Roger Thurow: She’s The Boss

Jun 4th, 2010 5:13 PM UTC
By Virginia Simmons

Author Roger Thurow, who is a senior fellow for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a great friend to ONE, is writing for the excellent global agricultural development blog “Global Food for Thought.”

Below is an except on one of his latest post, which discusses the importance of country-led plans in the administration’s “Feed the Future” initiative, and particularly the increased focus on the role of women.

As Rajiv Shah spoke at last week’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, I thought about an image in his old office at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation before he became Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.  Hanging on the wall behind his desk was a photo of a child crouching in a blue wash bucket somewhere in Africa.  Only her head was visible above the bucket’s rim.

Tell me about the girl, I asked.

“She’s the boss,” he replied.  She, and not the wealthy and influential Bill Gates, was essentially the one they all worked for at the foundation’s global agriculture development department.

“We’re working to benefit her,” Shah said.

In presenting the guidelines to the Obama administration’s Feed the Future initiative, Shah effectively indicated that that little girl — and millions of children like her, and their mothers and fathers — was still the boss.  Not the mighty president, nor the secretary of state, nor members of Congress.  They all need to listen to what the Africans – particularly those Africans struggling to feed themselves – have to say about the priorities of agriculture development.

You can read the full post here.

TAGS: Agriculture