Save the Date: Board for International Food and Agricultural Development Fall Meetings, Sept. 14 and Oct. 13

The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), which APLU manages, has scheduled two public meetings for the Fall of 2020. BIFAD advises the United States Agency for International Development on ways that universities, particularly the land-grant institutions, can help the agency achieve its goals for agricultural development, broadly defined. Both meetings will be held virtually.

182^nd BIFAD Public Meeting, Virtual – COVID-19 and Nutrition: Impacts, Field Innovations, and Way Forward

Monday, September 14, 2020, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm EDT

As a follow-on to the 181st BIFAD meeting, Food Security and Nutrition in the Context of COVID-19, BIFAD will convene a panel of experts from across sectors to provide updates on the impacts of the pandemic on nutrition outcomes and discuss USAID’s response. The COVID-19 crisis risks backsliding on nutrition gains with irrevocable impacts on mortality and lost potential. The meeting will provide a platform to discuss how the global community can work together to protect and advance nutrition outcomes across sectors during COVID-19 response and recovery. More information can be found on the APLU/BIFAD website.

183rd BIFAD Public Meeting, Virtual – Agricultural Growth, Economic Transformation, and the Journey to Self-Reliance: Implications for USAID Programming

Tuesday, October 13, 2020, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT

Coinciding with the World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue, BIFAD will convene a public meeting seeking to better understand the concept of economic transformation—how underdeveloped and agrarian-based countries shift from subsistence agriculture to a commercially oriented economy with diverse agricultural, manufacturing, and service sectors—and how it contributes to a country’s progression toward self-reliance. The meeting will hear from experts on some emerging success stories in agricultural and economic transformation, distill lessons and identify knowledge gaps from these experiences, and identify implications of this evidence for USAID’s priorities for development and social safety net programming investments for agriculture and food security. More information can be found on the APLU/BIFAD website.