Remembering Sir David Nabarro

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) joins the global community in mourning the death of Sir David Nabarro on Saturday 26 July 2025. He was a visionary who dedicated his life to public service, systems thinking, and human health and nutrition. His wisdom, humility, and unrelenting commitment to inclusive development have left an indelible mark on the world as well as ILRI.

Sir David was a friend and colleague to many at ILRI and memories of his compassion, goodwill run deep. In May 2020, in the at the outset of the COVID-19 epidemic he spoke at ILRI in his role as special envoy to the World Health Organisation.

"Livestock are the source of savings and security, nutrition and wellbeing for many billions of people. They are the heart of agriculture systems, everywhere," he began his talk with.

In a glimpse to the future after the epidemic, he alluded to the importance of focusing on food systems transformation—the work that he would passionately focus on in the last years of this life.

"COVID is giving us a chance to understand some of the inequities in our societies, and to see how serious they are. COVID is giving us a chance to reimagine life, in a way that creates greater dignity and opportunity for people everywhere. COVID is giving us the moment to think about food systems and how to make them more equitable, better for farmers, and better for hungry people who suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition."

Appolinaire Djikeng, director general of ILRI reflected:

"Sir David Nabarro’s tireless efforts to improve global health will be missed. His legacy inspires us to continue working towards a healthier and a more equitable world. At ILRI we were honored to call Sir David Nabarro a friend and a champion for our efforts on livestock development as a key contributor toward healthy people and a healthy planet. I was privileged to interact with David intensely in recent years and looked up to him as a role model.”

ILRI sends our condolences to David's friends and family. We will remember with great fondness his determination, by sharing his concluding remarks at ILRI community in 2020: 

"And I am absolutely confident, because I’m a stubborn optimist, that we’ll come through COVID-19 as a much better human race than we were even six months ago."