Steering Committee
The Steering Committee was established to oversee the consulta-
tive process and recommend whether an international assessment
was needed, and if so, what were the goals, the scope, the ex-
pected outputs and outcomes, governance and management struc-
ture, location of the secretariat and funding strategy.
Co-chairs
Louise Fresco, Assistant Director General for Agriculture, FAO
Seyfu Ketema, Executive Secretary, Association for Strengthening
Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA)
Claudia Martinez Zuleta, Former Deputy Minister of the Envi-
ronment, Colombia
Rita Sharma, Principal Secretary and Rural Infrastructure Com-
missioner, Government of Uttar Pradesh, India
Robert T. Watson, Chief Scientist, The World Bank
Nongovernmental Organizations
Benny Haerlin, Advisor, Greenpeace International
Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Senior Scientist, Pesticide Action Network
North America Regional Center (PANNA)
Monica Kapiriri, Regional Program Officer for NGO Enhance-
ment and Rural Development, Aga Khan
Raymond C. Offenheiser, President, Oxfam America
Daniel Rodriguez, International Technology Development Group
(ITDG), Latin America Regional Office, Peru
UN Bodies
Ivar Baste, Chief, Environment Assessment Branch, UN Environ-
ment Programme
Wim van Eck, Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development and
Healthy Environments, World Health Organization
Joke Waller-Hunter, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Conven-
tion on Climate Change
Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary, UN Convention on Bio-
logical Diversity
At-large Scientists
Adrienne Clarke, Laureate Professor, School of Botany, University
of Melbourne, Australia
Denis Lucey, Professor of Food Economics, Dept. of Food Busi-
ness & Development, University College Cork, Ireland, and
Vice-President NATURA
Vo-tong Xuan, Rector, Angiang University, Vietnam
Private Sector
Momtaz Faruki Chowdhury, Director, Agribusiness Center for
Competitiveness and Enterprise Development, Bangladesh

Sam Dryden, Managing Director, Emergent Genetics
David Evans, Former Head of Research and Technology, Syngenta
International
Steve Parry, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Development
Program Leader, Unilever
Mumeka M. Wright, Director, Bimzi Ltd., Zambia
Consumer Groups
Michael Hansen, Consumers International
Greg Jaffe, Director, Biotechnology Project, Center for Science in
the Public Interest
Samuel Ochieng, Chief Executive, Consumer Information
Network
Producer Groups
Mercy Karanja, Chief Executive Officer, Kenya National Farmers'
Union
Prabha Mahale, World Board, International Federation Organic
Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
Tsakani Ngomane, Director Agricultural Extension Services, De-
partment of Agriculture, Limpopo Province, Republic of South
Africa
Armando Paredes, Presidente, Consejo Nacional Agropecuario
(CNA)
Scientific Organizations
Jorge Ardila Vásquez, Director Area of Technology and Innova-
tion, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture
(IICA)
Samuel Bruce-Oliver, NARS Senior Fellow, Global Forum for
Agricultural Research Secretariat
Adel El-Beltagy, Chair, Center Directors Committee, Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Carl Greenidge, Director, Center for Rural and Technical Coop-
eration, Netherlands
Mohamed Hassan, Executive Director, Third World Academy of
Sciences (TWAS)
Mark Holderness, Head Crop and Pest Management, CAB
International
Charlotte Johnson-Welch, Public Health and Gender Specialist
and Nata Duvvury, Director Social Conflict and Transfor-
mation Team, International Center for Research on Women
(ICRW)
Thomas Rosswall, Executive Director, International Council for
Science (ICSU)
Judi Wakhungu, Executive Director, African Center for Technol-
ogy Studies