Gebisa Ejeta, director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security, surrounded by a crop of sorghum. Ejeta earned the 2009 World Food Prize for his work in developing sorghum varieties resistant to drought and the parasitic weed Striga. Photo Credit: Tom Campbell, Purdue

All of us share a stake in the search for practical and sustainable solutions to reduce poverty and the misery and inhumanity of world hunger.

Global food security is a crippling, global problem. Nearly 1 billion of the world’s 7 billion people suffer from chronic hunger because of economic, social, political and environmental conditions. One of the greatest challenges of humanity in the 21^st century will be to meet the food needs of a world population expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. It is projected that agriculture will need to double crop and livestock production by mid-century, while producing it more efficiently and safeguarding the sustainability of our natural resources. This is a tremendous undertaking that we must accept.

The U.S. government is exhibiting great global leadership in highlighting the importance of global food and nutrition security this weekend at the G8 Summit at Camp David, starting with President Obama’s opening keynote at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs’ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, where he is expected to highlight G-8 efforts to promote food security, improve nutrition and alleviate poverty.

I applaud his efforts and those of the G-8 to tackle this critical issue. We know that Africa is particularly at-risk to factors that lead to food insecurity, and focus should be placed on building the capacity of African institutions. We also know that the private sector can play an essential role in shouldering some of the responsibilities in global food security by ramping up innovations in agriculture that are generated by universities such as Purdue, where I and many of my colleagues currently work to help the world meet the growing need for food and energy in the coming decades. The Purdue Center for Global Food Security, which collaborates with other universities and research organizations within the U.S. and internationally, focuses on education, research and development, and advocacy to help humanity rise to those challenges.

As I have advocated in the past (pdf), I believe that meeting our food security challenges for the 21st century will require an advancement of scientific initiatives to improve crop varieties, to create more environmentally sustainable fertilizers and pesticides, to reduce pre- and post-harvest losses, and to develop new and more productive farming methods. Equally important is making sure that new technologies reach the world’s poorest farmers. Working together – governments, universities, the private sector and NGOs – we can solve one of the greatest challenges of this century.

ONE: Hunger is a global issue — how is a focus on growth in the agricultural sector so central to poverty reduction, and why is an emphasis on Africa particularly important?

Ambassador Steinberg: Food security is vital to human security. On a national level, countries marked by hunger, volatile food prices, and poverty stemming from a lack of agricultural productivity face constant political and security crises that undercut stability and economic development.

At the personal level as well, hunger and malnutrition affects the entire life-cycle, causing stunting in infants and young children, poor concentration and inadequate learning in school-aged kids, low resistance to communicable and infectious diseases, and low productivity and high absenteeism in the work place.

Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of hunger and malnutrition, and is the only continent where agricultural productivity has remained stagnant for the past three decades. Given that growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors, investments in agriculture are fundamental to transforming Africa and the rest of the developing world and eradicating poverty and hunger.

Read the full Q & A on the ONE Blog.

A child’s fifth birthday is a joyful moment for most parents, a milestone marking the passage out of early childhood into the world of pre-K and grade school and upward and onward.

Caryl M. Stern, President & Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, at age 5. Photo Credit: UNICEF

It signifies the end of a wonderful period, though sometimes a tough one. After the candles are blown out and all the presents opened, more than a few parents have taken a deep breath, looked each other in the eyes, and said,” Wow, we survived.”

Of course, in much of the world, the fifth birthday marks a different kind of milestone — one sometimes greeted with an entirely different sentiment: “my child survived.” That’s because in so many places, for so many beautiful children, just reaching age five alive is a battle, a battle that many don’t win — 21,000 every day, more than 7 million every year.

Raising awareness about these children is a key to reaching the day when zero children die from preventable causes. That’s why we’ve partnered with USAID for a new social media campaign: “Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday.” The idea: post a photo of yourself or your kids at age five. Share it. Friends can do the same and find out about the millions of children who never get a chance to celebrate being five.

Please join the campaign by taking a moment to upload a personal fifth birthday photo. And don’t be embarrassed about sharing that photo. If I did it, you can too!

You’ll be hearing more from us about the 5th Birthday campaign in the lead up to an exciting  event in June. More to come!

It is exciting, but that doesn’t make it simple. Organizations continue to make low quality videos that fail to engage their audience or reflect the core objectives of their project.

To help users learn the ropes, the Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies (FACET) project has developed an online toolkit that can help one through every stage of planning, producing, and disseminating agricultural videos. It is called “Integrating Low-Cost Video into Agricultural Development Projects: A Toolkit for Practitioners,” and is available for free download.

The toolkit is also the basis for a series of four workshops offered this month to USAID implementing partners by toolkit author Josh Woodard and myself, in Kenya, Mozambique, and Ghana. The first of the trainings was completed last week in Nairobi.

The workshop focuses on implementing your low-cost video vision, which requires skills beyond playing Spielberg: strategically thinking about message, storyboarding narrative concepts, planning dissemination, troubleshooting inevitably buggy software, and personal perseverance, all play a role in a video’s success or failure.

One participant, Victor Nzai, program assistant for USAID-funded Agricultural Market Development Trust of Kenya (AGMARK) project focused on agro-pastoral development, felt the training would improve his project’s ability to encourage farmers to efficiently integrate grazing range land and food production in Kenya.

“We have been doing dissemination via field days quite successfully, but with video, we can reach many more farmers than before,” said Nzai. “We shall shoot the videos ourselves, and edit them into comprehensive tools that can be presented by a facilitator.”

Agricultural development practitioners are looking for new ways to leverage video to circulate information and engage local farmers. Video can help them do it – but it is the holistic consideration of concept, design, and execution that will maximize chances for success.

“Not everyone will adopt our ideas,” said Nzai.  “But when we multiply the number of farmers we reach, we are able to tune our message with video to encourage farmers and pastoralists to consider better ways.”

Learn more about using information and communication technology in agriculture.

Ever wonder how Gladioli bulbs can help an estimated 1,000 families start earning their living and jumpstart a fledgling flower industry in Pakistan? USAID, through the Small Grants Program and the US Ambassador’s Fund, seeks to empower grassroots organizations and community groups working to strengthen civil society in Pakistan.

The U.S. Ambassador’s Fund provides small grants to improve basic economic or social conditions at the local community level. The Fund supports high-impact, quick-implementation activities, that can be completed within one year without requiring further funding.

On this occasion, we highlight one of the results of the US Ambassador’s Fund in Rawalakot, known for its dire economic situation for the 540,000 residents who until recently only planted maize and wheat.

In a strategically located valley just 120 km from the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Rawalakot’s high elevation (1,615 m.) makes it ideal for growing gladioli bulbs which are increasingly becoming popular in major cities.

USAID financed the purchase of gladioli bulbs, training sessions for farmers, and consultations of an agricultural specialist to help the families grow the flowers correctly.  Thanks to the project, families have increased their revenues by over 70%, with women being the main beneficiaries of the project.  This project has enabled women to become salient participants in the flower industry and because of related activities involving the sale and distribution of the flower, it is estimated that many more families in surrounding communities will benefit greatly from this project.  As a result of the increase in income, families are now able to invest the money into their children’s education and household expenses.

This occasion signals an unprecedented recognition by governments and civil society of the importance of improving land and other resource governance systems as a strategy for reducing food insecurity. Securing land rights for men and women, indigenous people and other vulnerable groups, will help accomplish this goal. While the Guidelines are a negotiated text, they accommodate many differing viewpoints and include numerous technical recommendations reflecting best tenure practice, including the recognition of informal, or customary, tenure.

The Voluntary Guidelines provide countries with a robust framework to protect rights and improve land governance to encourage sustainable investment. Clarifying and enforcing land and resource rights and strengthening land governance systems will improve conditions for local people while also helping develop a business enabling environment by increasing the security of productive assets and improving predictability and stability for the private sector. Implementing the most appropriate best practices in countries with weak governance systems will be a challenge, but multilateral and bilateral donor agencies are already discussing how this can be achieved.

Importantly, the U.S. Government will use the Guidelines to help countries balance the need for private-sector investment in agriculture with the imperative to recognize the land and resource rights of individuals and communities. Recognizing that private-sector agricultural investment is necessary to increase world food production and reduce hunger, the Voluntary Guidelines stress that investments should reflect broadly participatory consultation between parties to ensure active, free, effective, meaningful and informed participation of individuals and groups in associated decision-making processes.

The U.S. Government strongly supports the Guidelines as they align with work that USAID is already doing and with U.S. Government programs such as the Equal Futures Partnership, which promotes political and economic participation of women, and President Obama’s Feed the Future Initiative. USAID will continue to serve as a leader on securing tenure to improve development outcomes related to increased food security, women’s empowerment and much-needed investment in the agricultural sector and improved land governance systems.

USAID in the Philippines is working with national and local authorities and civil society on a project to bring to life the “Residential Free Patent Law.” That law provides expedited land titles to people who can show that they’ve long occupied their land.  In the Philippines, only about half of the estimated 22 million land parcels are titled.  Working with the Asia Foundation and the local Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), USAID is providing training and technical assistance to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and local government units to speed the titling process.

USAID Deputy Administrator, Donald Steinberg participates in the awarding of property titles to beneficiaries from Mabini City, Batangas under the Residential Free-Patent Law on May 3, 2012 in Labac, Batangas City.

Last Thursday, I took part in a ceremony where we awarded land titles to long-time occupants of land.  No, we didn’t get the attention that a similar ceremony in Colombia attracted several weeks ago, but then again, I’m not Barack Obama, and I wasn’t accompanied by musical superstar Shakira.  But still it was a remarkable program.

When I gave one woman her land title, she squeezed my hand and wouldn’t let go until she told me her story.  She said that she was 60 years old and had occupied her land for four decades.  Each day, she would wake up wondering if, by nightfall, she would be driven off her property by land-grabbers or government officials.  She couldn’t use her land to get a loan, and even if she could, she was afraid that improvements on her house or farm land would make it attractive to interlopers.  Holding up her new title, she said, “This magic paper changes everything for me, my children, and my grandchildren.” And then she started to cry tears of joy as her family came forward to embrace her.

Only time will tell if that woman’s future is as bright as she imagines.  But thanks in large part to mission director Gloria Steele, John Avila, the entire USAID mission, and our partners, this woman and thousands like her are empowered to seek a more secure and prosperous life.

USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg visits Danang Airport where dioxin remediation project will be conducted. Photo Credit: USAID/Vietnam

As part of a three country trip to Asia, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg attended the Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, participating in the Development Partners Session.  In the Philippines, he visited several USAID programs, including the launch of the Partnership for Growth Cities Development Initiative, the issuance of land titles to several Batangas residents, and the signing of the Bilateral Agreement with the Philippine government.  Deputy Administrator Steinberg’s visit to Danang, Vietnam highlighted the USG’s commitment to remediation of Agent Orange dioxins, an important step in mending the painful legacy between our two countries.  During a short stay in Japan, he engaged with experts at the Japan Institute of International Affairs on “The critical importance of U.S. – Japan development cooperation and the post-Busan development landscape.”

Jonathan D. Quick when he was five years old. Photo Credit: MSH

Millions of children today are not so lucky. Over 7 million children under the age of 5 die each year; 70 percent of child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. The vast majority — over two-thirds — are entirely avoidable with existing safe, effective, low-cost prevention and treatment.

We’ve come a long way: reducing child mortality by nearly 70 percent in 50 years. But a child born in a low-income country is still about 18 times more likely to die before the age of five than a child born in a wealthy country. We know how to prevent most child deaths through low-cost, high-impact, close to home interventions such as community-case management and increasing access to quality medicines. We can and must do more to end preventable child deaths.

“Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday,” a new child survival initiative, launched by USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah, is building this awareness across the country and the world. Join the global campaign to end preventable child deaths.

Prevention, treatment and care close to the home are keys to saving children’s lives

Improving access to quality, essential children’s medicines reduces preventable child deaths. Where do you take your child if they have a fever or diarrhea and the closest doctor is a day’s walk away? If you live in rural Tanzania or other low-income countries, it most likely is a community health shop, hours closer and much more convenient than the nearest health facility or pharmacy. Previously, these shops were staffed by unlicensed, untrained dispensers who sold medicines of questionable quality.

In response, MSH worked with the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority to develop an accredited drug dispensing outlet (ADDO) program, with funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the ADDO program, nearly 10,500 dispensers have been trained and certified and over 3,800 shops accredited across 15 regions of Tanzania. The licensed dispensers at these accredited shops provide, for example, oral rehydration salts & zinc for diarrhea, and bednets & treatment for malaria; and they know the screening questions to provide appropriate medicines for treatment of acute-respiratory infection among children or, if necessary, make a referral to a clinic. The ADDOs are a sustainable enterprise, bringing life-saving prevention, treatment, and care for children closer to home. The ADDO program also empowers women, as nearly 40 % of shop owners and over 90% of trained dispensers are women.

Community case management saves children’s lives. In rural, low-income countries, health centers can be inaccessible to most of the population. Over half of the deaths of children under the age of five occur in the home. Training community health workers empowers the community, including the mothers, on prevention and treatment of basic needs for children under the age of five, such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition.

The USAID-funded BASICS program in Benin, led by MSH, has helped local leaders implement a community-based, integrated management system for child health. Over a six-month duration, community health workers treated 27,060 cases of child illness, referred 1,043 cases to health centers, and made 14,822 home visits to increase awareness of child illness, immunization, and nutrition. Now, over 1,000 community health workers provide case management at the community level for child illness, covering over 200,000 children under the age of five in five health zones in Benin.

Empowering mothers, through community health workers, improves care for children’s common illnesses. In Afghanistan, under-five mortality and infant mortality rates have dropped dramatically, due in part to a combination of close-to-home interventions targeting mothers in the home. Over 20,000 trained community health workers serve nearly 45 percent of the country’s sick children, with health facilities serving 55 percent. Community health workers visit villages and households, teaching mothers, like Taj Bibi, how to care for common child illnesses, such as treating diarrhea with oral rehydration salts and zinc.

Together, we can, and must, reduce preventable child deaths.

Expanding access to quality health care closer to the home will improve child survival in low-income countries. Training and certifying rural medicine dispensers at a national scale, and providing community-based care by community health workers, will help empower rural communities and improve the health of children in these resource-poor areas. Through these cost-effective, high-impact interventions closer to the home, we can accelerate the reduction in child mortality and save millions of lives.

I joined the 5th Birthday campaign by posting my 5th birthday photo and wish. Please join me and the 5th Birthday campaign by posting your 5th birthday photo with a wish for children globally.

Every child deserves a 5th birthday.

Related

• USAID’s 5th Birthday campaign
• [Video] Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlet (ADDO) Program: Improving Access to Medicines in Tanzania
• [Video] USAID: Why 5th Birthday?

Jonathan D. Quick, MD, MPH, is president and chief executive officer of Management Sciences for Health. Dr. Quick has worked in international health since 1978. He is a family physician and public health management specialist.

A family stands beside their harvested rice. USAID developed the infrastructure to make this lowland flooding possible, facilitated these farmers’ access to input credit, and has delivered production and marketing technical assistance to the producers. As a result, families benefit from improved food security and increased income from sales of surplus grains. Photo by Ryan Vroegindewey, USAID/Mali

Yet global hunger and chronic malnutrition remain two of the greatest development challenges today. Nearly 20 percent of all people in the world live on less than $1.25 a day, and almost one billion suffer from chronic hunger. Compounding this problem is the fact that, by 2050, the global population is expected to grow to more than nine billion people, requiring up to a 70 percent increase in agricultural production to feed us all. Given increasingly limited natural resources, we’ll also need to produce this additional food with less land, water, and other resources.

The challenge is indeed great, but there are opportunities for solutions. An estimated 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, where farming can be a key economic driver. Because growth in agriculture is, on average, at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors, we already know that investments in agricultural development are fundamental to alleviating hunger and propelling long-term economic growth.

The time to accelerate these investments and growth is now. The G-8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy and the World Food Summit in Rome in 2009 united the global community to intensify efforts to advance food security by scaling up investment in the agricultural sector, which had been suffering from extreme underinvestment for several years. Feed the Future is the United States’ contribution to this collaborative global effort, which is centered on country-owned processes to improve food security, agricultural production, nutrition, trade, and broad-based economic growth through development of the agricultural sector. We’ve made a lot of progress, as a recent report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs has noted. But we’re only just getting started.

Three years after L’Aquila, the leaders of the G-8 are preparing to meet once again, this time at the 2012 G-8 Summit at Camp David on May 19. This Summit is expected to build upon the food and nutrition successes of L’Aquila by focusing on creating a better environment to mobilize private sector investment as a catalyst for long-term economic growth. Through the collective engagement of international donors, country governments, the private sector, the NGO community, and civil society organizations, we can help break the cycle of hunger and poverty so that countries can feed themselves, helping their communities to thrive. This work is important because it translates to a healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future for us all.