التنمية الزراعية

e-Panel discussion - How to improve results in the agriculture sector: a discussion on leadership and Results-based management in Africa

Wednesday 6 May 2020, 11:00 to 12:00 CEST / 9:00 to 10:00 GMT.



Please register here:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GN8h2jmvTNKYKrMrxnjVrg

The panel is jointly hosted and organized by AVANTI and EvalForward.

AVANTI is an IFAD funded initiative supporting national governments to assess and build RBM capacities in order to better measure SDGs in up to 20 countries globally. It is implemented by Helvetas and Itad.

EvalForward is a community of practice on evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development, supported by the evaluation offices of FAO, IFAD and WFP.



Panellists

AVANTI & EvalForward are collaborating to share their joint experience and specific learning by an pool of expert panellists consisting of:

  • Angela Dannson (Director, Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana)
  • Elias A.K. Segla (Evaluation Specialist, Presidency, Republic of Benin, Bureau of Public Policy Evaluation and Government Action Analysis)
  • Ian Goldman (Advisor on Evaluation and Evidence Systems, CLEAR Anglophone Africa) 

 

Hosting team

  • Riff Fullan: e-Panel Facilitator and Knowledge Component Lead for AVANTI
  • Ethel Sibanda: Chat Moderator and AG-Scan methodology Lead, AVANTI
  • Cesar Robles: e-Panel Technical Coordinator and Communications Lead, AVANTI
  • Renata Mirulla: Facilitator, EvalForward

 

Questions to be addressed in the e-Panel

Some of the questions under discussion include:

  • What is the importance of leadership in mainstreaming RBM in agriculture-related ministries and other institutions?
  • What factors are most influential in enabling or hindering leadership’s contribution to improved RBM in the agriculture sector?
  • What concrete actions can key stakeholders take to create an enabling environment for effective leadership in the pursuit of SDGs?

For more information please contact: [email protected] 

Webinar: Evaluation criteria: what's new and what changes for agriculture and food security?

Evaluation criteria: what's new and what changes for agriculture and food security?



12 February 2020

15:00 - 16:00 Central Europe Time



Speaker: Megan G. Kennedy-Chouane, Senior Policy Analyst, OECD

Facilitator: Rachel Sauvinet Bedouin, Senior Evaluation Officer, FAO

The evaluation criteria first set out by the OECD Development Assistance Committee in 1991 have recently been revised. In this webinar, you will learn about the new definitions, the significance of the changes and the new coherence criteria. Examples from evaluations of projects and programmes in agriculture, food security and nutrition will be discussed. There will be time to have your questions answered and share ideas on how the revised criteria can improve the practice of evaluation.

This webinar is organised by the EvalForward Community of Practice www.evalforward.org 

If interested in participating please contact [email protected] 

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028

The fifteenth joint edition of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook provides market projections for major agricultural commodities, biofuels and fish. The 2019 report contains a special feature on the prospects and challenges of the agricultural sector in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Download the full report (projections by commodity listed separately)

Executive Summary

Press release

All Africa synthetic pesticide congress and the eastern Africa conference on scaling up agroecology and ecological organic trade mutually merge

The “1st All Africa Synthetic Pesticide Congress” organized by the World Food Preservation CenterÒLLC merges with the Eastern Africa conference on “Scaling up Agroecology and Ecological Organic Trade” organized by Biovision Africa Trust, IFOAM Organics International and their Partners to become the “1st International Conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture & Food Systems in Africa”.

The “1st All Africa Congress on Synthetic Pesticides, Environment, Human and Animal Health” has expanded its goals by the recognition of Agroecology as a means of combatting synthetic pesticide and fertilizers contamination in the African continent and ensuring actions towards true sustainable agriculture and food systems. The “Agroecology and Ecological Organic Trade” equally see the need to address threats to sustainable agriculture and food systems.

The conference has attracted world leading scientists on both the impact of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers on the African people, their animals, and environment and advocates for Agroecology as a means of producing food without the need for synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. This rare consortium of leading world scientists, practitioners and other players will chart a course to substantially and sustainably reduce synthetic pesticide and fertilizer contamination in Africa. We invite you to participate in and contribute to this seminal event. https://www.worldfoodpreservationcenterpesticidecongress.com/

Among the keynote speakers at the conference are Professor Hans Herren, the first Swiss to receive the 1995 World Food Prize and the 2013 Right Livelihood Award (alternate Nobel Prize) for leading a major biological control effort. Also, Professor Tyrone Hayes, UC Berkley, who has pioneered in establishing that the herbicide atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that demasculinizes and feminizes male frogs. Other keynote speakers at the congress are on the forefront of research on the impact of synthetic pesticides and GMOs on the health of humans, animals, and the environment. Also, world leading scientists will be speaking on regenerative agriculture and food sovereignty.

The “1st International Conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture & Food Systems in Africa: Reducing Synthetic Pesticides and Fertilizers by Scaling Up Agroecology and Promoting Ecological Organic Trade ” will be held at the Safari Park Hotel & Casino, Nairobi, Kenya on June 18-21, 2019.

You can register here.

CONTACTS:

Charles L. Wilson, Ph.D., Founder World Food Preservation CenterÒLLC, Charles Town, WV, USA

[email protected]

David Amudavi, Ph.D., Director, Bivision Trust, Nairobi, Kenya

[email protected]

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About World Food Preservation Center:

To feed the world's exploding population, we MUST save substantially more of the food that we already produce. Up until now we have invested a disproportionate amount of our resources in the production of food (95%) while only (5%) in the postharvest preservation of food. This has left us with tremendous postharvest "Skill Gaps" and "Technology Gaps" in developing countries. The World Food Preservation Center® LLC is filling these gaps by: (1) promoting the education (M.S. and Ph.D.) of young student/scientists from developing countries; (2) having young student/scientists from developing countries conduct research on much needed new postharvest technologies adaptable to their native countries; (3) organize continent-wide postharvest congresses and exhibitions for developing countries; (4) publish much needed new texts/reference books on postharvest technologies/methods for developing countries; and (5) develop a comprehensive database on all postharvest knowledge relative to developing countries with access portals for researchers, students, administrators, industry, businesses, and farmers.

About Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT):

Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) is a not-for-profit organization established in Kenya in 2009 by the Biovision Foundation for ecological development in Switzerland and supported by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi. The Trust’s goal is to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Kenya and other African countries through supporting dissemination of information and knowledge on appropriate technology to improve human, animal, plant, and environmental health. Agricultural output and food supply are however hindered by various environmental factors and lack of information and relevant training for the African smallholder farmers. Plant pests, for instance, are responsible for up to 80% of crop losses. Ecologically sustainable solutions are a practical alternative for African farmers to achieve good crop yields without relying on expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. What is lacking, however, are effective dissemination pathways to deliver relevant information to the farmers.                                                              

 

Lauch of a new CoP on Evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development

EVAL-ForwARD is a new Community of Practice on evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development, jointly promoted by the evaluation offices of the Rome-based agencies: CGIAR (formerly known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), FAO, IFAD and WFP.

Its first public launch took place at EvalColombo2018 during the side event The role of Evaluation in the public sector: how best to support national capacities. Conference participants had the opportunity to engage with the Directors of the Evaluation offices of FAO, IFAD and WFP on the aims, opportunities and thematic focus of this initiative.

The objectives of EVAL-ForwARD are to enhance awareness and capacities at country-level about evaluation in the agriculture, food security and rural development sectors, with a close focus on the evaluation of efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 – End Hunger.

Evaluators, development practitioners, researchers and government officials are welcome to join the Community of Practice and:

  • Exchange evaluation information, practice and knowledge;
  • Propose resources and blogs;
  • Post information about events, conferences, training opportunities.

The first EVAL-ForwARD webinar on Evaluating with a Sustainable Development Goal 2 lens: experiences to date is planned for the second half of October and aims to uncover the challenges encountered and the good practices on which the development community could build, fostering further discussion and exchanges on the topic, which is at the core of the Community’s mandate.

EVAL-ForwARD uses a Dgroup mailing list for knowledge-sharing and a website as a repository of information and resources. To sign up to the Community and to find out more, please visit: www.evalforward.org

The State of Food and Agriculture 2017

Today, the 2017 edition of the State of Food and Agriculture has been released. This year, the theme of the report is “Leveraging food systems for inclusive rural transformation”.

The new report looks at how population growth, increasing urbanization, technologies, and climate change are transforming rural and urban areas, and how the world’s food systems are evolving. The report concludes that fulfilling the 2030 Agenda depends crucially on progress in rural areas, which is where most of the poor and hungry live today, and outlines a strategy for how agriculture and rural economies in developing countries can provide prosperity.  

Please visit the following website to download the report and additional material one of the six UN languages:

http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-agriculture/en/.

 

 

 

Leaving No One Behind: Achieving Gender Equality for Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture

12:30 - 14:30 Rome time, FAO Headquarters.

This Special Event will provide government representatives, UN entities, civil society and the private sector and other stakeholders with a platform to share experiences in accelerating progress towards gender equality and rural women’s empowerment. It will highlight forward-looking strategies and partnerships in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty.

Rural women play an important role in agriculture and rural development, and make a strong contribution to food security and nutrition at household and community levels. Worldwide, there is an increasing recognition that rural women must be at the centre of any intervention to promote sustainable agriculture and eradicate food insecurity and poverty. The 2030 Agenda envisages a future in which no one is left behind, where achieving gender equality and empowering women is an absolute precondition to break the cycle of poverty and hunger, and to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The event can be followed on webcast: http://www.fao.org/webcast

Programme

Opening remarks

José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO

Presentation on FAO’s technical work on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO

Panel discussion

  • His Excellency Hugo Martinez, Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador
  • Her Excellency Néziha Labidi, Minister of Women and Family Affairs of Tunisia
  • Her Excellency Fatimata Dia Sow, Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender of ECOWAS
  • His Excellency Ty Sokhun, Secretary of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia
  • His Excellency Ali Recep Nazli, General Director of Foreign Relations and EU Coordination of Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey
  • Haowa Bello, CEO and Founder of Madame Coquette - Beneficiary of the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme
  • Jessica Vega Ortega, Coordinator of the Yani Tundavii Dikuintií Collective of the Network of Young Indigenous Peoples of Latin America, Focal Point for the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus

Questions and answers

Concluding remarks

Online discussion on "Agroecology and Nutrition"

TECA (Technologies and practices for small agricultural producers), FAO’s free web based online information and communication platform for smallholders, has launched an online discussion on "Agroecology and Nutrition". The objective of this discussion is to identify successful agroecological farming practices which contribute to nutritious food systems.

Many successful experiences have already been documented on various platforms of FAO, e.g. TECA (during the previous discussions on “Sustainable agriculture through Agroecology” and “Agroecology and Soil Health”) and on Agroecology Knowledge hub. Based on these and other experiences, a three-week discussion will be held, inviting you to share your knowledge and experiences on agroecology and successful agroecological farming practices and approaches.

The discussion page can be accessed through the following link: http://teca.fao.org/discussion/agroecology-and-nutrition

The discussion will be available from 20 March until 12 April 2017.

For any further information please contact: [email protected].

The future of food and agriculture: Trends and challenges

The report The future of food and agriculture: Trends and challenges has been released today.

This new FAO report sheds some light on the nature of the challenges that agriculture and food systems are facing now and throughout the 21st century, and provides some insights as to what is at stake and what needs to be done.

Please visit the following webpage to download the report and for further information:

http://www.fao.org/publications/fofa/en/

The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report for 2016 has been released

The State of Food and Agriculture 2016 report (SOFA 2016), FAO’s annual flagship publication, has been released yesterday.

SOFA assesses issues on agricultural and rural development in the context of global food security. This year’s SOFA report centres on the double challenge of food security and climate change, presenting alternatives to tackle the two as a whole.

The report and furher information are available in all UN six languages at: http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/en/