The Strategies and Tools for Integrating Gender in the Agriculture and Nutrition Curriculum Symposium, held in Mbour, Senegal, on June 17-18, 2014 brought together educators, development practitioners, government agents and members of the private sector for the purpose of sharing opportunities, needs, and challenges for incorporating gender into agricultural and nutrition education and research. Key speakers provided a framework for understanding gender analysis and gender issues in agriculture and nutrition and panels of private sector and university experts shared their experiences with gender in their respective fields. The main take-away from these presentations and discussions was the need to expand the notion of gender from being equated with women to being seen as an analytical tool that can highlight exclusion and marginalization. ; USAID/BFS/ARP-Funded Project, Award Number: AID-OAA-L-12-00002 ; USAID/Senegal Cooperative Agreement No. 685-A-00-10-00194-00
In this paper, we apply Polanyi's double movement to characterize the potential and observed impacts of public-private and public-philanthropic partnerships for the development of pro-poor value chains. We highlight the contradiction between the goals of these partnerships in international agricultural development, which seek to shift power dynamics and counter market exclusion, and the internal logic of these hybrid governance approaches, which reflect the tensions of market society from which they come. We present case studies from Honduras, Peru, and Mali of agricultural public-private and public-philanthropic partnerships and their constituent actors, identifying roles and relationships among actors that personify double movement negotiations within pro-poor market-oriented development. The cases highlight the implications for civil society actors of hybrid governance systems that utilize market mechanisms to address the destructive tendencies of capitalist development. We conclude that partnerships characterized by a mismatch of responsibilities and power relations among civil society and private actors generate a new type of double movement that does not generate durable institutions and that limits the impacts of the partnerships for poor farmers.
The future wellbeing of billions of rural people is interconnected with transforming food systems for equity, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and resilience. This article tackles three blind spots in the understanding of rural poverty and vulnerability: the narrow focus on extreme poverty and hunger that hides a much wider set of inequalities and vulnerabilities, insufficient recognition of the diversity of rural households, and an inadequate appreciation of the impact of rapid structural changes in markets, the physical environment, and the political economic context. A better understanding of these areas is necessary for imagining a new policy landscape that can align progress on rural poverty alleviation with a wider transformation of food systems. The article provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change. It looks at the viability of small-scale farming and the diversification of livelihood options needed to overcome rural poverty and inequality. The analysis suggests that the future prosperity of rural areas will depend on policy reforms to address market failures in the food system, which currently work against equity, good nutrition and sustainability. Investments will also be needed to enable rural economies to capture greater value from the food system, particularly in the midstream of food distribution, processing and services. The likely future scale and nature of rural poverty and inequality is such that improved social protection and humanitarian relief schemes that support those in crisis or being left behind will still be essential.
The future wellbeing of billions of rural people is interconnected with transforming food systems for equity, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and resilience. This article tackles three blind spots in the understanding of rural poverty and vulnerability: the narrow focus on extreme poverty and hunger that hides a much wider set of inequalities and vulnerabilities, insufficient recognition of the diversity of rural households, and an inadequate appreciation of the impact of rapid structural changes in markets, the physical environment, and the political economic context. A better understanding of these areas is necessary for imagining a new policy landscape that can align progress on rural poverty alleviation with a wider transformation of food systems. The article provides a framework for assessing the dynamics of rural wellbeing and food systems change. It looks at the viability of small-scale farming and the diversification of livelihood options needed to overcome rural poverty and inequality. The analysis suggests that the future prosperity of rural areas will depend on policy reforms to address market failures in the food system, which currently work against equity, good nutrition and sustainability. Investments will also be needed to enable rural economies to capture greater value from the food system, particularly in the midstream of food distribution, processing and services. The likely future scale and nature of rural poverty and inequality is such that improved social protection and humanitarian relief schemes that support those in crisis or being left behind will still be essential. ; PR ; IFPRI3; CRP4; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; G Cross-cutting gender theme; ISI ; AFR; PHND; A4NH ; CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)