SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Overview

London International Development Centre (LIDC)

Director

SOAS Food Studies Centre

Member, SOAS Food Studies Centre

Centre for Development, Environment and Policy

Member, Centre for Development, Environment and Policy

Name:

Dr Jeff Waage, OBE

Email address:

Jeff.Waage@lidc.bloomsbury.ac.uk

Biography

Jeff is the Director of the London International Development Centre and a staff member of CEDEP. He is an ecologist by training and after a research career at Imperial College, studying insect behaviour and ecology, he joined in 1986 the intergovernmental organisation, CAB International (the former Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux) where he ran their International Institute of Biological Control and then later became Chief Executive of CABI Bioscience, leading agricultural research for development through facilities in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. His research interests stem from that time and include farmer participatory research, biological alternatives to pesticides, biosecurity and management of invasive species affecting agriculture and the environment. Jeff was one of the founders of the GEF’s Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) and also the FAO/World Bank Global IPM Facility. He returned to Imperial College in 2000 to run its Department of Agriculture (the former Wye College) and, later, its Centre for Environment and Policy.

Since 2007, Jeff has led LIDC, which is a collaboration between Colleges of the University of London dedicated to innovative, inter-disciplinary approaches to problems in international development. In LIDC he is particularly involved with SOAS in establishing the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH). Outside of academic, Jeff has been very much involved with the evolution of the CGIAR, serving on its 2008 Independent Review and later on the team preparing their new Strategic Research Framework. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Royal Veterinary College was awarded an OBE in 2008.

Jeff is interested in all things interdisciplinary that might contribute to international development. His current projects focus on “one health” (human and animal disease research and policy), access to medicines by the poor, agriculture and health and professional education to support international development.