Friday, 25 May 2012

KNOTS blogger

KNOTS blogger

A new alliance for food security, or a two-track Africa?

Posted: 24 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT

As global leaders pledge to banish food insecurity, Ian Scoones warns that the fixes on offer wont bring long-term sustainable development to African agriculture.

Brazilian provision of cooperation in agriculture: politics and paths

Posted: 24 May 2012 06:25 AM PDT

by Iara Costa Leite, Articulação SUL

Agriculture has become the main flagship of Brazilian engagement in South-South Development Cooperation (SSDC). According to official data, the sector leads the country's provision of technical cooperation, gathering more than 20% of initiatives. In the context of global efforts aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the first one, the Brazilian "path" has been internationally recognized as an example to be followed, especially by Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to tackle primary development challenges such as food security and the fight against hunger.

Such argument, however, has to be qualified taking into consideration national as well as international broader political dynamics.

Should traditional donors be interfering in South-South cooperation?

Posted: 24 May 2012 06:18 AM PDT

by Daniel Bradley, DFID

So why was DFID supporting a workshop on the role of South-South cooperation?  Isn't South-South supposed to be about southern voices, without 'traditional donors' getting in the way?

Well, as FAC workshop discussant Langton Mukwereza suggested, there's a role for everyone - it's not simply a case of out with the old and in with the new. And the workshop helped us take another small step towards the idea of a broader and more balanced network of development actors, linked through various forms of partnership.

A NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY, OR A TWO-TRACK AFRICA?

Posted: 24 May 2012 01:36 AM PDT

In a new post on the Future Agricultures Consortium blog, Ian Scoones examines the 'New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition', announced at a high-profile conference in Chicago last week - attended by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, three African Heads of State, Andrew Mitchell and others.

"...will the initiative really deal with the underlying political economic conditions that keep people poor? Or will it create a two-track Africa instead, dividing those able to benefit from private investment and neoliberal policy from those who lose out? The sort of technical-economic fix offered by the G8 clearly fails to address the wider political and institutional questions and the needs and priorities of many of the region's people..."

Read Ian's full post on the FAC blog.
at