In Memoriam: Professor Giovanni Andrea Cornia From Leonardo Menchini, Chief of Social Policy and Social Protection, UNICEF Jordan

I am writing to share the sad news of the passing of our friend, colleague, and mentor Giovanni Andrea Cornia in Florence.

Andrea was an emeritus professor of economics, a professor of economics at the University of Florence, and one of the foremost Italian development economists. In the 1980s and 90s, he was the chief economist at UNICEF in New York and head of the socio-economic research department at UNICEF’s International Child Development Centre (later Innocenti Research Center and UNICEF Global Research Office) in Florence. From 1995 to 1999, he was the director of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in Helsinki, before returning to work at UNICEF-IRC in 2000 and at the University of Florence from 2001.

In his work for UNICEF, other UN agencies, IRPET, and academia, he always focused on the practical policy applications of economic and social policy analysis, on the impact of economic policies on the most vulnerable segments of the population, on poverty, and inequalities. He challenged, critiqued and showed the economic and social limitations of academic orthodoxies and the orthodoxies of the international financial institutions.

To those of us who were his students at the university, in the Florence doctorate program on development, and in various university courses, and those who were his colleagues at UNICEF, he leaves a great legacy, with his passion, rigor, coherence, and continuous commitment to sharing his knowledge, insights, and passion.

Thank you, Andrea, for what you have done and for the legacy you leave us.

A big hug to Jeanni, Marco, and the family.