UKRAINE – Gary is making a contribution to global food security by working with and strengthening banks to improve access to finance for farmers, and insurance companies to prevent uninsured losses from locking vulnerable populations into a vicious cycles of destitution. These actions are part of an innovative program managed by IFC (International Finance Corporation – “Creating Opportunity Where It’s Needed Most”), and jointly implemented with the World Bank called GIFF (Global Index Insurance Facility).
Gary is the Senior Operations Officer for IFC in Agri-Insurance/ Agri-Finance for Central and Eastern Europe with a MSc in Agronomy and Crop Science from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a PhD in Seed Science and Technology from Mississipi State University. He has been an ebbf National Representative and a member of the Research Committee for 16 years. GIFF is a multi-donor trust fund supporting the development and growth of local markets for weather and disaster index-based insurance in developing countries. Index insurance is an innovative approach to insurance provision that pays out benefits on the basis of a pre-determined index (e.g. rainfall level, seismic activity, livestock mortality rates) for loss of assets and investments, primarily working capital, resulting from weather and catastrophic events, without requiring the traditional services of insurance claims assessors.