tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64153778161010062622009-11-24T08:58:03.398-08:00FARA SecretariatNews from the FARA secretariatFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comBlogger799125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-65986639519968094022009-11-20T13:37:00.000-08:002009-11-20T13:46:21.903-08:00CGIAR change videoYou may remember the short explanatory video of the CGIAR from last year where CGIAR used the Common Craft approach to lay out the different elements of the change process. This time and with the communications team of the CGIAR Secretariat the CGIAR decided to opt for a small piece where the CGIAR aimed at capturing the changes in mindsets that have been accompanying the process since its launchFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-71140617373308138412009-11-20T05:08:00.000-08:002009-11-20T05:21:08.419-08:00Dr. Monty Jones has been elected as the Chairperson of GFARMESSAGE FROM DR. MONTY JONESDear colleagues,This is to inform you that I have just been elected as the Chairperson of GFAR. This is an extremely prestigious position and I feel very proud as an African to lead the global forum for agricultural research (GFAR). The revitalized GFAR is at the centre stage of ARD at the global level. GFAR has direct partnerships with various development agencies andFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-86521809754813552692009-11-19T07:20:00.000-08:002009-11-19T07:49:58.083-08:00Aide à l'agriculture : des promesses aux réalités de terrain. L’état de la coordination des interventions dans 3 pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest13 novembre 2009. Lancé à la veille du sommet mondial sur l’alimentation qui se tient à Rome du 16 au 18 novembre, le rapport "Aide à l'agriculture : des promesses aux réalités de terrain" revient sur la mise en œuvre des promesses faites par la communauté internationale au cours des douze derniers mois pour soutenir l’agriculture et assurer la sécurité alimentaire dans trois pays ouest africainsFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-59062198214468075032009-11-19T06:01:00.000-08:002009-11-19T06:23:05.286-08:00Testimonials on national statistical information systems for food and agricultureCountrySTAT is a national statistical information system for food and agriculture. The system harmonizes and integrates data on food and agriculture coming from different sources. Through a core database, policy makers and researchers can group data across thematic areas - such as production, trade and consumption - in order to study relationships and processes. FAO cooperates with national FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-46007253071184995032009-11-17T03:28:00.000-08:002009-11-18T00:43:29.089-08:00Announcement: Sudan: the role of scientific research in agricultural development23-24 December 2009 . The National Centre for Research of Sudan will organize its 9th Scientific Conference on: THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTOverall objective of the Conference: To maximize the utilization of research results, scientific studies and practical efforts to serve the agricultural renaissance in the Sudan for the development of society.Conference Themes: FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-6183063463920196472009-11-16T06:39:00.000-08:002009-11-16T07:05:24.789-08:00Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development12 November. Launch of the book Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agriculture.Millions Fed' is a project aimed to identify and examine successes in agricultural development and provide insights into the lessons they offer. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) called upon the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to assess the evidence on what works in agriculture -- what FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-64572648345472307322009-11-16T04:45:00.000-08:002009-11-24T08:58:03.488-08:00World Summit on Food Security16 November 2009. The third World Summit on Food Security opened at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. Following the inaugural ceremony, Heads of Delegations adopted the World Summit on Food Security Declaration.The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that if more land is not used for food production now, 370 million people could be FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-24681115348630063572009-11-16T04:29:00.000-08:002009-11-16T04:42:40.893-08:00Stakeholders' workshop on the preparation of the agriculture sector strategy for the AfDB13 November 2009. Tunis. The African Development Bank held a Stakeholders' workshop on the preparation of the agriculture sector strategy for the AfDB.In response to the global food crisis, the Bank Group established the African Food Crisis Response (AFCR) Task Force in July 2008 to address the food insecurity in its RMCs. The task force has provided a framework for accelerated support to RMCs FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-5220744159454598912009-11-16T03:37:00.001-08:002009-11-16T03:50:43.366-08:00FIFTH CAADP Partnership Platform Meeting09-10 November 2009. Abuja, Nigeria. The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with the NEPAD Secretariat and ECOWAS Secretariat, organized the 5th Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP-PP). Ahead of the CADDP-PP meeting experts met for a two-days planning meeting, 5-6 November 2009. It was followed by an International Conference on FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-6913659591472699112009-11-16T02:51:00.000-08:002009-11-16T03:14:05.151-08:00AfricaAdapt ‘Meet and Greet’ networking event5th November 2009. FARA Secretariat, Accra. About 30 participants attended the AfricaAdapt ‘Meet and Greet’ networking event. Participants were from research, national media, community radio, NGOs, academia.AfricaAdapt held in Nairobi and Dakar similar small scale (30-40 people) networking events where people from policy, research, NGOs, media and network members can share experiences and exploreFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-6694116260213021432009-11-16T01:07:00.000-08:002009-11-16T02:51:15.001-08:00CAAST-Net Stakeholders' Conference on Africa-Europe Science and Technology Cooperation10 and 11 November 2009. Mombasa, Kenya. The Kenyan Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MoHEST) in collaboration with the International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (IB of BMBF) held the CAAST-Net Stakeholders' Conference on Africa-Europe Science and Technology Cooperation: Status and Way Forward,The event was organised with reference to the FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-72991368737216202009-11-16T00:25:00.000-08:002009-11-16T01:07:33.062-08:00Prize for Arid and Semi-Arid ZonesNovember 5 to 7, 2009. Budapest, Hungary. 4th edition of the World Science Forum under the theme "Knowledge and Future". The forum aimed at promoting the need for science and scientific advice in political and economic decision-making. It also aimed at fastering better scientific communication among world societies.Scientists, policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, educational FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-86509318812552109112009-11-16T00:23:00.000-08:002009-11-16T00:25:05.790-08:00West and Central African Research Education Network (WACREN)2nd to 3rd November 2009. Accra Ghana. The University of Ghana, Legon in collaboration with The Royal Swedish Institute of Technology (KTH) and Ghana Academic and Research Network (GARNET) hosted the 7th International Conference on Open Access.Delegates from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uganda, Togo, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Canada, Rwanda, Mali, Benin, Sudan, FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-84212817733826140962009-11-13T11:43:00.000-08:002009-11-13T12:00:59.855-08:00Learning about and respecting how communities manage common resources in the battle against environmental degradationThe 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded on 12th October to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their research on economic governance. Ostrom’s award is particularly exciting, for it cites her study of the commons.Ostrom’s pioneering work mostly concerns the governance of common-pool resources — resources that are rivalrous (i.e., scarce, can be used up, unlike digital goods) yet need toFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-26826158999450146442009-11-13T11:32:00.000-08:002009-11-13T11:39:03.840-08:00Cataloguing the radiation signature—and thus agricultural potential—of about 100,000 samples of African soilsIn Africa, where many soils have become badly depleted of nutrients, better fertiliser management would go a long way. As a consequence, the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi has begun cataloguing the radiation signature—and thus agricultural potential—of about 100,000 samples of African soils. It is giving this detailed information to the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, based FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-28524342284732151292009-10-31T08:07:00.000-07:002009-10-31T08:56:26.990-07:00Did food production in Sub-Saharan Africa grew in 2008 beause of increased research?12–13 October. Rome. Food production in Sub-Saharan Africa grew in 2008 for the first time in decades, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).The 3.5 per cent increase — higher than the two per cent rise in population — was driven in part by increased use of technology, says the report, which was written for a forum of senior experts on food production meetingFARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-41869677916801716762009-10-31T04:34:00.000-07:002009-10-31T05:07:20.483-07:00Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Capacity: Are Innovation Brokers the Answer?A UNU-MERIT working paper "concludes that innovation brokerage roles are likely to become relevant in emerging economies and that public or donor investment in innovation brokerage may be needed to overcome inherent tensions regarding the neutrality and funding of such players in the innovation system.In agricultural innovation systems, networks of different players are transient and emerge FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-17586871366461421722009-10-31T03:11:00.000-07:002009-10-31T03:13:48.631-07:00West African Seed Alliance to improve incomes of smallholder farmersThe Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) entered into partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to establish the West African Seed Alliance (WASA).The Alliance aimed at raising yields and incomes of smallholder farmers in the sub-region by increasing their access to improved, locally adapted FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-48794523486769505982009-10-31T03:00:00.000-07:002009-10-31T03:05:23.430-07:00Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of Sorghum and Millets in Sub-Saharan AfricaOctober 15, 2009. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has launched a new project that aims to increase food security for smallholder farmers in dryland areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.The project, Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement (HOPE) of Sorghum and Millets in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, will be undertaken by 50 FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-40273172845853088412009-10-29T22:46:00.000-07:002009-10-29T22:58:43.619-07:00Announcement: Dialogue between Europe and its Southern partners17th December 2009, Brussels . ERA-ARD, SCAR and EIARD, with a special support of CIRAD, the French agricultural research centre for international development, the ERA-ARD Coordinator, co-organise an international conference entitled: « Dialogue between Europe and its Southern partners on agricultural research and climate change » This conference aims at facilitating the identification and FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-15881327002701277182009-10-29T22:10:00.000-07:002009-11-02T08:47:36.590-08:00conference on Ghana's Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP),27 - 28/1o/2009. The two-day conference Roundtable on Ghana’s Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan organised under the auspices of the ECOWAS Agriculture Policy Development Programme (CAADP) of the NEPAD, led to the signing by Ghana of the CAADP compact, which commits African governments to raising agricultural growth to at least six per cent a year.To achieve that target, African FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-27326813497913562792009-10-29T11:56:00.000-07:002009-10-29T12:38:05.734-07:00Announcement: Global Competition on Climate Adaptation: November eventNovember 10th -13th. 100 finalists have been selected to showcase their ideas in the 2009 Global Development Marketplace Competition on Climate Adaptation (DM2009) to be held at World Bank Headquarters this November. 20-25 of these finalists will receive grants of up to $200,000 to implement their projects over two years. Nearly 200 subject matter experts from both inside and outside the World FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-49279481551773994792009-10-27T23:43:00.000-07:002009-10-28T00:06:48.805-07:00The support of the FAO to CAADPRome, 15 October 2009 — The support and partnership of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to our work on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is crucial to our implementation of CAADP said the head of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki during a meeting between NEPAD and FAO.Speaking at the FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-77496386929070321152009-10-27T15:17:00.001-07:002009-10-27T15:51:37.933-07:00African-led Initiative to Bolster Biosafety Regulatory Systems15 October 2009. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and Michigan State University (MSU) announced a $10.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to strengthen Africa’s biosafety expertise. This five-year grant follows on a year of collaboration between NEPAD and MSU that established the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), a continent-wide, FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415377816101006262.post-32444427878357932402009-10-27T15:17:00.000-07:002009-11-14T01:16:31.719-08:00Improving the assistance for scientists in countries with poor scientific resources 20–23 October 2009. Durban, South Africa. TWAS — the developing world's academy of sciences — is looking to double its endowment fund to support more scientists and researchers in the developing world. The academy, which held its 11th general meeting, said it wants to improve its assistance for scientists in countries with poor scientific resources.The event was hosted by the Academy of Science FARA Secretariathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00557564570307551261noreply@blogger.com