The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) received with deep sorrow the news of the passing away of Dr. Mahmoud El-Solh, one of its leading associates. Solh passed away on Sunday, November 16 and was laid to rest in his hometown of Sidon, Lebanon. Dr. El-Solh leaves a prestigious legacy of ethics and knowledge, through his work for international and regional institutions in the field of agricultural research, with special interest in the issue of food security in the Arab region and other developing countries.

 

AFED Secretary General Najib Saab said that the organization loses a staunch pillar, who contributed strongly to its legacy, as Dr. El-Solh contributed to most of AFED annual reports on the state of the Arab environment, especially on agriculture, food security, arid lands and climate change, besides participating in its conferences as a speaker and panelist. He has done all this efficiently, building on extensive experience gained through many years of leadership positions, from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank, to the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), where he achieved major successes during his tenure as Director-General. He was, along with Dr. Abdul Karim Sadik, the co-editor of the AFED comprehensive Report on Food Security in the Arab Region in 2014, which had a profound impact on policies in Arab countries. His last contribution to AFED was to its fourteenth report in 2023, where he wrote a chapter on "The impact of pandemics and wars on Arab food security”.