PRETORIA -- To improve collaboration with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) on food security in Africa, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) recently announced that IFPRI researcher Dr. Ousmane Badiane will be outposted to Pretoria, South Africa beginning May 21 as Senior Research Advisor to NEPAD on agriculture and food policy. Dr. Badiane joined IFPRI on April 1 as a Senior Research Fellow in the organization's Development Strategy and Governance Division (DSGD).
"In August, IFPRI and NEPAD signed a Memorandum of Understanding for joint work on developing comprehensive programs to undertake food policy research, capacity strengthening, and policy communications in African countries," said Dr. Joachim von Braun, director general of IFPRI. "Dr. Badiane's appointment to the NEPAD Secretariat will be instrumental in moving that commitment forward."
In addition to collaborating with NEPAD colleagues to design development strategies related to the food, agriculture, and natural resources sectors, Dr. Badiane-a citizen of Senegal-will also assist the secretariat to coordinate the implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program in collaboration with the continent's regional economic communities.
"When African heads of state and delegates met at a summit last year, they agreed to make agriculture and food security their number one priority and to increase their countries' investments in the agricultural sector," recalled Dr. Peter Hazell, director of IFPRI's DSGD. "By posting Dr. Badiane to Pretoria, IFPRI will be better able to assist NEPAD to scale up successes in African agriculture and link policy research with implementation."
Dr. Badiane worked at IFPRI from 1989 to 1997 leading the institute's research on market reforms and development before joining the World Bank, where he was Lead Specialist for Food and Agricultural Policy for the Africa Region. He has a Masters degree and PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Kiel in Germany.
"We are extremely pleased that Dr. Badiane will be working directly with us," said Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman of NEPAD's steering committee. "His appointment significantly strengthens the IFPRI-NEPAD partnership and renews our joint commitment to reducing poverty and hunger in Africa by improving policy design and implementation."
For more information, contact:
m.pietrowski@cgiar.org
Michele Pietrowski, m.pietrowski@cgiar.org, (202) 862-5679
rapitsem@nepad.org
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of 15 Future Harvest Centers and receives its principal funding from 58 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.