Please join Olcay Ünver, deputy director of land and water division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (NAO) for the seminar, “Water and Food Security: Pathways to 2050,” on Tuesday, March 12, 2019!
Water and Food Security: Pathways to 2050
Presented by Olcay Ünver, deputy director of land and water division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (NAO)
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
1:30–2:30 p.m.
Santan Hall (SANTN) 220, Polytechnic campus [map]
Abstract:
Water and food, along with energy and shelter, are at the top of any priority list, be it for a household, community, nation or the globe. With a natural resource base that continues to degrade, a population that grows and moves, diets that do not support healthy lifestyles or efficiencies and competition that intensifies around access to and use of resources, what are the prospects for ending hunger and providing adequate access to water for all?
Options to inform policymaking are available ranging from those for food, water and energy to science and technology. These options can be used to maximize objectives within a sector or a geography. They can also be used through lateral thinking, allowing to manage trade-offs and co-benefits across the nexus linking sectors or communities for a broader optimum.
The speaker will use water and food futures to demonstrate the consequences of the pathways that we are taking now.
Biosketch:
Olcay Ünver is responsible for managing water, land, soil and biodiversity-related programs at FAO, mainstreaming water across sectors and disciplines and cooperating with partners and stakeholders within and outside the UN system. He is also the vice-chair of UN-Water and oversees the collaborative programs of its member organizations, including the work on sustainable development goals.
Before joining FAO, he was the coordinator of UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Program. His prior positions include a professorship with Kent State University in Ohio, where he founded the Euphrates-Tigris Initiative for Cooperation among Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
While Ünver was president of the Southeastern Anatolia Project Administration in Turkey, he transformed a large infrastructure project into a sustainable socioeconomic development program. In 1999, he was listed among 19 “European Visionaries” by Time Magazine. He holds a docgtorate in civil engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and master’s and bachelor’s degrees, also in civil engineering, from Middle East Technical University, Turkey.
*Seminar is FREE and available via Adobe Connect.
