Ertharin Cousin, director of the UN World Food Program from 2012 to 2017, has joined the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as a distinguished fellow in its global food and agriculture program. In an announcement, the think tank said Cousin will advise the group in “its ongoing efforts to advance global food security by supporting research, representing food security expertise on a variety of global stages, and building unique partnerships to amplify key messages and accelerate progress.”
President Obama appointed Cousin, a Chicago native, as U.S. ambassador to the UN agencies on food and agriculture in 2009. She moved to leadership of the WFP, the world’s largest international humanitarian agency, three years later. The Chicago Council says that during Cousin’s tenure, the WFP provided food aid to more than 80 million people in 75 countries.
Cousin is the second former WFP director at the think tank, which plays a prominent role, including holding an annual conference in Washington, in pursuing food security. Catherine Bertini, also a distinguished fellow in the global agriculture program, ran the WFP from 1992 to 2002 and is a World Food Prize laureate.