Our dear friend, RB Halaby, is featured in Giants of the Seed Industry at my former magazine Seed World. Shawn Brook did a great job exploring how RB’s firm AgriCapital has come to be such an effective advocate for agriculture. One of RB’s answers I loved was to focus on asking questions. No one person has enough knowledge to skip asking questions. We should all do it more.
In my role as Director General of the International Agri-Food Network, I will participate on the interactive hearings at the UN in New York, together with representatives of non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and other major groups. It was a thrill to be chosen from among 225 applicants. On behalf of the private sector, I will specifically participate in the roundtable discussion on “Follow up and Review,” to be held on Wednesday, 27 May 2015, from 3:00pm to 5:30 pm (EDT).
The full event will be translated live into the six official UN languages. It will be web cast live at http://webtv.un.org. Read More
This year, as a special contribution to United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP21), the Equator Prize 2015 will honor 20 outstanding local and indigenous community initiatives that are reducing poverty, protecting nature and strengthening resilience in the face of climate change.
The theme of this cycle of the Equator Prize is ‘empowerment, rights, and partnerships for local climate action’. Emphasis has been placed on indigenous peoples and local communities that are:
The Equator Prize 2015 is open to community-based initiatives active in all countries receiving support from the UN Development Programme, making this a truly global award for local best practice.
To nominate and eligible project, you can do so through their Online Nomination System by the nomination deadline, May 27, 2015.
In New York this week with a Farming First delegation to the UN negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals, it is a great time to look at the breadth of the impact agriculture has on all aspects of development, including poverty, resilience, and water use. This great new Farming First interactive essay “The Story of Agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals” offers key information on the role of agriculture.
The essay also features a detailed breakdown of data relating to Sustainable Development Goal 2 which directly calls to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”, to inform policymaking around this issue. For instance:
Click here to get “The Story of Agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals”
Farming First is joining forces with the International Coalition for Advocating Nutrition (ICAN) and WaterAid to hold a side event on how the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), nutrition and agricultural sectors can partner to deliver a comprehensive Post 2015 Development Framework and explore the feasibility of collaborative implementation, monitoring, and measurement of progress. The event will be titled “Multipurpose indicators: Linking WASH, Nutrition and Agriculture to Achieve a Comprehensive and Sustainable Post 2015 Development Agenda”. Event details are:
Multipurpose indicators: Linking WASH, Nutrition and Agriculture to Achieve a Comprehensive and Sustainable Post 2015 Development Agenda
23rd April 2015, 1:15 – 2:30 PM
Room 13, UNHQ Conference Building
New York, NY, U.S.A