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PIM Newsletter

Issue No 13, October - December 2015  

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

We in PIM had a busy last quarter of 2015, and look forward to a full and productive 2016.

Together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in December we supported the launch of the Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste, a new initiative to enhance global cooperation on the topic. In parallel our value chains team is leading a multi CGIAR Center initiative to test new methods to measure post-harvest losses across a range of commodities.

Our foresight modeling team has been updating the IMPACT model and recently released a beta version of a new web tool at http://impact-model.ifpri.org/ to display scenario results. The team presented new findings during the session “Up and down the scales of time and place: Integrating global trends and local decisions to make the world more food-secure by 2050” at the recent Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) on the margins of COP21 in Paris. Ruth Meinzen-Dick, leader of PIM’s work on natural resource management (within Flagship 5) co-organized two additional sessions at the Global Landscapes Forum drawing on PIM’s work (“This Land is Our Land: Gender perspectives on tenure and rights” and “Commons tenure for a common future”). 

Both FAO and IFAD are drawing on our work on structural transformation as input to major reports (IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2016 and FAO’s State of Food and Agriculture 2017 report). 

In October PIM supported the release of a special issue of the Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security (Agri-Gender), a new international, open access, peer-reviewed and refereed journal published by the Africa Centre for Gender, Social Research and Impact Assessment. 

Work on the Virtual Information Platform (VIP), an initiative by CGIAR and the African partners under the MOU between CGIAR and the African Union, is underway with November’s release by the CGIAR Fund Office of a $1 million contribution from the Russian Federation. The online research platform will provide key information about agricultural technologies and their current and potential adoption in Africa south of the Sahara. The work supports the targets set by the African Heads of State within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).   

We had a successful team meeting in November jointly with our Science and Policy Advisory Panel to share views on the next phase of PIM (2017-2022) and reflect on findings of phase 1. Several implementation partners attended the meeting. We continue to work closely with partners and to deepen our collaboration. 

For 2016 we are fortunate to welcome support from Irish Aid and DFID, in addition to our much appreciated long-time supporters.

Last by not the least, we are happy to welcome Steven Lawry, Steve Staal, and Nedumaran Swamikannu as new focal points from CIFOR, ILRI, and ICRISAT, respectively. We thank Dr. Cynthia Bantilan for her contributions to PIM as focal point for ICRISAT and member of the PIM Management Committee, and congratulate her on her retirement. We also express our gratitude to Margaret Catley-Carlson for her short but productive time as liaison from the IFPRI Board of Directors to PIM’s Science and Policy Advisory Panel. We welcome Ruth Haug in this role for 2016.
 
Throughout 2015 I served on the organizing committee for The MasterCard Foundation’s Young Africa Works Summit, and participated in the event in Capetown in late October, together with our CGIAR colleague Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The Summit reinforced the very high interest on the part of a number of organizations in agriculture’s potential to generate jobs for young people, and confirmed the relevance of our research under PIM on this topic.

We within CGIAR will see many changes in 2016 as the new organizational structure is confirmed and functions of the various entities defined.  I have been selected as CRP Leaders’ Representative on the Consortium Board for 2016, and will have the opportunity to contribute the perspectives of CRPs to the various discussions.

I wish you a Happy New Year, and thank you for continued contributions to and interest in our work!    
 
Sincerely,
Karen Brooks
PIM Director
In this issue:
  • New knowledge-sharing initiative to measure and reduce food loss and waste
  • CGIAR country consultations: improving collaboration in agricultural research to support national agricultural development objectives
  • Agri-Gender: Special issue on Gender and Policies, Markets, and Institutions
  • Agricultural science can speed job creation for youth in Africa South of the Sahara
  • Extension’s role in scaling up agricultural innovation in Africa: discussing synergies and making plans
  • Strategic foresight? What’s that?
  • Hubbing for impact
  • Building capacity and a forum for collaboration
  • Seen on Periscope.tv: Karen Brooks speaking on social protection and agriculture for the World Food Day 2015
  • Public expenditure in agriculture: trends, “black boxes”, and more (interview with Tewodaj Mogues)
  • How sex-disaggregated land statistics can help monitor progress of the new Sustainable Development Goals
  • IFPRI and partners share insights on climate change and food security in Paris
  • Policy Dialogue Sparks Intensified Collaboration between APAARI and ASTI 
  • Identifying opportunities for enabling adoption of water and energy efficient technologies in agriculture

From PIM News Blog

New knowledge-sharing initiative to measure and reduce food loss and waste

A new initiative to enhance global cooperation on measuring and reducing food loss and waste launched in December 2015 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). >>> 
 

CGIAR country consultations: improving collaboration in agricultural research to support national agricultural development objectives

Frank Place shares his impressions about the recent CGIAR national consultations.
I had the pleasure of attending CGIAR national consultations in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia over the past two months. The consultations launched a process to strengthen collaboration among CGIAR centers towards a more collective support of national agricultural research and development goals. >>>
 

Agri-Gender: Special issue on Gender and Policies, Markets, and Institutions

The Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security (Agri-Gender) and PIM celebrated the International Day of Rural Women (October 15) this year by the release of a new issue focused on making women more visible in agricultural policies, institutions, and markets. >>>
 

Agricultural science can speed job creation for youth in Africa South of the Sahara

This expert opinion piece written by PIM Director Karen Brooks originally appeared on INCLUDE platform
Young people need jobs and growing economies need workers. Historically, farms and rural areas have sent young people to jobs in cities and factories, and this process of global urbanization continues. >>>
 

Extension’s role in scaling up agricultural innovation in Africa: discussing synergies and making plans

Kristin Davis, executive secretary of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), research fellow at IFPRI, and coordinator of PIM’s research on rural advisory services, shares her impressions about “Extension’s Role in Scaling up Agricultural Innovation”, a side event at the AFAAS Africa-Wide Extension Week 2015 (12-16 October, Addis Ababa). >>>
 

Strategic foresight? What’s that?

by Steve Prager, CIAT
…we often hear when introducing the Global Futures and Strategic Foresight project to our internal and external partners. If you don’t understand something, you are often naturally biased against it. To change this undermining attitude towards our work, we at CIAT’s Global Futures and Strategic Foresight team decided to, so to speak, take this bias bull by the horns. >>>
 

Hubbing for impact

PIM’s Latin America and Caribbean Regional Value Chain Hub meeting with the Learning Alliance Peru
by André Devaux, Claudio Velasco, CIP, and Evgeniya Anisimova, PIM
PIM’s work on value chains generates much more than academic research and analysis. In 2015, the VC team started a new initiative: regional value chain hubs to strengthen collaboration, coordination, and joint learning among value chain researchers across CGIAR and with external partners on the ground. >>>
 

Building capacity and a forum for collaboration

As part of its work under PIM (Flagship 1) and the Global Futures & Strategic Foresight (GFSF) project, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) organized a five-day training workshop titled “Crop and Bioeconomic Modeling under Uncertain Climate”. >>> 
 

Seen on Periscope.tv: Karen Brooks speaking on social protection and agriculture for the World Food Day 2015

Ahead of  World Food Day on October 16, 2015, PIM Director Karen Brooks, along with other CGIAR leaders, participated in a global broadcast campaign that highlighted the role of agricultural research and projects on social protection. >>>
 

Interview

Public expenditure in agriculture: trends, “black boxes”, and more

Sustainable growth and inclusive rural transformation require provision of key public goods and services, all of which cost money. Managing competing claims for resources within the budget process and assuring execution of budgets as planned are major challenges for all governments. Governments in poor countries face particularly hard choices in public expenditure due to scarcity of resources, proliferation of priorities, and strong pressures by advocacy groups. PIM works at a number of levels to provide guidance on decisions that national, regional, and local governments make on spending priorities. We’ve asked Tewodaj Mogues who leads PIM’s research on public expenditure, to answer a few questions about her work. >>>

From EnGendering Data Blog

How sex-disaggregated land statistics can help monitor progress of the new Sustainable Development Goals

by Ana Paula de la O Campos, FAO
For decades feminist economists and women’s rights advocates have made the case that the lack of data on women’s land rights has limited the ability to understand how this affects food security and rural poverty. However, recent developments may help us to overcome this challenge. >>>

From PIM Partners' Blogs

IFPRI and partners share insights on climate change and food security in Paris

IFPRI researchers Mark Rosegrant, Keith Wiebe and Alex de Pinto led a session (“Up and down the scales of time and place: Integrating global trends and local decisions to make the world more food-secure by 2050”) on December 5 at the Global Landscapes Forum on the margins of COP21 in Paris. >>> 
 

Policy Dialogue Sparks Intensified Collaboration between APAARI and ASTI 

The Asia–Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) hosted a high-level policy dialogue on Investment in Agricultural Research for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific in December in Bangkok. In preparation for this event, APAARI approached ASTI with a request for recent data on agricultural research spending and capacity in the Asia–Pacific. >>>
 

Identifying opportunities for enabling adoption of water and energy efficient technologies in agriculture

The urgent need for listing, prioritizing and mainstreaming of proven water and energy efficient technologies specific to regions and crops was pointed out during the recent symposium at ICRISAT. >>>

Selected Publications

Report: Workshop on best practice methods for assessing the impact of policy-oriented research

This paper provides a summary of the November 2014 workshop discussions and draws on this, together with findings from the literature, to derive guidelines for assessing policy-oriented research in CGIAR. >>> 


Exploring Indonesian aquaculture futures

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector globally, with production projected to double within the next 15–20 years. Future growth of aquaculture is essential to providing sustainable supplies of fish in national, regional and global fish food systems; creating jobs; and maintaining fish at affordable levels for resource-poor consumers. >>> 


Gender, headship, and the life cycle: Landownership in four Asian countries

A new IFPRI discussion paper analyzes data from Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam to understand the processes by which men and women acquire land; the social, cultural, and legal institutions surrounding gender and landownership; and the role of individual and household characteristics influencing an individual’s ability to own land. >>>


Community seed banks: Origins, evolution and prospects

A new book published by Earthscan in association with Bioversity International provides the first global review of community seed banks development and includes a wide range of case studies. >>>


Economics of land degradation and improvement

Land degradation occurs in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries. A new book about economics of land degradation was presented in December at IFPRI >>>


Envisioning possible futures for fish production in Indonesia

Another report released by WorldFish summarizes the results of a systematic effort to explore possible futures for aquaculture and fisheries in Indonesia. >>>

Find more PIM publications in the IFPRI eLibrary and on our website>>

Upcoming Events

27-28 January 2016, Bonn, Germany
“Bioeconomy with Africa” Meeting of Experts at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Siwa Msangi (IFPRI) will represent PIM.

29 February - 2 March 2016, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Central Asia regional consultation, part of the CGIAR countries of collaboration process for Phase 2 (2017-2022) 
Kamiljon Akramov (IFPRI) will represent PIM.

5-8 April 2016 - Ekurhuleni, South Africa
Global Event for the Third Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development (GCARD3)
Karen Brooks will participate.

12-14 April 2016 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
2016 Science Forum: “Agricultural research for rural prosperity: rethinking the pathways”
Karen Brooks will co-ordinate a break-out session “Policies, institutions and markets”. Ruth Meinzen-Dick will present Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project (GAAP) findings in the opening plenary.

See PIM's upcoming and past events on our website>>
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