CAAS has collaborated with IFPRI for more than 15 years and is interested in strengthening the partnership, especially through enhanced staff interactions to build national research capacity. The visit was a valued opportunity to discuss the Academy’s future research priorities and areas of collaboration, including sustainable management of water and land, food safety, and yield improvements for increased food supply. In its new strategy, CAAS will also substantially expand its collaborations with research institutions in developing countries. CAAS expects IFPRI to provide strategic advice in this type of South-South cooperation given IFPRI’s long experience in Africa and South Asia.

Through our China Strategy Support Program, IFPRI provides support to the design and implementation of national strategies on food and nutrition security, agricultural and rural development, and poverty reduction. The program works closely with the International Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (ICARD), a joint initiative of IFPRI and CAAS. We will continue to provide support through evidence-based policy solutions and look forward to enhancing our partnership with CAAS.

Source: UN OCHA

Swift action is needed now. As the experience of the recent Horn of Africa crisis illustrates, timely public action and strong political will are critical to prevent a further deepening of the Sahel crisis. Governments, donor agencies, and humanitarian organizations have already called for an urgent scale up of humanitarian, rehabilitation, and development assistance to tackle the crisis and strong momentum is being built. However, it is crucial that these efforts are a combination of short-term interventions (to provide immediate relief) as well as long-term interventions (to build resilience to future crises).

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Africa’s Sahel region and we stay committed to efforts needed to break the perpetual cycle of food crises. IFPRI has conducted research on risks and emergencies and is especially expanding its work on food crises, post-crisis recovery/rebuilding, and political conflict in order to provide evidence-based policy options for policymakers and stakeholders. Although the underlying causes of drought-induced food crises may be similar, it is important to note that the solutions must be region-, country- or context-specific. For broad actions proposed to prevent future drought-induced food crises in the short, medium, and long term, see my statement on the drought in the Horn of Africa. For more specific actions recommended on how to build resilience in regions affected by climatic shocks and make humanitarian assistance work better, see IFPRI’s newly launched Global Food Policy Report.

I am very happy to share this exciting and unique Report with you and hope that you will find it of interest and value in your work.

• Launch Seminar: April 23
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Source: IFPRI

Dr. Adesina brought to his new position as Minister long standing international experience with the CGIAR, the Rockefeller Foundation and AGRA. I was impressed by his vision as well as by the swift actions he has taken after only being in office for 6 months. These actions have included reforming fertilizer markets, boosting seed production and distribution, establishing new food processing zones and creating innovative public-private partnerships to finance food value chains. I am very proud that IFPRI was able to provide both technical and research support to these initiatives.

We at IFPRI have an active program in the country notably through the Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) and the Rural Economy Knowledge Support System (REKSS) initiatives. We look forward to continuing to support agriculture and food policy in Nigeria, by partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture as well as other ministries to provide research and strategic support to help develop Nigeria’s capacities for policy analysis and set up a monitoring and evaluation system to track progress in the agricultural sector.

Source: African Capacity Building Foundation

This year’s report focuses on ‘Capacity Development for Agricultural Transformation and Food Security’. I am pleased that IFPRI was able to collaborate with the African Capacity Building Foundation on this effort. I am also pleased that agriculture and food security were chosen as special topics for 2012.

As the report highlights, Africa has recently experienced impressive transformations, including average annual economic growth of between 5-8% despite low foreign investments and the global economic crisis. However, the opportunities that have come along with this transformation have not been fully harnessed, and significant challenges due in part to a lack of capacity in agricultural development and food security have yet to be tackled.

Policy capacity is particularly weak in the areas of agriculture and food security in Africa. A policy environment that enables local experimentation and impartial evaluation of innovative policies and reforms is essential to achieve agricultural transformation and food security. IFPRI’s Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support Systems (ReSAKSS) as well as its Country Strategy Support Programs have contributed to strengthening capacities for country-led strategies for a number of years.

The methodology used by the report assesses capacity along the following three levels: the enabling environment, the organizational level, and the individual level. It is crucial to create new tools and indicators at all three levels that help decision-makers measure and track country progress in terms of capacity in agricultural development and in food security policy. To this end, IFPRI has initiated the systematic collection of data on food policy capacity. Shortly, IFPRI will release this data for the first time in its new annual flagship publication the 2011 Global Food Policy Report.

Source: United Nations

I just came back from the “Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus - A test drive for the Rio goals” event organized by the German Federal Government in the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, where I was invited to comment on the Zero Draft of the Rio+20 Outcome Document. I am proud that IFPRI is a strategic partner of the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus activities, in the lead-up to the Rio+20 Conference this summer, and beyond.

Global food security today faces a set of complex and closely interlinked challenges including rapid population growth and changing demographics, growing natural resource constraints, high and volatile food prices, rising energy prices, biofuel expansion, and climate change. Unsustainable resource management coupled with increasing food and energy prices are already affecting the world’s poorest people—who already lack sufficient access to basic resources of food, energy, and water.

Despite significant improvements in reducing hunger and malnutrition, close to one billion people continue to go hungry every day and even more suffer from deficiencies in essential micronutrients and vitamins. According to IFPRI’s 2011 Global Hunger Index, 26 countries still have “serious” or “alarming” levels of hunger. In a little more than a decade, the world population will reach 8 billion people, which will put additional pressure on the food production system as well as increasingly scarce natural resources and non-renewable energy base.

The goal of enhancing global food security will require decisive action on a number of fronts, but will need to build on, and account for the connections between water, energy and food security. Agriculture consumes 80 % of global freshwaters, uses about 35 % of global lands, produces between 17-30 % of GHG emissions and employs almost 38 % of the labor force.

The concept of sustainable and green economies views the environment as “natural capital” that is a key input for sustainable growth. In this sense, the switch to a more integrated and greener economy will therefore greatly depend on strengthening the water, food and energy nexus. In order to achieve this switch agriculture, water and energy resources must therefore be at the heart of the strategies, investments and policies that will be discussed and negotiated during the Rio+20 meetings.

As the Rio+20 Conference is getting closer and the Zero Draft is being discussed, actionable approaches for integrating food, water, and energy sectors are urgently needed. It is crucial that the broader Rio+20 sustainable and green growth agenda integrates this nexus thinking. Let me summarize the key steps for moving forward in this direction:

• Ensuring switch to green economy benefits the poor. As emphasized in the principles of the Zero Draft, the shift to a green economy is a must, but it should not be achieved at the cost of other development goals. These key goals include poverty and hunger eradication, food and nutrition security, increased access to clean water, enhanced energy security, resilience and disaster preparedness, improved public health and inclusive and equitable growth.

• Promoting resource-efficient and climate-smart technologies and policies. Technological innovations in the agriculture, water and energy sectors are critical to increase agricultural productivity, provide adaptive buffers against emerging challenges as well as to enhance nutritional value of food crops. Green agriculture initiatives, such as the ABC Low Carbon Agriculture program in Brazil (Agricultural Baixo Carbono), are already being implemented in different parts of the developing and developed world.

• Exploiting “triple wins”. Despite the fact that trade-offs between growth, environmental sustainability and food production exist, it is important to explore and develop triple win solutions. IFPRI research in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that several agricultural practices, such as combinations of inorganic fertilizer, mulching, and manure offer triple wins in terms of productivity, smallholder income and sustainability. Similar triple win solutions should be researched and developed and scaled-up.

• Identifying mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating food security implications of the green economy. In order to build up evidence on “triple wins” mechanisms and indicators must be developed to track and evaluate the food security implications of green economy strategies, policies and investments.

• Building country and regional capacity. Greater technical and financial support should be allocated towards establishing domestic institutions for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Rio+20 agenda. Global agenda setting is important, but to move declarations to actions requires strong national and local capacity. That is why IFPRI is committed to supporting this effort through its CGIAR research programs and regional and country support programs.

Source: IFPRI

The first of its kind, the WEAI is a composite measurement tool that indicates women’s control over critical parts of their lives in the house¬hold, community, and economy. It is an exciting breakthrough that will allow identifying women who are disempowered and understanding how development researchers and practitioners can enhance their autonomy and decisionmaking. The WEAI was developed based on pilot surveys in regions of Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Uganda and will very soon be used to track the implementation and to evaluate the US Government's Feed the Future initiative.

It will also be a useful tool for tracking progress toward gender equality, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals. IFPRI has long invested in and pioneered policy research on gender issues. Dr. Agnes Quisumbing and Dr. Ruth Meinzen-Dick have made invaluable contributions to the advancement of IFPRI’s work on gender as well as to this Index. I am pleased that we are able to expand our work on gender by pursuing innovative tools and partnering with actors from across the board to inform development programs, research and policy-making.

I was glad to have all the women who played a pivotal role in bringing this Index to bear speak at the launch event. They included Dr. Emily Hogue from USAID’s Bureau for Food Security, Dr. Sabina Alkire Director of the Oxford OPHI of Oxford University, and Dr. Agnes Quisumbing from the Poverty, Health, & Nutrition Division of IFPRI.

Source: IFPRI

Last week, I participated in the “Food Secure Arab World” conference—co-organized by IFPRI and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia— in Beirut. It was one of the largest events on food security the region has seen, with more than 200 participants. Through active discussion, participants and presenters identified the following actions as priorities for policymaking.

• Scale up targeted social protection with strong links to nutrition and health and long-term productivity growth.
• Boost agricultural productivity sustainably by expanding investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research and development.
• Ensure efficiency in and access to markets and rural finance.
• Promote regional trade and grain reserves.

These action areas mean that food policy research in the Arab world needs to focus on:

• improving data, information, and knowledge sharing;
• linking agriculture to nutrition and health outcomes;
• supporting the establishment of regional grain reserves;
• enhancing governance and institutions; and
• building each country’s capacity in addition to a smart partnership network.

The strategic directions and necessary collaboration discussed at the conference will help IFPRI revamp its institutional strategy, which is currently being updated, with these new insights on the Arab world in mind. The “Food Secure Arab World” conference enhanced IFPRI’s partnerships, and leaders of the new CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets solicited feedback on the program’s research priorities.

It is my hope that through this conference and the partnerships that emerge, IFPRI will substantially scale up its activities in the Arab world.

Source: IFPRI

As I stress in my article recently published in China Daily, the country needs to further increase its investment in agricultural R&D—to at least 1.0 percent of agricultural gross domestic product in 2012, 1.5 percent by 2015, and 2.0 percent by 2020. In addition, agricultural research should also be reprioritized to generate technologies that are smallholder friendly, land, water and labor saving as well as low-carbon.

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Source: World Economic Forum

I am very pleased that global leaders are gradually coming to see agriculture in a more integrated way. As many of the sessions showed, agriculture and food security must be viewed alongside issues such as nutrition, health, natural resources, energy, and climate change. It was truly exciting to see more interaction between people from different sectors and to hear agricultural experts speak to these wider but related topics.

As one would expect, there was lots of talk. But we also need to move to concrete action:

• Continue to strengthen an integrated approach to agriculture that takes account of smallholder farming, nutrition and health, climate change, and natural resources. Because agriculture is at the nexus of all of these areas, we need to leverage it for broad development outcomes.

• Base the price of natural resources on their full market value. This means that the prices of food and resources must include their social and environmental costs, such as impacts on climate change and health.

• Set up a global system to measure, track, and monitor the cross-sectoral impacts among agriculture, food and nutrition security, energy, and natural resources.

• All of these actions require skills and knowledge at the country and local level. Capacity building is an area that was ignored in this year’s discussion.