#Kenya agribusiness crisis

[farmerstrend]

How the USAID Shutdown Threatens Kenya’s Agriculture Ahead of the Planting Season

The imminent shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) this Friday threatens to derail Kenya’s agricultural sector just weeks before the crucial planting season, potentially affecting millions of farmers across the country who depend on various American-funded programmes. The shutdown, which will place all USAID direct hire personnel on administrative leave…

[alexsmitposts]

What’s Going On With the Arctic ‘Doomsday’ Seed Vault? Against the backdrop of the spreading fear about a global coronavirus pandemic, an event has slipped largely under the radar at a spot so removed from the rest of the world that most are unaware of its existence. The Svalbard “Doomsday” Seed Vault on Spitsbergen Island north of the Arctic Circle just received an additional major shipment of plant variety seeds for its special storage. What makes this entire seed bank enterprise suspicious at the very least is the list of financial sponsors behind the global project. On February 25 more than 60,000 new seed varieties were placed in the Svalbard vault, the largest deposit of seeds since it opened. This brings the total of seed types to over one million since the vault was first opened for deposits in early 2008. The latest seed deposits include onions from Brazil, guar beans from central Asia, corn seeds sacred to the Cherokee nation and wildflowers from a meadow at Prince Charles’s home in the UK (sic). The Svalbard vault is on the island that is legally part of Norway since a 1925 treaty. The Norwegian government put up much of the money for the construction of the facility whose backers declared it was able to withstand a nuclear bomb blast. The only problem was planners did not make the structure, built into a mountain side, waterproof and the entrance flooded amid heavy rains in 2016, necessitating a major € 20 million of repairs and upgrade which were just completed, some four years later. Notably, as Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg pointed out during the recent seed-greeting ceremony, the year 2020 is slated as the year by which countries should have safeguarded genetic diversity of crops to meet the UN goal of “eliminating hunger by 2030.” The year 2030 is when the UN IPCC predicts catastrophic climate change barring a radical action from the world, as well as the key benchmark year for the UN’s Malthusian Agenda2030. The publicly-stated argument for the major seed bank project is supposedly as a safe backup for the numerous national seed bank collections in event they are destroyed in war as in Syria or Iraq, or by natural disaster or other calamity. The Svalbard vault has been called the “Noah’s ark of seeds,” there should a “global catastrophe” occur, to allow a theoretical restart to world agriculture. OK. Interesting. Who would decide how to distribute those seeds in event of such a catastrophe is not addressed. What is notable is the list of those backing this highly unusual public-private partnership. Crop Trust? The seed bank and acquisition of the seeds is managed by an entity known as the Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, now based in Bonn, Germany. On its website Crop Trust makes the modest claim that their “sole mission is to ensure humanity conserves and makes available the world’s crop diversity for future food security.” It has an impressive list of financial sponsors which it calls the Donors’ Council. Among the most eye-catching they name Bayer Crop Science, which now incorporates Monsanto; DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred; Syngenta AG, now owned by ChemChina. These are the world’s largest purveyors of GMO patented seeds and the paired agrichemicals such as Roundup with glyphosate. China’s now state-owned Syngenta is the world’s largest supplier of crop chemicals. In addition, Crop Trust Donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the major donor to initiate the Trust in 2004 with the FAO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and CGIAR, acting through Bioversity International. Gates Foundation is joined at Crop Trust by the Rockefeller Foundation, the ones who first financed the creation of GMO biotechnology beginning in the 1970’s at their International Rice Research Institute, where they spent millions trying to develop the colossal failure called Vitamin A-enhanced Golden Rice. CGIAR, set up in 1972 by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation to spread their Green Revolution agribusiness model, controls most of the private seed banks from the Philippines to Syria to Kenya. In all, these present seed banks hold more than six and a half million seed varieties, almost two million of which are ‘distinct.’ Svalbard’s Doomsday Vault has a capacity to house four and a half million different seeds. At the time the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault opened in 2008 the chairman of the Crop Trust was Canadian Margaret Catley-Carlson. Catley-Carlson was also president until 1999 of the New York-based Population Council, John D. Rockefeller III ’s population reduction organization, set up in 1952 to advance the Rockefeller family’s eugenics program under the cover of promoting “family planning,” birth control devices, sterilization and “population control” in developing countries. Catley-Carlson also sat on the board of the Syngenta Foundation. De-Population Council Being President of the Rockefeller-founded Population Council is no minor deal. In the 1990’s the UN’s World Health Organization launched a campaign to vaccinate millions of women in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines between the ages of 15 and 45, allegedly against Tentanus, a sickness arising from such things as stepping on a rusty nail. The vaccine was not given to men or boys, despite the fact they are presumably equally as liable to step on rusty nails as women. Because of that curious anomaly, Comité Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization, became suspicious and had vaccine samples tested. The tests revealed that the Tetanus vaccine being spread by the WHO– only to women of child-bearing age– contained human Chorionic Gonadotrophin or hCG, a natural hormone which when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier stimulated antibodies rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy. None of the women vaccinated were told. It later came out that the Rockefeller Foundation along with the Rockefeller’s Population Council, the World Bank (home to CGIAR), and the United States’ National Institutes of Health had been involved in a 20-year-long project begun in 1972 to develop the concealed abortion vaccine with a tetanus carrier for WHO. In addition, the Government of Norway, the host to the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault, donated $41 million to develop the special abortive Tetanus vaccine. Is it just coincidence that the same Gates Foundation is backing the organization responsible for maintaining the Svalbard “Doomsday” Seed Vault at the same time Gates is emerging as a major authority on the danger of the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic? In an article he wrote for the New England Journal of Medicine, Gates stated that the designated COVID19, “has started behaving a lot like the once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about.” A virtually inaccessible seed vault under the control of some of the world’s foremost advocates of eugenics and population reduction is definitely remarkable. With more than a million of the irreplaceable seed heritage of the world locked inside the Svalbard Seed Vault, could this be a way for GMO agribusiness giants like Bayer-Monsanto or Syngenta to illegally gain access to those seeds in a time of global crisis? It sounds very far-fetched, yet there are far-fetched goings on in our world. We could say, “He who controls the world’s crop seeds, controls the world.”

[khalilhumam]

The Economic Impact of COVID-19: After Record Unemployment, Countries around the World Begin to Reopen Industries

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The Economic Impact of COVID-19: After Record Unemployment, Countries around the World Begin to Reopen Industries

The COVID-19 pandemic has so far infected more than 6.2 million people and claimed over 379,000 lives and has also brought massive job loss, unprecedented drops in remittances, and recessions to countries in developing regions. It seems like every third article we read this week included a striking historical comparison: the lowest remittances in a decade, the worst contraction since the financial crisis, the worst month in recorded history. In the face of enormous economic impacts, more countries are taking first steps to reopen their economies. Here are the most recent headlines from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, divided into sections: growth and income analysis, sector and sub-population analysis, economic policy responses, and commentary.

Global

Growth and income analysis

The International Labour Organization reports that “over one in six young people surveyed have stopped working since the onset of the COVID‑19 crisis” and that working hours have declined by “10.7 per cent relative to the last quarter of 2019, which is equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs.” (ILO)

“Global remittances sent by migrants back home to low- and middle-income countries is projected to be one of sharp decline – a fall by about one fifth this year. The estimated 20 per cent slump represents US$ 109 billion in 2020.” (UNCDF)

Economic policy responses

Gentilini rounds up an array of resources to examine social safety net responses to COVID around the world.

Africa

Growth and income analysis

“Ethiopia’s economy is now expected to grow by 5-6% in 2019/2020… from a previous forecast of 9%.”  Parliament approves an additional supplementary budget for the country. (Reuters)

“Namibia’s economy is likely to contract by 6.6% in 2020 and by 1.1% next year as the COVID-19 pandemic hits economies globally,” according to the finance minister. (Reuters)

Sector and sub-population analysis

A household survey in Kenya reports that more than half of working women “have been rendered jobless by the coronavirus pandemic.” (AllAfrica)

Tesfaye, Habte, and Minten interview 100 commercial and small dairy farmers in Ethiopia to assess impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the dairy industry: consumption of dairy went down from 56 percent to 45 percent except for households in the richest quintile, partly due to fear of getting infected through consumption of dairy. (IFPRI)

East Africa faces threats from the pandemic, locusts, and now, the worst floods in 40 years. (McCoy)

“De Beers is working with Botswana’s government to temporarily move viewings to places closer to international diamond centres, with sales still recorded in the country, to try to restart trading hit by coronavirus travel restrictions.” (Benza)

Digital payments in Kenya dropped for education-related payments and digital payments related to the hospitality and tourism industry, but has increased for agribusinesses and cooperative payments, food and grocery payments, pharmacies, and utilities. (Mburu)

“Uganda will lose $1.6 billion a year in earnings from tourism as visitors stay away due to the impact of the coronavirus.” (Biryabarema)

Economic policy responses

The African Development Bank “approved a loan of 88 million euros to Senegal…in support of the costs of its national COVID-19 Economic and Social Resilience Program.” (Africa News)

Angola is negotiating with lenders “to reschedule debt payments after a prolonged recession triggered by a drop in crude prices.” (Mendes and Almeida)

Namibia, which “has received international praise” for low number of infections and no deaths, is set to reopen its economy in the next few days. (Nyaungwa)

In Ghana, “the 21-day lockdown of Ghana’s biggest cities had become financially unbearable for most of the population, a concern that gave the government little choice but to lift the restriction.” The country face massive debt repayments and the long-term economic fallout from the pandemic. (The Africa Report)

“South Africa partly lifted a two-month-old coronavirus lockdown… letting people outside for work, worship, exercise or shopping, and allowing mines and factories to run at full capacity to try to revive the economy.” (Al Jazeera)

Kenya disburses over $9.4 million “to those adversely affected by this COVID -19 pandemic.” (Devdiscourse)

Ethiopia approves an additional $1.4 billion for the current fiscal year to “serve as a shield against the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.” (Nourou)

“Nigeria’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark lending rate to 12.5% from 13.5%.” (Akwagyiram)

Commentary

Ivudria writes that the remittance gap in sub-Saharan Africa left by the pandemic “exposed one of the biggest flaws in the system: an over reliance on cash at the expense of digital transactions.” (EABWNews)

Nigerians who are working in the informal sector (almost 80 percent of the population) are the hardest hit, and government help has been inadequate. (Ayeni)

Were and Ng’weno examine how Kenyan cuspers—“people on the cusp of escaping poverty but still at risk of falling back into it”—can recover following the coronavirus crisis. (FSD Kenya)

Dube and Katende discuss World Bank responses to COVID-19 for Africa’s informal workers, especially women: “In a health, social, and economic crisis of this scale, no single intervention is enough, and African countries need a “whole of society” approach. Community-driven development platforms, which put citizens at the center of designing their own solutions, are a critical part of the World Bank’s response.” (World Bank)

Lakuma and Sunday lay out the impact of the pandemic on micro, small, and medium businesses in Uganda. Despite no recorded COVID deaths, “three-quarters of the surveyed businesses have laid off employees due to the risks presented by COVID-19 and subsequent containment measures.” (Brookings)

Uzochukwu et al. write on Nigeria’s moving out of lockdowns that “[the country] needs to balance controlling the spread of the disease with avoiding the worst outcomes of the response, like school closures and the crowding out of non-COVID essential health services.” (CGD)

Asia and the Pacific

Growth and income analysis

“India’s economy grew by 4.2% in the fiscal year that ended in March, down from 6.1% the previous year…and is likely to contract this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.” (Associated Press)

Cambodia’s economy will likely shrink between 1 percent and 2.9 percent this year, which will be “its slowest growth since 1994.” (World Bank)

Sector and sub-population analysis

Unemployment in Southeast Asia has “spiked to almost unprecedented levels.” “In Laos, where the formal unemployment rate was around 0.7% last year, joblessness has recently spiked to around 25%... Unemployment rates have risen to a ten-year high in Vietnam… In Thailand… the unemployment rate could climb to almost 25% if the economic crisis lasts for several more months.” (Hutt)

“Deep household debt might soon push Cambodia into a crisis as job losses caused by COVID-19 make it even harder for families repay loans.” (Bopha and Sokummono)

“Export powerhouses Japan and South Korea [suffer] the sharpest declines in business activity in more than a decade,” even as China’s factory activity recovers. (Kihara)

An Ernst and Young survey reports that “Malaysian businesses anticipate Covid-19 will have a prolonged and deeper impact on the economy and will likely consider strategic mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth.” (Malay Mail)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warns that, similar to Africa, the swarms of desert locusts currently attacking Iran and Pakistan and threating crops in India will add to the burden of dealing with food insecurity due to the pandemic restrictions, in addition to the recent outbreak in African swine fever and fall armyworms. (UN FAO)

In India, “the forecast of a normal monsoon and its timely onset” is “expected to mitigate some impact of coronavirus on Indian economy.” (Parija)

Also in India, some states have suspended most labor laws “in a bid to draw investment and boost industry in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.” (DW)

Malaysia’s auto sales dropped by 99 percent in April compared to the same month last year. (Nakano)

Economic policy responses

The International Monetary Fund has approved $732 million in emergency assistance for Bangladesh. (IMF News)

The World Bank approved “a US$500 million loan to help the Philippines mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on poor and vulnerable households.” (World Bank)

“Singapore expects to have most, if not all, of its economy back on track by June.” (Choudhury)

“The Philippine government lifted some of its strictest coronavirus containment measures… [in] a bid to salvage an economy battered by unemployment and new signs of poverty.” (Jennings)

Despite increasing cases, India is lifting its lockdown and reopening its economy. (Schultz and Yasir)

“Indonesia is pushing ahead to reopen its economy amid a surge in coronavirus infections, with the government seeking to minimize job losses and the threat of social unrest.” (Salna, with similar reporting by Maulia)

Laos is starting to ease restrictions and open its economy. (Eureporter)

“Thailand’s parliament passed a 1.9 trillion baht ($58 billion) economic support package...to ease the impact of the coronavirus.” (Tanakasempipat)

“Thailand plans to boost domestic tourism in the third quarter to help support the struggling economy.” (Reuters)

Similarly, Indonesia has released a “Cleanliness, Health, and Safety program…as a strategy to accelerate the recovery of tourism and creative economy sector.” (PR Newswire)

Vietnam has curbed the virus and is reopening its economy. (VOA)

“Vietnam plans a 15.84 trillion dong (S$970 million) cut in corporate income tax for small-sized enterprises this year to help them overcome the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.” (Straits Tines)

Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand have “turned to new and higher taxes to offset falling government revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic, walking a fine line between securing funding and further straining economies.” (Endo)

“India’s central bank surprised markets by cutting its key lending rate, hoping to reignite growth.” (Agarwal)

Commentary

Pacific Island nations face unique challenges: “small in size, geographically remote, vulnerable to extreme environmental shock and limited in economies of scale.” “Travel and tourism — a principal economic driver — have come to a screeching halt, and countries like Fiji and Vanuatu could see their gross domestic product fall by almost 50 percent.” (Ellis)

Similarly, the IMF also warns of the economic collapse of Pacific Island countries: “Shrinking global demand is also affecting the islands dependent on commodity and other exports—particularly those depending on oil and gas for revenue. And supply chain disruptions—including in the fisheries industry—continue to hinder the islands dependent on this sector, including for the licensing revenues.” (IMF Country Focus)

In a blog, Holmemo underscores the importance of social protection for Indonesia especially during the crisis and provides suggestions on how the country can build on its social insurance system. (World Bank)

Nguyen and Malesky offer an analysis on how Vietnam’s improving governance has helped it weather the pandemic. (Brookings)

Middle East and North Africa

Growth and income analysis

The Institute of International Finance estimates that “the economy of the energy-exporting Gulf Cooperation Council region will shrink 4.4% in 2020, with Oman having the worst contraction of 5.3% among the six countries.” The region consists of Saudi Araba, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain. (S&P Global)

Palestinian economy is expected to decline by “at least 7.6 percent, based on a gradual return to normality from the containment, and up to 11 percent in the case of a slower recovery or further restrictions due to another outbreak.” This is down from a pre-coronavirus growth projection of 2.5 percent. (World Bank)

“Israel’s economy contracted by an annualised 7.1% in the first quarter…with the coronavirus outbreak hitting trade, investment and consumer and government spending.” (Reuters)

“The COVID-19 crisis is expected to lead to a 46.4 percent decline in Tunisia’s GDP during the 2nd quarter of 2020 (April to June). The industrial sector will be hit hardest, with output falling by 52.7 percent, followed closely by services (-49.0 percent) and agriculture (-16.2 percent).” (ElKadhi et al.)

Morocco’s finance minister estimates that “the country loses up to MAD 1 billion ($100 million) during each day under lockdown, noting it is expected that the two months of quarantine will cause the national economy to lose 6 points of GDP growth for 2020.” (Guessous)

Sector and sub-population analysis

Egypt’s economic minister reports that the “unemployment rate has risen to 9.2 percent as a result of the economic repercussions of the coronavirus.” (Egypt Independent)

“Money transfer providers in six governorates across Yemen told Oxfam they had seen the number of remittances drop by as much as 80 per cent between January and April this year.” (Ekklesia, and reported by Oxfam)

“Egypt's non-oil private sector activity shrank more slowly in May after turning in its worst performance in a decade the previous month,” but still not reaching the threshold to be considered in contraction. (Werr)

Travel restrictions shut down tourism in Marrakesh, and affected business owners. (Marketplace)

Economic policy responses

“The Arab Monetary Fund extended a new loan facility worth $59 million (Dh217m) to Tunisia to strengthen the country’s financial position in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.” (Rahman)

“The African Development Bank approved…the financing of €264 million for Morocco, as part of its COVID-19 response support program.” (Mebtoul)

“The European Union transferred a grant of MAD 1.7 billion (€157 million) to Morocco…to aid in the country’s COVID-19 response.” (Kasraoui)

“The U.N. humanitarian chief is urgently appealing for $2.4 billion to help millions in war-torn Yemen… saying programs are already being cut and the situation is "alarming."” (StarTribune)

Algeria removed the 51/49 majority ownership rule as part of the country’s economic recovery plan. (M’Bida, also reported by Reuters)

“Saudi Arabia unveiled a $13.3 billion stimulus package to protect banks against an expected drop in profits and rise in bad loans.” (Martin)

“Oman announced it will not renew the contracts of the majority of its foreign consultants working in government” in a bid to curb public spending. (Al-Monitor)

“Iran is rolling back coronavirus restrictions as it attempts to revive its battered economy, despite a surge in new infections.” (Rasmussen)

Turkey reopens its economy including restaurants and cafes in a bid to curb the economic impacts, especially the tourism industry. (Tavsan, also reported by OANN)

Egypt joins other countries in reopening: “Egypt has started operating its hotels once more after almost a month and a half of closure due to coronavirus, amid hopes that the move will put the tourism sector back on track.” (Emam)

“Egypt will deduct 1% from people’s salaries for 12 months beginning on July 1 to offset the economic repercussions of the coronavirus.” (Reuters)

Latin America and the Caribbean

Growth and income analysis

Chile’s economy had its worst month in recorded history in April of this year. Experts are predicting a continuation in the May numbers. (El Economista)

The Mexican economy had its worst decline in 11 years between January and March, and experts are predicting a slow recovery. (Reuters)

Peru’s economy could have its worst economic contraction in a century and be the worst-hit economically in the region, warns Peru’s Credit Bank. (RPP)

Brazil’s economic growth was 1.5 percent lower in this first trimester of this year relative to last year. (UOL)

The Honduran economy contract by 1.3 percent in the first trimester of 2020, its first contraction since the financial crisis of 2009. (Agencia EFE)

Argentina has already been in recession for two years. March 2020 saw economic performance that was 11.5 percent worse than March of the year before. (DW)

As a result, Argentina was the first country to suspend payments, making it “the first sovereign bankruptcy of a country since the global economic crisis due to the pandemic began.” (Mur)

12.5 million Mexicans lost their jobs in April. (Téllez)

Brazil lost 1.1 million formal jobs between March and April. (Martello)

1.6 million Colombians lost their jobs in April, with two thirds in urban areas. (infobae)

The latest estimates for Mexico’s growth are an 8 percent contraction for 2020. (infobae)

One set of estimates is putting the contraction in Peru at between 12 and 20 percent for 2020. (Publimetro)

Poverty in Peru could rise to 30 percent, consistent with 3 million people falling into poverty. (RPP)

El Salvador’s debt was already 70 percent of GDP in 2019. That will skyrocket when combined with an economic contraction. (Cantizzano)

Sector and sub-population analysis

Industrial production in Brazil was down nearly 19 percent in April relative to April 2019. (Istoé Dinheiro)

Peru’s largest productive sectors fell dramatically—between 30 and 58 percent—in April, with big drops in the production of iron, tin, zin, lead, silver, and gold. (El Diario)

The president of Brazil’s central bank argues that no other country was hurt more by the currency devaluation provoked by the COVID crisis. (Correio Braziliense)

That’s consistent with the news that “Brazil experienced its most aggressive deflation for at least 26 years in May.” (McGeever)

Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean are down 3.2 percent in the first trimester of 2020, relative to the same period last year, exacerbating a trend that was already happening, according to new numbers from the Inter-American Development Bank. (La Jornada)

For this year, the World Bank is predicting a fall in remittance income in Latin America and the Caribbean of 19.3 percent, ending a ten-year streak of increasing remittances each year. (France24)

In March, Peru’s commercial sector fell by more than 20 percent, with big drops in household goods, construction materials, computers, and clothing. “The sale of food, drink and tobacco grew.” (RPP)

The tourism industry is starting to reopen around the Caribbean, but a number of countries are requiring COVID tests from visitors. (Charles)

Automobile sales in Colombia are still down in May, but not as bad as in April. (Reuters)

Economic policy responses

Honduras will begin to open businesses from June 8. (Corchado)

After two and a half months of stoppage, Venezuela is partially opening industries. For the first time in history, gasoline will be sold at international prices. (Sánchez)

Panama is also allowing the construction and mining industries to reopen this week. (El Mundo)

Peru’s commission for production, micro-enterprise, and small enterprises received proposals from around the country’s regions for how to safely open the economy in the midst of the pandemic. (Notimex)

The IMF announced an additional $223 million for Honduras to respond to the crisis. (Reuters)

Jamaica’s Minister of Finance and Public Service—Nigel Clarke—explains the countries social and economic support program, including grants to unemployed and self-employed workers. (IMF News)

Commentary

What does it take to open the economy safely? Veillard, Brown, and Becerra propose key indicators that can help governments decide. (World Bank)

There is a temptation to abandon environmental regulations in the service of getting economies back on their feet. There will also be limited financing available. “For all these reasons, it is so important to take sustainable and ‘climate-proof’ economic recovery measures, not the usual ones.” Bárcena and Heileman lay out six candidate measures. (El Tiempo)

The order of authors on this blog post was determined by a virtual coin toss.

[csrgood]

Agribusiness and Food Companies Join Forces to Address Hunger and Nutrition Crisis in East Africa

In a first-ever collaboration on emergency hunger relief, leading global agribusiness and food companies Cargill, Bunge, ADM and Louis Dreyfus Company are partnering to prevent famine and contain the spread of hunger in East Africa.

The companies will contribute a combined $525,000 to help the World Food Programme (WFP)—the world’s leading humanitarian agency fighting global hunger—reach tens of thousands of families in East Africa. WFP has launched a coordinated response to conflict-induced famine in South Sudan, and to acute malnutrition in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, where drought has destroyed thousands of acres of crops and left millions of families in need of emergency food assistance.

“We can turn the tide and save millions of lives,” said President and CEO of World Food Programme USA Rick Leach. “Support from leading companies and individuals will be the key to reaching millions of people as quickly as possible before it’s too late.”

Currently drought, economic instability and conflict are having a profound impact on more than 16 million people, including:

In Somalia, two consecutive below-average rainy seasons have resulted in near total crop failure, widespread water and pasture shortages, an increase in livestock deaths and spikes in staple food prices, leaving 3 million people unsure of where their next meal is coming from.

In South Sudan, more than 40 percent of the population requires urgent emergency food assistance as a result of conflict-induced food insecurity, and 100,000 people are facing life-threatening famine conditions.

In Ethiopia, 5.6 million people require emergency food assistance as a result of drought.

In Kenya, nearly 344,000 young children are acutely malnourished as a result of the ongoing drought in the country’s arid and semi-arid northern and eastern regions.

Because of the generosity of private sector donors, WFP is able to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance, including e-voucher-cards for local food purchases, in-kind food rations, and targeted nutrition support for pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children.

“Companies and individuals are stepping up to address the emergency and advance longer term solutions,” said Leach. “We hope it inspires others to donate and get involved today.”

To learn more and donate, visit wfpusa.org.

About World Food Program USA World Food Program USA is a 501(c)(3) charity that proudly supports the mission of the World Food Programme (WFP), the largest humanitarian agency addressing hunger worldwide. By mobilizing individuals, lawmakers and businesses in the U.S. to advance the global movement to end hunger, we bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world. Learn more at www.wfpusa.org.

About ADM For more than a century, the people of Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) have transformed crops into products that serve the vital needs of a growing world. Today, we’re one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, with approximately 32,000 employees serving customers in more than 160 countries. With a global value chain that includes approximately 500 crop procurement locations, 250 ingredient manufacturing facilities, 38 innovation centers and the world’s premier crop transportation network, we connect the harvest to the home, making products for food, animal feed, industrial and energy uses. Learn more at www.adm.com.

About Bunge Limited Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com, NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company operating in over 40 countries with approximately 32,000 employees. Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat, corn and rice to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in South America. Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.

About Louis Dreyfus Company Louis Dreyfus Company is a leading merchant and processor of agricultural goods. We leverage our global reach and extensive asset network to serve our customers around the world, delivering the right products to the right location, at the right time – safely, responsibly and reliably. Our activities span the entire value chain from farm to fork, across a broad range of business lines (platforms). Since 1851 our portfolio has grown to include Oilseeds, Grains, Rice, Freight, Finance, Coffee, Cotton, Sugar, Juice, Dairy, Fertilizers & Inputs and Metals. Our products are originated, processed and transported around the world, helping feed and clothe some 500 million people every year. Structured as a matrix organization of 5 geographical regions and 12 platforms, Louis Dreyfus Company is active in over 100 countries and employs more than 22 000 people globally at peak season. For more information, visit www.ldc.com

About Cargill Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and 150 years of experience. We have 150,000 employees in 70 countries who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

For more information and media interviews, contact:

M.J. Altman Editorial Director mjaltman@wfpusa.org (202) 627-3932

source: http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/39816-Agribusiness-and-Food-Companies-Join-Forces-to-Address-Hunger-and-Nutrition-Crisis-in-East-Africa?tracking_source=rss

[diasporaengager]

New Post has been published on International Diaspora Engagement Blog

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Can Trump Save Africa and the African Diaspora After the Mixed Legacy of Obama?

It is hard to address the perspectives on Africa at the beginning of 2017 without mentioning the Chinese influence in Africa and the impact of the election of President Donald Trump on the legacy of President Barack Obama, the first African American to be elected as President of the USA. When President Obama was elected in 2008, several people thought he would be the savior of Africa and its Diaspora. However, the feelings towards his legacy are diverse.

  President Obama might have done what he could to strengthen democracy and boost economic growth in Africa for instance by extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) while investing in the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). By organizing the very first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, he helped the US to revisit its strategy for Africa. Soon after Obama leaves office, some of his legacies in the USA (e.g. Obamacare, “immigration reform”, Medicaid expansion, minimum wage increase, overtime benefits, paid pregnancy and sick leave, civil rights enforcement, criminal justice reforms, progressive tax reforms, tax credits for low-income people, climate change initiatives, etc.), may be brought down or replaced by something else.

  Although several people of African descent including some top civil rights movement leaders are disappointed by the legacy of Mr. Obama, it is worth noticing that he was sandwiched not only between some spiritual and racial strongholds, but also between the strategic forces that brought him to power and the tactical opposition he had to deal with once he managed to enter the White House, which was built by enslaved Africans whose descendants are still struggling in the Americas. The Africans and their stakeholders must reflect on Mr. Obama’s “inability” to do the things that they once thought he could. Unfortunately, many people cannot or do not want to understand that, to some extent, the power of an American President like Mr. Obama is not as strong as that of some Presidents who can even choose to stay in power even if the result of the presidential vote says otherwise. The timing of the presidency of Obama might have also affected his performance as he inherited the worst economic crisis in the USA since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Yet, as he was preparing to leave office, the statistics showed that the US economy is stronger than when he took office. We need to acknowledge Obama for his efforts regardless of his weaknesses, and also thank God for having allowed an African descent to lead the “world’s #1 nation” for 8 years.

  Many Africans would have loved that Mrs. Hillary Clinton was elected as the President of the USA in 2016. However, although she won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots, the Electoral College favored Mr. Trump. Several people of African descent did not come out to vote for Hillary as they did for Obama, therefore playing a role in the election of Trump who, during his “thank you tour”, acknowledged the African Americans for staying home during the election! The appointment of Mr. Trump could also be a divine set up that fits the end time as it was prophesied by the renowned Malawian Prophet Shepherd Bushiri (Major1), one of the most successful businessmen and ministers in the world.

  Unlike Mr. Obama whose election brought hope to Africa and its Diaspora before they realized 8 years later that, one man at the White House cannot save them, the election of Mr. Trump seems to bring fear on some people as if Trump can sink Africa while trying to “Make America Great Again” as emphasized during his revolutionary campaign. Analyzing Mr. Trump’s campaign and the people he is choosing to fill his cabinet positions, it may sound at first glimpse that his policies may not favor the people of African descent. For instance, some people think that Mr. Trump may reduce or redesign the US aids toward Africa. However, this should not scare anyone. For example, although not a descendant of Africa, President George W. Bush has done a lot of great things for Africa and some well-known African leaders still believe that he has helped Africa more than Mr. Obama whose father is from Kenya. Moreover, although foreign aids benefit some Africans, Africa is not supposed to be living on certain foreign “aids” which usually are strategic loans with high interest that are typically undetectable by the profane. Instead of counting on these “aids”, Africa should be seeking better opportunities that can allow it to put its own people to work and better manage its priceless human and natural resources that some people are still poaching for free. Therefore, let’s hope that, as a businessman who can negotiate deals, Mr. Trump ends up crafting some great agreements that can contribute to the ongoing efforts to advance Africa and its Diaspora.

  Remember to Love God and His People

Despite these controversial realities, there is hope for Africa and the African Diaspora if they can understand that their “salvation” will not come from any government in the East or West, but from themselves with the help of God Almighty, who did not predestinate Africa to be the headquarter of poverty despite its rich lands and smart intellectuals. That is why I still believe that the Africans must better partner with each other without forgetting the huge untapped potential of the African Diaspora that some leaders unfortunately refuse to realistically incorporate into their strategic agendas. Instead of putting their hope on people who usually disillusion them, the Africans need to keep up all good fights while counting on God to develop themselves and the motherland. As for the unspoken racial discrimination and the other forms of injustice, let’s not forget that, there is a God who will judge very soon!

  Dr. Roland Holou is a scientist, a businessman, an international consultant and expert in agribusiness, agriculture, agronomy, biotechnology, Diaspora engagement, Africa’s development, international trade and development. To learn more about his work or contact him, please visitwww.DiasporaEngager.com, www.AfricanDiasporaLeaders.com and www.RolandHolou.com.

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