Climate Conversations - Green value chains transform vulnerable farmers into entrepreneurs

By Naoufel Telahigue and Rami Abu Salman

Organic cocoa farmers in Sao Tome and Principe have benefited from
an IFAD scheme linking them with overseas buyers. PHOTO/IFAD

Next month, we will all gather again in Rio de Janeiro to work out what went wrong 20 years ago and consider solutions that we have dismissed.

Children who were 12 years old during the first Rio summit, in 1992, might now be quickly approaching the end of their life expectancy in some countries. But what if smallholder farmers had been at the centre of the debate 20 years ago?

At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – the United Nations’ agency focused on rural development – we believe there can be no green economy without “green” agriculture.

Agriculture is a key economic and development sector in all countries across the globe, recognised by world leaders for boosting gross domestic product (GDP). If done sustainably, agriculture can provide a significant opportunity for the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty to improve their lives, and cater to the food security needs of the world’s more than 925 million malnourished people.

In addition, climate-smart and simple technologies can help poor smallholder farmers to build their resilience and mitigate risks associated with climate change.

IFAD and its partners have been working to ensure that innovation and investment in agriculture -  and more importantly in the world’s 500 million small farms - lead to long-term sustainability.

Organic fair-trade Cocoa
In Sao Tome and Principe, for example, IFAD has helped turn around the dying smallholder cocoa sector after the collapse of world market prices in the late 1990s.

By setting up public-private partnerships with overseas buyers of organic fair-trade cocoa of high quality, the project helped small farmers establish export cooperatives and achieve stable and significantly improved incomes.

Smallholder families participating in the programme have seen their yearly income increase, on average, from a level 25 percent below the poverty line to 8 percent above it. One particularly successful producer used the profit from organic cocoa production to set up a small roadside shop that his wife runs, generating even greater profit.

This initiative was coupled with organising small farmer groups and training them in organic and conservation agriculture, solar drying, integrated pest management and other environmentally sustainable practices.

Growth potential
Smallholder farmers have untapped growth potential. The message IFAD will take to the upcoming conference in Rio is that we must explore this potential by transforming smallholder farmers into empowered business women and men.

This transformation requires adopting new approaches that are competitive, sustainable, sufficiently diversified and within the carrying capacity of natural ecosystems. By helping smallholders in integrating and developing “green value chains”, we offer them an opportunity to sustainably harvest not only food, but also economic, social and environmental benefits.

For instance, a new initiative in Sierra Leone is aiming to develop markets for high-quality organic, fair-trade cocoa. The project will rehabilitate a cocoa plantation abandoned during the war.

Prices for good-quality certified cocoa are less susceptible to market fluctuations, and this encourages further investment and assures sustainability. In addition to the extra income provided by intercropped plants, cocoa agroforestry systems will support greater biodiversity and avoid land degradation and erosion caused by slash-and-burn farming.

Smallholder farmers have immense potential to contribute to a green economy and to sustainable growth in general. To do that successfully, they need enabling environments and support such as improved access to land, water and markets, financial services, adequate technologies and technical assistance.

In this respect, promoting the role of women and youth as farm entrepreneurs is particularly crucial. We have the means, we have the knowledge, and now we need the collective will. If we don’t act now, we risk going back in another 20 years to acknowledge the failure of choices.

Originally posted on AlertNet blog

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Naoufel Telahigue and Rami Abu Salman are Regional Environment and Climate Specialists at the IFAD. IFAD is co-organising Agriculture and Rural Development Day on June 18 ahead of the Rio+20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Under half UK’s top retailers offer click and collect service, new research shows

Under half of the UK’s top retailers offer a click and collect service, according to new research.

IVIS Group’s
first annual multi-channel maturity benchmark report found that only
44% of retailers currently allow shoppers to reserve or pay for products
online and collect in-store. While 77% of these give customers access
to the service on both their web and mobile sites, the

#ifadland – Who owns the land? Nairobi workshop tackles tough questions for Africa

On day one, participants post their hopes for the outcome ‪
of the land tenure security workshop.

NAIROBI, Kenya – For the past two days, more than a hundred people have packed a mid-sized conference room at the United Nations compound here to grapple with one of the most fundamental questions facing the world’s poorest households: Who owns the land?

Tomorrow, they will come back to grapple some more, in a dialogue conducted in both English and French to accommodate participants from 20 nations across Africa. And when the simultaneous translators stop for their mandatory breaks, bilingual volunteers will jump into the breach so that the conversation can continue. Such is the sense of camaraderie and urgency in the air.

The forum for these discussions is the first-ever joint workshop held by IFAD and UN Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Organized under the auspices of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), the three-day workshop aims to deepen understanding of land tenure issues in sub-Saharan Africa. It also seeks to identify ways in which IFAD, UN Habitat and their partners on the ground can cooperate more closely to secure land and natural resource rights for all.

That’s a tall order, to say the least. But the stakes are high, especially for women and marginalized groups whose access to the land is most tenuous. Speaker after speaker in Nairobi has stressed that land tenure security – that is, the ability to control, benefit from and transfer the rights to land and natural resources – makes people far less vulnerable to hunger and poverty.

Land tenure and poverty
Simply put, secure land tenure is the key to the future prospects of millions of impoverished families worldwide. If anyone doubted that notion, the workshop has made it abundantly clear.

Photos from the workshop on display outside the packed
conference room in Nairobi.

The agenda kicked off yesterday with remarks by IFAD’s regional economist for East and Southern Africa, Geoffrey Livingston. “Secure land and natural resources rights are essential for rural poverty reduction, agricultural development and economic growth,” he said, noting that land and its associated resources are the primary assets of the 470 million people living in rural areas in Africa.

IFAD regional land advisor Harold Liversage added that land tenure is more secure when governments’ land administration systems are accessible and transparent. However, he cautioned, the reforms needed to create such systems require sustained political will at the country level – so there is no “one size fits all” solution to securing land rights.

But it was Clarissa Augustinus of UN Habitat and GLTN who made one of the workshop’s most sobering points. Only 30 per cent of all land outside the developed world is registered, she said, leaving 70 per cent without legally recognized ownership or security. Augustinus called this “a huge political and technical challenge” with ominous implications for the poor.

A continuum of rights
Still, it’s a challenge that must be met, amidst population growth, competition for dwindling resources and rapid urbanization in developing countries. In the absence of transparent land management, conflicts over property rights can be endemic. Large-scale land grabs by powerful interests can displace people from their ancestral homes. And smallholders who lack title to their farms can be denied access to the credit they need to move from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

Unwinding at a reception after day two of the three-day
IFAD-UN Habitat land tenure workshop.

One approach to solving this quandary involves rethinking the very definition of land ownership. As UN Habitat’s Axumite Gebre-Egziabher reported at the workshop, “a global paradigm shift” on ownership is already under way. Rather than focusing exclusively on statutory tenure, she said, more and more advocates and institutions are recognizing a continuum of land rights. These may range from traditional or customary rights to communal ownership of forests and grazing lands, as well as other intermediary forms of land tenure.

Significantly, the African Union Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank have endorsed just such an expansive vision of land tenure as part of their African Land Policy Framework and Guidelines, issued in 2009. The framework and guidelines also support participatory land policy processes as a prerequisite for long-term sustainable development on the continent.

Continued collaboration
Translating such declarations into effective land policy and governance is another matter, of course. Yet the participants in the Nairobi workshop – most of whom are practitioners working on development projects at the grass roots – appear determined to give it their best shot. To that end, they split up into small thematic groups, both yesterday and today, to concentrate on some of the most complex aspects of land management, including:

• Documenting small-scale farmers’ land and water rights
• Advocating for recognition of group land rights
• Strengthening women’s equitable access to land and natural resources
• Using remote sensing and mapping technology to promote land and resource rights
• Securing land and resource rights through inclusive business partnerships between small-scale farmers and outside investors.

Each of these areas warrants exhaustive study in itself. For present purposes, suffice it to say that the land rights workshop has made a solid start on tackling each of them through Africa-wide collaboration and knowledge sharing. If the charged and serious atmosphere in the conference room is any indication, that collaboration will continue long after the workshop wraps up tomorrow, and the participants return to the lands they call home.

#ifadland – Secure land and natural resource rights are essential to reducing poverty across Africa

By Geoffrey Livingston

Yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya, IFAD Regional Economist for East and Southern Africa Geoffrey Livingston opened a joint IFAD-UN Habitat workshop on land and natural resources security with remarks on the challenges and opportunities at hand. Excerpts follow.

Smallholder farmers in the Haute Matsiatra region of
Madagascar. ©Rindra Ramasomanana

Secure land and natural resources rights are essential for rural poverty reduction, agricultural development and economic growth more generally.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 470 million people are located in rural areas, agriculture employs 65 per cent of the labour force and the sector drives 32 per cent of GDP growth. Land and the associated natural resources are among the main assets that poor rural women and men have in Africa, along with their labour and creativity.

But land is not just an economic asset. It also has great cultural and social significance. For many Africans, land is owned on behalf of their ancestors and future generations. In general, poor people and marginalised groups have less access to land and weaker land rights – and, typically, women do not enjoy the same land rights as men.

Growing recognition
IFAD has learnt that the lack of secure land and natural resource rights is often a major obstacle to economic development and poverty reduction; is often a major cause of social instability; and often undermines good land use and land management.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition in Africa of the importance of land and natural resource tenure security. There is also a greater recognition of the need for active citizen participation in the formulation and implementation of land and natural resource management policies. There is an opportunity to learn from an increasing number of experiences – both positive and negative.

The African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa and African Development Bank-led process of developing the African Land Policy Framework and Guidelines is exemplary. It provides us with an excellent opportunity for raising the profile of the importance of land and natural resource tenure security for long-term sustainable development – not only in Africa but throughout the world.

Collaboration with partners
But the real challenge now is in developing and implementing practical approaches for securing land and natural resource rights and, linked to this, building community and decentralised capacity to implement these approaches.

Often without realising it, IFAD-supported initiatives in the region have a wealth of experience in supporting local institutions to manage land and natural resources – and through this, to secure the rights of poor rural men and women. Typically, IFAD-supported projects and programmes are implemented by ministries responsible for agricultural development and natural resource management. And often, the lessons learnt on securing land and natural resource rights in these projects and programmes do not feed directly into land policy development.

In this regard, our collaboration with UN Habitat and other partners, under the auspices of the Global Land Tools Network, provides us with an excellent opportunity for strengthening the engagement of various IFAD-supported initiatives in sharing their experiences.

IFAD is very pleased to support this initiative. We recognise land and natural resource tenure security are key for poverty reduction and economic growth, and we welcome the opportunity to learn from others on how to better integrate measures that can strengthen tenure security into initiatives that we support.

BRP selects aPriori’s Product Cost Management platform

Power sports manufacturer will use software to reduce product costs and accelerate time to cost reduction -

aPriori,
a provider of product cost management software solutions, today
announced that BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products Inc.), a leader in
motorised recreational vehicles, has selected aPriori’s software
platform to help identify product cost savings and shorten the time it

What’s New in Business Process Manager v8?

IBM has announced that it is releasing a newer version of Business Process Manager v8 at IBM Impact 2012 in Las Vegas, NV that comes with IBM Operational Decision Management v8 for turbo changed collaboration.

 IBM has the broadest Process Portfolio products in the planet with 20 different kinds of Process Products integrated into one single offering, delivering over 300 capabilities and more than 700 people working in Research & Development across the portfolio.

Below are the highlighted key points of the newer IBM BPM V8:

IBM Operational Decision Management V8 
The new IBM Business Process Manager v8 comes with IBM Operational Decision Management that combines business rules and events management to automate and govern a wide range of operational decisions. The V8 of Operational Decision Management comes with a newly redesigned interface that is more user-friendly and provides a seamless experience.

Server Upgrade
The new BPM (Business Process Manager) V8 requires WAS (WebSphere Application Server) V8 which now has a lighter footprint and really ushers IBM to takeover space from JBOSS.

iOS Application
The new IBM BPM V8 application is now also available on Apples iTunes store for download and use with iPhone and iPad with expanded REST/JSON API for mobile application development. This way Process Applications are available to Process Participants on the go.

Integration with Tivoli Identity Manager in Process 
Phill Gilbert, VP IBM has also announced that BPM integration with Tivoli Identity Manager is in process that will ease the creation, modification, and termination of user privileges throughout the entire user lifecycle.

Following Royal Cyber will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts.

Sarah Smits Wins Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 Award

Sarah "Entrepreneur of the Year 2012"

Sarah Smits of independent
high street broker Ashbourne Insurance has beaten off stiff
competition to win a prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year 2012”
award.

Sarah, who is the Finance Director of Hertfordshire-based Ashbourne
Insurance, won the coveted title at the Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards
2012 on Thursday May 17th/12. Organised by

That's Technology: Open Source Open Days from Sirius

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With two thirds of online shoppers spending as usual in 2012, great service is vital to secure premium sales

As the UK economy slides back into recession a significant 61% of
consumers buying premium products and services say they will not reduce
their online spending in 2012, as revealed by a survey conducted by
Leapfrogg, the online retail marketing
agency. This is great news for premium and high-end brands in light of
gloomy economic reports for

Cold Calling Is Still Relevant, It Just Starts In A Different Place Nowadays - Content Marketing Is Changing The Game

Corporate investment in SEO
has increased, investment in Pay Per Click has increased but, in almost
every case, the results have begun to plateau and the quality of leads
coming from online channels is in decline.

One of the core functions of any marketing team is to increase traffic
and attract new and existing customers, typically via the corporate
website. With the increase in SEO, PPC

Joint MD at Crown Utilities on Short List for National Business Award

One of only five women
from a national field selected for the finals of the First Women in
Business awards in the built environment category, Crown Utilities joint managing director Keeley Downing is waiting for the final declaration at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London on June 28.

The prestigious competition is sponsored by Lloyds Banking

Scott Dunn Accelerates Growth Plans With New Sales & Marketing Director

Top British luxury tour operator Scott Dunn is stepping up its growth plans with the appointment of Kim Pattie as sales and marketing director.

Andrew Dunn, Scott Dunn’s founder director, says: “Scott Dunn is
achieving an exceptional performance in 2012, repeatedly smashing our
sales and booking records. However, there is so much more our team wants
to achieve and Kim is superbly qualified

Morgan Sindall Group plc implements Accounts Payable Audit Software

FISCAL Technologies forensics software protects leading construction group

FISCAL Technologies
providers of world-class accounts payable forensic software, has added
the leading UK construction and regeneration group, Morgan Sindall plc
to their expanding list of FTSE listed customers. Their financial shared
service centre processes over £2

Desarrollo rural en América Latina: preguntas, perspectivas y desafíos

Expertos internacionales resaltan nuevas oportunidades para la reducción de la pobreza rural 

Con el objetivo de discutir herramientas innovadoras para cerrar las brechas de oportunidades que afectan a los 25 millones de campesinos pobres en América Latina, reconocidos expertos internacionales se reunieron la semana pasada en Antigua, Guatemala, en el seminario “Desarrollo rural en América Latina: preguntas, perspectivas y desafíos”.

El Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), en coordinación con la Asociación de Investigación y Estudios Sociales (ASIES), llevaron a cabo el seminario para crear un espacio de reflexión y debate acerca de las tendencias y retos del desarrollo rural que enfrenta la región actualmente, y el papel que distintos actores pueden jugar en su abordaje.

Todos se aproximaran al desarrollo rural latinoamericano desde diferentes temas: gasto público y equidad, financiamiento rural e inclusión financiera, política social y productiva, y procesos de innovación en intervenciones rurales.

Videos de los discursos del evento

Presentaciones

Nora Lustig - Gasto Publico, Desarrollo Rural y Equidad  

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Michael Carter, Profesor de la Universidad de California - Davis

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Karen Macours

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Desarrollo rural en América Latina - Juan Moreno Procasur

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

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That's Christmas: Prepare Now for Christmas in July Events, says Pun...

That's Christmas: Prepare Now for Christmas in July Events, says Pun...: While carols, eggnog and Santa Claus are still over half a year away, for many PR people...

Touchline Video Ltd Brings First HD Video Conferencing Products to the UK

Major Videoconferencing Provider, ZTE to enter UK Market

Touchline Video UK Ltd, has today launched the first of its Partner,
ZTE’s new high-definition video conferencing solutions into the UK
market. The ZTE T700 4MX and T700 8MX video conferencing systems provide
superior call quality and outstanding visual communication for small to

Genocidal Judaism Let Off Again

“when we come upon a non-Jew who is not keeping the seven [Noahide] laws, and we kill him out of concern for the keeping of the seven laws, it is not prohibited.” 

Charges Unlikely for Advocates of Killings

Haaretz

May 25, 2012

[Israeli] Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is tending toward not prosecuting the author or endorsers of the controversial book “Torat Hamelech,” Haaretz has learned.

The book, written in 2009 by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, was endorsed by two other rabbis, Yitzhak Ginzburg and Dov Lior. The authors describe it as a discussion of Jewish law on the conditions under which it is permissible to kill a non-Jew in times of war and peace.

The book’s publication led to the launch of a criminal investigation against the four rabbis for incitement to racism and violence.

According to one [of many genocidal] statement[s] in the book, “when we come upon a non-Jew who is not keeping the seven [Noahide] laws, and we kill him out of concern for the keeping of the seven laws, it is not prohibited.”

Weinstein is expected to explain that he is basing his decision on limiting the use of criminal law as a tool to deal with offenses involving freedom of expression, particularly in light of the fact that the statements were made as part of a religious tract, as general statements, and the book mentions neither the word “Arab” nor the word “Palestinian.”
http://forward.com/articles/156865/charges-unlikely-for-advocates-of-killings/

 Also see:

The REAL Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow

"Noahide" Thought for the Day

Kosher-Catholic Paulist Press Pushes "Noahide" Fraud 

Tesco Uses Nolio to Reduce Application Release Time to Hours

End-to end application
deployment automation by leading retailer is latest example of Nolio's
success in cloud and virtualised environments

Nolio, a leading provider of application release automation software today announced that Tesco,
a leading $40b global retailer, has adopted Nolio ASAP as its standard
solution for application release automation across Tesco.com. Nolio ASAP
will be

Actix’s LTE Solution Wins at Telecoms.com LTE Awards 2012

Actix, a world class leader in mobile network analytics and optimization, has won a Telecoms.com LTE Award 2012
for its LTE Network Acceptance solution. Beating 38 entrants, the Actix
solution was recognised as a unique and exceptional network product
with a proven ability to measure true LTE performance in real-world
conditions.


Actix LTE Acceptance
supports the majority of

Highly-regulated industries benefit from easy-to-access, real-time management dashboards

Award-winning business intelligence dashboard software author, Intuitive Business Intelligence, (www.intuitivebusinessintelligence.com) today announces a strategic partnership with Ideagen PLC, (www.ideagenplc.com),
a market-leading UK and USA based software company specialising in
information and compliance management solutions for

Invoice Finance and Factoring Buoyed by Recent Research

Representatives at Target Business Assist are currently revelling at the news that the invoice factoring
industry has been given a massive lift. As is being reported in much of
the mainstream media, invoice finance is becoming an increasingly
dominant source of working capital funding. Demica published their
findings last week and it has provided some rare joy for those connected
with

Another Judaic Papal Knight Joins the Ranks

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte with Dr. Victor Goldbloom, November 16, 2005. (Note Turcotte's hidden pectoral cross)

Dr. Victor Goldbloom is an executive chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress which was exposed for having propped up phony 'Nazis' in Canada in the 1960's which Victor Goldbloom and his cronies then used to intimidate the Canadian government and justify hate legislation.

Dr. Goldbloom is a pediatrician and politician who worked as a Liberal party Member of the National Assembly of Quebec at the time that Canada's Liberal party introduced legalized abortion into North America. His wife, Sheila Goldbloom is also a strong advocate of abortion on demand.

When Canadian politician Camil Samson, outraged by the acquittal of bolshevik abortionist Dr. Henry Morgantaler, aptly noted the irony that Canadians had gone to war to save 'Jews' and that Judaic doctors thanked them by terminating the lives of Canadian babies, Dr. Goldbloom led the political lynch mob against him.

Dr. Goldbloom  is also a veteran Judaizer of Christians under the euphemism of 'dialogue.'

Pope to honour interfaith pioneer Goldbloom

Janice Arnold - The Canadian Jewish News

May 21, 2012

MONTREAL — Dr. Victor Goldbloom is being recognized by the Vatican for his lifelong leadership in promoting Catholic-Jewish relations.

Goldbloom, a pioneer in interfaith dialogue locally, nationally and internationally, will receive the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Sylvester Pope and Martyr, to be bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Established in 1905, it’s one of five Orders of Knighthood awarded directly by the pope as head of the Catholic Church and as head of the State of Vatican City.

Goldbloom is among a minority of non-Catholics and small number of Jews worldwide to be so honoured, and he joins the ranks of such noteworthy and diverse members as German industrialist Oskar Schindler, credited with saving more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust; entertainer Bob Hope; Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, and Archduke Otto von Habsburg, crown prince of Austria and Hungary.

Goldbloom, 88, was recommended by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, an independent Montreal-based organization encouraging inter-church and interfaith dialogue.

“This is an extremely rare honour, normally reserved for ambassadors,” said the centre’s executive director, Anthony Mansour.

“As far as I know, Dr. Goldbloom is the first Jewish Canadian to receive the honour, and among a handful of Canadians of any faith. He is the first non-Christian in the history of the Archdiocese of Montreal and Quebec to have the papal honour conferred upon him.”

The recommendation was approved by the new Catholic Archbishop of Montreal Christian Lépine and officially announced at a reception held at his residence May 10. Also present were Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Dowd.

Announced concurrently was the awarding to Father Irénée Beaubien, 96, the centre’s founder in 1963, of the Pontifical Medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Father Beaubien and Goldbloom, a board member of the centre, are pioneers in combating misunderstanding between Catholics, especially francophones, and Jews in Quebec. They will formally be decorated Sept. 4 at a gala dinner at Federation CJA’s Gelber Conference Centre, which will benefit the centre.

The choice of award, Bishop Dowd noted, was recommended by the Vatican.
“It is appropriate, because what is an ambassador? It is someone who knows where he is from and is faithful to it, but is open to dialogue with another community.”

Goldbloom said his interfaith work began more than 50 years ago, when he was “an ordinary practising pediatrician with no experience in inter-religious relations” and came into contact with the Jesuit fathers who were then the faculty of what was Loyola College.

“It challenged me to know my own religion better and to talk about it with those who did not know it,” he recalled.

Early on, Goldbloom advocated that the Jewish community must dialogue with the majority in Quebec, and must be able to do so in French. Among the many friendships he made, one Goldbloom cherishes is with Cardinal Turcotte, who retired as archbishop in March.

Goldbloom remembered the archbishop’s participation in a Yom Kippur service at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom some years ago.

Turcotte sat between Goldbloom and Rabbi Leigh Lerner. As is customary, they placed a tallit over the shoulders of their guest as an amicable gesture.

“That was one of the most moving moments of my life,” Goldbloom said.

Venerable David Oliver, the Anglican chair of the centre’s board, noted the historical significance of a Christian and a Jew being honoured at the same Sept. 4 event. It marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, which radically transformed the Catholic Church’s relationship with other faiths.

“Leading up to the Council, it was men like Father Beaubien and Dr. Goldbloom, often working against opposition from within their own religious communities, who paved the way,” Oliver said.

“They are two Quebecers, two Canadians, two men of faith who helped shape the open and tolerant society we enjoy today. Every generation that follows owes them a debt of gratitude for their courage, perseverance and unwavering commitment to dialogue as the path to peace and reconciliation.”

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?q=node/90063

Also see:

The Vatican's Knight Defenders of the Talmud 

One More Papal Knight Defender of the Talmud Joins the Battalion 

B'nai B'rith Papal Knight Rabbi Leon Klenicki Recommends 'Noahide' Tome

Papal Rabbi-Knight David Rosen Wants to Change What Christians Believe About the Pharisees

H.R. 4133, the United States-'Israel' Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, Passed 411 Yeas, 2 Nays

See:

House Passes Stealth Legislation

The Senate version of this legislation (S. 2165) is sponsored by Barbara Boxer and Johnny Isakson.

Also see:

"Netanyahu is More Powerful than the President." "The Congress has Sold Out to AIPAC"

The Rabbinic Foundation of Netanyahu's Messianic Lunacy Further Revealed 

Wall Street Mob Bankrolls Netanyahu Apprentice, "Representative" Eric Cantor

Hillary Clinton: Liberate the economic potential of rural women to fight hunger and poverty

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been speaking out about gender equality in the international arena since at least 1995, when she delivered a forceful message on women’s rights as human rights at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. So it was no surprise that the rights of rural women figured prominently in her remarks last week at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security.

Webcast image of Hillary Clinton speaking at 18 May
symposium in Washington, DC.

Organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and held in Washington, DC, the symposium preceded this year’s G8 summit of world leaders. It provided a forum for high-level discussions of sustainable agricultural development and the setting for President Barack Obama’s announcement of a G8 initiative – the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition – which aims to reduce hunger and lift 50 million rural people out of poverty in the next decade. 

Secretary Clinton’s speech at the event covered a range of issues on investing in global agriculture to solve the problems of malnutrition and extreme poverty. Perhaps its most passionate section dealt with the largely untapped potential of rural women to help feed the world, a topic that is also central to IFAD’s recently adopted gender policy. Excerpts from the Clinton speech follow.


I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that I am convinced women are critical to our success in every field of endeavour. And this is not a matter of sentiment or personal interest on my part. This is also actually a fact-based, evidence-based statement. It has been said that the modern face of hunger is often a woman’s face, because in many parts of the world, women still eat last and eat least.

The face of a farmer is often a woman’s face as well. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, women comprise nearly half of the agricultural workforce across Africa. So if we want to support farmers, we also have to support women farmers. And that is not something that happens automatically. It has to be part of a deliberate, determined strategy that takes gender equality into account across everything we are doing.

And the results speak for themselves. The FAO estimates that if women farmers had the same access to productive resources as men – seeds, credit, insurance, land title, and so on – they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 per cent. And that, in turn, could raise total agricultural output so much it could reduce the number of hungry people worldwide by up to 150 million.

Now the obstacles that stand in the way of women’s equal access to resources in agriculture or anything else are, unfortunately, formidable. They include laws, deeply held traditions, lack of information, plain old inertia, and we have to overcome each and every one of them. We can’t just hope that women get the support they need as a side effect of our work. We have to push for it. And it’s not optional. It’s not marginal. It’s not a luxury. It’s not expendable. It happens to be essential, or we will never reach our goals….

When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of communities, nations and the world.

Commercial Printers Backing England in Euro 2012

There’s even more reason now
to cheer on England in Euro 2012 after Graphics and Print, the award
winning Telford based commercial printers, announced a special offer to
its customers. If England win the championships which begin on Friday, 8
June 2012, the commercial printers are offering refunds on orders
placed during June, subject to certain terms and conditions.

Managing Director,

First-Ever World Risk Day June 26 Attracts Industry-Leading Supporters

The June 26th awareness day
will include a global Virtual Summit with risk experts to address best
practices and real world examples for CFOs, risk professionals and
project professionals

World Risk Day,
the first-ever awareness day focused on how taking smarter risks drives
corporate strategy, improves business confidence, and grows profits,
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It was another fun filled day 3 in Las Vegas NV at IBM Impact. The general session began at 8:30am Pacific time and the host of the show was Don McMillan who holds a diversified portfolio, he is technology comedian and engineer who engages the audience by telling them about IT terms in the funniest way.

He then invited Rod Smith, VP Emerging technologies at IBM to talk about the next wave of computing and how it’s changing the way we live and work. Smith said that Emerging technologies are enabling new types of applications for multiple channels including mobile, social and cloud. He mentioned that in IBM alone there are 12000 employees using mobile to access different applications

. 

“Every month people send one billion tweets and post 30 billion messages on Facebook. Mobile Application have become fluid and can be adjusted to user context based on device, time and location” said Smith emphasizing on faster applications development saying time to value is the key factor.

Professor John Taplin from University of South California came next on stage and talked about his team collaboration with IBM and LA times. He mentioned Arab Upspring and how an Egyptian student used IBM software to find which words are being tweeted.

Jane Mcgonial, technology expert talked about her research on gaming and its huge impact on our lives. She said that there are over 1 billion gamers on the planet playing at least one hour every day. Mcgonial also shared part of her research saying that games have positive impact on children battling cancers. She also engages participants in multi player thumb wrestling game which broke the record with 8000 participants.

Breth Smith, VP IBM talk about new era of messaging. Smith said that phones have become personal ids and would soon become corporate ids that would tell us where we are and that one device will soon become everything. She emphasized on need for a collaborative lifecycle for faster response time which she says require new processes and business models for a new era.

Jerry Cuomo, CTO Websphere then came on stage to show the principles of SOA and its new capabilities. He mentioned the case of Acme Airlines and how did they have collaborated with IBM for extending APIs to developers and expand mobile apps to be engaging.

Breth Smith VP IBM then made announcements about the latest versions of DataPower, MQ and WAS 8.5. She said that DataPower new version offers extended security exercises over the enterprise level and that the latest version of MQ provides managed file transfer and advanced messaging security. The new WAS 8.5 has built in application management capabilities including, intelligent routing and dynamic clustering. She also said that IBM is 16% faster than Oracle in equivalent hardware.

Kevin Steele, Senior Director Technology at Cars.com introduced his company starting with a short documentary. He said that his company employs 1000 people nationwide including 140 IT professionals. Steele said that his company was facing frequent outages and issues regarding system monitoring capabilities and hence they worked with IBM. Omnibus solution helped Cars.com get data from logs and fix system performance management tools. IBM technology enabled his company to improve scalability, speed and reliability.

In the end IBM Fellow and CTO Jerry Cuomo invited other presenters to play a virtual game with their handheld devices. Later on Don McMillan ended the session with announcements about the coming impact sessions.

Following Royal Cyber on Twitter and Facebook will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere Commerce. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts. Know more about Royal Cyber Fusion 

Engage, Extend, and Succeed: IBM Impact Day 2 General Session

It was a fun filled day two at IBM Impact 2012 general session here in Las Vegas. The show began at 8:30am Pacific time, the host of the show was Katie Linendoll who is an Emmy award winning tech expert, Tech show host at Spike TV and a regular CNN guest commentator.

She began the show with a brief documentary and later introduced Mr. Johan Gerber Senior Business Leader of Fraud Management Solutions for MasterCard Worldwide. Johan told the audience about his company and said that MasterCard does not actually issue the cards but they are a technology company providing network link to consumers, businesses and card issuers. They provided powerful endorsement to IBM saying that they have implemented IBM Decision Management and message handling platform within their network for fraud detection.  

Gerber left the stage with an innovative video about the future of shopping.

The second speaker of the session was Steve Mills who focused on transaction processing and said that IBM has a long history in managing transactions, helping corporation worldwide manage structure and execution of transactions in complex environments. He also provided the examples of Marriott Hotel, China Mobile and Sprint who are using IBM platform for faster delivery.

Steve also introduced the audience to IBM Websphere Transaction Cluster Facility v1.1 with scalable transaction processing capabilities built keeping in view the criticalities of millions of transactions that occurs every day. Steve also called this server facility as nothing else like it in the world today.

Steve said that IBM continues to invest in its transaction processing capabilities so companies can take gains of modularity and agility of SOA. He also sees a meticulous focus on integrating mobile, big data and in-line analytics to the cloud deployment and social media. In the end of his speech he announced Ace Award Program winners and thanked customers, business partners and the audience for their business.

Katie Linendoll introduced the next story, The Ottawa Hospital where they have implemented mobility with iPad devices and unifying processes in health care through a single console providing doctors with all the patient history for better patient management.

The next speaker was Phil Gilbert, the VP of BPM and Decision Management at IBM who presented the demonstration IBM Decision Center and Business Process Manager Version 8 showing the new collaborative, social, redesigned decision management interface. He said that BPM mobile application is also available on iTunes store.

BodyMedia came up next to talk about their new body sensing device and the associated decision management system. The solution involves an arm band with four embedded sensors reading 5000 data points per minute.

Bob Suter of IBM came next to introduce IBM Mobile Foundation suite. He discussed that mobile buzz is everywhere and that people are incorporating mobile into their business for secure transactions, manageability and security. He said that services are available to help companies get started in 60 days.

Lastly VP IBM Global Bridget Van Kralingen, one of 50 most powerful women in business talked about IBM social business and concluded the session.

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Dynamics of Technological Business from the eyes of Walter Isaacson: IBM Impact Day 1 General Session

IBM Impact 2012 opening session begins here in Las Vegas at 8:15am Pacific time in the midst of scattered clouds. The session started with an introductory video on IBM Pure Systems, a new IBM product helping people globally improve their lives with the power of IT.  Power Systems can access, deploy and manage applications.

 The first speaker of the session was Walter Isaacson who is the is the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies institute based in Washington, DC. He has been the chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine and is the author of several biographies on Steve Jobs, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger.

Much of his speech was inspired by Steve Jobs and his passion for innovation. The presenter shared many of the sayings by Steve Jobs, he shared that once steve told him that most important thing is not making a great product but creating a great company. He described innovation, creativity, inspiration, and imaginative people as the ones who change the world.  “There are lots of smart people but not so many innovative people; and innovative people change the world” Isaacson said.

He added that for Steve Jobs, the greatest lesson was that you need to have passion for your product.

Steve Jobs had extremely strong leadership skills and throughout his career he motivated his team to achieve what was not achievable by them. “Anybody can make things complex; only a genius can make it simple” Isaacson quoted Steve Jobs. iPod was created with the same idea to make it simple for the consumers to hear music. If you want to be innovative you need to have passion for curiosity.

The second speaker of the event was Alan Douville from Whirlpool who begins his session with video and introductory words about his company, he shared how whirlpool innovate and collaborate with IBM for effective consumer and customer engagements. Other speakers include Steve George from Huntington Bank, Chief architect of Pure Application System Jason and Peter Haffernan from Ireland.

During the session, IBM launches six new products in the Websphere family including Websphere Application Server version 8.5 which it named Liberty, IBM Mobile Foundation suite with Mobile End point’s manager that can support up to 250,000 end points, Business Process Manager, MQ and Cast Iron Live that allows developers to create new APIs in few clicks.

IBM also launches Pure Application System that can be up and running in 4 hours.

In the end, IBM thanked its customers, sponsors and 1300 business partners who have attended the opening session of Impact 2012. They have also awarded best business partners, award finalists and best of show award winner.

Following Royal Cyber on Twitter and Facebook will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts.

That's Green: Kellys earns Green Partner Award

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Dealing with the leadership ‘reality gap’ using Myers-Briggs

Colin Graves

According to the latest
Employee Outlook survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development (CIPD) while many managers believe they are outstanding
leaders their employer often thinks something quite different.

72% of employers report a lack of leadership and management skills
within their business. How do you best deal with this ‘reality gap’?
It’s

The Rabbinic Foundation of Netanyahu's Messianic Lunacy Further Revealed

During his pilgrimage to Counterfeit Israel shortly after the 2009 Israeli Gaza Massacre, the fanatical philojudaic Pope Benedict XVI and messianic lunatic Benjamin Netanyahu posed for this bizarre photo.

Prime Minster of Counterfeit Israel Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the Mercaz Harav, the yeshiva of the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook. The yeshiva gifted Netanyahu with a correspondence between his grandfather, Rabbi Nathan Mileikowsky and Rabbi Kook. Rabbi Kook taught 'Jews' to, "begin to shake off the dust of exile by our own efforts, through natural, historical processes ... that we have a sacred duty to try to do so by whatever means are at our disposal," and that it is "the End [redemption] that is forcing us," a delusion that Netanyahu so clearly labors under.

In October of 2008, Pope Benedict and Cardinal Martini invited Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, a student of Mercaz Harav and protégé of Rabbi Kook, to teach on Scripture at a synod of bishops which we commented on HERE, HERE, and elsewhere. Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen is also a member of the bilateral commission of the Chief Rabbinate of 'Israel' and the 'Holy' See's Commission for Religious Relations with 'The Jews' which in 2007 recognized the Talmudic 'Noahide laws' and in 2012 hosted former chief economist of the Bank of 'Israel,' Dr. Meir Tamari (who upholds rabbinic teaching that 'Jews' should receive interest free loans while 'non-Jews' should pay usury) to speak on his "vision for a just economic order." Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen was highly visible at the Pope's 2010 visit to the synagogue of Rome and at the 2011 Sant Egidio "International Meeting of Prayer for Peace." 

What specifically concerns liturgy-centric traditional Catholics is that Pope Benedict changed the ancient Holy Week liturgy as a concession to the Chief Rabbinate of 'Israel' of which Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen, disciple of Rabbi Kook, acts as chairman.

Netanyahu receives grandfather’s letter to rabbi Kook

Gil Hoffman - Jerusalem Post

May 22, 2012

Mileikowsky, like his grandson, was known worldwide as a Zionist orator.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received an emotional gift late Sunday: A letter his paternal grandfather, rabbi Nathan Mileikowsky, wrote in 1933 to Ashkenazi chief rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook.

Ahead of Netanyahu’s Jerusalem Day speech at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, its dean, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, presented the prime minister with the letter in which Mileikowsky asked Kook to help clear rightist Zionist leader Abba Ahimeir, who was falsely accused of assassinating leftist Zionist leader Chaim Arlosoroff. Kook agreed to help in his response, which Shapira had framed together with Mileikowsky’s letter.

Mileikowsky, like his grandson, was known worldwide as a Zionist orator.

Shapira’s message in presenting the gift was that the prime minister should not give up his loyalty to the Land of Israel that he received from his grandfather and his father, Benzion Netanyahu, who died three weeks ago.

Netanyahu said it was emotional to receive the letter, which he had not known existed. He promised never to abandon his commitment to Jerusalem. “There are those who say that to guarantee our future we must divide Jerusalem,” he said in a reference to former prime minister Ehud Olmert.

“I say, to guarantee our future, I will make sure that Jerusalem remains our undivided capital.” Netanyahu added that when he hears world leaders tell him not to build in Jerusalem he thinks of King David, who he said “built this city before their nations existed.”

http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=270935

Also see:

Netanyahu's Messianic Fanaticism Precipitating False-Messiah Catastrophe

Netanyahu's 'Justice' Minister: Talmudic Law Should Be Binding In Israeli State

Wall Street Mob Bankrolls Netanyahu Apprentice, "Representative" Eric Cantor

The Puppet and his Master 

Former Israeli Chief Rabbi: "Gentiles" Exist Only to Serve "Jews" 

Atlanta Technology achieves three Microsoft Silver competencies

Atlanta Technology,
the IT solutions specialist, has announced that it has attained a
Silver Hosting competency, a Silver Midmarket Solution Provider
competency and a Silver Server Platform competency, illustrating its
commitment and expertise in meeting the evolving needs of its customers
with relevant Microsoft software solutions.

It has

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Centaur adopts ADvance audience development platform from Abacus e-Media

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ADvance is a new cloud-based platform that allows B2B and consumer
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Through the Door Promotions announce the launch of OPEN Magazine

In order to go THROUGH THE DOOR, you must OPEN the door...

Through the Door Promotions, a luxury lifestyle PR Company based in
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Insight UK Named NetApp’s MidSize Enterprise Partner of the Year

Insight UK,
which is a part of the of the world’s leading technology companies, has won the
NetApp MidSize Enterprise Partner of the Year Award at an event attended
by over 200 guests from NetApp’s UK & Ireland partner community.
Insight was promoted from Gold to Platinum partner status, which is
judged over a number of points, including revenue, professional services
accreditations,

Industry Leaders Recognise Marketo’s Excellence in Innovation and Leadership

Marketo, the fast growing provider of
Revenue Performance Management (RPM) solutions, is proud to announce
several key honours in the business technology industry:

•Spark by Marketo, its marketing automation solution for small businesses, has won a 2012 SIIA CODiE Award

•Spark also won silver in the Best In Biz Awards 2012 for EMEA

•Marketo president and CEO Phil Fernandez, author of the

Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership to Host SME’s at Business Growth Event

TVB LEP holding event at O2 Slough for SME’s throughout the region

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How to save Bangladesh?

An interview with Thomas Rath, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Bangladesh
Originally posted on New York Times Green blog

A woman prepares a fishing net for mending in Hamidpur, Bangladesh.
©IFAD/Alexandra Boulat

In just over a month, policy makers from around the world will meet in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The meeting has been called Rio+20, reflecting the two decades that have passed since a landmark conference on the environment and development was held in Rio in 1992. This time the main themes are energy, sustainable cities, food security, water shortages, the health of oceans, disaster readiness and assuring people a livelihood.

Bangladesh is a prime example of a vulnerable developing nation that faces formidable challenges in all these areas, and it will be directly affected by the decisions that are made — or not made — at the conference. Firm commitments have often been elusive on the international level.

We asked Thomas Rath, the country program manager for the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development project in Bangladesh, about the development obstacles the country faces, some of which are linked toclimate change and environmental degradation. Following are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity.

Q.

How would you describe Bangladesh’s agricultural picture?

A.

Bangladesh, bordering India, Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal, is in the subtropical zone, very wet and flat and dominated by agriculture. Three large rivers from the Himalayas flow through the country, all ending in the bay on the southern coast. It’s a beautiful, fertile tropical delta.

The New York Times

About 150 million people live here, and the population density is one of the highest in the world after places like Singapore and Hong Kong. That’s 1,200 people per square kilometer (about four-tenths of a square mile). By comparison, in Mongolia there are only three or four people per square kilometer.

This density means that many farmers have very small land plots on which they struggle to feed their families. About 35 percent of the population lives under the poverty line of $1 a day, and about 40 percent, or 60 million people, are completely dependent on agriculture. Many people are landless or have less than an acre or half an acre to live on. It makes you wonder what they are surviving on.

Rice is the principal crop and, for those with very little land, the only crop they grow. Forty percent of children are malnourished, either because they don’t get enough calories or because they can’t develop healthily only eating rice.

Q.

How is climate change affecting the land, people and economy?

A.

Bangladesh sits at the end of the cone of the Bay of Bengal. The country is infamous for natural disasters. Every year there are typhoons. The coastal zones routinely get washed away, and the farmland is destroyed: people lose animals, crops, everything they have. They are very exposed: most of the land is flat and just above sea level, every storm sweeps across the country without any obstacles, and tidal surges pound the coast.

Fishermen begin their work at dawn in Dhopadanga Boar, Bangladesh.
©IFAD/Alexandra Boulat

If you go further north, there is an area in the northeast that is essentially a large depression in the land. When the monsoon season starts, the water comes down from the mountains and floods the whole area. It fills up with water and takes months to drain. Vast areas are underwater half the time, so farmers can’t go into their fields or grow anything then; they have to rely on something else for most of the year.

These things have always happened in Bangladesh, but with climate change it is expected that these flash floods will occur more frequently, and rainfall will be more intense and erratic. Farmers are already trying to adapt to these changes by sowing their rice earlier and using varieties that mature more quickly so they can get the harvest in before the rains come and they are left with nothing to eat or sell.

In the coastal areas, storms are expected to come earlier and be more frequent and severe. In the last two decades, 500,000 people have been killed in storms, and we should expect that this will increase.

And then of course, the sea level will rise, and the ocean will come in over what dikes have been built. It is very likely that about 30 percent of land in Bangladesh will frequently be underwater and the soil will be saturated with salt and useless. Many, many people will lose their farmland, crops and livestock and homes and become climate change refugees. Where do these people go then, when there is already not enough land in the country?

Q.

What are your thoughts on Rio as the conference approaches? Are you hopeful? Cynical?

A.

I am not cynical — there are too many cynics already, and how does that help?

But I do think it’s important that people act instead of just talking.
It’s really sad that there are still politicians and governments out there who don’t believe that climate change is fact. It’s very sad. I don’t know what their motivations are, but they should come to Bangladesh and meet the people who won’t have homes or land or any way of supporting their families.

“Many, many people will lose their farmland, crops and livestock and homes and become climate change refugees. Where do these people go then?”

— Thomas Rath

If we don’t do anything, then the problem will come to us: these won’t be problems in our backyard, we will have climate refugees in our front yard, knocking on our door.

These people have a right to live, just as we who by chance were lucky enough to be born in comfortable North America and Europe have the right to live.

Rio was and is a fantastic thing, but we have no time to waste.

The planet cannot afford for us to continue the mistakes we made during industrialization: rooting our economy in fossil energy and polluting the atmosphere as much as possible. We need to help one another.

Q.

What are the biggest challenges for Bangladesh?

A.

It’s not enough for us to help people become better farmers; we need to help transition the economy to something that does not depend on the availability of land. I know farmers who grow rice before the monsoon season and then, when the rains come, they stock their flooded fields with fish fingerlings and crabs and sell these in Dhaka. It is a strange sort of crop rotation, but it works in some areas.

Agriculture will still be a very important sector in Bangladesh — it has to be, given so much food insecurity. But food insecurity can only be tackled by sufficient food production, and expanding agriculture — livestock, rice cultivation — contributes to climate change, which in turn leads to greater food insecurity through flooding, etc.

We need to find ways to help countries all over Asia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while at the same time producing enough food to feed their people.

‘No empty promises’ at pre-G8 symposium on advancing food security

IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze is in impressive company today at a high-level symposium on agricultural development and food security. Held in Washington, DC, and organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the all-day session takes place in connection with this year’s G8 summit of world leaders.

Planting maize seeds in Mswagini village, Tanzania.
©IFAD/Mwanzo Millingan

Like the summit itself – which President Barack Obama will host tomorrow at Camp David – the symposium is taking a serious and long overdue look at how the G8 nations can most effectively advance food and nutrition security in the developing world.

Among the other participants in the event are President Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Presidents of Benin, Ghana and Tanzania, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the Administrator of USAID, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, the pop star and activist Bono, and many more.

Their presence reflects a growing international consensus that, as Nwanze said today, “food security is the foundation for global security.”

New Alliance for sustainability
In a keynote speech at the symposium this morning, Obama echoed that sentiment. “Food security is a moral imperative, but it’s also an economic imperative…and it’s a security imperative,” he said. “Reducing hunger and malnutrition around the world enhances peace and security.”

Obama went on to announce a G8 initiative, the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which he called “a major new partnership to reduce hunger and lift tens of millions of people from poverty.”

Rather than relying inordinately upon emergency aid to address cyclical crises, Obama said, the alliance will honour the commitments to global food security that the G8 made at their 2009 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy. Beyond those commitments, the G8 governments and their partners will also launch substantial new programmes in support of sustainable agriculture, with a special focus on Africa.

“No empty promises,” Obama said, adding that the New Alliance will begin with projects in Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania – “but this is just the beginning.” Over the next decade, the initiative aims to help 50 million rural people overcome poverty.

Africa’s potential
IFAD, WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization welcomed the launch of the New Alliance, and the Rome-based UN agencies will remain engaged in its rollout. At a symposium panel on trade and food security, IFAD’s Nwanze shared his thoughts on the need for such an undertaking, especially in many African nations.

“Africa is the last frontier,” Nwanze said, explaining that the continent holds greater potential for agricultural development than any other region – if only because it has under-produced for so long. To realize that potential and compete internationally, he said, Africa’s smallholder farmers need “sound, vibrant and sustainable domestic markets.” Strong domestic markets, in turn, hinge upon adequate infrastructure, technology, innovation and investment.

The New Alliance is slated to be active in all of these areas.

‘An enabling environment’
Of course, small-scale farmers are, themselves, central to the agricultural private sector. As rural entrepreneurs, they must be full partners in any effort to make a mass transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

Therefore, Nwanze said today, “we need to have strong farmer organizations. Where farmers are organized, particularly women farmers, they begin to thrive.” By creating “an enabling environment for smallholders,” he concluded, the partners in the New Alliance can bring lasting, positive change to rural Africa and beyond.

As the G8 leaders grapple with a host of thorny economic and political issues at their summit this weekend, let’s hope they remain focused on the imperative to end hunger and food insecurity worldwide. To do anything less, as the US President so aptly put it, would be “an affront to who we are.”


Below: Watch an IFAD video on increasing  food security in African countries based on increased private sector investments in agriculture, in line with the current G8 agenda.