Dr Lawrence Haddad is GAIN’s Executive Director since 2016. In such capacity, he was one of the drivers behind the Initiative on Climate and Nutrition at COP27 in 2022; he chaired Action Track 1 of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit to ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all; and he was the co-founder of the Standing Together for Nutrition consortium, a response to the COVID19 pandemic and the current food crisis.
Prior to GAIN, Lawrence was the founding co-chair and lead author of the Global Nutrition Report from 2014 to 2016. From 2004 to 2014, Lawrence was the Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the world’s leading development studies institute. Before joining IDS in 2004, he was Director of the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from 1994 to 2004. From 2009 to 2010, he was the UK representative on the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CSF). From 2010 to 2012, he was the President of the UK and Ireland’s Development Studies Association. An economist, Lawrence completed his PhD in Food Research at Stanford University in 1988.
Lawrence has gained international recognition in two big moments.
In June 2018, the World Food Prize Foundation awarded the 2018 World Food Prize to Lawrence Haddad, and David Nabarro, former Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General. Announcing the award - Ambassador Quinn, World Food Prize President - cited the recipients for their "extraordinary intellectual and policy leadership in bringing maternal and child nutrition to the forefront of the global food security agenda and thereby significantly reducing childhood stunting."
In December 2022, in the first New Year Honours List of King Charles III in the UK, Dr Lawrence Haddad was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for "Services to International Nutrition, Food and Agriculture". This is an award reserved for overseas and international work that honours individuals who have rendered important services in relation to Commonwealth or foreign nations. The Order's motto is "Token of a better age".