Jonathan Wadsworth: Executive Secretary of the CGIAR Fund Council and Head of the Fund Office

As Executive Secretary of the Fund Council and Head of the Fund Office, Dr. Wadsworth provides the CGIAR Fund with operational leadership. In this capacity, he serves as an adviser on resource mobilization to the Fund Council and its Chair, facilitates the Fund’s interaction with the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, organizes key meetings, manages relationships with Fund donors and oversees the day-to-day activities of the Fund Office, among other functions. Before taking up this post in March 2011, Dr. Wadsworth was a senior adviser on agricultural research with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), a role he took up in 2003 after gaining significant field experience, much of this in Latin America, over more than two decades with DFID and other organizations. His broad expertise in agriculture ranges from farming and rural extension to research and executive leadership.

In recent years, Dr. Wadsworth has focused particularly on leading organizational change to enhance research performance. This has included the design and implementation of a new strategy for research on sustainable development at DFID, vigorous promotion of a more harmonized European approach to research for development and the transformation of agricultural research and policy organizations in Latin America to make them more results oriented, more sharply focused on poverty reduction and more consultative.

Dr. Wadsworth possesses a strong academic background, having earned a PhD in agricultural systems and innovation from the University of Reading. He also holds an MSc in tropical animal health and production from the University of Edinburgh and BSc in agriculture from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He has published several books and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers.

Upon being named as Executive Secretary of the CGIAR Fund, Dr. Wadsworth shared in an interview some thoughts about recent CGIAR reforms and the challenge of “harmonizing” donor support for strategic agricultural research. Click here to read the interview.

Click here for more information on the Fund Office.