youth to become environmental champions, spread awareness through outreach programs, bridge scien;fic knowledge from the university to society, and connect with ocean interest partners. Project Ocean Hope has run educa;onal community projects and webinars on ocean issues, reaching over 10,000 individuals across 15 countries.

Mogesh also has been involved in interna;onal conferences and ac;vely engaged with numerous government and nongovernmental organisa;ons including the UN agencies. Currently, he is a Working Group Member of the Na;onal Planetary Health Ac;on Plan (NPHAP) by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innova;on of Malaysia (MOSTI), and a Youth Climate Champions Consultant for UNICEF Malaysia. Mogesh has received numerous awards for his advocacy work, including the 2023 ASEAN-India Youth Award and the 2021 Diana Award. He has represented Malaysia as a UN Youth Delegate at various high-level events around the world, including the Youth4Climate: Powering Ac;on event during the 77th Session of the United Na;ons General Assembly in New York, Stockholm+50 Interna;onal Mee;ng in Sweden, Youth4Climate Summit 2021 in Milan, and the 2022 Our Ocean Conference in Palau. He is also an ac;ve speaker and assists organiza;ons including UNICEF and UNDP in cura;ng projects to involve young people in climate ac;on and lobbying for environmental policies. His goal is to make climate ac;on more accessible and inclusive, emphasizing the importance of taking solid steps towards the right direc;on, regardless of the size of the ac;on. He believes in inclusive and transparent children and youth par;cipa;on in decision-making processes, capacity development to empower them to take ac;on on climate change, and stronger commitment from governments for effec;ve engagement and climate governance. Mogesh is passionate about voicing out the concerns of youth and believes that their perspec;ves and ac;ons are crucial in addressing the challenges of climate change

MSc. Nguyen Thi Viet Ha, currently is Vice Director of External Affairs and International Cooperation Department, Vietnam Farmers’ Union (VNFU). She has 20 years of working for Vietnam Farmers’ Union (VNFU), the organization who represents for farmers in Vietnam with membership of more than 10 million members.

Working in many programs, projects for supporting small farmers as Vice Director of programs, projects to improve the position of small farmers in food system such as Forest and Farm Facility in Vietnam; Engaging Cooperatives in the market and value chain; Asia Pacific Farmers Program and Farmer Organizations For Asia (FO4A) in Vietnam; Dissemination and mobilization of farmers in applying environment friendly rice cultivation; Waste Transformation; Tropical fruit quality project…

Ms Sylvia Lopez-Ekra brings 20 years of experience in development, gender, and migration work to the United Nations System. Sylvia first joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at its Headquarters in Geneva in 2002 as a project officer working on an initiative striving to mobilise the African diaspora to benefit African development and prosperity. She later led the organization’s gender coordination work for many years, during which she steered the agency’s efforts on gender mainstreaming and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse.  In 2014, she was posted in Accra as the Chief of Mission and Country Representative for the IOM offices in Ghana, Benin and Togo. She also served as Ghana's United Nations Resident Coordinator ad interim from December 2018 to May 2020. She was later appointed UN Resident Coordinator in Morocco by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, a role she occupied from August 2020 to July 2022. Ms Ekra is a Cote d’Ivoire and France binational and a trained lawyer. She holds a master’s degree in International Administration, with honours, from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, France.