All External Events

At this Ag Sector Council Seminar, presenters from USAID, World Bank, and the FAO will discuss the important role of aquaculture in addressing food security and poverty reduction in developing countries, and will provide projections of how much aquaculture must grow in order to meet future demand.

Join a discussion exploring agriculture and international affairs with Paul Matteucci (General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners): "Feeding 10 Billion: Entrepreneurs as Change Agents" at John Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

This three-day, practitioner-driven event shares promising practices and models in Savings-led Microfinance and Village Savings and Loan (VS&L) programming. PCI, with funding from a TOPS micro grant, is organizing the “Be the Bank” Forum – Small Savings, Big Impact, to build the capacity of participants to implement cost-effective and locally viable practices to reduce food insecurity through the implementation of successful "Village Savings and Loan" (VSL) methodologies.

The goal of this symposium is to highlight examples of how food processing can create markets for smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs, reduce food losses, improve nutrition, and meet changing food demand. The discussion will also focus on how public, private and civil sector organizations can facilitate the required innovative food technologies, business expertise and policy environment in Africa.

This year's Africa2Ag week will be held at the Pennsylvania State University's University Park campus during the first week of the Fall semester. The theme of the week will be "The next generation of African agriculture: youth, innovation, science and technology." All events are free of charge and open to all. Only the Africa Collaboration Colloquium event and the Wednesday afternoon youth and African agriculture symposium require registration.

The Center for Global Development will host Michael Froman, President Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor and Assistant for International Economics, for a discussion of the Obama Administration's strategy to achieve poverty alleviation and sustained economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This talk will explore key drivers needed to spark and sustain organizational change, such as a change champion within the project and the use of formal mechanisms for encouraging staff to take a facilitative approach, as well as intangible aspects of a culture of learning and innovating. Presenter Mina Shahid will draw from experiences working with three different projects trying to implement a value chain approach, all to varying degrees of success.