Policy Analysis

On April 5, 2013, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline will be just 1,000 days away. Where do we stand on these ambitious goals? Have we collectively done enough to convert them into reality? And what needs to happen during the last 1,000 days to ensure that the world not only sprints to the finish line – but blows right through it?

At ONE, our focus on agriculture in Africa is its poverty reducing potential. We believe that engagement with large agribusinesses within the context of global development must include concrete benefits for smallholder farmers and rural communities. These benefits could include increased (and more consistent) incomes, better health and nutrition, and economic empowerment of women.

In this paper, we confront head on the concerns about the New Alliance and ask: are investments in the New Alliance designed to deliver these benefits to farmers? Do New Alliance investments treat smallholder farmers as simply buyers of multinational companies’ products, or as entrepreneurs and sellers of their own agricultural products? How are women farmers being included? And finally, what does the New Alliance plan to do about improving interrelated issues like nutrition and postharvest storage that affect the welfare and livelihoods of farmers and their families?

Teeing up for this critical year, this report holds governments accountable to their past commitments on agriculture and food security and looks ahead to future opportunities for growth. Read the executive summary here.

589 million people in sub-Saharan Africa—68% of the population—do not have access to electricity or other modern energy services and roughly 30 African countries face endemic power shortages. This hampers services in health and education, profoundly limits economic development and disproportionately affects women. This lack of energy access is a major barrier to eradicating poverty in Africa, yet there is a way to change this. Providing access to reliable and affordable energy is one of the most powerful development multipliers—giving those trapped in subsistence lifestyles the means to work their way out of poverty.