…In order to close this gap in the short-term, donor countries must fulfill the UN’s appeal for humanitarian aid and link emergency aid with development assistance. By my back-of-the-envelope calculations, Congress has the opportunity to make changes to the Farm Bill that would allow U.S. food assistance to reach 6 million more people with the same amount of funding.
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“It’s very fulfilling to know you are on the right side of history,” Grossman said.
Five Questions about the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition | Feed the Future 2012-05-23 -
U.S. President Barack Obama announces the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security on May 18.
BBC News - Viewpoint: Africa must do more to profit from China 2012-05-21 Solange Guo Chatelard -
China has opened up new economic, diplomatic and strategic avenues for African states, but it is ultimately down to Africans, both the people in power and the man on the street, to negotiate on their own terms, identify priorities, and leverage opportunities to further their own interests.
Mike Mack: The 'African Century' Can Be Real - WSJ.com 2012-05-22 -
Syngenta’s business plan fits this mold, as we’re committing to invest a total of $500 million over the next 10 years to transform African agriculture with shared knowledge, tools, technologies and services. Our aim is to develop a $1 billion business by 2022, with some 700 additional employees—many of whom will be field advisors trained in agronomy—to bring innovative and sustainable methods to more than five million African farmers, enabling them to increase their productivity by 50% or more. Our priority countries for developing these partnerships are Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Bono: How Natural Resources Can Save Africa - TIME 2012-05-28 -
This isn’t about the G-8’s committing massive new aid increases. It’s about continuing present investment and making it smarter. Beyond food, Africa’s vast oil and mineral reserves can be a pipeline to investments in health, education and roads. Mineral extraction is an expensive enterprise, and those who invest in it deserve to make a profit. But they should pay what they owe to governments. Transparency is the vaccine to prevent the biggest disease of them all—corruption, which any African will tell you is killing more kids than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.
Promise Keepers - By Raymond C. Offenheiser | Foreign Policy 2012-05-17 -
At the L’Aquila summit, President Barack Obama, then relatively new to the world stage, rallied his fellow leaders of the world’s richest nations to make a promise: If poor countries came up with good plans to help poor farmers grow more and earn more, rich countries would help make it happen. The initiative included a $22 billion financial pledge over three years and a commitment to use the Rome Principles to guide those investments.
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