Update from John Conrood
Today concludes the African Union Summit on Agriculture and Food Security – renewing the commitment launched in Maputo in 2003 for Africa to invest at least 10% of public resources in Agriculture. Our new SIT intern, Tamene Adugna from Ethiopia, is tracking the conference on our Adocacy website.
This has been a big week for our advocacy activities around the world. There has been lots of buzz about Bill Gates’ Annual Letter: Three Myths That Block Progress for the Poor (click here!). You will definitely want to read it!
In Washington we attended meetings with the World Bank on our Local Democracy initiative, at the Wilson Center on women’s political participation and at IFPRI on the UN Zero Hunger Challenge.
Dr. Dicko (Vice President of Africa Programmes) and I also met with other major international NGOs to explore possible joint ventures in Uganda. Tamene has summarised Uganda’s CAADP strategy here.
Thank you to everyone who provided input on our year-end survey, and on our 2014 priorities. You will see the current version here.
In our year-end poll, members of our Global Advocacy Team from six countries voted for their top three milestones. There was strong consensus behind the Post-2015 High-Level Panel Report, the Nutrition for Growth Conference and the new World Bank Goals.
UNICEF released the 2014 State of the World’s Children Report yesterday – you’ll find a quick summary for our programme countries here. Given our 1000 Day Nutrition priority, you will note that we have a long way to go to encourage exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months and reduce stunting.
The newest priority we’ve set for this year is for a breakthrough in rural youth employment. Tamene has provided an overview on the subject here.
We truly want the advocacy site to work for you! This past week, we completed the unfinished sector overviews on poverty and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). Let us know what research summaries you think would be most helpful to you in your advocacy work!
With warm regards,
John Coonrod, PhD, Executive Vice President
(edited for THP-UK)