The Other Green Revolution: How Farmers Reclaimed the Desert to Secure an Agriculture Future for Africa

Hear directly from Sahelian innovators on development solutions driven by local ownership.

Please join us to hear how governments, donors, NGOs, and farmers worked together to increase food security and mitigate the effects of climatic variability. At independence, Sahelian countries inherited a highly-centralized approach to rural development with little attention to local rights over land resources. The 1970’s drought showed this approach’s inadequacy in enabling farmers to produce sufficient food, fuel and fiber. Famine was widely spread, herds were dying, and land was eroding. But by the year 2000, millions of hectares of Sahelian farmland had more trees than in 1975, smallholder productivity was greater, and fuelwood surpluses were reported. In the drier regions of Niger and Burkina Faso, people were reclaiming abandoned fields and getting new and additional grain harvests by investing in simple water-harvesting technologies. What happened and is it sufficient to meet food security and climate change challenges in the future? Join a distinguished group of panelists to discuss how this turnaround was made and how the lessons can inform development decisions being made today.

October 29th, 2009 9:00-2:30 p.m.
Ronald Reagan International Trade Center
Horizon Ballroom
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004

9:00: Panel One: Voices from the Sahel
· Mr. Yacouba Sawadogo, Lead farmer and natural resources innovator, Yatenga Province, Burkina Faso
· Dr. Chris Reij, Natural Resources Management Specialist, Center for International Cooperation, Holland
· Mr. Mathieu Ouedraogo, Director, Sahel Re-Greening Initiative

10:30: Panel Two: Practitioners’ Insights into the Global Food Security Initiative
· Mr. Jeff Hill, Leader, Agriculture and Food Security Team, USAID/AFR (Invited)
· Mr. Jim French, Kansas farmer, Lead Field Organizer, Oxfam America
· Dr. Issa Martin Bikienga, Deputy Executive Secretary, Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel; former Minister of Agriculture, Burkina Faso

Lunch (Served at the event)

1:00: Panel 3: Getting Development Partnerships Right
Chair: Michael Yates, Director, Bureau of Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, USAID (invited)
Discussants:
· Ms. Emmy B. Simmons, Co-Chair, Roundtable for Science and Technology, National Academies of Science, Board, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, International Livestock Research Institute, and International Institute for Tropical Agriculture
· Mr. George F. Taylor II, Director of International Programs, Philanthropy Support Services (PSS) Inc.; Senior Advisor, International Resources Group
Panelists:
· Mr. Gray Tappan, Geographer, Remote Sensing Expert, US Geological Survey
· Dr. Mahamane Larwanou, Senior Programme Officer, African Forest Forum (AFF)
· Dr. Edwige Botoni, Senior Coordinator, "Sahel Study," Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel
· Dr. John Lewis, Managing Director, Terra Global Capital, LLC

Space is limited so please RSVP at: RSVP@oxfamamerica.org