Binay Ranjan Sen

Binay Ranjan Sen was an Indian diplomat (b. Jan. 1, 1898, Dibrugarh, India--d. June 12, 1993, Calcutta, India). He served as Director General (1956-67) of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He drew on his experience as relief commissioner (1942-43) during the Bengal famine of 1943 to build the FAO from a data-gathering bureaucracy into a major force against world hunger.

He studied at the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta and at the University of Oxford. Sen joined the Indian Civil Service in Bengal. His work as director general of food for all India (1943-46), convinced him that hunger and malnutrition were crucial issues in the modern world.

He took his concerns to the international stage as a member of India's first delegation to the UN (1947), as Indian Ambassador to the United States, and several other countries including Italy, Yugoslavia, Japan, and Mexico. He worked on a variety of FAO projects before being named Director General in 1956. In 1960 Sen announced the Freedom from Hunger campaign, which led to the 1963 World Food Congress in Washington, D.C., attended by representatives from more than 100 countries.

See also

• Freedom from Hunger, US charity associated with the UN campaign

External links

• On the B.R.Sen Award - 1
• On the B.R.Sen Award - 2
• On the Second World Food Congress in The Hague, Netherlands June 16-30, 1970
• Freedom from Hunger Campaign, Germany