Message-ID: <Pine.SGI.3.91.960202125215.14985D@badger.ac.BrockU.CA> Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 12:52:15 -0500 From: Martin Sieg <mailto:ms94dk@BADGER.AC.BROCKU.CA> Subject: Hunger research Briefinf and Exchange To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
>From Wedn fternoon, April 24, to Friday noon, Aptil 26, the World Hunger
Program at Brown University organizes its 10th annual Hunger Research Briefing and Exchange HRBE). The HRBE is a meeting of academics and practitioners around issues related to hunger and poverty. A summary of the program follows below. If you are interested in receivign the more detailed brochure, please reply to my address (and not to this list!!)--------------------------------------
Alliances Against Hunger Building Partnerships For Development
Hunger lives abroad and at our own doorstep. Although progress has been made in the past decades, too many still suffer from extreme poverty and hunger. In addition, resources devoted to fighting poverty and hunger continue to shrink and we are faced with having to do more with less. How can we rise to this challenge?
The theme of the Ninth Annual Hunger Briefing and Exchange suggests that efforts to fight hunger may be more effective if they are achieved by building stronger, more equitable partnerships within the development community. Partnerships can occur at the most micro-level among individuals in a community or at the most macro-level between international organizations. They may occur between North and South, physical scientists and social scientists, action groups and research groups, governments, NGOs and enterprises. How do we build partnerships among actors that have very different objectives, resources, and powers?
This Briefing challenges participants to envision new partnerships and to share experiences from successful ones. In eight separate sessions, researchers, policy makers, and program managers will convene to discuss partnership issues and draw lessons for the future. As every year, the Briefing is held in conjunction with the ceremony for the Alan Shawn Feinstein Awards for the Prevention and Reduction of World Hunger.
Session 1: Blocking Hunger in the United States: Government Programs at Risk
The US federal government is scaling back food and nutrition programs and devolving more power to states through block grants. How will state governments protect food and nutrition security? Will new partnerships emerge? What effect will this have on the poor ? The opening address and panel will respond to the most up-to-date changes in US hunger legislation and subsequent nongovernment response.
Sessions 2: The Role of Civil Society in Eradicating Hunger and Poverty: Towards a Process of Mutual Learning (Part I)
Tens of thousands of grassroots organizations (GROs) and nongovernment organizations (NOS) play important roles in the eradication of hunger and poverty. Yet, their innovations, strengths, and potentials are still largely unknown and untapped. In November 1995, on the initiative of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), more than 100 GROs and NOS, decided to establish a "knowledge network", dedicated to the exchange of civil society knowledge and experience in fighting hunger and poverty and to the promotion of policy dialogue.
How do we coordinate decentralized learning while still synthesizing comparative, generalizable lessons? How do we stimulate more interaction and mutual learning among different actors -- government agencies, international organizations, NGOs, GROs -- in different locations? Two working sessions will develop concrete plans for the establishment of this knowledge network.
Session 3: Developing Food Security Indicators from Local Knowledge: Methods and Experience
Many argue that definitions and therefore measurements of hunger are particular to a given social context. How do we incorporate local notions of hunger into indicators designed to target the food insecure? This session explores the methodological issues as well as recent experiences with some of these novel indicators. It highlights the use of multidisciplinary approaches to indicator development as well as the need for stronger linkages among researchers and field practitioners.
Session 4: Building Gender-Based Partnerships for Livelihood Security
Gender issues are now part of the mainstream development agenda. A growing literature documents the vital role that women play in securing the livelihoods of their families. Drawing on women's knowledge can lead to more effective, equitable ways to create and protect sustainable livelihood systems. This session highlights partnerships involving women and men, project managers, policy makers, researchers, and community members in implementing livelihood security strategies.
Session 5: The Development-to-Relief Continuum in Rwanda
Until the end of the 1980s, most development specialists considered Rwanda to be an African success story with above average performance on most development indicators. Yet, in only a few years, it disintegrated into a severe crisis. This session explores the factors affecting the slide from a state of development to one requiring massive emergency relief. What is the role of the international community and international aid in countries characterized by profound cleavages? Is it possible to promote development by intervening on factors that lead to conflict and violence?
Sessions 6: The Role of Civil Society in Eradicating Hunger and Poverty: Towards a Process of Mutual Learning (Part II)
This working session focuses on topics considered in Session 2.
Session 7: Female-Headed Households: A Worthy Target?
The debate continues on the use of female-headship as an indicator for targeting poverty programs. Is this indicator useful? Or does it cloud the real issues at hand? This session focuses on recent findings from the poverty literature and underscores the implications for targeting. As with earlier sessions, a multi-disciplinary approach is taken toward the development and interpretation of these indicators.
Session 8: Reconciling Divergent Priorities: Developing the Mekong Basin
Plans to develop the Mekong River Basin are regarded by many as essential for fueling continued economic growth in the region. However, serious questions remain as to whether the costs and benefits of hydro-electric power and new transportation systems have been adequately weighed. Populations who will bear the brunt of the environmental consequences have had little to say in the policy deliberations This panel looks at how plans for the Mekong Basin have evolved, how decisions are currently made, and how NGOs and communities may enter the policy debate.
Peter Uvin Joukowsky Family Assistant Professor World Hunger Program Brown University Box 1831 Providence, RI 02912
Tel. 401 863 2748 Fax 401 863 2192