The Hunger Games

Governments and their international agencies (FAO, World Bank) conceive of the eradication of hunger and poverty as a worthy wish that will eventually be realized through economic growth. They also make great cosmetic efforts to present as good-looking trend pictures as they can. Citizens ought to insist that the eradication of severe deprivations is a human rights correlative duty that permits no avoidable delay. Academics ought to collaborate toward providing a systematic alternative monitoring of what progress has really been made against undernourishment and other povertyrelated deprivations

A Blueprint for Strengthening Food System Resilience in West Africa: Regional Priority Intervention Areas

This report was inspired by the 2019 Kigali African Food Security Leadership Dialogue (AFSLD) that called for joint action to tackle the African Food Security challenges. ECOWAS, CILSS, CORAF, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and the World Bank provided overall leadership for the process and analysis that underpins this report. Wageningen University prepared a background paper as input to the report. The information presented in this report represents a synthesis of the analysis of relevant secondary data and information as well as interviews with over fifty West African experts working on the food systems’ issues presented in this document. Findings from the draft report were presented and discussed in a four-day virtual conference with over 300 West African actors working in diverse areas of the food system. The results of this conference, together with detailed comments from all the relevant partners associated with the report, guided the revision process and production of this final report

Minimising food waste: a call for multidisciplinary research

Food losses and waste has always been a significant global problem for mankind, and one which has become increasingly recognised as such by policy makers, food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers. It is however an emotive subject whereby the extent, accuracy, and resolution of available data on postharvest loss and waste is questionable such that key performance indicators on waste can be misinformed. The nature and extent of food waste differs amongst developed economies, economies in transition, and developing economies. Whilst most emphasis has been put on increasing future crop production, far less resource has been and is still channelled towards enabling both established and innovative food preservation technologies to reduce food waste while maintaining safety and quality. Reducing food loss and waste is a more tractable problem than increasing production in the short to medium term, as its solution is not directly limited, for instance, by available land and water resources. Here we argue the need for a paradigm shift of current funding strategies and research programmes which will encourage the development, implementation, and translation of collective biological, engineering, and management solutions to better preserve and utilise food. Such cross disciplinary thinking across global supply chains is an essential element in the pursuit of sustainable food and nutritional security. The implementation of allied technological and management solutions is reliant on there being sufficient skilled human capital and resource. There is currently a lack of robust postharvest research networks outside of the developed world, and insufficient global funding mechanisms which can support such interdisciplinary collaborations. There is thus a collective need for schemes which encourage inter-supply chain research, knowledge exchange and capacity building to reduce food losses and waste

Sustainable Agricultural Productivity Growth and Bridging the Gap for Small-Family Farms: Interagency Report to the Mexican G20 Presidency

In 2011, G20 leaders committed to sustainably increase agricultural (production and) productivity (paragraph 43 of the Cannes Declaration). They "agree(d) to further invest in agriculture, in particular in the poorest countries, and bearing in mind the importance of smallholders, through responsible public and private investment," they "decide(d) to invest in research and development of agricultural productivity. Early in 2012 Mexico, as G20 President, invited international organisations to examine practical actions that could be undertaken to sustainably improve agricultural productivity growth, in particular on small family farms. The preparation of this report, co-ordinated by the FAO and the OECD, responds to this request. It is a collaborative undertaking by Bioversity, CGIAR Consortium, FAO, IFAD, IFPRI, IICA, OECD, UNCTAD, Coordination team of UN High Level Task Force on the Food Security Crisis, WFP, World Bank, and WTO. We, the international organisations, are pleased to provide you with this joint report and look forward to continuing collaboration within the G20 framework to further elaborate and, as appropriate, implement the recommendations that it contains

Governing food and agriculture in a warming world

In order to understand, how, why and whether the trade-offs and tensions around simultaneous implementation of the SDGs are resolved in ways which are both sustainable and equitable requires an appreciation of power relations across multiple scales of governance. We explore the politics and political economy of how the nexus around food-energy and water is being governed through initiatives to promote ‘climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA) as it moves from the global to the local. We combine analysis of how these interrelationships are being governed (and ungoverned) by key global institutions with reflection upon the consequences of this for developing countries that are being targeted by CSA initiatives. In particular, we look at Kenya as a country heavily dependent on agriculture, but also subject to some of the worst effects of climate change, and which has been targeted by a range of bilateral and multilateral donors with their preferred vision of CSA. We draw on strands of literature in global environmental politics (GEPs), political ecology and the political economy of development to make sense of the power dynamics which characterize the multi-scalar politics of how CSA is translated, domesticated and operationalized in practice

What determines women's participation in collective action? Evidence from a western Ugandan coffee cooperative

Women smallholders face greater constraints than men in accessing capital and commodity markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. Collective action has been promoted to remedy those disadvantages. Using survey data of 421 women members and 210 nonmembers of a coffee producer cooperative in Western Uganda, this study investigates the determinants of women's participation in cooperatives and women's intensity of participation. The results highlight the importance of access to and control over land for women to join the cooperative in the first place. Participation intensity is measured through women's participation in collective coffee marketing and share capital contributions. It is found that duration of membership, access to extension services, more equal intrahousehold power relations, and joint land ownership positively influence women's ability to commit to collective action. These findings demonstrate the embeddedness of collective action in gender relations and the positive value of women's active participation for agricultural-marketing cooperatives

Submission from the CGIAR System Organization, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and the World Bank, in response to Decision 4/CP.23.

This submission on Improved nutrient use and manure management towards sustainable and resilient agricultural systems proposes a set of priority action areas for consideration by the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture to further the agenda

Of Left-Behind Places and People: Inequality, Labour Migration and Development in India

This paper reviews the relationship between inequality, labour migration and development in India, with a focus on those who are left behind. The paper concentrates on spatial inequalities and inequalities between population groups and argues that these inequalities are creating left-behind places and left-behind populations. It also identifies potential implications of being left behind