Lilian Rahal, National Secretary for Food and Nutrition Security, MDS Brazil
Lilian dos Santos Rahal has a degree in Social Sciences and an M.A. in Sociology from the State University of Campinas. She has more than two decades of experience in Food and Nutrition Security and Rural Development in the Brazilian Federal Government. Mother of Luiza and Emiliano, she is a public policy maker with a strong capacity for dialogue. Her vision of the role of public policies in tackling social issues, combined with her social sensitivity and political perception, are pillars of her work in the search for alternatives to complex social issues. She is the National Secretary for Food and Nutritional Security and has contributed to the formulation of essential public policies for Brazil's poorest population, such as the Food Acquisition Programme, the Cisterns Programme (Water for All) and the New Basic Food Basket.
Saskia Sanders, Senior Policy Advisor, Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland
Saskia Sanders is a Senior Policy Advisor for Sustainable Food Systems at the Federal Office for Agriculture in Switzerland. She is the Swiss agriculture negotiator for the climate negotiations and also the coordinator and spokesperson for the Environmental Integrity Group for agriculture. At this SB session she is also co-facilitator for the Dialogue on Mountains and Climate change. In her previous role, she developed the National Action Plan to halve food loss and waste in Switzerland by 2030, and helped to establish a cross-industry agreement to reduce food loss and waste. She holds a Master of Science degree in political Geography from University of Amsterdam.
José Valls Bedeau, Policy Officer, Agrifood Systems and Food Safety division, FAO
José Valls Bedeau is a Policy Officer in the Agrifood Systems and Food Safety division in FAO headquarters in Rome, where he provides leadership and guidance for results-based policy assistance and facilitates policy dialogue and capacity development on sustainable agrifood systems. Previously he worked in the food security support service and strategic planning unit in FAO, and as a Policy Officer in Guatemala, supporting the implementation of family farming and stunting reduction strategies. He is Agronomical Engineer by training and MSc. in Rural Development and has 20 years of experience in the areas of food security and agrifood systems. He has served in different development organizations and countries, including in Central America and North Africa.
Elisabetta Recine, President of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security (Consea), Brazil
Nutritionist. PhD in Public Health.
Professor at the Department of Nutrition and member of the Observatory of Food and Nutritional Security Policies at the University of Brasilia
Steering Committee of:
- Food and Nutrition Thematic Group of the Brazilian Association of Public Health
- Brazilian Alliance for Adequate and Healthy Food
- Brazilian Research Network on Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security
- High Level Panel of Experts of the UN Committee on World Food Security (2017/19; 2021/23; 2023/25)
Member of the Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems - IPES- Food
President of the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security (2023/2025; 2025/2027)
Tobie Ondoa Manga, Inspector General of the Ministry of Agriculture and UNFS Curator, Cameroon
Agricultural engineer of Cameroonian nationality and holder of a Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées in Environmental Sciences, Mr Ondoa, aged 56, has a long and rich career as an agricultural policy analyst and planner.
Currently Inspector General for Agricultural Development at the Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, he is in charge of Budget Programme 184 "Productivity and Production of Agricultural Sectors". He is also Cameroon's National Technical Focal Point for :
the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) ;
the Coalition for Rice Development in Africa;
the Korea-Africa Cooperation Initiative on Agriculture;
the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture;
and Curator of the National Pathways for Sustainable Food Systems in Cameroon.
In the past, Mr Ondoa has been Director of Studies, Programmes and Cooperation, Deputy Director of Cooperation; Head of the Agricultural Projects and Programmes Unit, Head of the Prospective Analyses and Agricultural Policies Unit, and Coordinator of projects including the Plateau Rice Development Project in bimodal rainforest zones and the Cameroon Component of the AUDA-NEPAD Project to Promote Decent Employment and Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Agribusiness for Young People in Rural Areas.
Khaled El Taweel, Senior Programme Coordinator of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub
Dr. Khaled El Taweel is a senior international development professional with over twenty years of extensive experience in development and international law. He has served both at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
In his current role as Senior Programme Coordinator at the United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub, he leads a dedicated team advancing food systems transformation and climate action, including the implementation of the Food Systems Climate Action Convergence Initiative.
In addition, Dr. El Taweel serves as Senior Regional Coordinator in the Office of the Director-General of FAO, where he contributes to strategic coordination and high-level engagement across the Organization.
He has held several prominent leadership positions, including Chair of the FAO Committee on Commodity Problems (2016–2018) and Chair of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Open-Ended Working Group on Nutrition (2015–2018). He also co-led the CFS evaluation process. Dr. El Taweel was elected Vice-President of the Group of 77 and China in Rome in 2017 and served as President of the UNIDROIT General Assembly in 2016.
Dr. El Taweel holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and a Master of International Business Administration from ESLSCA Business School in Paris. He has authored several academic books and articles on international law and development and has served as a visiting lecturer in international law and development at various universities.
Heike Hoeffler, Team leader of the “Global Programme Sustainable Agricultural Systems and Policies”, GIZ
Dr. Heike Hoeffler is the team leader for the Global Programme Sustainable Agricultural Systems and Policies.
An international agricultural economist by profession, Heike joined German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in 2002. Until 2008, she worked as an advisor to the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture in the bilateral “Private Sector Development in Agriculture” Programme.
After five years as a freelance consultant, doctoral thesis and founding a family, she re-joined GIZ in 2013 as an advisor for agricultural policy within the Germany-based team “Agricultural Policy and Food Security”, where she focused on the contemporary agricultural policy agenda, rural transformation in Africa and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. In early 2017, she took over the project lead for the Sector Project “Agricultural Trade and Value Chains”, later called “Agricultural Trade, Agribusiness, Agricultural Finance” (AAA) and from April 2021 onwards “Sector Project Agriculture”. With that team, Heike provided advisory services to the German government, mainly to BMZ division 122 on general conceptual questions around sustainable agricultural production, marketing, trade and agricultural policy. In 2022, her work was dominated by analysing the impacts of the Russian war against Ukraine on global food markets and by supporting the German Government engagement with the G7 food security working group and the foundation of the “Global Alliance for Food Security” (GAFS).
In mid 2023, she moved to Zambia, where she worked as GIZ`s Food and Nutrition Security Project Coordinator, GIZ Zambia, including the project management for “Food and Nutrition Security, Enhanced Resilience” (FANSER), “National Information Platform for Nutrition” (NIPN) and “Transformation of Food Systems” (TES). Since mid 2024, she managed the German Nutrition Drought Response to Zambia in Eastern Province.
From May 2026 onwards, she is back in the field of agricultural policy reforms, overseeing with the Global Programme the work on five key agricultural transformation topics in nine countries.
In addition, Heike is the speaker for the GIZ Sector Network for Rural Development (SNRD) in Africa, representing knowledge management and exchange between more than 130 member projects across the continent.
