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More information Ms. Catherine Bertini, former Chair of the SCNMs. Bertini stepped down as Executive Director of the World Food Programme at the beginning of April 2002, when her second term expired. The World Food Programme is the largest global food aid agency. When she was appointed to the post in 1992, Ms. Bertini was the first American woman to head a UN agency, and the first woman to lead WFP. In March 2000, Ms. Bertini was named the Secretary-General’s special envoy to the Horn of Africa. From WFP’s headquarters in Rome, Ms. Bertini carried out the agency’s dual mandate: to avert starvation in humanitarian crises through emergency operations and to promote long-term development projects aimed at breaking the deeply rooted hunger-poverty cycle. As WFP’s workload grew, Ms. Bertini steered WFP into new policy arenas that have produced significant achievements. The agency has underscored the seminal role of women in food aid and pioneered the use of food aid to empower them. Ms. Bertini also put WFP in the vanguard of UN reform. Overhead costs are, on average nine percent, one of the lowest levels in the UN system and comparable to the best-run private charities. Before she took the WFP post, Ms. Bertini worked in the United States Government. From 1989 to 1992 she was the Assistant Secretary for Food and Consumer Services in the Department of Agriculture. In 1992 she founded the Breastfeeding Promotion Consortium, which saw an increase in the number of breastfeeding mothers in the United States from 38.3 percent to 50.4 percent over a five-year period. From 1987 to 1989, Ms. Bertini was Acting Assistant Secretary of the Family Support Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, Ms. Bertini combined a career in the private sector with public service posts in state government. Ms. Bertini graduated from State University of New York at Albany with a degree in political science. |
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