Detlef Virchow

Okinawa Charter on Global Information Society

One of the four documents issued at the G8 Summit Meeting at Kyushu-Okinawa on 21 – 23 July, 2000 was the Okinawa Chater on Global Information Society.

Entry points into a nutrition-sensitive agriculture

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture is a concept that aims to narrow the gap between available and accessible food and the food needed for a healthy and balanced diet for all people. It explicitly incorporates nutrition objectives into agriculture and addresses the utilization dimension of food and nutrition security, including health, education, economic, environmental and social aspects. Based on this concept, the present paper presents a synthesis of a recent desk study which took stock of innovative approaches to improve the positive nutrition-related impacts of agriculture and related food systems and provides recommendations for future programmes. By providing an overview on specific cross-cutting themes relevant to nutrition-sensitive agriculture and presenting examples from various countries on how nutrition objectives can be incorporated into the agro-food systems, the paper identifies commonalities and parameters that are entry points into a system within which local nutrition-sensitive agriculture approaches will have a realistic chance of success. The variables in the system are interlinked and contribute to a balanced nutrition of the population. By changing or fine-tuning one or more of the entry points, the whole system can be improved. The paper also highlights the current fragmentation in approaches towards more nutrition-sensitivity in agriculture and concludes that, where collaborative approaches are undertaken, there is a greater likelihood that shared projects will be implemented and/or be successful.

Bioenergy, food security and poverty reduction: trade-offs and synergies along the water-energy-food security nexus

This article provides a review of trade-offs and synergies of bioenergy within the water–energy–food security nexus, with emphasis on developing countries. It explores the links of bioenergy with food security, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, health, and gender equity. It concludes that applying the nexus perspective to analyses of bioenergy widens the scope for achieving multiple-win outcomes along the above aspects.

Bioenergy, Food Security and Poverty Reduction: Mitigating tradeoffs and promoting synergies along the Water- Energy-Food Security Nexus

Modern bioenergy is a core ingredient of sustainable economic development as it plays an important role in poverty reduction and green growth. This makes bioenergy innovations critical, especially in developing countries where many households and rural communities rely on traditional bioenergy. Managing the multiple tradeoffs among bioenergy use, agricultural productivity, and ecosystem functions is a major development challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the identification of the drivers, tradeoffs and impacts of bioenergy production, trade and use in the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. The key objective of this paper is to provide an analytical framework and assess the track record of policy actions to stimulate modern bioenergy innovation in order to achieve multiple-win outcomes in terms of poverty alleviation, improved health and gender empowerment and environmental sustainability. We begin by describing the global trends and drivers in bioenergy production, trade and use. Secondly, we review the state of the art on impacts and links of bioenergy with the other Nexus components. Thirdly, we suggest a conceptual framework for evaluating the synergies and tradeoffs of bioenergy with other bioeconomic and economic activities along the Nexus. Follow-up empirical research at household and community levels in several developing countries will be based on this framework. Finally, a discussion on the conceptual framework is enriched by insights on the relevant actors, the tools and mechanisms specific to these actors for catalyzing innovations in the bioenergy for development.

Conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: main actors and the costs to bear

In the last decade the importance of natural resources for a sustainable agricultural development has been increasingly discussed on international fora and conferences. Only recently the erosion of genetic resources and its consequences for the global welfare in general and for agricultural production in particular were introduced into the public discussion. But since the 1930s systematical survey, collection, and conservation of plant genetic resources have been under way. Today, the conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) is a complex international and national system. While the political discussion is focusing around the issue of “fair and equitable sharing” of benefits derived from the use of PGRFA, an intensive analysis of the costs of conservation activities has been neglected. This paper identifies the actors in the conservation of PGRFA, analyses the costs which arise by conserving PGRFA on the private, national and global level, and will assess the losers and winners in a theoretical concept.

Biomass-Based Value Webs: A Novel Perspective for Emerging Bioeconomies in Sub-Saharan Africa

Growing demand for increasingly diverse biomass-based products will transform African agriculture from a food-supplying to a biomass-supplying sector, including non-food agricultural produce, like feed, energy and industrial raw materials. As a result, agriculture will become the core part of a biomass-based economy, which has the potential not only to produce renewable biological resources but to convert this biomass into products for various uses. The emerging bioeconomy will intensify the interlinkages between biomass production, processing and trading. To depict these increasingly complex systems, adapted analytic approaches are needed. With the perspective of the “biomass-based value web” approach, a multi-dimensional methodology can be used to understand the interrelation between several value chains as a flexible, efficient and sustainable production, processing, trading and consumption system.

Genetic Resources: Status, Development, Losses, and Conservation Management

This chapter highlights the state and development of the world’s genetic diversity centers, differentiated according to biodiversity in general and agrobiodiversity in particular. The extent and determinants of genetic extinction will be analyzed, and the differentiation between biodiversity and agrobiodiversity is discussed. In the last section, the methods for PGRFA conservation will be introduced.

Tapping Potentials of Innovation for Food Security and Sustainable Agricultural Growth: An Africa-Wide Perspective

While in the past, increased use of inputs and expansion of agricultural land accounted for a good part of agricultural growth in Africa, improvements in productivity will need to be a major driver of growth in the future. Thus, agricultural innovations are needed to sustainably increase productivity, i.e. output per unit of all inputs, while maintaining environmental quality and resources. Such innovations require enhanced investments in research and development. This study identifies potentials in agriculture and food systems in Africa for enhanced food security. For maximum impact, the Special Initiative “One World – No Hunger” of BMZ needs to take note of the whole African landscape of actions in agriculture and food security. Therefor this study provides a detailed review of related ongoing and recent initiatives, in order to help identify in what ways investments under the “One World – No Hunger“ Special Initiative from a broad strategic perspective might best connect and serve in coherent and complementary ways to increase food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural productivity growth. Innovations in the agricultural sector are key to ensure food security and achieve the right to food. Investments in the agricultural sector are crucial not only to increase food production but also because the returns on investments in terms of poverty reduction effects are often highest in in this sector. Furthermore, food insecurity and violent conflicts are inextricably interlinked with food insecurity being both a driver and a consequence of violent conflicts and related refugee flows. African countries have recently made major commitments to invest in agriculture. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), that was initiated in 2003 and has been reinforced by the Malabo Declaration in 2014, is now the reference point and measure of commitment in Africa. With CAADP, African countries committed to spend 10% of their total public expenditures on agriculture to achieve an annual agricultural growth rate of 6%. Other African and international initiatives, including new partnerships between African governments, donors and the private sector like the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition or Feed the Future, have since been launched to support the CAADP process. Investment opportunities differ across Africa. In view of the above mentioned goals, it is suggested here that development investments by Germany target countries which reveal potentials indicated by 1. having a track record of political commitment to foster sustainable agricultural growth, as indicated by performance under CAADP, and 2. showing actual progress in sustainable agricultural productivity driven by related innovations, as indicated by comprehensive productivity measurement and innovation actions on the ground, and 3. prioritizing actions for hunger and malnutrition reduction and showing progress (for instance measured by the Global Hunger Index), but where agricultural and rural development and nutrition interventions are likely to make a significant difference, as indicated by public policy and room for civil society actions. The records and potentials of 42 African countries are identified accordingly, using comprehensive assessments of agronomic, economic and governance criteria that can be transparently tracked.

Village Futures: Concept, Overview and Policy Implications

In a “virtual global village” scaled to 1,000 inhabitants, 165 people earn less than US

Conservation Costs of PGRFA

1 per day, 130 are malnourished, 206 people above the age of 15 are illiterate, and 306 persons are below the age of 14. The village’s richest person owns more than the combined incomes of its 577 poorest people. Of course, despite the evolution of the global information society, which fundamentally bridges the distance between town and countryside, the world as a whole is not a village. While globalization impacts deeply on rural areas and their linkages to urban centers in particular, rural communities of tremendous diversity remain the homes of a dominant share of the world population. However, life in these communities is bound to change with historically unprecedented speed in the coming decades. This volume deals with how that change may be guided by local, national and global policies and actions in order to enhance people’s livelihood.