World Agricultural Forum

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The World Agricultural Forum will take place on 28 November - 1 December in Brussels. Ignace Coussement, AgriCord managing director, will participate.

On 28 November till 1 December, the Renaissance Hotel in Brussels will host the World Agricultural Forum. 

 The 2011 WAF Congress calls together all segments of society from business to government, from NGOs to academy and from finance to science to discuss, debate and determine the future of agriculture. It will welcome 70 speakers from 6 continents. Ignace Coussement, AgriCord managing director, will be one of them. The programme of the forum is available here: http://www.worldagriculturalforum.net/programme/.

Ignace Coussement will be participating to the panel debate on Aid for Trade organised by Oxfam. The panel will consider the rationale and models of existing aid and development programmes, assessing how best aid and development might be transmitted.  Some of the questions which the Panel might consider include:

• - Looking ahead, what are the best methods of increasing investment in sustainable agriculture in developing countries and ensuring that smallholder producers benefit? What role does aid for trade play?
• - What might be the role of the private sector, including farmers and smallholder producers in particular, in working with government and NGO bodies to increase effectiveness?
• - How can development programmes best support research and development, new technologies and training for sustainable agriculture, as well as best business practices, such as micro-credit, village banking and other operations?
• - What is the potential for focusing development assistance in support of trade, including trade-related capacity building? How can this improve the livelihoods of poor farmers and smallholder producers in developing countries? Is there a role for regional trade agreements in this area?

 More info: http://www.worldagforum.com/