Loraine Ronchi is the World Bank Group’s Global lead for Science, Knowledge and Innovation in Agriculture and Food.
In this role, Loraine leads the effort to scale science and innovation into the WBG’s portfolio and into the evidence bases of policy dialogue. She comes to this role directly from a special assignment with the CGIAR, mandated by senior management to identify obstacles and solutions to more effective partnerships in science and innovation and greater integration of knowledge into WBG work with its Clients. Her technical focus was on climate action and nature, whilst building scaling strategies for WBG knowledge partnerships more widely. Returning to the WBG as Global Lead, Loraine is to take forward these strategies and recommendations within the framework of the WBG’s new Knowledge Compact.
Prior to taking on this pioneering role, Loraine was Practice Manager for Agriculture and Food in South Asia, overseeing teams and operations in 6 countries, including Afghanistan. Previous to management, she had led the Global Agribusiness team in the Finance, Competitiveness & Innovation (FCI) Global Practice. Always working across boundaries, she was the first WBG-wide Global Lead for Value Chains and Agribusiness and also served as technical lead for agribusiness in the IFC’s advisory services for three years. In her 20 years at the WBG, she has led programs, projects and policy dialogue on the agricultural sector from both headquarters and country office base in East Africa.
Prior to joining the WBG, Loraine worked on smallholder integration into markets in the coffee and cocoa sectors through research, impact evaluation, and technical assistance with private sector coffee and chocolate companies, as well as with civil society organizations in Fairtrade. A Rhodes scholar, she holds an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University, and her doctorate in Economics is from Sussex University in the U.K.