Jiangfeng Zhang is the Director of the Central and West Asia Team, Agriculture, Food, Nature, and Rural Development (AFNR) Sector Office, Sectors Department 2 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Since joining ADB in 2002, he has led and supported the development, design, and implementation of agriculture, natural resources, and rural development operations, business development, and policy dialogues across Central and West Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. His current work focuses on providing policy, institutional, financing, and technological support to build inclusive, climate- and disaster-resilient, and environmentally sustainable agriculture and rural development systems that enhance agricultural competitiveness, support the transformation of resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, and strengthen food and nutrition security in Central and West Asia.
As an ADB Director, he has led several pioneering flagship programs, including the first new-generation policy-based lending (PBL) for the AFNR sector: Competitive and Inclusive Agriculture Development Program (Philippines); the first results-based lending for the AFNR sector: Integrated Participatory Development and Management of Irrigation Program (Indonesia); ADB’s first climate change PBL: Philippines Climate Change Action Program; and the first low-carbon agriculture development program: Sichuan Climate-Smart Low-Carbon Agriculture Development Demonstration Program (People’s Republic of China).
He also led the Resilient River Basin Initiative and is currently leading the operationalization of the Glaciers to Farms Program, bringing together expertise, knowledge, innovation, financing, and partnerships. He has directed key nutrition-sensitive investments, including initiatives in the Lao PDR and Timor-Leste, demonstrating business models for integrating nutrition objectives into AFNR operations. He has also fostered strong sovereign and non-sovereign collaborations and leads regional cooperation and integration efforts on sustainable agriculture, food security, water, climate change, and the environment in Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program (CAREC) and Greater Mekong Subregion Program (GMS) countries.
He holds a Doctorate in Agricultural and Resource Economics and a Master’s degree in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Website: ADB.org