World Bank Agriculture and Rural Development Week

2-6 March 2009. World Bank Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Agriculture and Rural Development week focused on “Agriculture in a changing world: challenges and opportunities.” Participants included World Bank staff, invitees from bilateral agencies, World Bank partners, academia, NGOs/CSOs, private sector representatives - a total of approximately 300 participants.

The objectives of the event were:

• to enable the ARD community and partners to highlight and discuss the knowledge and technical expertise to further strengthen agriculture and rural development programs in the face of a volatile external environment;
  to provide opportunities for networking;
  to showcase cutting-edge work by the ARD community;
• to forge and advance partnerships; and
  to promote the implementation of key recommendations of the World Development Report 2008

The first 2 days consisted of forum style sessions. Discussants used their individual/country and institutional/organizational experiences to respond to the 3Fs (fuel, financial & food) crisis to position agriculture and rural development in a changing world. Topics discussed ranged from issues of land and water management and land sector governance to role of the private sector and public-private partnerships in agricultural development to greenhouse gas mitigation in the sector. The next 2 days consisted of formal learning courses and the last day was dedicated to internal activities organized by region.

A FARA representative attended the event to use the opportunity to present and discuss DONATA (Dissemination of New Agricultural Technologies in Africa) and its Innovation Platform for Technology Adoption (IPTAs). 

Reference:
World Development Report 2008
ARD Week 2009 Schedule