Martien van Nieuwkoop, a Dutch national, was appointed Global Director for the Agriculture and Food Global Practice in the World ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP¡¯s Sustainable Development Practice Group on July 1, 2019. As Global Director, Martien provides leadership to the formulation and implementation of the ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP¡¯s strategy and knowledge in agriculture and food, oversees the operationalization of the ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP¡¯s vision on agriculture and food in regional and country programs, acts as senior spokesperson for agriculture and food ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP-wide and globally and manages the Agriculture and Food Global Practice. The Agriculture and Food Global Practice has a portfolio of about 160 projects with close to US$ 20 billion in commitments in investment project, program-for-results and development policy lending and about 250 staffs.
Before taking this position, Martien served for two years as Practice Director of the World ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP¡¯s Agriculture Global Practice, where he oversaw the ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP¡¯s agriculture lending, portfolio and analytic work in the East-Asia Pacific, Latin-America and the Caribbean and South Asia Regions, coordinated collaboration with IFC on agribusiness, and led the ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP¡¯s global engagement on agriculture and climate change.
Martien joined the World ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP in 1993 as a Young Professional and worked initially as an agriculture economist in the Latin-America and Caribbean Region. He was cluster leader covering agriculture during field assignments in Madagascar from 2001-2004 and in India from 2005-2007. From 2007 to 2015 Martien worked as Program Coordinator and Sector Manager for Agriculture in various assignments in the Africa Region, including covering Southern and West-Africa. He was also the Practice Manager for Agriculture in the South-Asia Region, a position he held from 2015-2017. Prior to joining the ¶¹ÄÌÊÓƵAPP, Martien was an associate scientist in the Economics Program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico from 1991-1993 and an associate expert in the Dutch bilateral cooperation program in Pakistan from 1989-1991.
Martien holds a Final ("Doctoraal") Examination (Cum Laude), Development Economics from Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands and an MBA (Beta-Gamma-Sigma), International Executive Program from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA. He grew up on a family-owned horticulture farm in Gouda, The Netherlands.
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