Careers in food security: Why both specialists and 'integrators' are key

To state it simply, there are two career tracks in the vast food security sector, according to Dominic Schofield, director of multinutrient supplements for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. One is to become a specialist — whether that be in gender, economic development or food technology, to name a few. There is also the person, known as the “integrator,” who understands various specialties and excels in bringing sectors together that might not be used to working jointly, such as government, private sector and civil society or different functional areas. This means that there is room in food security for people with a wide variety of backgrounds and skill sets. Robert Winterbottom, a senior fellow for the World Resources Institute, mentioned land tenure and property rights as areas where someone with a law degree, for example, could find themselves working. There is also an implicit way of thinking that different disciplines can bring to the field. Schofield pointed to one project where mechanical engineers, for example, were interested in troubleshooting and fixing things while the chemical engineers were great at managing an overall process. People with law degrees or language students, on the other hand, have an excellent analytical capacity that also shouldn’t be taken for granted. Check out more career advice stories online, and subscribe to Doing Good to receive top international development career and recruitment news.