Gernot Laganda is leading the Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programs at the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP). He supports WFP Country Offices and the governments they serve to understand the effects of climate change on food security, develop measures to reduce climate risks in food systems, and make climate risk financing work for vulnerable communities.

Gernot joined WFP from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he managed the world’s largest climate change adaptation program for smallholder farmers.

A geoscientist by training, he spent the past 20 years working at the nexus between disaster management and sustainable development – holding posts with NGOs supporting disaster relief projects in Afghanistan and Tajikistan; serving as Humanitarian Program Specialist with the Austrian Development Agency; and managing climate and environmental programs with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in South Africa and the Asia/Pacific region.

Gernot is a Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University and a guest lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zuerich.