Tackling rural poverty, together

Senior IFAD expert steps up to head the Platform's Steering Committee

Brian Baldwin, Senior Operations Management Adviser at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has been elected Vice-Chair of the Board of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development as well as Chair of its Steering Committee. The vote came during a meeting of the Platform Board in Brussels on March 14, 2008.

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On February 21, a Platform delegation participated in the DAC/POVNET meeting on China´s experiences in rural poverty reduction at home and in Africa, Paris.

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Crowded agenda at Platform's third Annual Meeting

Over 60 senior representatives from donor agencies, government ministries and international charities met in Paris on December 12-13, 2007 for the Platform's third Annual Meeting under the theme “Agriculture is back on the agenda: seizing the opportunity”.

A French call for focus

Donors “can't go solo anymore”

Florence Lasbennes is an agronomist with four years of field work in Mali under her belt and specialist knowledge of land reform. Now back at HQ, she advises the Directorate General for International Co-operation and Development (DGCID), a branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

New study screens partnerships for Vietnam's rural development

Emergence of “non-state actors” calls for a rethink

Vietnam, one of the “Asian Tigers”, is undergoing rapid socio-economic transformation, thanks to the socialist government's policies of “doi moi”.

WDR 2008: Getting the word out

Place agriculture “at the center of the development agenda”

The latest World Development Report, Agriculture for Development, launched in October 2007, calls for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries and warns that the sector must be placed at the centre of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realised.

Funding mechanisms should “recognise growing donor diversity”

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa seeks a common agenda with traditional donors

The traditional donor community needs “new lenses” to recognise “non-traditional donors”, according to Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the AGRA foundation's vice-president for policy and partnerships, a guest speaker at the Platform's December 12, 2007, annual meeting in Paris.

Five to tango?

A senior Platform consultant shares some thoughts on donor-government coordination

Denmark's Jens Rydder is a veteran of agricultural development in Vietnam and a close contributor to donor-government coordination projects there.

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The Platform and CIDA have just completed a 13-nation consultation of civil society organisations (CSO) in agriculture and rural development, with the participation of governments and donors. The purpose was to support the OECD DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness process to endorse CSOs to join the new aid effectiveness agenda and bring the findings into the wider policy arena.

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Apply now! The Global Development Marketplace (DM2008) was launched on the January 22, 2008 with a volume of US$4 million under the theme Sustainable Agriculture for Development and targets agricultural challenges such as linking small-scale farmers to markets, improving land access for poor farmers, and promoting the environmental services of agriculture in addressing climate change and biodiversity conservation.

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"Everyone knows that poverty cannot be stamped out effectively if rural development is neglected", says the final report of the Second European Forum on Sustainable Rural Development.

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National consultations on the central role of civil society organisations in agriculture and rural development have been successfully started by CIDA in December 2007.

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Germany's Christoph Kohlmeyer and FAO's Mike Wales share new leadership.

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