BIFAD Meetings

The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development is authorized under Title XII of the Foreign Assistance Act and is a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Advisory Committee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Board’s mission is to assist USAID in administering programs authorized by Title XII. BIFAD reports to the Administrator of USAID, providing recommendations and advising on any and all issues as requested.

The BIFAD charter (March 2019) calls for the Board to meet in public session at least two times per year. From 2004 to 2020, APLU provided support to BIFAD for all aspects of planning, developing, and implementing public meetings. An effort was made to maximize public engagement by holding BIFAD meetings at different locations and, in more recent years, by livestreaming the meetings. Strategic engagement of APLU’s membership, the university community at large, and partner organizations was the hallmark of APLU’s efforts, fostering an environment for partnership with all stakeholders.

Archives of BIFAD’s public meetings and special sessions for 2014 – 2020 can be found in the APLU – BIFAD Library.

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BIFAD Public Meetings and Special Sessions, 2014 – 2020:

BIFAD 183rd Public Meeting. The BIFAD 183rd Public meeting, Agricultural Growth, Economic Transformation, and the Journey to Self-Reliance: Implications for USAID Programming, was held October 13, 2020 on a virtual platform.

BIFAD 182nd Public Meeting. The BIFAD 182nd Public meeting was scheduled for September 14, 2020. The meeting, “COVID-19 and Nutrition: Impacts, Field Innovations, and the Way Forward,” was held on a virtual platform.

BIFAD 181st Public Meeting. Due to the global pandemic and travel restrictions, the 181st BIFAD public meeting, Food Security and Nutrition in the Context of COVID-19: Impacts and Interventions, was held virtually on June 4th.

BIFAD 180th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 180th Public meeting, Agriculture and Food Security in Conflict-affected and Fragile Contexts and BIFAD Award for Scientific Excellence in a Feed the Future Innovation Announcement and Launch of BIFAD Study, How the United States Benefits from Agricultural and Food Security Investments in Developing Countries, was held October 15, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa.

BIFAD 179th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 179th Public meeting, U.S. University Feedback on Implementation of USAID ADS 252 (Visa Compliance for Exchange Visitors) and ADS 253 (Participant Training Exchanges for Capacity Development), was held virtually on April 9, 2019.

BIFAD 178th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 178th Public meeting, Improving Nutrition through Private Sector Engagement across Food Systems, was held October 16, 2018 in Des Moines, Iowa.

BIFAD 177th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 177th Public meeting, The Feed the Future Learning Agenda, was held September 12, 2018 in Washington D.C.

BIFAD 176th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 176th Public meeting, U.S. Benefits Leveraged from Strategic Investments in Developing Country Agriculture and Food Security, was held August 8, 2018 in Washington D.C.

BIFAD 175th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 175th Public meeting, Resilience Measurement and Analysis, was held May 9, 2018 in Washington D.C.

BIFAD 174th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 174th Public meeting, Building an Evidence Base on Rural Youth Employment and Livelihoods, was held May 8, 2018 in Washington D.C.

BIFAD 173rd Public Meeting. The BIFAD 173rd Public meeting, The U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Research Strategy: From Upstream Research to Development Impact, was held September 12, 2017 in Washington D.C.

BIFAD 172nd Public Meeting. The BIFAD 172nd Public meeting, Metrics for Accountability: Tracking Progress and Identifying Gaps in Development Investments, was held October 12, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa.

BIFAD 171st Public Meeting. The BIFAD 171st Public meeting, Collaboration: Leadership, Innovation and Sustainable Technology to Meet the Demands of Global Agriculture, was held May 20, 2016 in Greensboro at the North Carolina A&T State University campus.

BIFAD 170th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 170th Public meeting, University and CGIAR Engagement in International Agricultural Research, was held March 10, 2016 in Washington D.C.

BIFAD 169th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 169th Public meeting, Crossroads: Science, Innovation, Markets, and Policy for Feeding the World, was held October 20-21, 2015 in West Lafayette, Indiana at the Purdue University campus.

BIFAD 168th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 168th Public meeting was held April 9 – 10, 2015 in Bozeman on the Montana State University campus.

BIFAD 167th Public Meeting. The BIFAD 167th Public meeting, Feeding the World in 2050: Agricultural Research Capacity and Youth Engagement, was held October 14, 2014 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Special Sessions and other meetings:

Feed the Future Innovation Labs: The Global Payoff of Investing in Research for Development. A joint BIFAD – Feed the Future Innovation Lab side-event was held during the World Food Prize events in Des Moines, Iowa on October 17, 2019. The side-event provided a deeper look at the Innovation Labs role in providing benefits to the US. Findings were presented from the BIFAD-commissioned study, “How the United States Benefits from Agricultural and Food Security Investments in Developing Countries”. APLU coordinated with the Innovation labs and developed talking points for BIFAD members and US Benefits study report authors. APLU also worked with Jennifer Blackburn, External Affairs Director of the Sorghum Growers Association to provide a video highlighting the benefits to the US sorghum industry of foreign aid.

Building an Evidence Base for Resilience Programming under the U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Strategy: Bridging the Gap Between Humanitarian and Development Assistance. A BIFAD side-event was held during the World Food Prize events in Des Moines, Iowa on October 17, 2017. The side-event presented an overview of the USAID resilience programming under the Global Food Security Strategy and a panel discussion of the emerging evidence base on resilience.

Aligning Research Investments to the Global Food Security Strategy: A Three-Day AgExchange on Nutrition, Resilience, and Agriculture-led Economic Growth. BIFAD and USAID co-hosted a three-day stakeholder online consultation, April 18 – 20, 2017, to learn from the global research community and elicit guidance on aligning USAID’s food and agricultural research investments with the US Government’s Global Food Security Strategy. The AgExchange was opened with a summary webinar on April 18th.

Building Human Capital: Nutrition is Fundamental. The economic impact of malnutrition in the developing world and loss or impairment of human capital caused by sub-optimal nutrition was the focus of this BIFAD-hosted side-event of the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. The side-event was held October 14, 2015 and featured an overview of USAID’s nutrition strategy, emerging trends in malnutrition, and lessons from successful nutritional interventions.

Creating Future Leaders: BIFAD and Feed the Future Dialogue on Human and Institutional Capacity Development. Co-hosted by BIFAD, USAID, and APLU, this World Food Prize side-event on October 15, 2014 was an interactive, two-hour dialogue on the future role of capacity building and higher education in agricultural development. The side-event introduced the November 2014 global e-consultation on three recently published reports: 1) African Higher Education: Opportunities for Transformative Change for Sustainable Development; 2) Good Practices in Leveraging Long-term Training for Institutional Capacity Strengthening; and 3) BIFAD Review of Strategic HICD Issues and the Role of USAID and Title XII under the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative.

HICD in Agricultural Innovation System. This special session of BIFAD was held on February 27, 2015 at the APLU offices in Washington D.C. The meeting provided a summary of the USAID, BIFAD, and APLU e-Consultation held in November 2014 on Human and Institutional Capacity Development.