Johannesburg -- The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) announced a new collaboration to reduce poverty and hunger by improving policies concerning agriculture and food security. The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding yesterday for joint work in food policy research, capacity strengthening, and policy communications in Africa.

"At recent meetings of NEPAD's heads of state, delegates emphasized that agriculture and food security should be the number one priority for African development," said Dr. Joachim von Braun, director general of IFPRI. "This collaboration between NEPAD and IFPRI will assist in moving that commitment forward."

The agreement on an agenda of cooperation for an initial phase of three years resulted from a series of meetings in Africa and at IFPRI headquarters in Washington, DC between Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman of NEPAD's steering committee, and von Braun. "IFPRI will work in close collaboration with NEPAD to serve as a focal point to develop comprehensive programs to undertake policy research, capacity strengthening, and communications in African countries," said Dr. Suresh Babu, senior research fellow at IFPRI.

Key points of the agreement include:

• IFPRI and NEPAD will jointly map out an agenda for, and priorities in food policy research, capacity strengthening, and policy communications, for which IFPRI can play a facilitating role to NEPAD.
• IFPRI will assist NEPAD to scale up successes in African agriculture by sharing findings from IFPRI's work, by documenting and communicating available information through joint publications, by undertaking further policy-relevant research, and by inviting NEPAD to participate in and cosponsor international conferences, including the upcoming workshop on "Successes in African Agriculture," to be held in Pretoria in December 2003.
• IFPRI will assist NEPAD in designing development strategies related to food, agriculture, and natural resource sectors for Africa.

IFPRI will also facilitate broader cooperation on food and agricultural policy between NEPAD and the Future Harvest centers working in Africa, which conduct leading research on crop development, poverty alleviation, and environmental sustainability. "I believe that IFPRI and NEPAD will make effective partners," noted von Braun, "as both are driven by a desire to make a difference to development in Africa. IFPRI focuses on developing policy solutions. NEPAD focuses on creating political will to stimulate better policies. By working together, IFPRI and NEPAD can link policy research with implementation to reduce poverty and hunger in Africa."

For more information, contact:

• Michele Pietrowski, Mobile +27 (0)82 858 0550
  m.pietrowski@cgiar.org