Yevnehiia Varyvoda

Dr. Varyvoda has more than 15 years of experience conducting environmental and public health research and training students. Her specific expertise includes nature-based solutions for resilient food systems, evidence-based interventions for promoting food security in low- and middle-income countries, and underutilized resources to address climate change-induced threats. She was the leading national expert and coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) project “Capacity building needs assessment for the implementation of the UN/ECE SEA Protocol”. As a national expert, she was responsible for promoting the implementation of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as the key instrument for integrating environmental concerns into the policy-making process for Central and Eastern Europe, resulting in the elaboration of the national strategy on Strategic Environmental Assessment capacity building in Ukraine. She was a Co-Principal Investigator in the project on the business drivers for food safety and nutrition for Feed the Future in collaboration with Food Enterprise Solutions. Her recent project includes an identification of innovations to address problems and challenges in post-farmgate storage to decrease food loss and waste, improve diet and nutrition, and boost smallholder farmers’ productivity and profitability. Her studies, teaching and learning experiences in environmental and public health research have been conducted in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East with funding from UNDP, USAID, and Mashav.