30

FANRPAN will convene its 4^th Annual Partners' Meeting on the 31^st of May 2012 at the CSIR Conference Centre, Pretoria.

This is an annual flagship event on the FANRPAN calendar that presents an opportunity for organisation to share current programmes and future plans with existing and prospective partners. The convener of the meeting, Chairman of the FANRPAN Board of Governors, Hon. Sindiso Ngwenya who is also the Secretary-General of COMESA invite partners in the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources sector to attend the meeting.

During the meeting, FANRPAN will avail an opportunity for partners to briefly share their programmes and areas of focus. This will benefit FANRPAN in terms of strategic alignment, and enable partners to share experiences and focal areas amongst each other.

The Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network's (FANRPAN) Women Accessing Realigned Markets (WARM) project in partnership with the Faculty of Agronomy and Forestry Engineering of Eduardo Mondlane University convened a national policy dialogue on the 26th of April at Kaya Kwanga Lodge in Maputo, Mozambique. The dialogue attended by over 50 participants including women farmers involved in the project; representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG); researchers from Eduardo Mondlane University; representatives of NGOs and Community Based Organisations; Research Institutions; UN-Agencies; and the donor community in Mozambique.

The purpose of the dialogue was to disseminate results from the WARM pilot project, which seeks to strengthen the capacity of women farmers to influence agricultural policy development in Africa. Researchers from Eduardo Mondlane presented results of an agricultural survey of women farmers in Marracuane and Boane Districts as well as a report of a study that was conducted to analyse the input distribution systems and policies in Mozambique.

Climate change is a buzz word and a major concern globally. There are many theories and predictions as to what implications climate change has on communities, especially impoverished communities in Africa. However, the future cannot be predicted with accuracy. Modeling is one method whereby researchers can arrive at a close approximation of what that future will be.

Modeling can be defined as a scientific process that is intended to mirror or simplify reality. In essence, the laboratory is replaced by a computer and experiments are replaced by simulation.

Skills development when addressing climate change impacts is critical as climate change cuts across all aspects of life. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provided training on the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) model to 7 post graduate students from national universities in the three SECCAP focal countries: Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi as well as from The University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. The training was held in Pretoria, South Africa, from 30 April to 11 May 2012.

The 8^th Partnership Platform Meeting of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 3 to May 2012. The meeting, on the theme "Accelerating CAADP Implementation for Results and Impact", was attended by 270 delegates from Africa and beyond who included policy makers and representatives of governments, multilateral bodies, civil society groups, development partners and farmers' organisations.

FANRPAN was represented at the meeting by its Programme Manager for CAADP, Ian Mashingaidze, and the Project Manager for Women Accessing Realigned Markets (WARM) project, Sithembile Mwamakamba. During the closing ceremony of the meeting, Sithembile made a recital on behalf of the youth that called for "increased and focused dialogue among the youth and between the youth and state and non-state actors on CAADP and African agriculture development". She said youth want to be active participants in agricultural policies, for "Nothing for the Youth without the Youth".

The HaSSP Mid-Term Review launched for national consultations in Zimbabwe, March 2012 culminated in the HaSSP Mid-Term Review Findings, Validation and Dissemination workshop held at the Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg 8 - 9 May 2012.

The workshop, attended by a dynamic team of famers; researchers; government officials; policy makers; seed elders; NGOs; Development partners and FANRPAN Regional Secretariat staff, all with interest in the seed sector showcased the richness of the FANRPAN network.

The purpose of the workshop was to allow HaSSP stakeholders to get a better understanding of what came out of the review exercise conducted in all four pilot countries. HaSSP focal country teams – Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe - got an opportunity to interact with their respective consultants on the findings of the review exercise in order to validate and create ownership of the reports. The next step was for country teams to present their reports in plenary after which the floor was opened for discussion. This further enriched the reports as the different countries have different experiences, therefore they could learn from one another.

In order to develop skills to integrate climate, crop production and household livelihoods data with cost benefit analysis, The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is providing training on the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) model to graduate students from national universities in the three SECCAP focal countries: Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi as well as from The University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. The training will be held in Pretoria, South Africa, from 30 April to 11 May 2012.

In total, 7 post graduate students and 5 supervisors the universities will be trained. This training will guide students to examine alternative futures for food supply, demand, trade, prices and food security at household level.

This seminar is the sixth in a series being initiated by the IIED /HI VOS Knowledge Programme: Small Producer Agency in Globalised Markets

In rural areas of many developing and emerging economy countries, the number of young people is falling or expected to do so within the near future. The exodus of rural youth means fewer small-scale farmers tomorrow, potentially drastically changing the profile of farming. For many of those who stay behind, the prospects of finding decent non-farm work are limited. Many are unemployed or work informally - often in unpaid, low-skilled, insecure and sometimes hazardous jobs. Faced with little or no access to land, markets, finance and education, rural youth struggle to make small-scale agricultural activities profitable.

But this is not just a local employment and livelihood issue. It is also a global food security one - if today's rural youth cannot or do not want to become tomorrow's farmers, how can we hope to feed a fast-rising world population?

Call for Applications
Deadline: 15 June 2012

The Future Agriculture Consortium, through its Young People and Agri-Food theme, seeks to address three constraints to more appropriate policy in relation to the "young people and agriculture" problem in Africa:

• A lack of analysis that is theoretically and historically informed, conceptually sound and context sensitive;
• A very weak base of empirical research relating to either the nature of the "problem" or the potential impacts of particular policy responses;
• A limited cadre of researchers and policy advocates who are actively working on and informed about these issues.

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is a leading global charity for research, teaching and information on international development, based in Brighton. This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the world's leading organisations for research, teaching and information on international development.

IDS is seeking to recruit a Fellow, with the aim of strengthening its capacity to develop and deliver cutting edge, mixed methods approaches to impact assessment that will improve development effectiveness. We seek to appoint someone with an established international reputation for high quality research, practice and publications in the area of impact evaluation and learning. We will consider candidates from any relevant disciplinary background and with any geographical focus. Depending on background, interests and orientation, the appointee will be placed in one of the institute's six research teams.