This virtual presentation is co-sponsored by the 1818 Society WBG History TG, AgFRD TG and WBG Library.
Conveners:
– Uma Lele, President, International Association of Agricultural Economics (IAAE)
– Charles Ziegler, Chair, WBG History TG
Panel of Experts:
- Jo Swinnen, Director General of IFPRI, will discuss the role policies and policy analysis have played and lessons going forward.
- Roberto Lenton, Former Director General, and currently the chair of the IMWI board will speak on the key role of water and IMWI’s role in related issues—past, present, and future.
- Arif Husain, Chief Economist of WFP will speak on the changing role of emergency assistance in the face of the growing displaced population.
- Robert Herdt, Former Vice President, Rockefeller Foundation will speak on the role of the private foundations—past and future.
Historically five international organizations have played key roles in addressing inter-related issues of food insecurity and poverty. The organizations include the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) established in 1945, the World Bank established in 1944 and its sister organization International Development Association( IDA), established in 1960 to provide concessional assistance, the World Food Program established in 1960 to provide food aid, CGIAR established in 1972 to bring cutting edge technologies and IFAD established in 1977to recycle Petro-dollars for the benefit of the poor.
Individually and collectively, they have played key roles in keeping global food insecurity and poverty reduction at the forefront. They have achieved major successes, most widely cited being the Green Revolution, in which the World Bank and IDA together with the CGIAR played pivotal roles in India and South Asia more generally making the so-called “the package approach” of seed, fertilizer and water, the model to be applied elsewhere.
They have battled population growth, depletion of soil and water, urbanization, and climate change, growing internal displacement and cross border migration with considerable success. But the world still faces major challenges on all these fronts where the role of developing countries in population, trade, and policies has grown relative to developed countries. Agriculture still contains a major share of the poor.
Have the World Bank and other international organizations been responsive enough to these challenges?
Uma Lele et al book, Food for All: International Organizations and the Transformation of Agriculture (Oxford, 2021)[1] explains the reasons leading to the establishment of each of these organizations and how they have worked individually and collectively to address issues, but their resources have not growth commensurately with the investment needs to meet SDGs, women still need greater attention in the transformation process.
An expert panel will address the historical role of these organizations and their lessons going forward.
Moderator: Uma Lele
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[1] Uma Lele, Manmohan Agarwal, Brian Baldwin, and Sambuddha Goswami, Food for All: International Organizations and the Transformation of Agriculture, Oxford, 2021.
