Request for Information on Extension Workers

See below a special request from Jessica Fanzo. A group of Columbia students (including yours truly) is working with her in this initiative. Any information is more that welcome. 

The Secure Nutrition Knowledge Platform and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) are undertaking a mapping exercise on home economics and nutrition in extension and advisory services and workers in Africa, South Asia and the Americas. Currently, the role and status of extension and advisory services in nutrition is largely unknown. Except for home economists, many extension services do not have a focus on nutrition. Moreover, home economics extension is no longer present in many countries.

The objective of this work will be to document and map the past, current and future rural extension services that include nutrition, home economic and diet related activities within their portfolio, and identify good practice country or program cases, and note comparative advantages of different types of models. We hope that this mapping exercise informs the nutrition sensitive dialogue in the Scaling Up Nutrition movement and other global, regional and country initiatives.

We are interested in hearing from individuals who have had experience with integrating extension services with dietary, nutrition, and/or home economic activities. This experience could be through trainings, programs, or research. If you are interested in sharing your experiences, please email Jessica Fanzo at jfanzo@gmail.com. We appreciate your responses and participation.

Solving the Agriculture-Nutrition Equation

Jess Fanzo in her awesome blog "You Are What You Eat" wrote back in Agust that the understanding of the connections between agriculture and nutrition and health remains the "Holy Gray of Nutrition." She compiled a  broad list of on-going research and published papers on the subject with the conclusion that, well, there isn't one yet. The casual connections between agriculture and nutrition remain elusive at best.

This may change soon. A  DFID-funded report reviewed 151 research projects on how we can use agriculture to use nutrition. Also, FAO just drafted a paper on the " The Guiding Principles on Agriculture Programming for Nutrition." And fresh from the oven, the World Bank hosted an event earlier this week to present a recent discussion paper in Prioritizing Nutrition in Agriculture and Rural Development. One of the presentation's concluding remarks is that while there is a need for more research, we already have sufficient evidence to move ahead with ag projects that we know will have a positive impact on nutrition.
See below the video of the presentation.

  

Somalia and the Need for Agricultural Investments

The crisis continues to unravel in the Horn of Africa. A recent  NY Times piece, argues that 750,000 people could perish in the famine, and there seems to little resources, commitment, and coordination in the international community to prevent the crisis from reaching catastrophic proportions. In an excellent commentary from Project Syndicate, Sam Dryden, the Director of the Agricultural Development Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, argues that investments in small holders farmers can prevent future famines from happening again (the caveat being situations of extreme weather fluctuations and violence). 

Meanwhile, at an African Ministerial conference on climate-smart agriculture, in Johannesburg, Andrew Steer, World Bank's special envoy for climate change, articulated the importance of increasing investments in agricultural and food security research.  According to Mr. Steer, the WB is increasing its support for agriculture, from $4-billion invested in 2010 and previous years, to $6-billion earmarked for 2011, and plans to increase Ag investments to $8-billion in 2012.  See a clip of his speech below:

This comes at a time when the members of the G20 recently incorporated agricultural research as a center piece of their agenda to ensure global food security. The meeting took place in Montpellier, France from September 12 to 14. 

Three years have passed since the World Bank published its World Development Report on "Agriculture for Development." Now, funds are starting to trickle down to projects in the field. If there is anything positive from the horrendous tragedy unfolding in Somalia, it is the opportunity for governments and policy makers around the world to accelerate agricultural projects, and put on center stage the vital role of food security interventions in preventing future crisis. 

Multilateral Banks and the Food Crisis

Hi There,
A friend of mine just point out to me how the blog was missing out some of the efforts put together by the World Bank to address the current food crisis. Besides publishing their World Development Report with the topic of agriculture, the World Bank has been instrumental in brining agriculture back to the donors and governments discussion table. The timing, as you all know, couldn't be better: The increases in food prices present an enormous challenge for countries in Africa Sub-Saharan and South Asia to finally address the decades of negligent policies towards the rural sector. In the urban centers, where the price increases are more prevalent, governments have the challenge to ensure that the very needy are meeting their calorie requirement.

But this crisis is also an unprecedented opportunitiy for other regions of the world with potential to intensify and/or expand their agricultural capacity. These countries can reap huge benefits from the price increases, a win win scenario as world prices will decreased and thousands of jobs will be created. That said, multilateral banks must persuade governments not to put in place policies that generate disincentives that could avert such benefits: limit on export, price ceilings, and taxation are just some examples of policies making matters worse. Also to take into consideration is the potential negative environmental and social impact such expansion could have.

In sum, the World Bank must play a central in addressing the challenges of those countries in Africa and Asia and enabling other countries to capture the potential benefits this crisis will bring. These can only be archived by providing incentives for agricultural investment, persuading governments to follow policies that will benefit the world as a whole, and ensuring that the basic needs of those must vulnerable are met.
Check out this interview to Senior Economist at World Bank’s Agriculture Unit Robert Townsend. Also, don't forget to visit the special website WB put together about World Food Prices

Global Economic Situation and what to do About it

A Challenge of Economic Statecraft.

Today, at the Center for Global Development, Robert B. Zoellick, President of The World Bank Group, gave a good speech about the challenges facing the Bank and what he plans to do about it. He discusses the effects of raising food prices, the role of global trade, and what it is been done to address the resource course.
Follow link to LISTEN or READ

World Development Report 2008; Agriculture for Development

Finally, after decades of diminishing budgets towards agriculture and rural development, Ag Dev is back on the donors' agenda with the seminar publication of World Bank's WDR Agriculture for Development. Last time a WDR had Agriculture as a main topic was back in 1982!. It's hard to tell if the rhetoric will translate into concrete action and funds from the donor community. Yet, one can perceive in the Washingtonian atmosphere the smell of agriculture. Due in part to the discussions on the Farm Bill due before the end of next year, agriculture has been occupying a lot of headlines lately. Lets hope policy makers use the report as a basis their foreign assistance approaches. Mas vale tarde que nunca.



Click on picture to get full PDF, or click HERE to get the reports' official website. See interesting article of the report on NYtimes

Get your copy!!

this will be my nightstand for a while, so stay tuned for some commentary