Scope of the Conference
There is a clear need for a new vision for agricultural development in Africa that can deal with the complexities of agriculture in diverse settings across Africa and meet the conditions necessary to achieve more equitable benefits for Africa’s farmers. But whose vision should this be? How can complexity and diversity be dealt with? What can be learned from the impacts - positive and negative - of the "green revolutions" in Latin America and Asia? Perhaps more importantly, what lessons can be extracted from recent successes in African agricultural development and how can recent growth be sustained, expanded, and accelerated? How can new investments and actors in African agriculture support efforts to align policies and political processes to support agricultural as well as broader development goals? How can innovation systems be made robust, relevant and sustainable? How can the hardware of science and technology be linked to the software of institutions, policy and social dynamics? How should agricultural science and technology in Africa be governed?
This Conference, which is organised by the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS), the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the Futures Agricultures Consortium, will lay the groundwork for the broader initiative and goals described above by bringing together diverse stakeholders, from within Africa and beyond, who are experts in their areas, leading thinkers, change-makers and are, or can influence, senior decision-makers. Around 60 participants from government, business, academia, and non-governmental organisations will explore a set of issues of vital concern to the future of agriculture in Africa, and to Africa’s development agenda. These individuals will be asked to devise the conceptual framework within which a new agricultural development agenda in Africa can be set and implemented, and to recommend specific actions. Ideas and recommendations for policy adjustments, streamlining practice, and creating strategic alliances will be captured and reviewed to identify points of agreement and priority issues for action. These priority issues will provide the basis for the Conference outcome document.
Attendance to this Conference is by invitation only.
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The above Conference will be followed by a session on 'A "Green Revolution" in Africa: What Framework for Success?' . This session, which will be held between 03 - 07 May 2008, will consider various proposals for a "green revolution" in sub-Saharan Africa, placing them in a distinctly African context and with an eye to holistic development goals. The session will further seek to enable a broad range of stakeholder comment, and ensure that efforts to transform agriculture through new technology are undertaken within a broad policy framework that takes account of infrastructural prerequisites-physical, social and environmental. Participants will take up and further refine the action-oriented agendas that will have emerged from the above-noted high-level conference. For further information, including registration requirements, check out the following:  http://www.salzburgseminar.org/2008/sessions.cfm?IDSpecial_Event=1561 |
