POLICY SEMINAR
From Farm to Table: Agrifood Systems and Trade Challenges in the Southern Cone
Co-organized by IFPRI and United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
DEC 12, 2023 - 9:30 TO 11:00AM EST

De la granja a la mesa: Sistemas agroalimentarios y retos comerciales en el Cono Sur

Esta presentación será en español. Habrá traducción simultánea al inglés.

Los sistemas alimentarios de todo el mundo se enfrentan a retos sociales, nutricionales y medioambientales graves, y deben evolucionar para cumplir nuevos y diversos objetivos interrelacionados. A medida las políticas públicas que se remodelan para apoyar esta transformación, hay que tener en cuenta dos factores fundamentales: 

(1) Se necesitan innovaciones tecnológicas que permitan satisfacer la demanda de una mayor productividad de forma respetuosa con el medioambiente.

(2) Es esencial allanar el camino de los flujos comerciales internacionales, y esto requiere una mejora en las normas comerciales que permita facilitar los flujos desde los países con el mayor potencial de crecimiento de la oferta —sobre la base de sistemas de producción respetuosos con el medioambiente— hacia aquellos que presentan las mayores limitaciones para alcanzar la autosuficiencia alimentaria.

Ir tras estos objetivos puede suponer un reto importante para los países en desarrollo, que tendrán que ajustar y transformar sus prácticas de producción y distribución, en particular aquellos que participan activamente en el comercio de alimentos. En el Cono Sur de Sudamérica, que se ha convertido en la mayor región exportadora neta de alimentos del mundo, la atención a estas cuestiones debe ser primordial.

Para responder a ello, el Programa para América Latina y el Caribe del IFPRI lanza la publicación De la granja a la mesa: Sistemas agroalimentarios y retos comerciales en el Cono Sur. Este trabajo analítico pretende informar a los procesos políticos para la transformación del sistema alimentario regional del Cono Sur.

Los oradores presentarán un análisis de los principales retos a los que se enfrentan los sistemas agroalimentarios nacionales del Cono Sur, especialmente en lo relacionado con normativas y barreras nuevas que pueden afectar al comercio internacional y las condiciones para la exportación. También debatirán cómo el sistema alimentario regional podría contribuir mejor al sistema alimentario mundial a través del comercio, la inversión, el desarrollo de cadenas de valor y la transferencia de tecnología.

More about this seminar: https://www.ifpri.org/event/farm-table-agrifood-systems-and-trade-challenges-southern-cone
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From Farm to Table: Agrifood Systems and Trade Challenges in the Southern Cone

Paving the way to COP29 next month and COP30 in 2025, Brazil hosted an impactful Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) at the beginning of October. WRI experts met with global leaders all week, laying a foundation for Latin American countries to demand enabling regulatory frameworks for renewable energy deployment and financing  — two topics that regional expert peers also highlighted during our discussion. It’s critical to enact policies in emerging markets that allow private and public finance to flow into and upgrade energy systems. 

Episode Guests: 
- Sylvana Bohrt, International Clean Energy Associate, WRI Energy Program 
- Ana Teixeira, Country Transition Analyst, Bloomberg NEF 
- Juan Paredes, Senior Renewable Energy Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)

Additional BNEF Resources:
- Energy Transition Factbook 2024, launched in October 2024:
https://assets.bbhub.io/professional/sites/24/Clean-Energy-Ministerial-Factbook-2024.pdf
- Brazil Transition Factbook, launched in September 2024:
https://assets.bbhub.io/professional/sites/24/Brazil-Transition-Factbook.pdf

Preparing the World for Proactive Energy Planning: WRI Recaps the Clean Energy Ministerial

Co-organized by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) & IFPRI

Undernutrition during childhood and early adolescence has long-term consequences for development and health, and for girls it can affect the survival and wellbeing of their children. Diet-related risk School meal programs are an effective way to boost children’s nutrition and wellbeing, including physiological development and academic performance. These programs can also play an important role in food systems transformation by ensuring access to healthy diets, supporting equitable livelihoods, and contributing to environmental sustainability. However, data on large-scale school meal programs have historically been fragmented and inconsistent, despite the global prevalence of these programs and evidence of their positive impact. The Global Survey of School Meal Programs © https://gcnf.org/global-survey/ seeks to address this gap, collecting the most comprehensive data to date on national and large-scale school feeding programs, with information on 167 countries. It provides comprehensive global data on school meal coverage, financing, food baskets, laws and policies, home-grown school feeding, and more, thus serving as a foundation for monitoring global progress over time.

The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) https://gcnf.org/ and IFPRI invite you to the official launch of the third Global Survey report, School Meal Programs Around the World, 2024 edition, with results from the 2022 school year. The survey is implemented by GCNF, with funding from USDA and The Rockefeller Foundation and expert input from IFPRI and other lead researchers and organizations.  The resulting data provide governments and other stakeholders with an up-to-date global database of standardized information on school meal programs to make informed decisions. 

GCNF and IFPRI will present results from the latest survey, which concluded in August 2024, and a distinguished panel of experts will discuss implications of the survey for policy, research, advocacy, implementation, and business. Highlights of the 2024 survey results are already available in English and six other languages on GCNF’s website here https://gcnf.org/global-reports/ . The full report, School Meal Programs Around the World, 2024 edition, and additional resources will be released on the day of the event.

Introductory Remarks
Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy; Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategy, IFPRI
Mary Muinde, Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Kenya
Fabio Veras Soares, Researcher, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Development, Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPCid/IPEA), Government of Brazil 
Neo Sediti, Director, National School Nutrition Programme, Government of the Republic of South Africa
Dana Thomas, Managing Director, Food is Medicine, The Rockefeller Foundation

Overview of Survey Results
Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
Liliane Bigayimpunzi, Survey Coordinator for Africa, GCNF
Ayala Wineman, Research and Survey Specialist, GCNF

Panel: Putting the Survey Results into Use- Policy, Research, Advocacy, Implementation and the Business Perspective 
Marie Tamagnan, Senior Operations Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
Mduduzi Mbuya, Director, Knowledge Leadership, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Beatrice Wamey, President, Nascent Solutions 
Mia Blakstad, Social Protection Specialist, The World Bank
Carmen Burbano, Director of School Meals and Social Protection, UN World Food Program (WFP) and Director of the School Meals Coalition Secretariat

Closing Remarks
Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director, UN World Food Program (WFP)

Moderator
Aulo Gelli, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

Links
More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/official-launch-of-the-third-global-survey-of-school-meal-programs/

Official Launch of the Third School Meal Programs Around the World Report

Policy Seminar | IFPRI Policy Seminar
Tackling extreme poverty and financing for food systems in Africa
Organized by IFPRI and partners on the margins of the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings
October 17, 2025

Join speakers from IFPRI, IFAD, UNU-WIDER and the World Bank for a high-level seminar exploring two major African priorities – poverty reduction and food systems transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. Speakers will highlight the need to make progress on reducing poverty in fragile and conflict-affected areas across the continent, and the need to examine how most effectively to finance food systems amidst declining external funding flows.  

An inaugural World Bank- UNU-WIDER report on poverty and fragility, being previewed at this seminar, indicates that Sub-Saharan Africa has become the epicenter of the poverty–fragility nexus, with some 70% of people in fragile and conflict affected areas now living in the region and half of the world’s extreme poor projected to reside in fragile SSA states by 2030.

The Africa Report on External Development Financial Flows to Food Systems, recently released by IFAD, AKADEMIYA2063, and IFPRI—analyzes the volume and composition of development finance directed toward African food systems, and implications of decreasing external flows, also for national financing strategies.

This timely discussion will spotlight urgent financing needs and policy pathways to reduce poverty in the most vulnerable regions of Africa and strengthen food systems across the continent. It will also underscore the critical role of robust evidence and data-driven analysis in guiding effective financing strategies and policies —particularly as governments and development partners confront the dual pressures rising fragility and declining external flows. By grounding decisions in rigorous research, stakeholders can better align resources with impact and chart more resilient, equitable paths forward.

Opening Remarks
Luis Felipe López-Calva, Global Director, Poverty Global Department, World Bank Group
Patricia Justino, Director Designate, United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Report Presentations

Breaking the Fragility-Poverty Trap (World Bank Group, UNU WIDER)
Maria Eugenia Genoni, Senior Economist, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank

Africa Report – External Development Financial Flows to Food Systems (IFAD, AK2063 and IFPRI): Key Findings
John Ulimwengu, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI

High-level Panel

Kamal Gutale, Permanent Secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia
Enilde Sarmento, Macroeconomist-Adviser, International Monetary Fund (IMF); member of Mozambique’s delegation to the annual meetings; former National Director, Directorate of Economic Policies and Development, Ministry of Economy and Finance
Diane Menville, Associate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Financial Operations Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Ana María Ibáñez, Vice President for Sectors and Knowledge, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI

Moderator
Charlotte Hebebrand, Director of Communications & Public Affairs, IFPRI

More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/tackling-extreme-poverty-and-financing-for-food-systems-in-africa/

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Tackling extreme poverty and financing for food systems in Africa

"Big Ideas Into Action" is the relaunched podcast from the World Resources Institute, bringing you the big ideas that combat the world's most pressing environmental and developmental challenges. You'll hear the voices of those meeting the challenges on the ground across the globe and find out about the way we're finding the answers and translating them into action. 

We'll be podcasting in series of six to eight at a time, once a week, with occasional special episodes to add our insights and analysis in response to big events. 

The World Resources Institute works around the globe to turn big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We focus on seven urgent global challenges that must be addressed to reduce poverty, grow economies and protect natural systems: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, cities, and the ocean.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Established in 1975, IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 50 countries. It is a research center of CGIAR, a worldwide partnership engaged in agricultural research for development.

New tracks tagged #IaDB