Event - Agricultural Innovation in Africa

The World Bank Science, Technology and Innovation Global Expert Team
and the World Bank Agriculture and Rural Development Sector invite you to:

The U.S. Launch of

The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa
by Professor Calestous Juma

April 22, 2011
10:30 am

The World Bank
Preston Auditorium, MC Building
1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433

Please RSVP by clicking here.

If you cannot attend in person, join the live webcast at: mms://wbmswebcast1.worldbank.org/live

For Windows Media Streaming: http://streaming7.worldbank.org/vvflash/extlive

African agriculture is at the crossroads, with persistent food shortages compounded by new threats from climate change. But despite these challenges the lecture argues that future prospects look promising and the continent can feed itself in a decade. Drawing from his new book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, the author identifies three major opportunities that can help transform Africa’s agriculture into a force for sustained economic renewal: unprecedented advances in science and technology and related investments in human capacity; rapid expansion of regional markets and private sector activities; and the rise of new crop of entrepreneurial leaders dedicated to the continent’s economic improvement and improved governance.

Using case studies from Africa and around the world, the lecture provides a basis for the book’s optimism and outlines strategies that can be used by development agencies to help contribute to Africa’s agricultural transformation.


Reviews

"A convincing analysis of the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in the agricultural sectors of Africa." --Elinor Ostrom, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, and 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences

"The New Harvest is a welcome antidote to the pessimistic view of African development of previous decades." --Nature

“The New Harvest provides a welcome relief from the gloom and despair in popular narratives about African agriculture."--Science


Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at Harvard Kennedy School. He also directs the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a high-level executive course on Innovation for Economic Development. He is a former Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and Founding Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi, and he also served as Chancellor of the University of Guyana. He has been elected to several scientific academies including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and the African Academy of Sciences. He has won several international awards for his work on sustainable development. He holds a doctorate in science and technology policy studies and has written widely on science, technology, and environment. His book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.

Excerpts from the book are available at: http://www.belfercenter.org/global/

The event has been co-sponsored by the World Resources Institute.

Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa
499 S. Capitol St. SW, Suite 500B, Washington, DC 20003 | (202) 479-4501 | www.partnership-africa.org


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