MOTIVATION After years of declining investment in rural development and low agricultural productivity, the African Union Commission launched the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in 2003. Participating African governments committed to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture in order to help achieve a 6 percent annual agricultural growth rate. With USAID >> Read more
Building Ghana’s Capacity to Overcome Poverty
MOTIVATION Recognizing that agriculture is critical to Ghana’s vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2015, IFPRI, in partnership with the Ghanaian government and several development partners, launched the Ghana Strategy Support Program in 2005. The program, funded by USAID, supports the country-driven design of agriculture and rural development strategies by strengthening the skills of >> Read more
Aflatoxins in Groundnuts in Mali
MOTIVATION Aflatoxins are naturally occurring carcinogenic substances found in high quantities in some of Africa’s crops. They spread rapidly in warm tropical climates, inflicting harm on humans and animals. In 2008, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the AflaControl project analyzed groundnuts in Mali: these groundnuts were the focus of major livelihood >> Read more
Regional Strategic Alternatives for Agriculture-Led Growth and Poverty Reduction in West Africa
In 2006, IFPRI began collaborating with the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) and ECOWAS to identify the most effective ways to promote growth in agricultural productivity at the subsector level across West and Central African countries.
Regional Network on AIDS, Livelihoods, and Food Security
Motivation Nutrition and access to nutritious foods are vital in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Undernutrition heightens vulnerability to disease transmission, and pairing antiretroviral drug therapies with adequate nutrition increases their effectiveness. Income inequality and food insecurity have also been found to increase the likelihood of exposure to HIV, driving up rates of infection >> Read more
Agricultural Development for Economic Recovery in the DRC
In spite of its promising agricultural potential, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the highest rate of malnutrition in the world.
