Expertise

Rural poverty and food insecurity; rural development; small-scale agriculture; inclusive and sustainable food systems; agricultural data; impact evaluation; migration and social protection programs; climate change and agriculture

At the Keough School

Paul Winters is associate dean for academic affairs and the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Global Affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame.

Courses

• Foundations of Sustainable Development (master of global affairs course for sustainable development concentration)
• Directed Readings (for master of global affairs students)

Research and Publications

Winters’s research and teaching focus on rural poverty and food insecurity and the evaluation of policies and programs designed to address these issues. He has published numerous journal articles and working papers in the areas of rural poverty and food insecurity, rural development, small-scale agriculture, inclusive and sustainable food systems, agricultural data, impact evaluation, migration and social protection programs. He holds a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in economics from the University of California at San Diego and a BA in non-Western studies from the University of San Diego.

Professional Roles/Positions

Winters is the executive director of the Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture at the University of Chicago, a commission that promotes innovation development and scaling at the intersection of climate change, food security, and agriculture. Commission members include former heads of state and cabinet ministers, leaders in international organizations, and the private sector. As executive director, he oversees activities across the Innovation Commission Secretariat and leads engagements with partners.

Winters also is a member of the Food System Economics Commission, an independent academic commission that aims to equip political and economic decision makers with the tools and support metrics needed to transition towards healthy, inclusive and sustainable food systems.

Biography

Prior to joining the Keough School, Winters was the associate vice-president of the Strategy and Knowledge Department and director of the Research and Impact Assessment Division at the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Rome. From 2004 to 2015, he was a professor in the Department of Economics at American University in Washington, DC where he taught courses on impact evaluation, development economics, and environmental economics. Before American University, he worked at the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru, the University of New England in Australia, and the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC.

Recent Work

• Access to global wheat reserves determines country-level vulnerability to conflict-induced Ukrainian wheat supply disruption (Nature Food)
• Decomposing the impacts of an agricultural value chain development project by ethnicity and gender in Nepal (World Development)
• Almost half the world’s population lives in households linked to agrifood systems (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)
• Global food systems transitions have enabled affordable diets but had less favourable outcomes for nutrition, environmental health, inclusion and equity (Nature Food)
• Do not transform food systems on the backs of the rural poor (Food Security)
• Agricultural value chain development in Nepal: Understanding mechanisms for poverty reduction (Agricultural Economics)
• Towards food systems transformation—five paradigm shifts for healthy, inclusive and sustainable food systems (Food Security)

News & Media

• Carbon-neutral beef? Argentina’s new certification could promote more climate-friendly livestock production (Fast Company)
• Video: Sustainable food systems: Can we feed the planet while addressing climate change?
• Keough School expert to play key role in COP28 climate talks on food systems