Ce document vise à contribuer au programme d’action en cours pour le développement de l’Afrique au sud du Sahara.

As the population continues to grow and natural resources become scarcer, the need to shift toward an environmen­tally responsible, socially accountable, more equitable, and “greener” economy has become increasingly apparent. Despite differing perspectives and definitions among stakeholders, the “green economy” is often seen as an economy that pursues growth while also promoting sustainable development through more efficient use of resources.

A farmer-managed, agroenvironmental transformation has occurred over the past three decades in the West African Sahel, enabling both land rehabilitation and agricultural intensification to support a dense and growing population. This paper traces the technical and institutional innovations, their impacts, and lessons learned from two successful examples. The first is the story of the improvement and replication of indigenous soil and water conservation practices across the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso.

Desde 2007, se produjeron dos rondas de picos de los precios de los alimentos que han contribuido a que al hambre y la malnutrición de millones de personas.

ecent food-price and economic shocks have further jeopardized the food security of developing countries and poor people, pushing the estimated number of undernourished people over one billion. Known and unknown food-security risks appear to be on the rise. Increasing uncertainties raise critical questions about how to quickly, viably, and sustainably manage familiar risks and emerging new ones.

Biofuel demand is increasing because of a combination of growing energy needs; rising oil costs; the pursuit of clean, renewable sources of energy; and the desire to boost farm incomes in developed countries. In turn, the need for crops-such as maize and sugarcane-to be used as feedstocks for biofuels has increased dramatically. That demand has had a significant and increasing impact on global food systems. The effects of growing biofuel demand are interwoven with tightening grain markets, which reflect demographic shifts and improved diets.

This report is timely input into the ongoing development agenda for Africa South of the Sahara (SSA).

"Earlier briefs in this series make the case that there is added value for the agricultural and health sectors in working more closely together to address problems of human well-being that fall at the intersection of the two sectors. Yet the divisions between the two sectors are wide and difficult to bridge. Building the space and providing sufficient incentives and resources for collaborative activities between them will require changes in government policy—itself not a straightforward endeavor.

"Contract farming is conventionally thought of as a form of industrial organization that helps to overcome high monitoring, supervision, and environmental mitigation costs incurred from ensuring a reliable and uniform-quality supply (from the standpoint of integrators) and high capital and small-scale input and service purchase costs (from the standpoint of individual farmers). But contract farming is also a private sector vertical coordination response to the changing demand for certifying the use of quality inputs to produce quality outputs and of safe production procedures.