Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Monday, July 28, 2014

Food 4 Growth Forum 2014

14 – 16 July 2014. Australia Africa Conference 2014. Promoting strategic engagement and partnership between government, academia and business.

The Australia-Africa Universities Network focuses the engagement of Australian universities in sub-Saharan Africa to enable the provision of specific expertise across areas of priority for Australia and Africa. Key objectives for the Network are:
  • Provide an intelligence and advisory portal for government institutions, the corporate sector and media to access, via a ‘one-stop-shop’, a range of expertise on Africa.
  • Develop institutional research partnerships on Africa.
  • Develop capacity building and training programs for example in governance, public sector reform, education, mining, agriculture and health.
  • Produce innovative policy solutions through position papers with key academics, non-government organisations, business and political representatives.
  • Provide post-training support for African scholars, including an alumni network, linking with African communities in Australia as appropriate.
Panel Discussion Three: Health, Nutrition and Food Security: optimal policies to improve agricultural production to enhance nutrition and food security and harnessing emerging markets.
Objective: The session determined optimal governmental policy interventions in agriculture to maximise 
food output and ensure its distribution in such a way to provide food security to the population. The 
contribution of food security to good health outcomes was considered, as will the role of the private 
sector in achieving these outcomes

Related:


16 -17th June 2014. Brisbane Australia. The Food4Growth (F4G) Forum was held on  and was an event hosted by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, supported by partners in the Australian Government.

This Forum was a lead-in event to the G20 Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS), later the same week. The MACS is an official G20 event in the lead-up to the G20 Leaders' Summit to be held in Brisbane in November 2014.

The F4G Forum was an opportunity for business and science leaders to explore the linkages between agricultural productivity, sustainability, food security and economic growth in both the developed and developing world. The meeting also drew upon the insights arising from the FAO/OECD review on food security currently underway for the Donor Working Group of the G20.

The Forum enabled a sharing of experiences in public and private sector stimulation of agri-innovation and inclusive market development. Forum participants crafted a communique on opportunities for better science - business collective actions, which were considered at the G20 MACS Meeting on 19/20 June 2014. The communique is available here.

Key messages developed through Food4Growth and delivered to the MACS included:
  • encouragement to take a food systems perspective, building the links from production to consumption, reflecting the role of small and large-scale farms and considering the links between agriculture, environment and society
  • that MACS provide a unique and critical opportunity to coordinate and align research and innovation efforts across the G20 (with appropriate links beyond) and to provide strategic oversight of efforts that identify and fill gaps in the global agricultural science capability that underpins food and nutritional security
  • the importance of better monitoring, foresight and scenario analysis capabilities to inform decision-making (across scales) in research, business and government
  • the ongoing critical role for global public goods in the agricultural science domain
  • considerable attention is needed on the issue of brokering linkages between science, business and development outcomes. A significant capability gap was recognised in the skill set, incentives, institutional mechanisms and investments to effectively broker partnerships, dialogue and knowledge synthesis that is needed to speed up and scale up the necessary innovation.
MACS Communique 328.7 KB
Food4Growth Communique

Participants included delegations from G20 countries and G20 guests (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America), APEC economies (Hong Kong China, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam), International Organisations (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center [CIMMYT], Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa [FARA], Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN [FAO], Global Crop Diversity Trust [GCDT], Global Forum on Agricultural Research [GFAR], International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture [ITPGRFA], and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]).
Related:
Uploaded on 17 Jun 2014
International scientists from nations participating in the G20 travelled around southern Queensland today to look at agricultural businesses.

No comments:

Post a Comment