The Food Crisis in Latin America – Virtual Program
December 11th, 2020 12:00PM -1:00PM
This is a virtual program (12:00-1:00pm PT/3:00-4:00pm ET), instructions on how to join this meeting will be sent the day before the event.
The effects of COVID-19 are profound and wide-reaching in Latin America, a hard-hit region where there has been a 269 percent rise in people facing severe food insecurity. And now, a pandemic-induced recession threatens to wipe out years of economic, humanitarian and social progress in the region. More than one-third of the population will face unemployment and food insecurity, threatening dire, long-term impacts for Latin America. What are the broader implications of this food crisis in Latin America, and what are states in the region and the international community doing to prevent tens of millions more people from falling into extreme poverty and unprecedented food insecurity? Join the World Affairs Council on Friday, December 11 at 12:00pm PST for a panel discussion with U.N. World Food Programme representatives Laura Melo, Country Director for Guatemala and Angela Montoya, Private Sector Partnerships Manager for Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Maria Nelly Rivas, Vice President of Government Relations, Latin America at Cargill.
About the Speakers
Laura Melo has been the United Nations World Food Programme Representative in Guatemala since August 2018. Under her leadership, WFP in Guatemala is working to improve food security among the most vulnerable groups and contribute to emergency response to natural disasters. WFP’s priority is to support the Government of Guatemala to maintain sustainable and targeted social protection systems that can support improved food production. This entails reinforcing social protection programmes related to food and nutritional security; strengthening agricultural value chains in support of social protection systems, and improving capacity to prepare for and respond to the food security and nutrition impacts of natural disasters.
Before her assignment in Guatemala, Laura Melo coordinated in the Latin American and Caribbean region the implementation of one of WFP’s most innovative initiatives known as Purchase for Progress (P4P) –a five-year pilot programme to promote agricultural and market development focusing on improving smallholder farmers’ productivity, skills and ultimately their incomes from the commercialization of staple food crops.
Laura Melo has more than 15 years of experience in humanitarian and development work in support of and advocating for the most vulnerable. Her work with WFP and other UN organizations took her to Africa, Latin America and Asia where she worked in a variety of capacities including communications, advocacy, fundraising and project implementation.
Her international career includes 10 years as a journalist at the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and work in advertising.
Melo, a Portuguese national, is a graduate in psychology from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and has a master in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.
Angela Montoya, Private Sector Partnerships Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)
She has been in her current position since 2015, leading all private sector partnership activities across the LAC region for WFP with primary focus on growing existing global partnerships with major corporations in the region such as Cargill, Mastercard, Kerry Foods to name a few and the development new business in the areas of Income, Impact, and Innovation with international companies, including Multi-Latinas and regional unicorns. From 2012 to 2015, she led the Private Sector partnerships division for Plan International in Latin America as a Senior Partnerships Manager. Previous to that she worked for WFP in Rome as a consultant working on major events such as World Economic Forum at Davos. Montoya holds a MS in Human Development and has a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Business Administration both from Auburn University in U.S.
Maria Nelly Rivas, VP of Government Relations, Latin America at Cargill.
Maria Nelly has extensive experience in business, international development and government. She worked as a Senior Media Strategist at McCann-Erickson in New York and Buenos Aires. She was Associate Director at investment promotion agency PRONicaragua, before becoming Nicaragua´s Tourism Minister. After her tenure as Minister, she was Latin America Regional Coordinator at the UN World Tourism Organization and Assistant Resident Representative at the United Nations Development Program in Managua. She currently leads Government Relations and Public Policy at Cargill in Latin America.
Mrs. Rivas is Vice President at the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA) and former President at the American Chamber of Commerce in Nicaragua.
She is a Raising Talent at the Women´s Forum on the Economy and Society, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, an Aspen Institute Central America Leadership Fellow and Board member at Vital Voices Nicaragua.
Maria Nelly holds a BA in Communications and Business from Queens College and an MBA from Harvard University. She lives in Managua with her husband and three daughters.
About the Moderator
Chris Megargee, Latin America Ambassador, Covenant House International
For over 15 years, Chris has worked in senior resource development roles at nonprofit organizations serving marginalized communities both in Latin America and among Latino immigrants in the United States. As Latin America Ambassador for Covenant House International, Chris engages lead funders throughout the United States in support of Covenant House’s work serving children facing homelessness, trafficking, and exploitation in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Covenant House is the largest charity in the Americas dedicated to helping young people find safety, shelter, and opportunity—and does so in 31 cities and six countries. Previously, Chris served as Vice President of Development & Communications for Agros International—a nonprofit focused on breaking the cycle of poverty for farming families in Central America. He served four years as Development & Communications Director at Casa Latina, advancing the organization’s work empowering the Latino immigrant community in Seattle. And for nine years, Chris served as Director of Donor Relations at Global Partnerships, raising philanthropic support of GP’s social impact through microfinance programs in Latin America. Chris has organized and led over twenty donor delegations to countries in Central and South America and has lived, worked, and studied in Bolivia and El Salvador. Inspired by examples of community radio as a tool for social change in Latin America, Chris worked in broadcasting for ten years at Seattle’s ABC affiliate, KOMO-TV. Chris has a B.A. in Religion from the Catholic University of America and a graduate certificate in Hispanic Ministry from Maryknoll School of Theology. Chris fell in love with Latin America long ago—the people, the history, the cultures, the land, and the countless examples of courage in the face of adversity.
This program is in partnership with World Food Program USA
This program is in partnership with World Affairs Councils of America
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