The Chicago Council on Global Affairs today released its 2011 Progress Report on U.S. Leadership in Global Agricultural Development at the annual symposium of its Global Agricultural Development Initiative.
The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and chaired by Catherine Bertini, former executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.
The report notes significant progress since 2008, saying that the U.S. is “exerting stronger leadership in global agricultural development” even in the face of deep recession and severe budget constraints. Most noteworthy, according to the report, were recent changes within the government to centralize and strengthen agricultural development assistance, including USAID’s increase in agriculture-focused staff and greater interagency collaboration between USAID, USDA and others to deliver more effective agricultural development programming.
The report’s overall grade for US efforts to provide leadership in global agricultural development: B – .
Lowest marks were given to progress on U.S. policies perceived as harmful to agricultural development worldwide.
Live blogging the symposium on his Global Food for Thought Blog, Roger Thurow, former Wall Street Journal correspondent and author of the book Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, notes that “a chance at redemption – and better grades – looms: The renewal of the Farm Bill, set for 2012.”
You can follow and discuss the Symposium on Twitter at #GADISymposium. The Global Agricultural Development Initiative will be tweeting throughout the day @globalagdev.