The press gather in preparation for Pres. Obama's remarks at the afternoon plenary session

The plenary session closed with remarks from President Barack Obama, who thanked CGI participants for the amazing work they are doing, saying, “Hundreds of millions of people have been touched by what you have done here.”

The session also featured a panel discussion on “Sustainable Consumption: Redefining Business as Usual,” moderated by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Norway. Participants included Bob Diamond, Chief Executive, Barclays; Viviane Victorine Kinyaga, Director, Desert Research Foundation of Namibia; Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo; and Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer, Unilever.

More than ever before, the world’s population–and its ever-increasing demand for products and services–is putting pressure on the planet. In an era of rapidly depleting and finite resources, businesses and society have the opportunity to reframe how value is created and how consumption acts as a driver for economic growth. This panel session sought to explore how design decisions at the highest levels can drive consumer choices, and innovative marketing and branding can encourage consumer demand to drive more sustainable supply, addressing these opportunities and challenges through the lens of the global food business. The current food system has resulted in high prices paid by the natural environment and by consumer health. Therefore, the panel explored how to ensure sustainability and  how to evaluate what is driving consumption patterns to determine both ethical and profitable responses to these challenges.

Pres. Obama addresses attendees at the plenary session

Watch video of the entire plenary session by clicking here.

Today, Sept. 21st, is also the International Day of Peace, so it is apropos that USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, speaking at the CGI breakout session “Securing Global Nutrition” earlier today, called for all countries to live up to their commitments to support agricultural development in Africa, not only as a moral obligation, but to increase global security and economic prosperity.

While hunger and undernutrition remain persistent problems for the poorest populations of the world, inequities in food production and distribution have most recently been dramatically pronounced in the food crisis in the Horn of Africa. Events such as the drought that has ravaged livestock and crop production in East Africa will continue to create extreme nutrition shortfalls if the overarching challenges to food production and consumption are not addressed. Working to meet the needs for food distribution in times of emergency, it is essential that governments, businesses, and NGOs also collaborate for long-term nutritional security. Dr. Shah also warned that if we do not help to create a stable environment in the Horn of Africa, the area will become more vulnerable to extremist groups.

Playing the Students of the World video about Banking on Education

Other participants in the breakout session, which was moderated by The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, included Vinita Bali, Managing director and CEO of Britannia Industries Ltd.; Gebisa Ejeta, Distinguished Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University; and Yolanda Kakabadse, President, WWF International. Kristof said that in the last few decades, the U.S. government and development community had “dropped the ball on agriculture and nutrition.” Shah discussed the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future program, which reverses the trend and calls for country-led agricultural development and partnerships to reduce poverty and increase access to food.

Tune in tomorrow for the last day of CGI 2011, including the plenary session “Engaging Boys and Men as Allies for Long-term Change,” with remarks by Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State; and featuring philanthropists, world leaders and thought leaders such as Muhammad Yunus, chairman, Yunus Centre; Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, and more. As well as a number of breakout and special sessions on a number of issues related to gender, technology, business and the environment.

Watch live streaming video of all CGI sessions via CGI’s Facebook page. Follow along with CGI on Twitter at #CGI2011.

Food security and food price increases are of particular concern in poverty-stricken countries in the developing world and were the causes of recent violence in Mozambique. (Photo courtesy of opportunity.org.au)

In light of last week’s riots in Mozambique in which 13 people were killed, this post entitled “The Silent Crisis,” published on Opportunity Australia’s blog more than two weeks ago, has even more resonance.

This prescient blog post highlighted the concerns over food security and increases in food prices for economically marginalized people living in extreme poverty all over the developing world, including in India, the Philippines and a number of African nations. The blog reported:

Global food prices increased by an average of 43% between 2007 and 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund. During this period, food most commonly consumed by those in developing countries – including wheat, soybeans, corn and rice – saw the greatest price rises globally, with wheat prices increasing by a staggering 146%. [...] At the household level, increasing food prices have the greatest effect on underprivileged and food-insecure populations.

Mozambique’s food price increases, exacerbated by a reduction in food imports, including wheat from Russia, led to the food riots and looting. Last week, Sizwe Pamla of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union in South Africa told Financial Times online: “Too many workers are living from hand to mouth; the costs for poor people are skyrocketing.” 

Pamla’s words underscore the blog’s assertion that “[aid in a crisis] needs to be supplemented with a long-term solution to prepare those in greatest need for the predicted inflation in food prices.” In a country where 70% of the population live below the poverty line and more than half live on less than $1 a day, there is even greater need for http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/where-we-work/microfinance-in-africa/microfinance-in-mozambique/Opportunity Mozambique[/intlink]‘s microfinance services to empower Mozambicans to create an economically stable future for themselves and their communities.

Read “The Silent Crisis” on Opportunity Australia‘s blog, full of information about food sustainability and security, and share your thoughts about the recent violence in Mozambique in the comment field below.

Magnay, a British-born, 33-year veteran of the agricultural development sector in Africa, has worked with several African governments to develop agricultural advancements, and now leads http://www.opportunity.org/Opportunity[/intlink]‘s agricultural finance program in Africa. His work is highlighted in an article published last week in Medill Reports, a newsservice written by graduate journalism students at Northwestern University. 

Although the proportion of the economically active population engaged in agriculture has been falling in developing regions worldwide, it still exceeds 50% in Africa and Asia. Agricultural microfinancing, however, has been seen as too risky for financial institutions and many stopped providing the service. Agriculture accounted for 31% of World Bank lending in 1979-81, but by 2000-01, it had fallen to less than 10%, according to the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development.

“Climate is the biggest risk to agricultural lending,” said Paul Christensen, professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Christensen has three years’ experience as a fund manager for microfinancing investments. “One flood can wipe out all of your [banking institution’s] loans.” Which is why Opportunity has implemented an agricultural finance program that includes weather-indexed crop insurance, which can protect the farmer and the investor against the effects of climate change and unexpected weather events, like drought or flood.

A 2007 study released by Opportunity indicated nine primary requirements for a successful weather-indexed crop insurance system. Among them is a reliable network of weather stations, quality historic weather data dating back 30-40 years and relatively similar soil water containment capacity on the farm as is near the weather station. 

Opportunity successfully tested its first weather-indexed crop http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/microinsurance/insurance[/intlink] pilot with 892 groundnut and maize farmers in Malawi. As a result, today, over 65 % of its population–more than 2,000 farmers–has weather-index crop insurance. Due to the program’s success in Malawi, it’s expanding its agriculture finance program to several other African countries in the next few years, including http://www.opportunity.org/blog/interview-with-ghana-agricultural-finance-officer/Ghana[/intlink] and Mozambique, and then to follow in Rwanda and Uganda.

Want to meet John Magnay in person and learn about innovations in agrifinance in Africa? He’ll be leading a http://www.opportunity.org/opportunity-international-conference/breakout-sessions/breakout session[/intlink], “Agricultural Finance: Reaching More of Africa,” at http://www.opportunity.org/opportunity-international-conference/Opportunity’s Fall Microfinance Conference[/intlink] on Oct. 8-9. http://www.opportunity.org/opportunity-international-conference/Click here[/intlink] to learn more and to register for the conference.

Further reading:

1. http://www.opportunity.org/blog/interview-with-ghana-agricultural-finance-officer/Spotlight on Agricultural Finance: An Interview with an Agriculture Finance Officer[/intlink]
2. http://www.opportunity.org/blog/melinda-french-gates-on-the-impact-of-agriculture-finance/Melinda French Gates on the Impact of Agricultural Finance[/intlink]
3. http://www.opportunity.org/blog/what-were-reading-world-finance-magazine-discusses-opportunitys-agricultural-finance-program/What We’re Reading: World Finance Magazine Discusses Opportunity’s Agricultural Finance Program[/intlink]

Watch the “Harvesting Hope” video:

*****

One Hen, Inc. is an innovative organization that helps children to become global citizens by equipping teachers with interactive resources that teach elementary school children about world issues and how they can make a difference. This summer, One Hen is teaming up with United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move. to encourage summer reading and take on the problem of access to healthy and affordable food!   

Since the fall of 2009, the first enrichment program, One Hen: Microfinance for Kids, which introduces children to microfinance and entrepreneurship, has directly reached over 9,500 children via school and club programs across America, Canada, Ghana, and the U.K. Through the interactive website, educators in all 50 states and 131 countries have accessed One Hen’s online lessons and games.   

Drawing on this success, a second One Hen enrichment program is set to launch in the fall with the release of The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough, a true story about a farmer in rural Honduras.   

The Good Garden program introduces the concept of food security, the challenges of rural entrepreneurs – small farmers – and steps one person, adult or child, can take to help combat global food crisis.   

Going along with the launch of the latest Good Garden curriculum and website thegoodgarden.org, One Hen is starting two new national service projects. First, One Hen is encouraging students to build or adopt a community garden using the creative example of the Sidwell Friends School:   

The Good Garden, the new book from Katie Smith Milway about food security and sustainable agriculture, is due for release in fall 2010.

For over 25 years, students at Sidwell have been working together to provide food for the local soup kitchen Martha’s Table. Every Wednesday, students in one grade bring in a vegetable and students in an older grade chop them up. According to Richard Lodish who helped pioneer the program, “What was once Wednesday came to be known as Soup Day.” Richard believes the program emphasizes the need to start early, involve students, parents, teachers, administrators side by side doing community service. He said “Soup Days” help service for children to “go beyond sporadic and short-lived programs and to become a habit of involvement–an ongoing and encompassing involvement, where the gift of food can involve family to family involvement, too.”   

One Hen’s second service project will launch in September. The National Good Garden Food Drive, intends to help children across America to understand the issues of food security in their own community and in the world so they will be inspired to help make a difference.   

One Hen is also encouraging kids to read this summer! In support of United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move., One Hen introduced the One Hen book club to its expanding network of educators this summer and provided a toolkit for tips on starting a book club.   

Take a look at the list of five must-read books One Hen recommends and find out how you can get involved in the Good Garden Food Drive.

But we are not the only organization to want to discuss agricultural sustainability. Go deeper and check out other contributors’ past posts about agriculture, hunger and poverty. We especially like “The G8 Invests in Women and Children” (7/01/10), written by Bread for the World‘s Asma Lateef, and “The Best Development Bargain in the World” (6/18/10), by Venkatesh Mannar of the Micronutrient Initiative. Both posts are about the recent G8 Summit in Muskoka, Canada, where global leaders pledged to refocus their efforts on improving maternal and child mortality rates by 2015 as part of the UN Millennium Development Goals, emphasizing the crucial role that agriculture and food security will play in achieving these goals.

Read more at The Hunger and Undernutrition Blog. And tell us what agriculture or microfinance blogs you’re reading in the comment field below.

Keynote speaker Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, unveiled the Feed the Future Guide, which details the implementation strategy for the U.S. government’s new global hunger and food security initiative. Shah called for a major focus on women farmers, who can make the difference between the initiative’s success and failure.

One of the two key objectives of Feed the Future is to accelerate inclusive agriculture sector growth by:

• Improving agricultural productivity
• Expanding markets and trade
• Increasing economic resilience in vulnerable rural communities­­

This is also Opportunity International’s agricultural finance strategy, which is providing access to savings accounts and agricultural loans in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 10 percent of the population has access to financial services. Opportunity’s strategy goes beyond simply providing agricultural credit and is creating a model designed to increase the farmer’s chance for success while mitigating risk. As a key component, Opportunity is developing strategic partnerships with extension service providers to equip farmers with training and market linkages that can help to improve crop productivity and household income. Read more about this initiative, which is being supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation, at Opportunity.org/GatesandMasterCard.

Shah said that one of the most important things we can do is “hold each other’s feet to the fire.” He reported that 25,000 people per day die of hunger-related causes, and “we know that doesn’t have to happen.”

It’s time for all of us to join the growing movement to alleviate poverty and increase food security through our support of farmers in the developing world. Visit FeedtheFuture.gov.

Opportunity International is working to equip countries to be agriculturally self-sustainable through microfinance.

There is a green revolution occurring in the developing world led by passionate individuals with a heart for change. Within this revolution, Opportunity International is equipping nations to do something radical–to feed themselves.

In honor of www.blogactionday.org, I would like to introduce Lucas Chingore. Lucas is a farmer in Mozambique. His desire was to farm on a plot of land just outside of town. But his goal was always out of reach. He did not have the financial services that he needed to succeed. Finally, he found Opportunity International and his farm took root. He received a loan for an irrigation pump that brought precious water to his crops and greatly enhanced his yield. Another loan allowed him to diversify into poultry so that hundreds of chickens now populate his fields. And he opened an Opportunity savings account to protect his business profits and earn interest.

Lucas is now feeding his family, his community and his nation, thanks to a loan from Opportunity.

Two-thirds of the sub-Saharan Africa labor force is employed in agriculture. With this in mind, Opportunity institutions in eight African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda) are committed to addressing the issue of food security. Opportunity plans to solve this great agricultural conundrum through the success of people like Lucas.

The issue of food sustainability is not a new issue. It is, however, one of the most pressing problems in the developing world. With the global food crisis still a battle that the poor face daily, Opportunity International recognized the need for a long-term solution to this chronic problem.

Using technology, Opportunity has pioneered crop insurance that mitigates weather problems in farming. Using education, Opportunity is teaching farmers about the true market value of their crops. Using savings products, Opportunity is allowing farmers to manage their cash flow. Using new seeds, Opportunity is helping farmers to increase crop yields and decrease risk.

As Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman insist in Enough, this is a problem that can only be solved by creativity and commitment. Opportunity International has become a champion of the farming poor. And in doing so, Opportunity has equipped nations to feed themselves.

To read more about Lucas’ story, click here. To learn more about Blog Action Day and the topic of climate change, go to www.blogactionday.org.