Autumn webinar series // Webinar 4: Trade-related capacity development for food security and nutrition
Market and trade-related bottlenecks often constrain initiatives to promote agricultural productivity improvements, value chain development, employment creation, and food security. These bottlenecks are often the result of misaligned sectoral policies and priorities which creates disincentives for the target beneficiaries. Strengthening the coherence of policies related to trade and agriculture is therefore fundamental to creating an enabling environment for agricultural development initiatives to work, and requires action at both the policy and project levels.
In this webinar, our presenters, Georgios Mermigkas and Ishrat Kaur Gadhok from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), will provide insights from FAO’s Multipartner Programme Support Mechanism (FMM) project on Trade related capacity development for food security and nutrition in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). Implemented in 2017 in Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia, this particular FMM project sought to achieve results at both regional and national levels.
At the regional level, one objective was to strengthen the capacities of agriculture and trade policy officers in ESA to develop and implement evidence-based trade policies. This was achieved through the delivery of facilitated and tailored e-learning courses on trade, food security and nutrition, and agriculture in trade agreements. At the national level, the project aimed to document and draw lessons from existing institutional structures and mechanisms governing agriculture and trade policymaking processes in the four countries. There were also efforts to identify opportunities to better link these processes to promote greater coherence in setting policy priorities and in the implementation of programmes.
Speakers
Georgios joined the FAO Trade and Markets Division in May 2016 as a member of the trade team, dealing with issues related to trade and food security and trade agreements. He previously worked for the FAO Geneva Office as a trade and food security officer. He has also served the Greek administration both in Athens, working for the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, and in Geneva, working for the Greek Permanent Mission. Additionally, he has supported the Cyprus Presidency of the EU as a trade officer at the Permanent Mission of Cyprus in Geneva. He is involved in the implementation of FAO capacity development activities in Africa, focusing on efforts to align policymaking processes related to trade and agriculture. Georgios holds a BA in the field Agricultural Economics and an MSc in the field of Rural and Regional Development, both obtained in Greece.
Ishrat has been a member of the Trade Policy team at FAO for four years, where she supports both regional and country-level analytical and capacity development activities on trade and food security, value chain development and employment. Prior to joining FAO, she worked as a management consultant at KPMG in the Strategy and Operations practice, where she worked with both private and public sector clients to address issues of industrial performance, competitiveness, and development of small and medium enterprises. She has also worked as an economist in the research and analysis directorate of Canada’s Ministry of Agriculture. Ishrat holds a Masters in Food and Resource Economics, and a Bachelor of Science, both from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Webinar Agenda
- Welcome and introduction – 5 min
- Presentation – 20 min
- Q&A and discussion – 35min
RSVP
There is limited space to participate in the Webinar. Please confirm your participation to: emily.kilham_consultant@donorplatform.org
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