G8 SUMMIT COMMITMENTS TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

UNCLAS ROME 003862

SIPDIS


FROM THE U.S. MISSION TO THE UN AGENCIES IN ROME

USDA FAS FOR U/S BOST, JBUTLER, MCHAMBLISS, LREICH
STATE FOR E, EB, IO DAS MILLER, IO/EDA, IO/PPC, OES/E, AF
AID FOR EGAT, DCHA/OFDA, DCHA/FFP
PASS USTR AND PEACE CORPS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y - TEXT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR EAID AORC ETRD KPAO KSUM XA FAO
SUBJECT: G8 SUMMIT COMMITMENTS TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
IN AFRICA: U.S. MISSION BRINGS MESSAGE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
IN ROME


1. Summary. USUN-Rome organized a panel discussion
entitled, "Planting the Seeds for Africa's Future: G8
Partnerships to Raise Agricultural Productivity Through
Capacity Building," on Sept. 21 in the margins of the Food
and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Committee on World Food
Security (CFS). The panel was chaired by Ambassador Hall and
included the Canadian Ambassador, an FAO Assistant Director
General, members from African partnership organizations, and
USAID Assistant Administrator Emmy Simmons. Before a
standing-room-only crowd of about 100, panel members
emphasized the need to build capacity through educational
and research opportunities in Africa. End Summary.


2. The US Mission-organized side event to this year's CFS
was designed to be a springboard for other G8 follow-up
meetings in Africa. With that in mind, USUN Rome set out not
to discuss the G8 African commitments in broad terms.
Rather, we chose to focus on a targeted group of commitments
within the area of agricultural productivity so that a
meaningful dialogue would flourish. We wanted audience
members to have a better understanding, awareness and buy-in
of G8 cooperation with the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD) and hear G8 initiatives with "take-home"
value for African colleagues and donor country perm reps.
The best way to accomplish this was to focus the theme on
the need to build capacity in the areas of research and
education.


3. Audience members consisted of Rome-based delegates from
most African countries, visiting delegates from capitals
(mostly agriculture and foreign affairs ministries),Rome-
based permanent representatives from OECD countries,
representatives from related agencies including the World
Food Program, World Bank and African-based non-governmental
organizations.


4. U.S. Mission Ambassador Tony P. Hall opened the
discussion by giving a brief background on the development
of the G8 action plan for Africa and the use of the
continent's own organizations, like NEPAD, to help steer
priorities.


5. Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler, a G8 personal
representative for Africa, described the historical
predicate for the capacity building effort in Africa,
including relevant initiatives and historical dialogue
through NEPAD. He lamented the fact that the G8 had
substantially disinvested in relevant agricultural research
over the past decade. He indicated that Canada was
responding positively to both near-term needs (e.g., Canada
has now put CAN$6.5 million towards the locust crisis) and
long-term strategies (Canada has doubled its contribution to
the WFP.)


6. Richard Mkandawire, Agricultural Advisor to NEPAD,
discussed the need to harness the human capital in Africa to
make forward strides. According to Mkandawire, outside
assistance alone is insufficient if the goal is to build
sustainable programs. Capacity building efforts should thus
be focused on building the human capital resource base.


7. Wilberforce Kisamba-Mugerwa, Director of the Addis Ababa-
based International Service for Agricultural Research
(ISNAR),an arm of the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI),said African nations are themselves
insufficiently invested in research. The former Ugandan
Minister of Agriculture pointed out that industrialized
nations spend on average 2.6 percent of their GDP on
research, whereas African countries spend only 0.6 percent
of GDP on average. Thus he urged audience members to work
to deepen political support for agricultural science,
strengthen science education at primary and secondary
schools, and develop an encouraging environment for current
and future scientists in Africa.


8. USAID Assistant Administrator Emmy Simmons focused
mainly on practical barriers to successful capacity
building. She pointed out that in the early 1990's some
9,000 African students were in U.S. graduate and PhD
programs, but now there are only 1,200 such students.
Apparently, the same kind of trend is discernable in the EU.
Part of this is attributable to disinvestments in these
kinds of programs. But the programs are also hampered by
other practical factors. Specifically, it has proven very

difficult to get scientists, once trained, to return and
stay in their home countries. The pay is poor, the
equipment is outdated, and class sizes are unwieldy, making
both teaching and research difficult propositions.
Infrastructural support needs to be enhanced in Africa if
these kinds of programs are to be part of the solution.
Disincentives need to be eliminated and, ideally, research
and technical transfer need to be made more rewarding.


9. To illustrate the importance that well-trained African
scientists can make, Simmons mentioned that Monty Jones
would be given this year's prestigious World Food Prize his
path-breaking work on the development of the New Rice for
Africa (NERICA) while he was at the West African Rice
Development Authority (WARDA),one of the 15 international
centers supported by the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR). She also mentioned USAID's
new Borlaug Fellowship program (in honor of Norman Borlaug,
father of the Green Revolution) being undertaken jointly
with USDA and the State Department. USAID-funded
fellowships will be aimed at increasing developing world
agricultural scientists by enabling them to work at CGIAR-
supported centers following degree training in the United
States. She invited other G-8 donors in the audience to
join with the U.S. in reinvigorating efforts to build
science capacity in Africa.


10. John Monyo, FAO's Assistant Director General for
Sustainable Development, discussed the agency's key
principles for building capacity. Among them were to build
upon existing systems rather than replace them, to address
diversity to respond to different needs, and to strengthen
the capacity of institutions as well as people. He
mentioned the particular success story of Eritrea, where FAO
has been working with partnership organizations since 1996
to improve the quality of research and technology transfer
services to enhance productivity and food security. So far
the program has trained over 100 professionals.

COMMENT


11. The side event was important on several levels. (1)
The audience was one not typically exposed to the work of
the G8 as it relates to Africa. (2) The G8 representatives
underlined its partnerships with some of the African
organizations that are helping to shape policy on a
continent-wide level. (3) Panelists provoked thoughtful and
probing questions from audience members who seemed intensely
engaged in the topic at hand. (4) The U.S. Mission
demonstrated a commitment to having a working dialogue and
debate on issues critical to developing nations worldwide.
(5) The event strengthened the U.S. Mission's facilitative
role in connecting Africa-based representatives involved in
capacity building with U.S. and international counterparts.

CLEVERLEY


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2004ROME03862 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED