News
Update: July/August 2012
African Futures Project Policy Brief No. 4 Released: “Cultivating the Future: Exploring the Potential and Impact of a Green Revolution in Africa”
On August 24, the International Futures team and the Institute for Security Studies, our African partners, released the fourth installment of a joint series of quarterly Policy Briefs. The focus of this brief was aggressive but reasonable policy interventions needed to bring about a sustainable “green revolution” in Africa, one that would increase not only crop yields and cultivated land area, but also food access for those most in need. Our researchers, Jonathan Moyer and Eric Firnhaber, found that while a large-scale green revolution in Africa is possible, unless the revolution in production is accompanied by policies promoting human development—such as increasing food access among the poor and improving water and sanitation—the bulk of the production gains will likely be enjoyed by high-income countries and not in Africa. Check out the accompanying video here, and stay tuned for our next African Futures Project Policy Brief on malaria eradication, due out in late-November.
Pardee Center conducts weeklong training for senior managers of NEPAD and the AUC
Representatives from the Pardee Center for International Futures traveled to Cape Town, South Africa in August to conduct a weeklong workshop for senior officials of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA) on the use of the International Futures (IFs) model. The workshop and training sessions were held in support of the efforts to develop a long-term Growth and Development Plan across the African Union, designed to establish a new development trajectory for the continent. The workshop focused on using IFs to explore Africa’s current development trajectories across a wide range of issue areas, from agriculture and infrastructure, to human development and state fragility. The workshop is part of an ongoing partnership between the African Futures project, NEPAD and the AUC. Another workshop and training for senior NEPAD and AU staff in Cape Town and Addis Ababa are set for October of this year.
Director of the Pardee Center meets with UN Foundation representatives
Barry Hughes, director of the Pardee Center, gave an introductory presentation on IFs to representatives for the UN Foundation, including a Senior VP, in Washington, DC, on June 28. The outreach was designed to introduce the Foundation to the potential benefits of using IFs in its own work as well as explore the possibility of further collaboration.
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