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Future Opportunities for Rural Africa Workshop
November 26-27, 2001Hosted by IFPRI and USAID |
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ABSTRACT
Hunger has become such a significant and strategic problem in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that it can no longer be evaded. With the majority of Africans living in rural areas, rural and urban population rapidly increasing, cereal and livestock production stagnant or falling, nearly 200 million people living with food insecurity, child malnutrition doubling, poverty increasing, and economic growth lagging behind other developing regions, a new development strategy is urgently needed for this region. To drive out hunger, agriculture needs to be the core component of poverty alleviation programs in SSA. But agriculture alone will not end hunger. Seasonal migration and rural nonfarm activity are also important to the livelihood strategies of rural people. And HIV/AIDS has taken the life of an estimated 7 million agricultural workers since 1985, and is projected to reduce the agricultural labor force by another quarter or so by 2020 in some African countries. Therefore, linkages with other sectors such as health and the nonfarm economy are essential for success. On November 26-27, 2001 the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) hosted a workshop for USAID titled "Future Opportunities for Rural Africa." The workshop reviewed key issues that will affect the future of agriculture in Africa, including trade and market liberalization, technology development and dissemination, public infrastructure and human capital, equitable growth, and environmental degradation. Recognizing that past investments in agricultural development in SSA have had mixed and often disappointing results, emphasis was given to identifying some of the more promising approaches for achieving successful agricultural growth in the future that could benefit the poor and protect the environment.
PROCEEDINGS
Proceedings of this workshop are available for download in PDF format.
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