Benita Nsabua's blog

Jan 31, 2011 by sgustafson

During the 2007-2008 global food crisis, the international price of major agricultural commodities such as wheat, rice, maize, and soybeans more than doubled. As floods in Australia decimate the country's wheat crop and adverse weather in the US cuts corn and soybean harvests, commodities prices across the globe are again seeing drastic increases.

It is essential that policymakers and researchers have access to the latest food security research and policy tools in order to strengthen national and global capacity to respond effectively to food policy challenges. The Food Security Portal, facilitated by IFPRI, has launched a series of new beta tools designed to answer important research and policy questions, including how a country is affected by changes in the global prices of its export and import commodities.

Dear Readers

This is just a brief note to reassure you that progress is being made on Non State Actor participation in CAADP.

The "Guidelines" are almost drafted and translation work has begun. These should be available by the end of January.

The Africa Media Leadership Conference (AMLC) series is the foremost pan-African gathering of senior media professionals on the African continent, and is hosted annually by the Media Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and Rhodes University’s Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI).

 By Denis Jjuuko

Fisheries experts, ministers, and stakeholders currently attending the First Conference of African Ministers on Fisheries and Aquaculture (CAMFA) have been urged to work towards peace through innovative and inclusive partnerships at all levels. This call was contained in a statement by the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, Mr. Jean Ping, in his message for the commemoration of the International Peace Day.

A continent with half of its population under the age of twenty owes it to itself to invent a new way of governance, adapted and contextualized to the challenges imposed by its demography as well as its development. This way of governance would only be able to emerge with a leadership that is conscious of our reality, in order to create an enabling environment for security and progress.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: The 2010 CAADP Day was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso with a call for a review of the Maputo Declaration on budgetary commitments of agriculture by including a date by which countries should have allocated at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. This call was made by Laurent Sedogo, the agriculture minister of Burkina Faso while opening the CAADP Day.