Deissy Martínez-Barón

Deissy Martínez-Barón is a Colombian researcher who holds two BAs in Economics and International Affairs and Political Science and a Master on Rural Development. Currently, she is a PhD candidate on Geography at the University of Copenhagen. She has more than 10 years of experience working on climate change, agriculture and food security, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
She is the Regional Leader, Climate Action in LAC. In this position, Deissy is in charge of expanding Alliance opportunities to carry out research for development in the region through creating innovative collaboration mechanisms with current and new stakeholders, showcasing the Alliance’s capacities for implementing high-quality R4D projects that lead to high-impact results towards SDGs.
Previously, Deissy served as the Regional Program Leader for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, Food Security (CCAFS). In this position, she played a major role in regional partnership development aimed to build impact pathways so that knowledge in climate change leads to more competitive and resilient agriculture in Latin America. She was also an advisor of the Technical Advisory Committee of the National Statistical System of Colombia form 2020 to 2022.
Deissy’s experience in the public sector has been key to make strategic alliances with key regional and national stakeholders in order to scale science-based actions to increase resilience in the agricultural sector and food systems while reducing emissions to achieve global targets. In addition, her research on the economic impacts of climate change and implications in both challenges and action in rural communities and society strengthened CCAFS regional research. Currently, her research focus is on scaling of agriculture research for development innovations, social capital and climate change.

Before joining the CGIAR, Deissy worked at the Sustainable Environmental Development Deputy Directorate of the National Planning Department (DNP by its acronym in Spanish) in the Study of Economic Impacts of Climate Change in Colombia developed by the Group of Climate Change. She has also worked at the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) in Satellite Account of Environment at National Accounts Department.