Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2011 Conference

Brian Halweil and Danielle Nierenberg, Senior Researchers, Worldwatch Institute, and co-Project

Directors, Nourishing the Planet (www.NourishingthePlanet.org)

Anna Lappé, best-selling author and founder, Small Planet Institute

Stephanie Hanson, Director of Policy and Outreach, One Acre Fund

Where:       WNYC Radio’s The Greene Space
44 Charlton Street (on the corner of Charlton & Varick)
New York, NY 10014, USA

RSVP: Amanda Stone, (+1) 202-452-1999 x514, [email protected], or click HERE

PLEASE NOTE: For press who are unable to attend in-person, we have a toll-free, global teleconference number. For call-in info, please contact Amanda Stone at [email protected].

At a time when 925 million people worldwide are hungry and investments in agricultural development are only gradually beginning to recover in the wake of global recession, governments, policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and the donor community need to commit to longstanding support for the world’s farmers. In Africa, farmers make up 80 percent of the population and hold the key to unlocking the continent’s untapped agricultural potential to feed the future.

Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet draws from the world’s leading agricultural experts and from the hundreds of innovations that are already working on the ground to outline 15 proven, environmentally sustainable prescriptions for alleviating hunger and poverty. On January 12, three of the book’s 60 international contributors will present key findings from the report, including a roadmap for agricultural investment in successful projects that can prevent food waste, build resilience to climate change, and strengthen farming in cities.

State of the World 2011 is being released at a time when many global hunger and food security initiatives-such as the Obama administration’s Feed the Future program, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)-need critical guidance to scale up agricultural investments.

Since the mid 1980s when agricultural funding was at its height, the share of global development aid has fallen from over 16 percent to just 4 percent today. Given the current economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year.. Much of the recently pledged funding has yet to be raised or to reach the poor farmers of Africa. With a large share of the human family still chronically hungry nearly a half-century after the Green Revolution, it is clear that existing funding is not being targeted effectively. Guidance is needed to direct investments toward projects that are already working and that could be replicated or scaled up in regions around the world.

The findings of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project were gathered over the course of a year spent researching on the ground in 25 sub-Saharan African countries. These findings will be shared with a wide range of agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries, agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and the increasingly influential nongovernmental environmental and development communities.