Value Chain Development: Approaches and activities by seven UN agencies and opportunities for interagency cooperation

This report is a first output of the work of the United Nations Value Chain Development group (UN-VCD group). It outlines the different approaches and perspectives that seven UN agencies apply in their work on value chain development.

The agencies involved are: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) have also added descriptions of the role they play.

The study points to some of the challenges the UN system is facing in enhancing its effectiveness and coherence and offers some initial thoughts on how the UN system could leverage its strengths in value chain development.

The paper first briefly sums up some main messages of current research on value chain development and their relevance for developing countries. A brief overview of value chain development approaches and activities by seven UN agencies then follows. This section of the paper has been contributed by the specific agencies. Finally, the main authors of this paper conclude by highlighting some of their critical observations and recommendations concerning the usage of the value chain approach within the UN system.

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Finding solutions on how to empower African women scientists

On March 7, at the House of Parliament in London, UK, the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development hosted a parliamentary briefing which focused on finding solutions on how to empower African women scientists.

It has been found that if African women farmers and agricultural scientists had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent, raising agricultural output and reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17 percent. Therefore, efforts must be made to fully engage and empower them.

In an effort to further this agenda and lobby the UK government to reach women in their agricultural research and investment work, these organizations are urging the government to support more public and private sector partnerships in favour of women.

Back to Work and a Fun Art Project

Well we're back to work today, but the contract battle continues.  Fortunately, tomorrow is the last day off before a 2 week Spring Break for most of us in BC.   I am heading off to sunnier weather in Palm Springs with my own children.  - But I digress...

Here's a fun art project that we worked on a few weeks ago.  I have been teaching a long unit on Friendship and Social Skills in my room this Winter.  I have a few children in my class who are in desperate need of some Empathy training.  Anyway, this little art idea was made partially for Valentine's Day but also for our Friendship unit.

I got the idea for this cute little project from somewhere on the internet, but I can't find the link.  I HATE not being able to cite my sources.  If you have seen this project out there before, can you please let me know??  This project started with a glue gun and some popsicle sticks.  Because my students are so young, I put the base together myself.  When it was ready, each child was allowed to paint them with neon paint.  The next day they attached several hearts.  Some were foam, some were paper.  They had a lot of fun placing them.

Some children painted rainbows.

Some painted patterns.

And some just tried to put on as many hearts as they could fit on.

I hope you enjoyed this little project!

L’AFRIQUE AU SALON INTERNATIONAL DE L’AGRICULTURE 2012 À PARIS

25 février au 4 mars 2012. Paris. L’Afrique au SIA 2012- Un rendez-vous annuel toujours haut en couleur. Le Mali, la Côte d’Ivoire, le Cameroun au travers de la CDC pour les bananes et de l’ONCC pour le café et le cacao, Madagascar avec ses entreprises spécialisées dans la vanille, les épices dont le fameux poivre sauvage, étaient présents à l’édition 2012 du Salon international de l’Agriculture de Paris.

SIA 2012 - CommodAfrica door commodafrica

Measuring aid to agriculture and food security

Measuring aid to agriculture and food security ODI Briefing Papers 72, 29th February 2012.

This Briefing Paper discusses flaws in the system for identifying and classifying aid to agriculture and calls for a purposeful (policy-relevant) measure that addresses global commitments on transparency, accountability and results-based aid.

There is a prevailing view that aid to agriculture has suffered a steep decline since the 1980s and is only now beginning to recover its share of total aid, following concerns over food price rises and volatility. While this is broadly true, the extent of the decline has been exaggerated by the limitations of the method used to classify aid to agriculture, and the recent recovery has been exaggerated by the merging of this type of aid with broader efforts to address food insecurity. There are two main causes of such statistical inaccuracies. First, the difficulty of capturing policy changes in the way in which donors support agriculture. Second, the difficulty of isolating the agricultural component in aid programmes.

This Briefing Paper explores the flow of aid to agriculture and reviews how it is measured and counted in terms of overall Overseas Development Assistance. Based on this analysis, the researchers argue:

• Recent aid pledges to agriculture reveal flaws in the system for identifying and classifying such aid;
• A purposeful measure of aid to agriculture is required to improve transparency and accountability;
• The different policy objectives behind aid to agriculture need to be separated to help establish results-based aid.

ECOWAS, COMESA, EAC, SADC and the regional implementation of CAADP

March 5th, 2012. Brussels, ECDPM Office. Organizers: Dutch MFA and ECDPM.
In preparation of the 8th Partnership Platform at the end of March, this meeting was organized by the Dutch MFA and ECDPM and aimed at discussing and exploring how to facilitate and support greater involvement of all CAADP partners at the regional level and more effective harmonization of their interventions.

A mapping exercise, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on regional issues relating to CAADP, was recently completed by the ECDPM. The research focused on ECOWAS, COMESA, EAC, and SADC. Key findings and messages are compiled in a specific document for each REC, plus a condensed summary of cross-cutting messages relevant to donors supporting regional integration. The research findings include regional linkages horizontally with other RECs, and vertically with countries.

Meeting documents:
Agenda

ECDPM Executive summaries of regional mapping papers:
* COMESA
* SADC
* EAC
* ECOWAS

An informal report (posted 30/03/2012) from the meeting is available on ECDPM’s Talking Points blog. Participants discussed how to achieve faster progress on implementing the programme and stressed the need to identify concrete regional actions for faster progress. They also emphasised the importance of deciding on roles and responsibilities of different regional actors, and of improving coordination among development partners, and between development partners and Regional Economic Communities. Although these ideas do not represent formal positions, they could be used to guide discussion between development partners, Regional Economic Communities and other actors during the upcoming 8th CAADP Partnership Platform meeting.

Water Harvesting Technologies Revisited

Water Harvesting Technologies Revisited. Potentials for Innovations, Improvements and Upscaling in Sub-Saharan Africa

WHaTeR is a four-year collaborative project funded by the European Commission through the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technological Development (RTD). The project officially started on the 1st January 2011.

The main objective of the WHaTeR project is to contribute to the development of water harvesting technologies that are sustainable under dynamic global and regional pressures of current trends and that strengthen rainfed agriculture, rural livelihoods and food production and security in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Partners
The project is coordinated by the Centre for International Cooperation, VU University Amsterdam (Netherlands) and involves two other European and five African organisations, namely Newcastle University (United Kingdom), Stockholm Resilience Centre (Sweden), University of Kwazulu Natal (South Africa), Sokoine University (Tanzania), Southern and Eastern Africa Rainwater Network (Kenya), National Institute for Environment and Agricultural Research (Burkina Faso) and Arba Minch University (Ethiopia).

Activities:
Project activities are divided over 14 Work Packages. The first Work Package covers project management and the second comprises a situation analysis - through revisits to water harvesting sites in 15 African countries studied previously by participating organisations . The next four Work Packages focus on detailed research and technology development activities on cross-cutting themes (environmental sustainability; technology development; livelihood improvement; uptake and upscaling; and global and regional impact) and will be conducted together with four country-based Work Packages (in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, South Africa and Tanzania). One Work Package will concentrate on stakeholder communication and outreaching activities, and the final Work Packages consists of synthesis and dissemination of project results, including production of guidelines for WHTs.