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Biography
Patrick Webb is engaged in research and policy guidance on food policy and nutrition around the globe. His expertise lies in food systems transformation, agriculture and trade, international nutrition policy and programming, and emergency relief. He recently served as agency-wide chief of nutrition for the world’s largest bilateral donor organization – the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He was also Chief of Nutrition for the world’s largest multilateral humanitarian organization – the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Before that, Dr. Webb spent 9 years with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), living 6 of those years in Africa. His high-level interactions with governments and donor organizations globally include work at ministerial levels in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, North Korea, Kenya, Cambodia and Timor Leste. As a practitioner, he was a first-responder to numerous major humanitarian crises, including droughts in southern Africa, the Asian tsunami, and the Haiti earthquake. Today, he serves on the Board of Directors of the UK-based nonprofit called Emergency Nutrition Network.
In terms of professional outreach and impact, Patrick served two terms as a member of the steering committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts (HPLE) of the Committee on World Food Security. He similarly served as a member of the Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) – the world’s main network of international research organizations focused on food and agriculture. He played a key role as vice chair for a European Commission High Level Expert Group tasked with recommending how to improve science-policy interfaces to support food system transformation, and for more than a decade he provided technical advice and inputs to the work of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (GLOPAN). He was one of 22 commissioners leading the Eat-Lancet 2.0 commission on healthy, sustainable and just food systems which produced its finding in October 2025.
He is an Honorary Professor at Hohenheim University (Stuttgart, Germany), has Adjunct Faculty status at Patan Academy of Health Sciences (in Nepal), and has a faculty position by courtesy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University).
