Got milk? (or meat or eggs)? The missing ingredients in global nutritional security

Posted on 9 Mar 2013 by Susan MacMillan • 2 Comments

Hidden Hunger from Bob Caputo on Vimeo. Watch this handsomely made film (with superb writing as well as videography), produced in 2010 by National Geographic‘s Bob Caputo (run-time: 26 minutes). ‘Malnutrition does not make headlines the way famine does. But it is far more widespread and deadly. Globally, it affects more than a billion people. It is … Continue reading »

Environment / NRM / PA / Policy

On the road back to Rio: Is the new mantra – ‘inclusive green growth’ – really possible?

Posted on 25 Jun 2012 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

‘The real question about green growth is whether it can fulfil its promise that poor countries can have both greenery and prosperity.’–Economist. An example of an ‘investment-hungry project’ that can bring high environmental as well as poverty-reduction returns is greater adoption of improved dual purpose ‘food-feed’ crops whose grain feeds people and whose residues after … Continue reading »

Agriculture / East Africa / Impact Assessment / PA / Report / Research

Millennium Villages Project: Success? Failure? Unknown?–The controversy continues

Posted on 31 May 2012 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Young boys in Malawi on a break from class pose for the camera at The United Nations Millennium Villages Project (photo on Flickr by whl.travel). The Economist has started an interesting new blog, ‘Feast and famine: Demography and development’. On this blog, the magazine’s correspondents report on and analyse matters relating to demography and development, including food … Continue reading »

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food security / Kenya / PA / Pastoralism / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Early famine warnings in Horn not enough: Early action also needed–Economist

Posted on 29 Jul 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reports on emerging food security conditions related to drought and other climate crises (image on the ReliefWeb website by the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning Systems). The first food to arrive in famine-struck Mogadishu, … Continue reading »

East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / PA / Pastoralism / PLE / Somalia / Uganda / Vulnerability

Long-term ‘food aid-plus’ has helped avert famine in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda–Economist

Posted on 29 Jul 2011 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Children in Kenya’s Watamu District with milk (photo on Flickr by Thomas Blower). An article in this week’s Economist describes the value of helping communities in the Horn of Africa’s to build resilience to recurrent drought. It is this ‘Food Aid-Plus,’ argues the Economist, that has helped avert famine in southern Ethiopia (seeds), northeastern Kenya (school milk … Continue reading »

Drought / East Africa / Ethiopia / Food security / Kenya / PA / Pastoralism / Somalia / Vulnerability

Drought bites harder in pastoral regions of Africa’s Horn

Posted on 18 Jul 2011 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Map of drought-afflicted areas in the Horn of Africa as of 28 June 2011 (map credit: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, web-posted on the ReliefWeb website). ‘. . . [A]fter the worst drought in 60 years, more than 10m people in the Horn of Africa need emergency food aid. Livestock have … Continue reading »

Consumption / ECF / Food security / Mozambique / PA / Research

Feeding the world: ‘Let them eat [CGIAR] research’ – Economist

Posted on 4 Mar 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Customers rush to buy bread, a staple in high demand in Mozambique, after it arrives at a bakery in the south of the country as wheat ran short and food prices rose in 2008 (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). A leader for a special report on feeding the world’s growing population, published in the Economist recently (24 February … Continue reading »

Africa / Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Animal Health / Asia / Directorate / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / ILRI / India / Latin America / MarketOpps / PA / Research / Zoonotic Diseases

Close the gaps between agriculture, health and nutrition–Indian Prime Minister

Posted on 12 Feb 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

During the inaugural session of an international conference in New Delhi that is closing today, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for greater investments to close the gaps in knowledge of how agriculture, nutrition and health are linked. The conference is organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute. The CGIAR in Action blog reports … Continue reading »

Africa / Animal Diseases / Asia / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Epidemiology / ILRI / India / MarketOpps / PA / South Asia / Zoonotic Diseases

Of plagues and livestock–The Economist reports on ILRI research at the animal-human interface

Posted on 10 Feb 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

A pig scavenges for food in trash outside a poor household in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). The Economist today (10 February 2011) reports on news from the International Livestock Research Institute, being discussed this week at an international conference on agriculture, nutrition and health in New Delhi, India, of the critical need … Continue reading »

Africa / CRP5 / Livelihoods / NRM / PA

If medicine is the ‘hardware’ of development, what’s the software?