ILRI40Events

The Events

Tropentag 2014 ([[1]]) Theme: Bridging the gap between increasing knowledge and decreasing resources Date and location: 17-19 September 2014, Prague, Czech Republic Contacts: Fred Unger, Delia Grace

Tropentag is the annual International Conference on Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development. It is a development-oriented and interdisciplinary conference that brings together scientists, students, graduates, development experts and funding organizations from several countries in Europe and various international partner institutions to addresses issues of resource management, environment, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food, nutrition and related sciences in the context of rural development, sustainable resource use and poverty alleviation worldwide.

ILRI’s participation: Keynote address by Jimmy Smith: Sustainable livestock solutions to food and nutritional security and poverty reduction: bridging the gap to four decades of research Special ILRI@40 Session: ILRI will be leading a 1.5-hour side event that includes an opening address to highlight ILRI research conducted with our German/European partners. This will be followed by interactive presentations and discussions highlighting research on: livestock value chains; environmental win-wins in the livestock sector; food-borne disease and zoonoses; and the opportunities for translating livestock research to agricultural impacts.A reception will be held straight after the session.

World Food Prize/Borlaug Dialogue ([[2]]) Conference Theme: The power of innovation, infrastructure and institutions to transform the lives of millions of smallholders worldwide Date and location: 15 – 17 October 2014. Iowa, USA, Contact: Shirley Tarawali, Peter Ballantyne, Susan MacMillan

The Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, known informally as the "Borlaug Dialogue," brings together over 1,200 people from more than 65 countries. Held each year, on or around United Nations World Food Day – October 16, the three-day conference, known as the “premier conference in the world on global food security”, convenes a wide array of scientific experts, policy leaders, business executives and farmers to address cutting-edge issues related to global food security and nutrition. The World Food Prize, which has been called “The Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture” was created in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the “Father of the Green Revolution” Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. It is the world’s most prestigious gathering for improving food security, enhancing agriculture and nutrition, and reducing hunger and poverty globally. This year’s Borlaug Dialogue conference will coincide with the International Year of Family Farming and will be the culmination of the yearlong Centennial Observance of Dr. Borlaug’s birth, focusing on the power of innovation, infrastructure and institutions to transform the lives of millions of smallholders worldwide. ILRI’s participation: Jimmy Smith Featured speaker: Sustainable livestock solutions to food and nutritional security and poverty reduction: bridging the gap to four decades of research ILRI@40 Side Event:Sustainable livestock solutions to food and nutritional security: four decades of inspirational, innovative research for intensifying animal agriculture in the developing world ILRI will host a side event at the Borlaug Dialogue, which is held during the World Food Prize week (15 – 17 October) in Des Moines, Iowa. This side event, Livestock and food security: Animal agriculture in the developing world', will focus on food and nutritional security and highlight new agribusiness and market-oriented opportunities. This session will bring together diverse representatives from the research, development, business, and policy sectors, to name a few. We shall also be inviting ILRI’s former World Food Interns.

Global interventions: Throughout the day ILRI will host a series of events at its offices around the globe. Beginning in the furthest east (Hanoi) and concluding with ILRI’s side event in Iowa (…the sun never sets…), each event will bring together a spectrum of farmers, research, development, business, government, investment, partners and will feed into the plenary discussion at this event with key livestock and food security challenges from the region [SE Asia, S Asia, E Africa, S’n Africa, W Africa]

6th All-Africa Conference on Animal Agriculture (AACAA) (www.aacaak.or.ke) Africa’s Animal Agriculture: Macro-trends and future opportunities 27–30 October 2014, Nairobi, Kenya. Contact: Okeyo Mwai, Bernard Bett, Ben Lukuyu Meeting every four years, the AACAA assembly provides a forum for researchers, policy makers, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to share scientific findings and experiences in animal agriculture in Africa and beyond. The theme of this year's event is "Africa’s animal agriculture Macro-trends and future opportunities". The overarching aim of the conference is to provide an opportunity for African scientists and the broader stakeholder groups in the livestock sector to discuss the potential role of animal agriculture to improve the livelihoods of African people. The broader objective of this grand assembly will be met by attempting, through discussions of a series of papers, to answer the various questions rotating around the thematic areas. It is hoped that, at the end of the conference, there will be specific recommendations for the key questions.

Sub-themes

• Sub-theme 1: Youth: The Future Hope?
• Sub-theme 2: Which Way for Smallholder Production Systems?
• Sub-theme 3: Pastoral Systems: Options for Tomorrow
• Sub-theme 4: Market Access: Opportunities for enhanced access to local, regional and global markets
• Sub-theme 5: Africa’s human capacity challenge for animal agriculture: Which way now?

ILRI’s participation: ILRI is providing its full support to this important event (the conference meets only every four years). Four senior ILRI scientists are participating in committees preparing for this conference, and ILRI will co-convene sub-themes 3 and 4, with many other ILRI scientists offering presentations at the various scientific sessions. Conference participants will also have the opportunity to visit ILRI on the day dedicated to field visitis. ILRI will host a side event, beginning with a broad overview of livestock in Africa and ending with a celebratory reception. Held at the KICC grounds, we anticipate that these events would involve significant African luminaries in livestock science, notably those who are ILRI alumni.

Commemorating 40 years two-day conference Conference Theme:Livestock-based options for sustainable food and nutrition, economic well-being and healthy lives. Date and location: 6-7 November 2014, ILRI campus, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Contact: Peter Ballantyne, Shirley Tarawali, Susan MacMillan, Iain Wright

This two-day event will be to celebrate ILRI’s past accomplishments (and uniqueness) while promoting an intentional, focused and forward-looking sustainable livestock agenda. It will begin with a high-profile (politically focused) half day involving high-ranking officials from the government of Ethiopia, ministers of agriculture from other countries, donor representatives and Nobel Laureate Peter Doherty, who will deliver the keynote speech. This will be followed by 1.5 days of a more technically focused meeting. The technical sessions will each be centered around a key development challenge:

• Food and nutritional security.
• Healthy diets and lives for all.
• Equitable livelihoods (income, gender….etc).
• Environmentally sustainable solutions.

Each session will begin with a futuristic visioning of the World in 20/40 years time in relation to the challenge. The nuts and bolts – research for development solutions and approaches of ensuring the vision materialises will form the basis for short interventions and interactive discussions. Participants will include ILRI alumni, board and staff as well as key partners, totaling no more than 120 people. Main components of the two-day event will be broadcast live to all ILRI’s staff and offices globally as well as promoted to general public, the global community of ILRI alumni, former board members, etc.

ILRI family day Date and location: Addis Contact: Azage Tegegne

In order provide and opportunity for ILRI staff in Addis an opportunity to participate, plans are underway to hold a family day in Addis shortly after the event on 6, 7 November. Teams of staff will be in touch to share more on these events.

Other events

ILRI’s celebratory materials will feature also at other global events, where the importance and profile of livestock research for development will be highlighted. Ecohealth 2014. Connections for Health, Ecosystems and Society. 11 – 15 August 2014. Montreal, Canada. The EcoHealth 2014 conference is co‐hosted by the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health (CoPEH‐Canada) and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Well‐Being, Health, Society and Environment (Cinbiose). A number of ILRI staff are participating and the DG will give a keynote presentation.

10th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP), 17 – 22 August 2014. Vancouver, Canada. This congress is the premier conference for researchers and professionals involved in genetic improvement of livestock. Delegates from around the world gather every four years to attend the scientific program and network with colleagues. A number of ILRI staff have prominent roles in this congress.

5th Multi-stakeholder Platform of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock, 7-10 October 2014, Cali, Colombia (tbc) The Agenda is a multi-stakeholder partnership committed to sustainable livestock sector development. The purpose of the partnership is to catalyze and guide continuous improvement of livestock sector practices towards more efficient, safe and responsible use of natural resources. Through a more efficient use of natural resources, the sector can enhance its environmental performance and generate significant economic and social benefits, contributing to food security, income generation and poverty reduction. ILRI is a member of the Agenda’s guiding group and participates as a key research leader in all three of the focus areas addressing ‘resource use efficiency’, ‘restoring value to grasslands’ and ‘waste to worth’ (manure management).

Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), 19-21 November 2014, FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy The Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) is an inclusive inter-governmental meeting on nutrition jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), in cooperation with the High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF), IFAD, IFPRI, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, WFP and the WTO. This high-level ministerial conference will propose a flexible policy framework to address today’s major nutrition challenges and identify priorities for enhanced international cooperation on nutrition. ILRI has been engaged in preparatory technical meetings for this event, aiming to ensure that the livestock sector has good representation. 16th AAAP Animal Science Congress, 10-14 November, Yogyakarta, Indonesia The theme is" Sustainable Livestock Production in the Perspective of Food Security, Policy, Genetic Resources and Climate Change". ILRI’s DG will be one of the speakers in a plenary session.