Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Agriculture at the Financing for Development Conference

13 – 16 July 2015. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Third International Conference on Financing for Development gathers high-level political representatives, including Heads of State and Government, and Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, as well as all relevant institutional stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and business sector entities. The Conference will result in an intergovernmentally negotiated and agreed outcome, which should constitute an important contribution to and support the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda.

These are the events related to agriculture:

13 July 2015. Harnessing Innovative Financing for Nutrition in Africa. This side event advocated for increased investments in nutrition and to ensure that global and continental targets set on nutrition are accompanied by a viable financing framework, capable of delivering the resources needed to implement appropriate nutrition actions at national, regional and global levels. 
  • At this side-event the revised African Regional Nutrition Strategy was launched. 
  • Furthermore the results of the Cost of Hunger in Africa study from the second phase countries will be commissioned at this event, showcasing findings from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi and Rwanda. The Cost of Hunger in Africa Study was concluded in the first phase countries - Egypt, Ethiopia, Swaziland and Uganda. The first report representing the results from the four phase one countries was launched in March 2014, in Abuja, Nigeria.
13 July 2015. Leveraging science and technology for sustainable development. This side gave an opportunity to scientists, decision makers, private sector and civil society representatives to discuss the benefits of investing in research to produce components of sustainable development (including new technology production, sharing, transfer and adaptation, capacity and business development). Four research subject were presented:

  1. Research, knowledge sharing and innovation for local development: case of complementary foods and food supplement for nutrition security of infants and young children by Mieja Vola Rakotonarivo, Entreprise Nutri’zaza, Madagascar 
  2. Pharmaceutical regulation and intellectual property issues in India and Kenya: scientific issues and sociopolitical stakes by Matthieu Quett, IRD, France 
  3. Rainfall and flood risk monitoring from mobile telecommunication networks : an innovative and green solution to monitor climate related risk by Carlos Federico de Angelis, CEMADEN/INPE, Brazil 
  4. Sustainable development in Southern countries and Earth Observation: The case of water resources management by Frédérique Seyler, IRD, France
13 July 2015. Private Funding for Food Security: The Investment Sharing Facility
SDG Goal 2 calls to end hunger; Target 2.5 aims to conserve crop diversity by 2020, a prerequisite for food security. The Global Crop Diversity Trust safeguards crop diversity in international seed collections, funding them sustainably. It has now teamed up with Deutsche Bank to attract private money, launching the Investment Sharing Facility, a social impact investment fund. Institutions and households invest into an equity mutual fund complying with environmental, social and governance criteria. The Crop Trust receives part of the returns to secure global crop diversity for current and future generations. The event introduced this innovative financial instrument.

14 July 2015. Financing Growth: Mobilizing Leadership and Investment in Nutrition. This event outlined the case for investment in nutrition and highlight a range of approaches to finance both the healthy growth of children and economies. At the event, the World Bank and R4D will launch the first in a series of costing and financing scenarios for reaching the global nutrition targets, specifically the target calling for a 40% reduction in child stunting.
The World Bank, Results for Development Institute (R4D), and 1,000 Days, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, have estimated in the report Reaching the Global Target to Reduce Stunting: How Much Will it Cost and How Can We Pay for it? that it will cost approximately an additional $8.50 per child per year to meet the global stunting target (Figure 2). This cost covers the scale-up of high-impact, proven interventions focused in the 1,000 day window— namely, improving maternal nutrition; improving infant and young child feed practices, which include exclusive breastfeeding for the fi rst 6 months of life; and improving child nutrition through micronutrient.
14 July 2015. Realizing the Vision: Investing in Rural People for Inclusiveand Sustainable Transformation. This event was an opportunity for governments, public institutions, the private sector and rural people themselves, to commit themselves to the necessary actions to transform rural areas and to meet the ambition of the Post-2015 Agenda. It a.o. discussed the examples of successful partnerships that have built on the comparative advantages of different types of actors – government, farmers’ organizations, private companies, financial institutions, etc – to deliver transformative results. The question was: How can we further build on these examples in the post-2015 period? Rural transformation is a big and broad concept, but it can be usefully subdivided into four big transformations that need to occur if smallholder agriculture is going to become synonymous with efficient and sustainable family farming and if we are going to be able to achieve SDG 2. (see further the blogpost of the Brookings Institution)
The High-level panel included:
  • HE Lilian Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Kingdom of the Netherlands
  • HE Claver Gatete, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Rwanda
  • HE Seán Sherlock, Minister of State for Development, Trade Promotion, and North South Co-operation, Ireland
  • Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
  • Moderator: Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
14 July 2015. Investments and agribusiness for food and nutrition security: Public and Private Sector coordination. The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, FAO and CTA organised this High-Level Panel. The participants in the panel were:
  • Patrick Ignatius Gomes Secreatry-General of the ACP Group of States 
  • José Graziano da Silva Director-General, FAO 
  • Tefera Derbew Minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia 
  • Roberto Ridolfi Director, Sustainable Growth and Development, DG Europaid, European Commission 
  • Pim van Ballekom Vice President, European Investment Bank 
  • Pierre van Hedel Managing Director, Rabobank Foundation 
  • Andreas Proksch Director General, Africa Department, GIZ 
  • Moderator Michael Hailu Director of CTA
A high-level panel discussed the importance of private and public sector investments in the agrifood sector which benefit small-scale farmers, SMEs and value chain actors. It highlighted a mutisectoral approach, including policy support, finance and capacity building for value chain actors.

The panel addressed various approaches ranging from policy support at country level; the operationalization of the policy framework for enhanced, structured engagement of aid programs with the private sector; the need to leverage private finance in development and what mechanisms are in place to support SMEs in the agrifood sector and the need to support inclusive and profitable value chains.
14 July 2015. Financing Sustainable Development: Food Security and Sustainable Cities. The GEF and global thought leaders from partner institutions shared two new flagship initiatives on Sustainable Cities and Food Security to catalyse further action and investments by other actors.
  • Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF
  • Kanayo Nwanze, President, IFAD
  • HE Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture
  • HE Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs of South Africa (invited)
  • Magdy Martínez-Solimán, Assistant Administrator and Director Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP
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14 July 2015. How to Invest in Integrated Landscape Management to Achieve the SDGs. Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) – an approach in which a group of stakeholders in a given landscape collaborate to achieve landscape scale outcomes that are critical for each of the individual stakeholders – offers a promising means of implementation of the SDGs. These kinds of landscape partnerships are on the rise, and a growing number of public and private funds are now seeking to invest in integrated landscapes. The tools and strategies evolving for ILM explicitly focus on realizing synergies among different landscape objectives, and identifying and managing trade-offs, in the context of democratic and inclusive governance. This side event focused on:
  • why integrated landscapes are an effective means of implementation of the SDGs,
  • how public and private investments can be designed and coordinated in landscapes in support of SDG
  • how governments can support integrated landscape investment.
15 July 2015. Scaling up Agro-Ecology Programmes to Achieve Smallholder Resilience and End Hunger and Poverty. The side-event will provide an opportunity for representatives from Member States, UN Agencies, private sector, civil society, research and philanthropy to hear about successful smallholder initiatives based on agro-ecology and understand how these contribute to improving farm resilience and fighting hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
  • Laurent Thomas, Assistant Director-General for Technical Cooperation, FAO: On scaling-up agro-ecology programmes to achieve smallholder resilience and end hunger and food security 
  • Mathias Ginet, The 4‰ Initiative, Ministry of Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry, France The 4‰ Initiative – Carbon-rich soils for food security
  • Sue Edwards, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) The Tigray experience, Ethiopia 
  • Dr. Manuel Flury, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Member of the Continental Steering Committee of the Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative for Africa The Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative for Africa (EOA) 
  • Dr. Getachew Tikubet, Director of Operations, BioEconomy Africa (BEA) Push-pull – a novel farming system for ending hunger and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Hans R. Herren, President Biovision and Millennium Institute, Laureate of the “Alternative Nobel Prize” 2013 and World Food Prize 1995 
15 July 2015. Talent Development in Agriculture: Growing Ambitions for Food. To transform agriculture into a more productive, sustainable, competitive, and efficient sector, demands modern knowledge and skill transfer to develop talent in agriculture. It means up-skilling and re-tooling of the current agricultural workforce. It means retaining people with skills. It means attracting new personnel and expanding the range of career opportunities available in the agriculture-food-nutrition-environment nexus. Most importantly, it means creating incentives and campaigns that encourage young people to see agriculture as a one of the best options for a career choice. Organised by:
  • Young Professionals in Agricultural Research and Development (YPARD)
  • UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
  • International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD);
  • African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS)
  • Global Forum for Agricultural Research Services (GFRAS)
  • Tropical Agriculture Platform
  • International Agri Food Network (IAFN)
15 July 2015. Leadership and Partnership to Achieve Global Food Security. This event will explore a proven approach to mobilizing investment to unlock this transformative potential. During the event, high level representatives from the AU’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), the US Government’s global food security initiative Feed the Future, civil society and the private sector will showcase the importance of country ownership, partnerships, and leveraging of resources to accelerate agricultural growth and reduce hunger and poverty. A young leader from Africa will also share his viewpoint on the rapid transformation of the agricultural sector.

Panel 1
  • Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, DREA Commissioner, African Union Commission
  • Khalid Bomba, Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency
  • Hassan Bashir, Chief Executive Officer, Takaful Insurance
  • Lindiwe Sibanda, CEO, FANRPAN
Panel 2
  • Minister Carlos Raúl Morales, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guatemala
  • Richard Greene, Acting Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
  • Josefina Stubbs, Associate Vice President, Strategy and Knowledge Department, IFAD
  • James Mwangi, Managing Director and CEO, Equity Bank
  • Ruhul Amin Talukder, Director of Research, Food Policy and Monitoring Unit, Ministry of Food, Government of Bangladesh (TBC)
15 July 2015. Achieving Zero Hunger: The Critical Role of Investments in Social Protection and Agriculture. The Rome-based agencies have prepared new estimates of the additional investments required to achieve a world without hunger by 2030. These estimates indicate that hunger and poverty can be eliminated, and that investments in agriculture and social protection are critical. The side event will enable discussion by a wide range of stakeholders.

The panel is composed of the Principals of the Rome-based Agencies of the United Nations (FAO, IFAD, and WFP), as well the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the General Director for Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, and the President of Biovision and the Millennium Institute. 

15 July 2015. Financing Smallholder Agriculture to Eliminate Hunger and Poverty: Supporting African Smallholder Farmers and Agri-Sector SMEs with Innovative Financing Structures
The event highlights the African Fertilizer Financing Mechanism, established by the African Development Bank and others to provide finance to facilitate smallholder access to essential inputs.

15 July 2015. Partnerships Address Aflatoxins, The World’s Most Urgent Food Safety Challenge
This event will illustrate progress through collaborations among the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), UN Agencies such as FAO and the World Food Programme, GAIN, an industry leader Mars, Incorporated and others. Panel members will:
  • illustrate food safety problems and present a compelling need for comprehensive strategies; 
  • Humanize aflatoxins devastating impacts on the nutrition and health of women, children and reduced income consequences for farmers; and 
  • Share lessons learned to prevent and control aflatoxins to achieve freedom from the harmful effects of aflatoxins.
The panel will comprise of:
  • Amare Ayalew - Program Manager, Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) Dr. Amare will describe the landscape and architecture of food safety challenges, especially aflatoxins in Africa; causes of contamination and relationship to food security and nutrition, economic, social and human impacts; solution pathways along the value chain; PACA’s role and strategic plan; resources invested and needed for the future; stakeholder engagement progress; and next steps. 
  • Dr. Lynn Brown - Independent Consultant, Special Adviser to World Bank Vice President for Climate Change; Representative for Global Panel for Agriculture, Food Systems and Nutrition Dr. Brown will describe the devastating impacts aflatoxins have on the nutrition and health of women, children and the reduced income consequences for farmers. 
  • Dr. Alem Abay - GAIN, Country Program Manager Dr. Abay will discuss GAIN’s global perspective on the role that food safety plays in food security; share program focus and activities in Ethiopia, including insights on a new program funded by the Netherland Government which looks at testing for aflatoxins at the laboratory level through a regional approach; describe laboratory controls and link to the broader nutrition agenda, including fortifying blended foods and staple foods to ensure they are aflatoxin free. 
  • Dr. Isabelle Mballa - Chief Food Safety and Quality, World Food Programme Dr. Mballa will describe the unique challenges that the WFP faces in feeding millions of people in scores of countries; the adaption to a new business model from distributing donated foods to local sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution; role of partnerships and programs in addressing food safety challenges. 
  • Dr. Melanie Edwards - USAID Foreign Service, Technical Specialist on Transboundary Maize Issues. Dr. Edwards will provide an overview of USAID’s assessment of how mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, impact food security, nutrition, trade and development; program priorities to address harmful consequences of human, social and economic impacts; needs and values of research and development; and perspectives on public-private partnerships for implementation. 
  • J.B. Cordaro - Mars, Inc., Consultant J.B. Cordaro will offer a summary of Mars, Inc. food safety activities worldwide; the importance on specific value chains; focus on the need for and value of partnerships; the uncommon collaborations of Mars’ partnerships along with the philosophy of pre-competitive, transparent engagement; and the scheduled launch of the Global Food Safety Center in China.
15 July 2015. Financing Africa’s Food Security and Agricultural Growth in a Warmer World: How Can the FFD and Paris Climate Summit Help? For African governments, the outcomes of FFD and the Paris Climate Summit will determine the parameters of Africa’s future agriculture growth and food security. For women farmers, who grow the majority of food on the continent and who are facing climate impacts already today, these discussions are central to their future livelihoods. This event is organised by Oxfam, PACJA (Pan African Climate Justice Alliance) and the African Union Commission.

15 July 2015. The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation in a Post-2015 World. The landscape for development innovation is changing. Foundations and investors are seeking to invest in new technologies and innovations that have the potential to deliver both social impact and economic returns. Universities and regional research organisations are seeking to increase R&D cooperation to catalyze locally-driven development solutions. Given this changing landscape, what can donors, national governments, private industry, NGOs and civil society do to catalyse STI for more inclusive development? The panel will consists of:
  • Alfonso Lenhardt, Acting Administrator, USAID 
  • Torbjörn Pettersson, Assistant Director General, Sida 
  • Ewen McDonald, DFAT Deputy Secretary, Australia 
  • Ann Mei Chang, Executive Director, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID 
  • Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director for Africa, The Rockefeller Foundation 
  • Peter Singer, Chief Executive Officer, Grand Challenges Canada 
  • Moses Engadu, U-report Global Coordinator, World Scout Bureau
Related: Financing Global Sustainable Development after 2015: Illustrations of Key EU Contributions
This brochure features the key contributions to financing the post 2015 agenda from the EU and its Member States. It focuses on the EU contributions to the following topics: domestic resources mobilization, blending, ODA, environment and climate, trade, science and innovation, remittances, sustainable agriculture and nutrition, energy, human development, gender, peaceful societies and the EU efforts targeted towards least developed countries.

Financing Global Sustainable Development after 2015: Illustrations of Key EU Contributions
Infograph of Key EU Contributions

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Published on 13 Jul 2015
The Third International Conference on Financing for Development will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between 13 and 16 July 2015. At the conference, high-level political representatives will adopt an international agreement setting out how the post-2015 sustainable development agenda will be financed.


Realizing the Vision: Beyond the money - Press Conference of IFAD, 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development, Addis Ababa



Published on 2 Jul 2015
Official development assistance will remain a "centerstone" of development financing, but other flows are even more important. Klaus Rudischhauser, EuropeAid's deputy director-general, reveals a 10-point EU package will be presented at the third International Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in this video interview.


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