The 2008 World Development Report put agriculture firmly at the forefront of the global development agenda for the first time in recent years. The report highlights agriculture’s potential for reducing poverty, ensuring food security, providing environmental services and functioning as an engine for growth; all goals that are of particular relevance to Africa’s main challenges. Meanwhile, the recent food crisis has highlighted the urgency of translating this new agricultural development agenda into effective strategies for Africa, which raises questions of how to move from assets to action. Is a renewed green revolution the panacea to solve Africa’s food insecurity? How does climate change affect Africa’s agricultural resource base and farmers’ livelihoods? How do smallholder farmers link to regional and global markets? These and more fundamental questions are at the center of the expert panel on agriculture in the African Economic Forum 2009 during which panelists will discuss cutting-edge strategies that transform the renewed interest in agriculture into measurable progress.
Christopher Aluah, Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, Agricultural Coordinator/Farming
Dr. Gary Toenniessen, The Rockefeller Foundation, Managing Director
Ibrahima Camara, USAID Guinea, Responsible for Rural Development and Agriculture
Dr. Regina Birner, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division
Moderator: David Browning, TechnoServe, Head of Global Coffee Practice
Christopher Aluah
Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana, Agricultural Coordinator/Farming
Christopher P. Aluah is a co-founder and senior advisor of the Sunuga Project of Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana (YHFG), a local NGO active in Upper East Region, Ghana. As Project Coordinator for the Sunuga Project, Mr. Aluah assisted farming cooperatives in production of organic peanuts and peanut products. His roles included procuring funding and health certification, and coordinating farming and infrastructural activities, and facilitating group governance. With his colleagues at YHFG, he continues to work on securing organic and Fair Trade certifications for the project, and to gain access to niche markets in the European Union. Mr. Aluah has life-long experience in agriculture in northern Ghana, including several cash crops, along with the regional staple crops of millet, peanuts, and maize. Mr. Aluah holds a BA (hon.) in English and Theatre Arts from the University of Ghana, and is currently pursuing a dual Master of Public Health/Master of Social Work program at the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Gary Toenniessen
The Rockefeller Foundation, Managing Director
Gary H. Toenniessen is the managing director leading the strategic direction for the Rockefeller Foundation’s initiatives in agricultural development. Since joining the Foundation in 1971 he has served as the assistant director for the Natural and Environmental Sciences Division, assistant director, associate director and deputy director for Agricultural Sciences and director, Food Security. Most recently, he served as president (on a founding, interim basis) of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a project of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Toenniessen is a writer and editor of numerous papers and books on biotechnology, agriculture and international food issues, many co-authored with other Foundation officers. He continues to develop ideas and theories on how the world’s growing population should be fed and how agricultural development can be an engine for economic growth. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Adolph E. Gude Jr. Award of the American Society of Plant Biology. Toenniessen has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ibrahima Camara
USAID Guinea, Responsible for Rural Development and Agriculture
Mr. Ibrahima Camara is the USAID/Guinea Rural Development Specialist, Mission Environmental and Economic Growth Officer. He is a Guinean national and a rural economics and agriculture development specialist who has over twenty years of experience working with USAID, in leadership roles and strategic programming within the multilateral environment. Most recently, Mr. Camara participated in the design of the Natural Resource Management Strategic Objective, which is one of the most important components of USAID/Guinea’s current Country Strategic Plan. The Strategic Objective encompasses natural resource management, sustainable agricultural production, agricultural marketing, microfinance, rural enterprise development, and policy reforms, and Mr. Camara contributed to the development of the results framework and the Performance Monitoring Plan. Prior to his work with USAID, he was a professor of crop physiology and rural economics at the University of Kankan in Guinea. He earned a BA in Agricultural Economics at the University of Kankan in Guinea and a master’s degree from the University of Georgia, USA, in Agricultural Extension. In addition, Mr. Camara has studied microfinance, food security, agricultural business, and environment and natural resources management.
Dr. Regina Birner
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division
Regina Birner joined the Development Strategy and Governance Division in September 2004 to lead IFPRI's research program on "Governance for Agriculture and Rural Development." Her research interests include the political economy of agricultural policy-making and the analysis of local governance, rural service provision and public sector reforms. Prior to joining IFPRI, she was an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Rural Development at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where her research focused on the analysis of political processes and on decentralization and collaborative governance in natural resource management. Dr. Birner served as Co-chair of the Interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Development at Göttingen University and as Vice-chair of the German Council for Tropical and Sub-tropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF). She is a German citizen and holds a PhD in Socioeconomics of Rural Development from the University of Göttingen, and a M.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Munich-Weihenstephan, Germany.
David Browning
TechnoServe, Head of Global Coffee Practice
David Browning is head of TechnoServe’s global coffee practice and directs TechnoServe’s coffee initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. TechnoServe is a non-profit organization focused on solving poverty in developing countries. David previously served as TechnoServe’s Regional Director for Latin America and Vice President for Business Development.Prior to joining TechnoServe in 2003, David worked for McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm. Before McKinsey, David held a range of managerial positions in the manufacturing, petroleum, and retail industries. David holds an M.B.A. from Yale University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, and a Master’s degree in Advanced Finance from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
Media Coverage of Panel:
Green Revolution? Mobilizing Africa's Agricultural Resources
