Terri Sarch

Terri Sarch took up her role as Nutrition Team Leader in the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in November 2021. In this role, Terri leads FCDO’s approach to addressing global malnutrition effectively and sustainably.

She builds on her experience as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome from 2016 to 2021 where she represented the UK in the governing bodies of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund of Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP), as well as the Committee for World Food Security (CFS).

She has worked in International Development since 1993 and joined DFID in 2005 as a Livelihoods Adviser, advising on how to promote African agricultural exports to the UK and Europe, and leading programmes to support African Agriculture. She led DFID’s African Free Trade initiative from 2010 to 2014 and built up a large portfolio of investments in infrastructure and trade to support African regional economic integration.

Before moving to Rome, Terri was head and deputy head of DFID’s Global Funds Department and senior responsible owner for DFID’s contributions to the UN World Health Organization and the Global Partnership for Education. Terri trained as an agricultural economist and completed her PhD on Fishing and Farming at Lake Chad in 1999.

In her earlier career she worked in agricultural research in The Gambia, Nigeria and Kenya and published several academic articles on farming and fishing livelihoods.