Caroline Smith DeWaal, Deputy Director of EatSafe at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), joins Caitlin Welsh to discuss the centrality of food safety to food and nutrition security, and how it is often overlooked in global food policy frameworks. Ms. DeWaal explains how EatSafe became a Feed the Future project addressing food safety in traditional food markets in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Ms. Welsh and Ms. DeWaal wrap up the final episode of Reset the Table’s second season by discussing the relationship between climate change and food safety, and how this was addressed at the recent ..read more

This year’s headlines about Black Sea grain trade belie an important fact: Russia’s war in Ukraine is not only disrupting global markets for wheat, maize, barley, and vegetable oils—Ukraine’s main agricultural exports—but has also driven up prices for nutritious foods produced elsewhere and slowed the provision of lifesaving assistance for the most acute forms of malnutrition. As a result, malnutrition has worsened for millions worldwide. What steps are being taken to stem this crisis, and what more should happen? Q1: How has Russia’s war in Ukraine affected global agricultural production and ..read more

Lauren Phillips, Deputy Director of the UN FAO Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, and Anna Herforth, Senior Research Associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Principal Investigator of the Global Diet Quality Project, join Caitlin Welsh on this episode of Reset the Table. Dr. Phillips explains the growing gap between food insecurity among women and men, and how this gap was measured in the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Dr. Herforth describes how the recent da ..read more

Climate change is affecting malnutrition rates around the world through multiple channels. In regions experiencing historic levels of drought, like the Horn of Africa, millions are suffering from near-famine. Elsewhere, climate change is increasing the incidence of diseases that contribute to malnutrition. Climate change can also diminish the nutritional value of crops, and climate change can affect families’ livelihoods, reducing their incomes and making nutritious foods less affordable. How is the global community of governments, philanthropies, and NGOs responding to these challenges ..read more

Russia's deliberate targeting of Ukraine’s agriculture sector has limited farmers’ ability to plant, harvest, store, and transport agricultural commodities that are central to the country's economic recovery and to addressing the global food security crisis. Under the Agriculture Resilience Initiative - Ukraine (AGRI-Ukraine), USAID is bolstering Ukrainian agriculture production and exports by providing critical inputs to farmers, improving export logistics and infrastructure, increasing farmers’ access to financing, and providing drying, storage, and processing support for micro, small, and m ..read more

Russia rejoined the UN Black Sea Grain Initiative on Wednesday after pausing its participation over the weekend when its Black Sea Fleet was attacked off the Crimean city of Sevastopol. The deal, signed in July for a 120-day period, is up for renewal on November 19. What do Russia’s decisions this week bode for the future of the grain deal? And what does the grain deal mean for Ukrainian agriculture and global food security? Q1: What happened over the past week? A1: On Saturday, October 29, Russia announced that it was pulling out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative citing the attack on its Blac ..read more

Jo Puri, Vice President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) sits down with GFSP Director Caitlin Welsh to discuss IFAD’s priorities ahead of COP27. Ms. Puri explains how the UN agency measures its investments' impacts on indicators such as resilience, economic mobility, and nutrition in the rural communities it serves. Ms. Welsh and Ms. Puri wrap up the episode with a discussion on IFAD’s strategy to elevate the importance of biodiversity to global agriculture at COP27 in Egypt and at COP15, the Montreal Biodiversity Conference ..read more

Kimberly Flowers, GFSP Senior Associate (Non-resident), sits down with Ertharin Cousin, CEO of Food Systems for the Future, former Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, to discuss the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health held in over 50 years. The White House Conference resulted in a National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Ms. Cousin, who sat on the advisory panel for the conference and national strategy, shared her perspectives on the conference’s outcomes and how we can e ..read more

For the first time in half a century, the White House hosted a conference on the nation’s hunger, nutrition, and health to help millions of Americans struggling with food and nutrition insecurity. The late September event, criticized for its poor planning and a lack of bipartisanship, gained as much press attention for Biden’s gaffe calling out a recently deceased member of Congress as it did for plans to help Americans better access nutritious food. It is too early to say if the conference will have the kind of transformational change that Nixon’s did 50 years ago. What is clear is that it ga ..read more

Caitlin Welsh: Good afternoon, everyone. In partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, I’m pleased to extend a warm welcome to CSIS for today’s event, a keynote address from IFAD President Dr. Alvaro Lario. I’m Caitlin Welsh, director of the CSIS Global Food Security Program. And before we begin, I’d like to make a few housekeeping announcements. First, as the responsible safety officer for our event, I want to share with you some information about our building safety precautions. Please take a moment to familiarize yourselves with our emergency exit pathways, which ..read more