Biography
Gernot Laganda is leading the climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction programs at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). His job is to help WFP Country offices and the governments they serve to understand the effects of climate change on food systems, prioritize concrete actions to avoid, reduce or transfer growing climate risks in country programs, and work with new and emerging climate finance mechanisms to implement adaptation solutions for the most vulnerable and food insecure communities. Gernot has joined WFP from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he managed the world’s largest climate change adaptation program for smallholder farmers in developing countries. A geoscientist by training, he has spent the past 20 years managing projects and programs at the intersection of rural development, disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. He held posts with an NGO supporting disaster relief and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Tajikistan; the Austrian Development Agency — a bilateral aid agency in his native Austria; and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in South Africa and the Regional Center for Asia/Pacific. Gernot holds a M.Eng. degree in Applied Geosciences, a MA degree in Public Policy, and postgraduate diplomas in disaster management and development cooperation. He is a 2016 Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University.
