Who made the decision?

Hans Herren is the President and CEO of the Millennium Institute USA since 2005, a non-profit, non-governmental organization providing advanced system dynamics simulation tools for inclusive approaches to SDG policy planning, monitoring and reporting.

As entomologist, agriculture and development expert and pioneer in biological pest control, he looks back on 27 years of research and living experience in various African states. Herren holds the World Food Prize, 1995 and the Alternative Nobel Prize 2013.

"My R&D interests and achievements are in holistic, integrated and sustainable development, with a focus on fair, equitable, gender sensitive agriculture and food systems. Managed agriculture, bio-science research and policy support organizations."

Kristin Davis is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, holding a PhD in international agricultural extension from the University of Florida. She has conducted research on farmer field schools, rural institutions, agricultural innovation systems, pluralistic extension systems and extension education in Africa and worldwide.

She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and policy briefs. Davis was the architect of the New Extensionist Learning Kit, a set of modules containing core competencies for the global extension agent. In 2020 she led the publication of the book “Agricultural extension: Global status and performance in selected countries”.

Maria Gerster-Bentaya is a socio-economist by training and works as a senior researcher and lecturer at the University of Hohenheim in the field of professional and adult education, knowledge and innovation systems with focus on advisory services and learning processes. Parallel, she works as a facilitator and consultant in the field of curriculum design, training manual and extension material development, training of trainers in professional training and extension.

"My interest is to bring together theory and practice and to apply experiential learning approaches."