Brussels Briefing on "Agricultural Resilience in the Face of Crises and Shocks"

On 4th March 2013, we will hold a Briefing on the important issue of Agricultural resilience in the face of crisis and shocks organised in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). We would like to discuss the concept and approaches to resilience and highlight proven approaches and instruments around some key areas (policies, adaptation, technologies, insurance mechanisms and safety nets...) of special benefit to the small-scale farmers in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

We will have the first panel on Resilience in Agriculture: Approaches and instruments and the second on Proven successes on building resilience. 200 participants are expected.

 Programme

Agricultural Resilience in the Face of Crises and Shocks

 Rue Belliard 99-101, 1040 Brussels, room JDE 62

 http://brusselsbriefings.net

 Organised by CTA, the EC/DECVO, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the ACP Secretariat, Concord and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 

 8h00-8h45 Registration and welcome coffee

8h45-9h30 Objectives of the Briefing and Programme: Isolina Boto, Manager, CTA Brussels Office

 Introductory remarks: Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC); Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Secretary-General of the ACP Secretariat; Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Head of 2020 Initiative, IFPRI; AndrisPiebalgs, EU Commissioner for Development (tbc), Michael Hailu, Director of CTA

Special guest: Conducive policies in support of resilience, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Nigeria

9h30-10h45 Panel 1: Approaches and instruments for building resilience in agriculture

This panel will provide an overview of the key concepts, challenges and opportunities in building a resilient agricultural system in ACP countries.

Chair: Thijs Berman, Member of the Development Committee, European Parliament

Panellists:

- Agricultural resilience -- what do we know and what do we need to know, Sir Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Imperial College London

- Building resilience in countries in protracted crises, Dominique Burgeon, FAO, Director of Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division

10h45-11h00 Coffee Break

11h00-13h00 Panel 2: Proven successes on building resilience

This panel will present proven actions in building resilience along with lessons learned and best practices to decrease the vulnerability of agricultural systems and improve their resilience to both predictable and unexpected stresses and shocks.

Chair: Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors

Panellists:

- Enhancing resilience in the Horn of Africa, Jean-François Maystadt, Researcher, IFPRI

- Resilience-building in the Sahel: Regreening the Sahel, Chris Reij, SLM specialist, Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute

- Drought-resilient crops and resilience systems of benefit to small-scale farmers, Girma Tesfahun, Researcher Socioeconomics Programme, CIMMYT, Zimbabwe

- Building community resilience: Namibia Red Cross approaches and successes, Kingsley Kwenani, Food Security Officer, Namibia Red Cross Society

Concluding remarks

Networking lunch and 30^th Anniversary celebration