Earlier this week, I attended the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Agriculture and Food Security, and for the second year in a row heard from experts in the fight against hunger. It’s is one of the most important issues we need to address in the fight against extreme poverty – and with the introduction of the Food Aid Reform Act early last week in Congress, I’m ecstatic that smart changes are being proposed in order to more efficiently help the world’s poor. The legislation, co-sponsored by bi-partisan leaders – Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Africa Subcommittee Ranking Member Karen Bass (D-CA) – will provide much needed flexibility and overdue reforms to the way the United States currently delivers its food aid.

The Act, encouragingly, mirrors President Obama’s proposed changes in his FY14 budget. They focus on three important provisions:

First, it allows the U.S. government the option to respond to food emergencies in a variety of ways. When appropriate, the government can choose to use traditional direct food assistance, similar to how we’ve done it the past 60 years. However, when time and money can be saved, local and regional purchase will be used to provide food for those in need.

Second, the legislation effectively eliminates the practice of “monetization,” by which the U.S. government buys agricultural and ships commodities to private voluntary organizations who then sell them to finance their development programs. The elimination of this grossly ineffective method is estimated to save more than $30 million per year.

Finally, this bill exempts food assistance from cargo preference, a practice that adds unnecessary costs to shipping commodities. Under current law, whenever the U.S. government procures commodities to be shipped overseas, at least 50% of overall tonnage needs to be shipped by U.S.-flagged vessels.  Exempting commodities from this policy will result in an estimated $50 million in savings per year. In this time of fiscal discipline, any opportunity to do more with the same amount of resources should be considered.

All of that is to say that the Food Aid Reform Act is a nimble response to the way we deliver assistance to people in need all around the world. Indeed, the development community was encouraged by these changes; notably in this timely piece in Politico by the Chicago Council’s Catherine Bertini and Dan Glickman. As they said, “By bringing more flexibility to the way we distribute food aid, our programs will save more lives, serve more hungry people and do more to advance America’s reputation and interests around the globe.”

Representatives Royce and Bass have submitted a timely and welcome proposal to address current inefficiencies in our nation’s food assistance program, and we urge Congress to enact these reforms. It’s a win-win. These smart policy reforms will not only save taxpayer money, but also ensure that when millions of lives are on line, the helping hands of the American people will reach an additional two to four million people who are in dire need of food deliveries that happen over the course of weeks, not months.

1. It was truly groundbreaking when it was created for its focus on delivering treatment in sub-Saharan Africa.   Although it seems obvious now, with more than 7 million people on treatment in Africa, at the time, the idea of delivering treatment at mass scale was quite controversial. One US government official even notoriously remarked that Africans wouldn’t be able to take their medication consistently because “they didn’t have watches,” and others argued we should only focus on prevention.  But with political commitment to treatment targets, as well as hard work from staff and local officials on the ground, improving access to treatment has been a major—and life-saving—success.

2. It has a proud bipartisan legacy.  Few, if any, other American policy initiatives have seen such widespread bipartisan support sustained over a decade.  From Democrats including Rep. Lee, Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Durbin, and Sen. Kerry to Republicans including Sen. Frist, Sen. Santorum, Sen. Rubio, and Sen. Isakson, so many Members of Colleagues from across the aisle have seen the global fight against AIDS as something (perhaps one of the only things!) they can all agree on.  Even the name of the PEPFAR reauthorization bill reflects this legacy, honoring Rep. Hyde and Rep. Lantos—two men with widely divergent political views who came together on this issue.  PEPFAR has also been a common cause of three US Presidents: President Bush, whose steadfast political leadership was critical in PEPFAR’s early years; President Obama, who has expanded treatment and prevention targets; and President Clinton, who has championed the program since leaving office.

3. It is achieving incredible results.  PEPFAR now estimates that it has provided life-saving treatment for more than 5.1 million people—a number that is set to go up and likely exceed the 6 million target set for the end of 2013.  In 2012 alone, it also provided treatment for 750,000 HIV-positive women to help prevent the transmission of HIV to their babies and support and care for more than 5 million orphans and vulnerable children.

4. It is earning high marks.  A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) study, carefully researched by neutral parties for nearly 4 years, gave PEPFAR a very positive review in early 2013. It concluded that PEPFAR had been “globally transformative” and had “major positive effects on the health and well-being of individual beneficiaries, on institutions and systems in partner countries, and the overall global response to AIDS.”

5. It is becoming better friends with other global health partners. Around the same time that PEPFAR got its start, another program, the Global Fund, was also just getting its legs in the fight against AIDS as well as TB and malaria.  Over the years, the two programs have come to rely on each other’s complementary strengths, and now often provide integrated support to clinics and communities around the world.  It is also working in tandem with UNAIDS to lead the global effort to virtually eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015.

6. It is evolving with science. When PEPFAR first started, it employed a prevention strategy known as the ABC method: abstain, be faithful, and use condoms.  While the ABC strategy helped prevent HIV infections in some settings, it wasn’t working effectively enough across the board.  Fortunately, as scientific understanding of how to succeed in HIV prevention improved, PEPFAR saw that biomedical tools such as voluntary male circumcision for heterosexual men, earlier combination treatment for pregnant women, and preventative antiretroviral therapy for at-risk individuals could revolutionize the way we target and deliver prevention efforts.  Accordingly, this new approach rooted in science is reflected in PEPFAR’s 2012 Blueprint for an AIDS-Free Generation.

7. It is leveraging its platform beyond HIV.  PEPFAR in recent years has expanded its impact by using its existing programs and expertise to fight other diseases.  Most notably, the Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon Initiative, created by the Bush Institute and supported by the Obama Administration, uses existing PEPFAR clinics to deliver cervical cancer screening services for women in countries like Zambia.

8. It still has some improvements to make.  As is to be expected of a program that’s only been around a decade, PEPFAR still has room for growth.  In the coming years, it should focus on better defining what it means by a “shared responsibility” with countries, and outline how and when it will provide technical support to countries looking to take on a greater share of their own AIDS programming and financing.  Additionally, as highlighted by CGD analysis, PEPFAR can improve its data collection and dissemination processes to both improve its outcomes and its transparency.

9. It still requires more funding.  Just because much has been achieved by PEPFAR and its partners does not mean that these gains are permanent.  Scaling back PEPFAR funding, right at a time when we have more effective tools to fight the disease and in some places can see a tipping point on the horizon, would be devastating to progress, in some cases allowing the virus to resurge where it is currently under control. Members of Congress and the Obama Administration must fight to reverse cuts and ensure strong support for this vital program!

10. It’s not just about numbers—it’s about people.  From the people who have led PEPFAR (including Amb. Mark Dybul—now head of the Global Fund—and Amb. Eric Goosby) to the recipient country partners working hand in hand with unsung staff, PEPFAR has demonstrated some of the best of what America can offer to the rest of the world and what leadership from recipient countries can achieve for their own citizens.  And ultimately, it’s worth celebrating millions of people like Connie, who are living healthy and dynamic lives today because they are able to access antiretroviral treatment.

If you want to support the fight against AIDS, add your name to our petition urging world leaders to scale up commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and help make the beginning of the end of AIDS a reality by 2015. 

The Hill: PEPFAR 10 Years Later: Uniting to eliminate pediatric AIDS – “For the past three decades, the battle to eliminate HIV/AIDS worldwide has brought together disparate groups from every possible walk of life. Scientists, chaplains, activists and people living with the virus have fought to end AIDS and for the rights of HIV-positive people in countries across the globe. We are so very different, but our goals, and the goals of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), have united us… We are at a turning point in the fight against AIDS. If the past 10 years have taught us one thing, it is that no one group can fight this disease alone.” (Lyons and Sichone-Cameron)

Huffington Post: The Big Push to Defeat HIV & AIDS in Ghana – Ghana is among the 29 African Countries reported by the WHO to have been able to reduce prevalence of HIV and AIDS over the past decade. The national HIV prevalence has declined from a national high of 3.6 percent in 2003 to 1.5 percent in 2010 and has stabilized since. However, we must recognize that the main challenge in the fight against HIV and AIDS globally is how to ensure Universal Access to prevention, treatment, care and support, and to ensuring zero transmission of new HIV infections in children. (John Dramani Mahama)

UN News: UN official highlights positive trends in Africa to protect indigenous people’s rights - A United Nations official today stressed that Africa has taken positive steps to protect the rights of indigenous people, adding that the continent must continue making progress and avoid repeating mistakes made by other regions. A large number of African countries support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out the individual and collective rights of those peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues.

This week, the House Appropriations Committee announced how much they plan to make available or “allocate” in the FY 2014 spending bills. On Capitol Hill, these are better known as 302(b) allocations. The allocation the Committee sets for the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS), will have an impact on the very programs we are fighting to preserve and protect. From what we have seen, we can confirm that the budget tax will be heavy again this year.  The House is calling for deep cuts to most non-Defense discretionary programs, including the International Affairs Budget. Although such cuts were not unexpected, their impact on the poor is no less severe.  Since the House is using a total discretionary spending level of $967 billion, or $91 billion below what is permitted under the Budget Control Act for FY14, most allocations will also fall well below the Administration’s request.

For SFOPS, the spending bill that funds our core programs like PEPFAR, the Global Fund, GAVI and Feed the Future as well as all other international affairs programs, the 302(b) allocation calls for a spending level of $40.6 billion or 19% ($9.5 billion) below current FY13 levels (post-sequestration). To put this in perspective, the other national security related accounts, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security will see increases of 5 percent and 3.3 percent respectively. So not only will these cuts affect the poorest around the globe, it will hamstring a critical component of our national security strategy.

Call to Action

ONE opposes the SFOPS allocation because it represents deeper and more disproportionate cuts to accounts that fund the life-saving programs we fight to keep funded. While this is not good news for us, we still have the chance to fight and win in the Senate.

The Senate is expected to adopt their allocations in the coming weeks.  Unlike the House, the Senate 302(b) allocations for State and Foreign Operations should be considerably better because the Senate is using a total discretionary spending cap of $1.058 trillion, which is far higher than the House’s $967 billion level.

As usual, House and Senate appropriators would like to move their appropriations bills through each chamber before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1^st. However, for the past several years, it has often been the case that not every appropriations bill makes it to the floor. Although neither chamber passed the State and Foreign Operations bill last year, we still need to make our voices heard to ensure our programs continue to save lives.  Given the low allocation in the House, our fight will be in the Senate.  As advocates, we need to urge our lawmakers on both sides of the Hill to support the Senate allocations, so that the United States can continue a long, bipartisan legacy of life-saving leadership.

Click here to add your name and send an auto-generated letter to your congressman or senator to let them know that we won’t let lifesaving programs be jeopardized in the budget battle.

Huffington Post: How Financial Innovation Helps the Poor Improve Their Lives – Southern leaders in some 35-plus countries have made public commitments to advance financial inclusion in their domestic markets. They are acting on the evidence that poor families and small businesses in the informal economy need access to a broad range of financial services, and when the formal financial sector fails them, they have to rely on informal mechanisms such as the rotating savings club and the money-lender. These age-old mechanisms tend to be unreliable and can be very expensive. Financial services need to help people capture opportunities, build assets, manage cash flow spikes, and mitigate risks. As mobile money services spread in developing countries, so will these types of innovations. (Tilman Ehrbeck)

AllAfrica: Researchers Use Bacteria to Control Malaria Parasite – Mosquitoes get a lot of the blame for malaria, but the single-cell parasite Plasmodium carried by the mosquito is the real cause of the disease. Researchers are finding they can control the reproduction of that parasite so the mosquito won’t pass it to a human when the insect goes in for a blood meal. With backing from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Michigan State University (MSU) researchers set out to establish a stable, inherited Wolbachia infection that would block Plasmodium in generations of the Anopheles mosquito, the primary malaria carrier in the Middle East and South Asia. On World Malaria Day, NIAID renewed its commitment to the research needed to better understand the disease process in malaria, find new ways to diagnose and treat people with malaria, control the mosquitoes that spread it, and prevent malaria through vaccination.

Devex: EU’s ambitious goal: Basic education for all by 2030 – After the World Bank promised to end extreme poverty by 2030, now the European Union takes a similar step on the post-MDG agenda and commits to providing basic education to every child in the same timeframe. During a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, the European Commission announced on Thursday that it will allocate at least 20 percent of its 2014-2020 aid budget for human development and social inclusion, with as much as €2.5 billion for education. In addition, EU Development Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs made a pledge to ensure that by 2030 “every child will be able to complete basic education, regardless of their circumstances and have basic literacy and numeracy skills.” (Carlos Santamaria)

As Northern Mali continues to face instability, music serves as a powerful driver of cultural unification.  The riveting feature-length documentary, The Last Song Before the War, captures the importance of music through Mali’s annual Festival in the Desert.

Before conflict took grip on the region, Malians and more than 600 people from outside Africa traveled to the deserts of Timbuktu, coming together for a music festival filled with a celebration of culture. While this gathering for music has occurred in Northern Mali among the nomadic Tuareg culture for centuries, the Festival in the Desert became the largest driver of tourism, helping support the fight against poverty in the country.

The producers of the film, Andrea Papitto, Kiley Kraskouskas and Leola Calzolai-Stewart each have their own experiences with Mali but can all agree that the Festival in the Desert, with musicians from all over the world and tourists ignoring travel warnings, is truly a remarkable gathering.

Not knowing if the Festival would continue for much longer, the trio raised $23,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, built relationships with African musicians, and with the help of their advisor Abou Ansar, got ready to film the January 2011 Festival in only 6 months.

I got to speak with Andrea (producer), Leola (editor) and Kiley (director) about their own life-changing journey to Timbuktu and how keeping the festival and music alive could be crucial for Mali’s future.

Hannah: You guys took a lot of personal and financial risks to shoot this documentary – why do it? What personal connection do you guys have to the festival?

Kiley Kraskouskas: I know for me I was really struck by the role the festival played in peacemaking and bringing people together. I think we all wanted to tell a positive story about Africa, something that is not in mainstream media-this is just such an amazing example of that and for me never having been to Mali or Africa-I was really moved by my experience there: the people, the beauty the landscapes, and what a hospitable place it was. To know Mali is to love Mali and think we all fell in love with Mali in our own ways.

Leola Calzolai-Stewart: And I think having lived there for a couple years -It’s one of those countries that most people don’t think about visiting even though it is so culturally and historically rich. I saw this as an opportunity to show Mali to a broader audience.

Andrea Papitto : And I’ve worked in a handful of African countries and there is something special about Mali that when you go there you feel such a connection to the people – I feel like I have family there now after how warm and generous my friends there have been and it’s just incredible.

Producers of the documentary: Andrea, Leola and Kiley. Photo Credit: Andrea Papitto

Hannah: I know one of the tag lines of the documentary is ‘only the bravest people will come’ to this festival. So, what would you say were the attitudes of people who have traveled from all over Africa and the world? What was the overall vibe at the desert?

Andrea: People are just so excited to be there and what’s really special about the festival is that you are immersed in the local traditional festival, something that has gone on for hundreds of years.  I think there is a different sense of excitement and openness of the people that go- they are really interested in observing the culture first-hand rather than going on a giant tour bus and taking pictures out of the window. You are really one with the people there which is so unique.

Leola:  And I think brave is an interesting word because people are brave, but it’s a bravery that comes from complete open mindedness – having utter faith in people and seeing past the travel warnings. These people have the political-ness to say that Mali, especially then, was pretty safe and are fully embracing the country.

Hannah: Can you tell us about the Tuareg culture and how it shapes the festival?

Andrea:  It’s a celebration of culture. The Tuareg have been gathering like this for a long time, so it was really natural for them to open up a traditional gathering for tourism. I think the Tuareg culture is very inviting and very respectful of the environment and encouraging of having something in such an open space. Originally, they wanted it to be a nomadic festival, having it in different towns in Northern Mali, but logistically it made more sense to keep it in one place – it is meant to benefit everyone in different communities so it is really unifying in the Tuareg community in the North and over the years they invited other groups and musicians from all over Mali, West Africa, and the world.

Hannah: The film showcases the festival before the imposition of Sharia Law and the fleeing of 500,000 people, including the festival staff. Can you tell us a little about how the people of Mali have fought through this to keep the festival in the desert and music in general alive?

Andrea: In November 2011 there was a kidnapping in Timbuktu of four tourists just very close to the festival site and very close to when the 2012 festival was going to take place.  [As a result], it wasn’t as well-attended by tourists, but the locals still came out… and then when the conflict started in Mali leading up to 2013, they had a Caravan of Artists for Peace and National Unity. So many people were displaced so they wanted to do a tour from Mauritania and parts of Mali, piggy backing off of other festivals in different towns. Then travel to Burkina Faso to include the refugee population that had been displaced… as the festival date got closer, they had to postpone it for 2013. But, they also started a Festival in Exile tour which kicked off at the Skoll World Forum about a month ago.

Hannah: What do you want your audience to feel and learn when they watch the documentary?

Leola:  I think a little bit of nostalgia. I mean we did want to show them what the festival was about but also a sense of what could be again-a sense of hope and understanding and what role the festival could play in rebuilding Mali

Kiley: I think we also wanted them to just feel the joy, feel the journey, and feel the wonderment of Mali. We didn’t want to make a super political film -we are just trying to show something really beautiful

Leola: Manny Ansar [the Festival’s founding director] has a line at the end of the film that says people always ask what’s so special about the festival and he says for nomads this is normal, you tell me what’s special about the festival. We want people to see the film and feel like they can answer that question for themselves.

Hannah: If you can, describe the festival in one word

Leola:  Life-changing

Andrea:  Transformative, peaceful…

Kiley: I want to say envious…it’s like wow! This culture is so vibrant and alive. At the festival people are fighting to hold onto their traditions through music and through their gatherings the pride in the young Tuaregs is as strong as in the old and there is such a deep sense of cultural heritage that we don’t have here in the West…it’s amazing.

Be sure to check out the trailer for The Last Song Before the War here (or in the player above) and learn more about the documentary and Festival au Desert at http://thelastsongbeforethewar.com. 

A few months ago, Bono made a really huge statement during his TED Talk: Extreme poverty can be virtually eliminated by 2030. If it sounds too good to be true, consider this: it’s going to take an extraordinary amount of support from both activists and world leaders alike to make this statement a reality.

First, I want to talk to you about momentum. Extreme poverty has been halved in 20 years, and if we keep going at this current rate, we can and will achieve our ultimate goal. But ONE members, we need to make sure that the velocity – the speed – is there. If citizens don’t care, neither will world leaders. So we need to keep putting pressure on them to continue moving on extreme poverty – diligently and urgently!

Here’s a video to show you what I mean. You are the push the G8 needs to help reach our goal.

OK, so now that you understand that part, let’s talk about what you can do right now. 

The G8 is coming up on June 17, and our super smart policy team has done the research (read our report, Summit in Sight: The G8 and Africa from Gleaneagles to Lough Erne) to identify what issues need to be tackled right now.

The verdict? Food and transparency.

Why food? Because Africa needs to grow and thrive –  feeding itself, lifting millions from poverty and preventing chronic malnutrition.

Why transparency? So Africans can have the information they need to call governments out on corruption.

Here’s another thing our team discovered: If we don’t tackle those two issues now, the task to end extreme poverty by 2030 will be doubly difficult. 

Remember what we said about velocity?

We need YOU, from now until the G8, to raise your voice and tell G8 and other leaders that transparency and accountability aren’t just concepts – they’re concrete issues that must be tracked, measured and improved upon.

Our petition for the G8 reads:

Dear World Leaders,

This year, commit to fight chronic malnutrition and unleash a transparency revolution. By acting now, you can help transform millions of lives, put power into people’s hands and set a course to end extreme poverty by 2030.

The petition may sound broad, but when we deliver your signatures, it will include all the fine print, which is outlined right here in our report. For transparency, we need governments to make solid commitments on extractives transparency, tax transparency and open data. For food, we need world leaders to fund Africa-led agriculture, strengthen and expand the New Alliance, and back credible plans to tackle chronic malnutrition.

Well, what are you waiting for? Click here to sign the petition now!

Remember, if there’s no velocity, there’s no momentum. So sign this petition now and let’s get these G8 leaders MOVING on bringing extreme poverty down to zero!

Testing for HIV/AIDS. Photo credit: Morgana Wingard

This can lead to being afraid of getting tested for HIV or getting treatment if they are HIV-positive, which increases the chance of the person passing along the virus to someone else.

But what about the other side of the coin? Stigma doesn’t just keep people from seeking care: it reduces the actual availability of HIV prevention and treatment programs.

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and amfAR just released their second report on HIV/AIDS among gay men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender people (collectively known as GMT) in six key sub-Saharan countries*. I attended the launch event, during which a topic of discussion was the need for more HIV prevention programs that target GMT – because while the HIV incidence rate has gone down among the overall adult population, in these six countries, it has gone up in the GMT population.

So if the HIV infection rate is increasing among GMT, why don’t we create more programs targeting that demographic? The short answer is some do exist, but in general, the laws in some countries are so harsh against GMT that merely working on behalf of that demographic warrants arrest. It can get so bad that the Zimbabwe field office was ransacked while simply attempting to collect information to include in this report. Unsurprisingly, local organizations and clinics are hesitant to create programs targeting this demographic and national governments spend little to no money on such programs.

Even Western organizations often don’t step in for various reasons, including a fear of alienating the local government, with which the organization needs to work to accomplish other programmatic goals. Entitles like the Global Fund and PEPFAR state a desire to fund programs targeting GMT, but in practice, this rarely happens. Since 2001, the Global Fund has approved $1.5 billion in funding for the six key sub-Saharan countries. Just 0.07% of that amount specifically targeted GMT.

The programs that are out there are too few to adequately prevent the further spread of HIV. Worse, this new report details how even those are now at risk of being cut. If we truly want to eradicate HIV, the answer is not to further neglect a key demographic like GMT. Creating HIV prevention programs that target GMT won’t be easy – resistance starts at the governmental level and goes down to individual communities and households – but without overcoming that, it will be impossible to realize the final goal of HIV eradication.

Read the full report here.

*These countries are Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Global food security experts share ideas at a panel. Photo credit: @JashDillon via Twitter. 

Advancing global food security through science, trade and business was the theme of this year’s event and there were several panel discussions featuring a diverse cast: academics and scientists; CEOs of start-up companies and nonprofits; and government officials. If you want, you can watch a webcast of the entire event here.

There were too many ideas and discussions to comprehensively document in this post, but one overarching theme was the power and vitality of innovation in addressing global hunger. Throughout the day, different speakers addressed the need to breathe creativity into one of the world’s most intractable problems. Fortunately, the rapid advances in technology and the sciences offer unprecedented opportunities to alleviate hunger and extreme poverty. Most of us can agree that the current model of global food production and distribution is not working if 870 million people are undernourished. Below are some exciting examples of innovation in the agriculture and food security world:

Digital Green: this India-based start-up harnesses the power of social media by allowing farmers to share best practices with one another. Groups are organized by Digital Green and watch instructional videos using a battery-powered projector. Over 130,000 smallholder farmers (70% women) have received agricultural extension training through their model in India, Ethiopia and Ghana. Recently, the organization launched “Farmerbook”, a Facebook-style platform that allows farmers to post videos, track each other’s progress, and get answers to questions.

Modern Meadow: Straight out of a science fiction novel, Modern Meadow is transforming the future market for meat production and animal products like leather. In response to the heavy environmental toll of consuming burgers and bacon, Modern Meadow is using tissue engineering to culture meat and leather without having to raise, slaughter or transport animals.

African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Development (AJFAND): Based in Kenya, the AJFAND was founded by Dr. Ruth Oniang’o, who had a vision for an online peer reviewed journal to help budding African scientists publish their work and share findings on a global stage. Now her dream is a reality and this quarterly journal shares practice insight into issues that benefit farmers and the agriculture community. Recent papers look into the shelf-life of tilapia caught in Lake Malawi and the benefits and challenges of growing bananas in the highlands of Uganda.

Next year’s event could be improved by including farmers or farmer organizations during panel discussions to address their unique constraints and challenges in a way that business and science can understand. Not only is there a need to use a common language, there is a need to augment the productivity conversation to include other challenging issues such as postharvest loss and reducing risk for farmers. All in all, it was a great day of knowledge exchange and learning, and I’m excited for what will be discussed (and accomplished) in 2014.

Do more. Sign our petition to urge world leaders to make measurable commitments on chronic child malnutrition for 25 million children by 2016. 

“I was born in Cameroon and relocated to the United States in 1999. I work as a database administrator for a company in Northern Virginia. I have always had a passion for photography and I started shooting professionally two years ago. I look at the work other photographers have done in other African countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania, and while I admire them, I realized that little work has been done in Cameroon.

Cameroon is one of the most diverse African countries, with over 200 tribes very rich in tradition and culture with very little tribal clashes. It is a beautiful, politically stable place with very hardworking people. I have a passion for this and I plan on going back this year for a month to do a full series on the lifestyle of everyday Cameroonians.”

We picked some of our favorite photographs from Andre’s collection. Why don’t you take a virtual vacation and check them out?

What a commute!

Love the pop of orange here.

While I was originally drawn to the muted sepia tones of this shot, it’s the neat shadow that made me smile.

What a cool perspective. What do you think he is carrying?

What gorgeous jewelry.

A beautiful portrait. Doesn’t it look like he is wearing a ONE band?

Hop on everybody! No need for two trips.

Love his hat! He can take the shade with him wherever he goes.

Hold tight everybody!

Just look at all of those scarves! Don’t think he could carry a single one more.

If you enjoyed these, you will love Andre’s photography blog.

Which was your favorite slice-of-life photo?