Meeting symbol/code: ERC 00 6

A broad range of actions that can aid in the efforts to end hunger are described in this issue of Food, Nutrition and Agriculture. Improving the methods and tools to work drectly with food-insecure households is critical. For decades, growth monitoring has been practised by community health workers in many developing countries. Authors show how techniques for assessing children's growth status can be made more effective.

Meeting symbol/code: ERC 00 6

This report falls under Operational Activities within the context of the Program of Work and Priorities of the ECA/SRDC-SA for the 2000-2001 Biennium. It is consequential to my participation at the Second COMESA Meeting of the Committee on Agricultural Cooperation. The substantive agenda of the meeting consisted of 15 reports. Two of the Reports namely the "Draft COMESA Agricultural Strategy", and the "Challenges and Opportunities of the COMESA Free Trade Area: An Agenda for Sustainable Agricultural Development" emanated from major studies which were undertaken by consultants.

A response to the Minister’s Briefing (below). Asks who is land redistribution really serving. Challenges false dichotomy between commercial and subsistence agriculture. Need for government programmes to be open to close scrutiny by civil society.

Mentions new food security programme, transfer of state land, land tenure, land reform grant, new approach, commonage, agricultural redistribution grants, integrated rural development planning. Will facilitate transfer of tribal land to tribes and communities. Extended deadline for labour tenant claims to March 2001. Previous overemphasis on market forces failed to produce desired effect and impact. Lifted last August’s moratorium on new land reform projects. Piloting a supply led system.

The Asian financial crisis led to a major devaluation of the Indonesian exchange rate, macro instability, and the need for a “structural adjustment” program. The real devaluation affects prices throughout the economy and has a major impact on growth, production, deforestation, and income distribution in the Sumatera region. This paper uses computable general equilibrium (CGE) models —a national model and a regional model of Sumatera— that focus on agriculture to explore the impact of a real devaluation on the economy of Sumatera.

As in most low-income countries, the majority of the poor population in Viet Nam is found in rural areas, where agriculture provides the primary means of livelihood. It has been argued that an agriculture-based development (ABD) strategy is more appropriate for Viet Nam at the present time than both import-substitution and export-led industrialization, considering its effectiveness in generating income opportunities, directly and indirectly, for the rural population.

This paper constructs a framework for and reviews studies on property rights reforms in the agricultural and natural resources sector. In the case of agrarian reform, several hypotheses are posited: that agrarian reform will increase the rate of capital accumulation of beneficiaries and improve tenurial security, but may have negative impacts on land access, investments of landowners, and efficiency of land use. For the natural resources sector, the implications of open access and promotion of property rights are surveyed for the Philippine case.

This article explores the breakdown of complementarity between agriculture and livestock in the Kishi Beiga area in the north of Burkina Faso. The article suggests that the the two systems now compete for land and local management systems have broken down.This article discusses a joint GTZ and Government of Burkina Faso initiative to improve natural resource management and people's livelihoods.