By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Apr 9 2025 – The state of food and nutrition security in the Global South masks the great strides and investments made to increase agricultural yields to feed a rapidly growing population. As discussions deepen at the ongoing CGIAR Science Week, plenary discussions on Wednesday (April 9) explored transformative strategies and innovations driving agricultural resilience across Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

UN statistics show one in five people in Africa sleep hungry. To halt and reverse the pace of rising hunger on the continent, the African Union (AU) has adopted a new agricultural development strategy that will see the continent increase its agrifood output by 45 percent by 2035 and transform its agri-food systems as part of its new plan to become food secure in a decade.

The AU earlier this year adopted the 10-year Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and Action Plan and the Kampala CAADP Declaration on Building Resilient and Sustainable Agrifood Systems in Africa, which will be implemented from 2026 to 2035.

“On aligning Kenya’s agricultural agenda with the AU’s strategy and action plan, as the national agricultural research organization that supports farmers in this part of the world, we are aligned by developing technologies, innovations, and marginal practices that support our farmers to increase productivity and improve their resilience,” said Dr. Eliud Kiplimo Kireger, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO). “Due to the effects of climate change, in the last few years, our focus has been to develop drought-resilient crops.”

“Also, with climate change, we have new emerging pests and diseases,” Kireger explained, adding that a lot of work done had become obsolete because of climatic changes. “Areas that were dry are (now) drier and areas that were of high potential are flooded.”

Putting Technology into Farmers’ Hands

In addition to these challenges, farmers also face difficulties accessing technology—although developed, the technologies are still in the hands of scientists and institutions and haven’t been shared with the farmers.

“So, how do we get these technologies to the farmers to increase their productivity? Kireger asked, adding that where the technology exists, it has been built with the challenges of providing digital services to a remote rural community in mind.

“We have digitized most of our technologies and made them available on a mobile platform to support e-extension services, which are the weakest link between research and farmers. This is because the researchers are unable to physically reach all farmers.”

Climate, AgriFood Complexities in Latin America and the Caribbean 

Further afield, participants heard about how the Latin American and Caribbean countries are coping with the complex, multiple challenges confronting their agrifood systems. For the region, it is a unique setting of scarcity and surplus.

Nearly 74 percent of Latin American and Caribbean countries are highly exposed to extreme weather events—affecting food security. In Latin America and the Caribbean, one in 10 children under the age of five lives with stunting.

Latin America and the Caribbean region is the world’s leading net food exporter. Yet, a few countries are doing better than most. For instance, as the largest nation in the region, Brazil generates almost half of all Latin American exports, hence the substantial disparities and inequalities in agriculture, food, and nutrition security. It is these pockets of inequalities, hunger, and malnutrition that experts are finding innovative solutions for.

Potatoes, Genebanks and New Markets

Regional experts spoke about ongoing collaboration and the potential to scale solutions. In this regard, there was an extensive discussion on genebanks and the potato, a staple food in approximately 160 countries, where they are consumed by more than two-thirds of the world’s population.

“We have the world’s largest gene bank on potatoes that serves over 100 countries in the world. The International Potato Center (CIP) base in Peru is called the Center of Origin of Potato, and the communities in the Andes Mountains are the guardians of that diversity and of that global resource,” said Dr. Simon Heck, Director General and Senior Director of the Center of Origin of Potato/CGIAR.

CIP’s potato and sweet potato collections are the world’s largest, and they contain nearly all of the potatoes’ wild relatives. The in vitro genebank is the largest and one of the first to get ISO 17025 certification for safe germplasm transport.

Genebanks conserve living plant samples of the world’s important crops and their wild relatives. They ensure that the genetic resources that underpin the world’s food supply are both secure in the long term for future generations and available in the short term for use by farmers, plant breeders, and researchers.

In light of climate change and emerging pests and diseases, these collections are important to ensure that crop plants that may contain genes to resist disease, provide enhanced nutrition, or survive in changing or harsh environments do not become endangered or extinct over time.

“One question we have is how do we mobilize their capacity to help solve problems within the Latin American and Caribbean regions, but also elsewhere? And how do they receive benefits from that?” Heck posed the question, citing an example of expanding the Agri-LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) model to Asia. “We have been working in Vietnam to develop a tropically adapted potato. Potato production globally is now moving into Asia.”

Heck told participants that more than half of the world’s potatoes are grown and consumed in Asia. Within Asia, the potato is moving into subtropical and tropical environments like India and Vietnam, and the question is about determining what kind of potato is needed to make this movement successful.

“And so, the answer to that question takes us back to Peru. It takes us back not just to the CIP genebank, which is one of the largest in vitro genebanks in the world and contains the global collection of potatoes, but into the mountains of Peru. We have struck a partnership with Vietnam, with Peru, and with one of the world’s largest potato breeding companies based in the Netherlands,” Heck explained. “And together, we have developed new types of potato, tropical potato, and the first varieties have now been released in Asia. This strain is really a physical combination of genetic material from the highlands of Peru and commercial germplasm from European potato companies.”

What’s more, they demonstrated that it can work technically.

“We have excellent potato varieties now in the lowlands of Asia. (These varieties) can work in terms of market segmentation.”

The inaugural CGIAR Science Week coincides with the first G20 meeting to be hosted in Africa later this year, providing a particularly unique opportunity to leverage CGIAR commitments from the Science Week and to provide input to the G20 agenda of transforming agri-food systems for greater climate resilience, increased productivity, and addressing the drivers of food insecurity at the global level.

IPS UN Bureau Report,

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Naureen Hossain
NAIROBI, Apr 9 2025 – The ASEAN-CGIAR program “unlocks opportunities to look at commodities in the region, interest, markets, and capacity building, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Dr. Yvonne Pinto said during a plenary that focused on fostering regional integration, scaling innovation, and amplifying the impact of CGIAR’s research in addressing agricultural challenges.

The ASEAN-CGIAR Innovate for Food and Nutrition Security Regional Program was established to help ASEAN member states address complex, interrelated issues in their agricultural sectors, including climate change, food safety and nutrition, resource scarcity, and poverty. The program includes eight intervention packages (IPs), or activities relating to bolstering agricultural sustainability and food security across the region. Since the program’s launch in 2023, the interventions have been implemented in ten countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar.

As CGIAR Science Week proceeded onto its second day, part of the focus of the day’s plenary session was on ‘Building Bridges,’ as was illustrated in the joint program between CGIAR and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The ASEAN region is home to multiple climates and commodities, which are distributed through a single-market production base through its integration with the global economy.

Pinto points out that this was the entry point for the ASEAN-CGIAR program, for CGIAR has a “tremendous opportunity to play a significant role that is about delivering against the needs.”

“It unlocks opportunities to look at commodities in the region, interest, markets, and capacity building, and it is really built and co-created by the countries in question. So it is central to the CGIAR regional plan,” said Pinto.

While the program has the backing of global research alliances like CGIAR and its partners and funders, including Australia, the Netherlands, and Japan, it has been built and co-created by the countries where the programs were implemented. This would indicate an emphasis on relying on expert local knowledge on the issues and on empowering local agricultural communities to have a hand in the solution.

As an ASEAN member state and one of the countries where the ASEAN-CGIAR regional program has been implemented, Vietnam, through To Viet Chau, the Deputy Director General, International Cooperation Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, shared that the Vietnamese government recognizes the impact of climate on their agricultural sector. He proposed that adopting integrative strategies that link local stakeholders with the private sector would help to increase access to sustainable farming technologies and build the capacity for farmers.

The panel discussion highlighted the significance of South-South collaboration and the need for countries in the Global South to actively share resources and knowledge to address their issues. In the agricultural sector, ASEAN’s model for development follows a bottom-up approach that takes initiative at the community level and centers their needs when formulating policies and programs.

For the African continent, there is an opportunity to learn from the ASEAN-CGIAR program, observed Bongiwe Njobe, Board Chairperson, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). The regions face similar challenges, including human capital constraints, rapid urbanization, climate change, production system challenges, and nutritional issues.

Recently, increasing political will towards sustainable development has opened up the countries towards joint cooperation. “Working through the African Union, I think the continent is increasingly finding a structure that is multilayered that allows for continental conversations and initiatives, regional—we call them subregional organizations and linkages—and country participation through the AU. And then an organization like FARA, which is positioned as a technical arm recognized by the AU as a technical arm, coordinates the scientific arms across the same structures in the regions,” said Niobe.

While the tenets for programs similar to ASEAN-CGIAR are present in the African continent, Niobe remarked that challenges remain, such as strengthening the effectiveness of the systems, the strength of relational capital between countries, and ensuring that the goals set out can be achieved.

The need for collaboration is evident through the multiple stakeholders in this sector. Government support is critical in facilitating agricultural and food production projects and in identifying areas that would benefit from the intervention. The private sector can also play its part through financial backing. It was even said that civil society has a part to play in advancing development in agriculture and food production at the local level.

Groups such as the Philippine Rice Research Institute are in a position to connect organizations and people together. “We broker, and we see that the work becomes faster and we don’t have to be the center of everything,” said Executive Director John de Leon.

“I think the time is now for the South to exert its leadership in how it wishes to address its own problems, and I say that from the perspective of another girl from the South.”

In a video message, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community, Satvinder Singh, shared that collaboration was at the root of the success for the region. For ASEAN, it was important for all stakeholders in this sector, including government, public, and private partners, to come together and have a stake in “shaping a more sustainable future.”

“We recognize that no single country can address these challenges alone,” said Singh. “We know that by leveraging regional cooperation, we can definitely accelerate and adopt climate-smart agricultural technologies, we can come together to explore strengthening our value chains, and also we can come together to build a much more resilient and sustainable food system. This is why the ASEAN-CGIAR regional program is very significant for us. It serves as a platform to unite global experience and cutting-edge research and the practical solutions tailored to our region’s needs.”

IPS UN Bureau Report,

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 9 2025 – The 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar on March 28, marked the strongest earthquake the nation has experienced in over a century and the second deadliest in it’s history. The earthquake caused extensive damage in Myanmar and Thailand, with infrastructures in southern China and Vietnam also having been affected.

According to a recent humanitarian report released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there are currently over 3,600 recorded deaths as a result of the earthquake in Myanmar. Over 5,000 people have been injured and approximately 60 remain missing. Roughly 10.4 million people live in areas that have been ravaged by the earthquake.

These estimates are expected to increase as recovery efforts continue. Additionally, many areas in Myanmar have been cut off from electricity and telephone connections, which, compounded with damaged roads and extensive rubble has made recovery efforts increasingly difficult in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar, has been hit the hardest. According to testimonies from residents, bodies continue to be pulled out of the rubble to be “cremated in stacks”. Crematoriums in Mandalay have been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bodies that have been recovered, with some facing shortages of body bags and other essential supplies.

As a result of the recent earthquake and Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, the humanitarian crisis in the nation has significantly escalated, with displacement, violence, extreme heat, and a lack of basic services affecting over 17.2 million people. “One thing that I have been struck by here is that you would think earthquakes hit everyone equally, but they hit the poorest hardest because they do not have the resources to respond, to move house, to live elsewhere, to start to rebuild,” said Tom Fletcher, the United Nations (UN) Emergency Relief Coordinator.

In December 2024, a UN assessment declared that Myanmar’s healthcare system was in a state of collapse as a result of damage to medical infrastructures sustained in the war. With the recent earthquake, Myanmar’s healthcare system has deteriorated even further and is largely unable to assist the influx of injured persons.

According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), over 65 healthcare facilities in Myanmar have been damaged and medical supplies are in short supply. Additionally, over 40 percent of the healthcare facilities in the nation are located in areas that are entrenched in warfare, making them inaccessible to the vast majority of civilians.

“The needs are beyond words,” said Nadia Khoury, Head of the The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) delegation in Myanmar. “Our response must match the sheer scale of the disaster – now and for the longer term.”

Another rising concern for humanitarian organizations has been the failure of Myanmar’s water and sanitation infrastructure, which leaves millions at risk of developing waterborne illness. Extreme heat, heavy rain, and overcrowded displacement shelters are also projected to worsen the spread of disease.

“Heavy rains flooded drains, polluting the environment and increasing public health risks including diarrhoea due to flies and insects. Many camps lack proper latrines, forcing people to dispose of human waste without adequate sanitation,” said Rajan Khosla, Oxfam’s Country Director in Myanmar. “There are significant hygiene challenges for the camp population, as food is cooked outdoors, making it difficult to prepare meals after rain. This increases the risk of contamination and the spread of diseases.”

WHO reports that cholera, dengue, malaria, measles, and a re-emergence of polio are of particular concern. Additionally, WHO emphasizes that mental health challenges as a result of trauma are persistent.

The displacement crisis in Myanmar has been greatly exacerbated following the earthquake. Currently, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that approximately 4.3 million people are displaced, including roughly 3.5 million internally displaced civilians in Myanmar.

“Our lives were just getting better. Now the earthquake has made me flee again. Right now, everyone is suffering [but] among those affected, we are the worst. As displaced people, our troubles are doubled. We have nowhere to live and nothing to live on,” said U Than Win, an internally displaced resident of Myanmar.

Children have been hit especially hard by this crisis, with many suffering from the effects of trauma and a lack of education and psychosocial support services. According to figures from the UN, roughly 1,824 schools have been damaged or destroyed, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without an education. “Many children have lost their parents, their friends and they need a place where they can get psychosocial support and begin to feel a sense of normalcy,” Eliana Drakopoulos, Chief of Communications at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Myanmar.

“This earthquake is another brutal blow to children in Myanmar—many of whom were already living through conflict, displacement, and deprivation,” added UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “In minutes, they lost loved ones, homes, and access to essential services. The needs are massive and rising by the hour.”

Additionally, the Myanmar Civil War continues to endanger the lives of civilians and complicates relief efforts from humanitarian organizations. Despite the National Unity Government (NUG) and the State Administration Council (SAC) both declaring ceasefires of varying lengths after the earthquakes, a coalition of armed resistance groups, known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, accused the military of coordinating 63 separate attacks, resulting in 68 civilian casualties.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), these attacks have made it largely impossible for humanitarian aid personnel to reach areas that have been hit the hardest by the earthquake, such as the Sagaing region and areas in Bago and Shan State. Additionally, OHCHR reports that the military has continued its conscription efforts, recruiting young civilians that have not been seriously injured.

“I urge a halt to all military operations, and for the focus to be on assisting those impacted by the quake, as well as ensuring unhindered access to humanitarian organizations that are ready to support,” said UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk. “The humanitarian and protection needs of the civilian population must be addressed without delay and without restriction…It is critical that international assistance reach the people of Myanmar through international coordination mechanisms and support the civil society and community-based networks that are playing the frontline role to provide relief on the ground.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Michael Jarvis
WASHINGTON DC, Apr 9 2025 – This June, world leaders will gather in Seville for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), a milestone opportunity to reimagine how the global economy delivers for people and the planet. But the real question isn’t whether this historic convening will happen. It’s whether it will matter.

Global systems are straining under the weight of overlapping crises: a ballooning debt burden across the Global South, massive financing gaps to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and climate catastrophes that demand urgent and equitable funding.

And yet, even as needs escalate, traditional sources of foreign aid are in retreat. The U.S. and other major donors are pulling back, creating gaping holes in public budgets and threatening the survival of civil society organizations that provide essential services and accountability functions.

Michael Jarvis

We are facing a post-aid world. But that doesn’t mean we must accept a post-development world. In fact, the FfD4 conference, set for June 30 to July 3 in Seville, presents a rare and time-sensitive opportunity to reconfigure development finance – balancing funds that will come from taxes and raising sustainable debt with those to come as official development assistance or via philanthropic contributions.

And if governments are willing to be bold, they won’t be alone. Philanthropy can be a catalytic force backing systemic reforms. Funders can lead by example with commitments under the Sevilla Platform for Action that will bring together voluntary initiatives to deliver measurable progress to boost a renewed financing framework.

The current draft of the conference outcome document includes some encouraging steps: nods to progressive taxation, recognition of the need for fairer sovereign debt mechanisms, and reform of international finance institutions.

But as the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) notes, many proposals still fall short of transformative change. Key concepts like human rights, gender equality, and participation appear inconsistently and more as rhetoric than as guiding principles.

We can do more to center Global South voices in negotiations and this is one way in which philanthropy can step up – helping expand the participation of diverse voices to be at the table, ensuring the perspectives of those most affected by financing decisions are heard.

Funders can also support the technical and diplomatic engagement of Global South governments in negotiations, so their priorities are fully represented.

Beyond participation, there’s a pressing need to fill thematic gaps—particularly in underfunded areas such as debt justice, fair taxation, and protection of civic space. Philanthropic commitments that align publicly with the FfD4 goals can build credibility and create positive pressure for ambitious reforms.

Just as importantly, funders must be willing to invest beyond the conference itself, providing long-term support to translate declarations into tangible outcomes on the ground.

Consider the issue of sovereign debt. Today, over 50 countries are in crisis, with many spending more on debt service than on healthcare or education. Without systemic reform, these countries will remain trapped in cycles of austerity and underdevelopment.

Philanthropy can fund advocacy, support debtor country coalitions and research to unlock debt relief, but also invest in revising frameworks, including building in greater transparency and oversight, to ensure that when countries borrow in the future debt is more sustainable.

Tax reform is another area where funders can have a significant impact. In the face of reduced foreign assistance, countries will need to rely more on their own revenue mobilization, but in ways that don’t exacerbate inequality.

From reinforcing constructive engagement in shaping the new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation to supporting watchdog organizations that expose illicit financial flows, philanthropy can help shift the narrative and the policy framework toward a fairer tax system and restore faith in tax as our “social superpower” that supports so many of the services that citizens rely upon.

Climate finance, too, demands a bolder philanthropic role. For example, we need to invest not just in raising new finance for climate mitigation and adaptation, but in ensuring those funds get to where they need to go.

Philanthropy can support government and civil society capacity to ensure that every climate dollar counts. None of this is about replacing governments. It’s about augmenting their ability to act in the public interest and holding them accountable when they do not.

Funders, such as the members of the Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative, have already demonstrated what’s possible when philanthropy aligns with governance reform. They’re not just writing checks, they are investing in a more trust-based, accountable and inclusive development finance system. That model must become the norm and for those funders interested to learn more there are peers ready to offer advice or join forces.

In an era when multilateralism is under strain and trust in public institutions is eroding, the role of independent, values-driven actors is more important than ever. The FfD4 conference is a moment to demonstrate that the international development community can still serve people and the planet if enough of us are willing to push in that direction.

Philanthropy has the agility, the resources, and the networks to lead that push. It must not be a silent partner at this time. The stakes are too high.

Michael Jarvis is the Executive Director of the Trust, Accountability, and Inclusion (TAI) Collaborative, a network of philanthropic funders advancing systemic reforms to build more inclusive and accountable governance globally.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);