Partnership Membership Information

Dear Partners,
 
2009 was a big year for the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, the year in which food security and agricultural development rose to the top of the global agenda. The US and other donors committed to greatly expand assistance for agricultural development in order to help developing countries achieve lasting food security and lift millions of their citizens out of poverty.  Thank you for your support to the Partnership in 2009, and please take a moment now to join or renew your membership for 2010.
 
Your financial support will help us to ensure -- through research, discussion, and advocacy -- that the US follows through on its pledge to increase agricultural investments, make assistance more responsive to African-determined priorities, and foster African leadership by strengthening Africa's research, extension, marketing and institutional capacity.
 
During his January 2009 Inaugural address, President Obama pledged
 
...to the people of poor nations, we promise to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.
 
The United States and other members of the international community, led by President Obama, committed to a major increase in resources to meet the global hunger challenge, $22 billion over the next three years.  The US is making good on its pledge - the 2010 budget just passed by the US Congress contains $1.17 billion for agriculture and food security programs, an increase of $698 million from 2009. The US and other nations have also committed to a "new way of doing business" - aligning assistance with country-determined and country-driven priorities. As Secretary Clinton puts it:  "we want to be a partner, not a patron."
 
Our African partners have also made very significant progress on their commitments to agricultural development. Thirteen countries and one region have now signed Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) Compacts.  Between 2000 and 2005, African countries nearly doubled their own investments in agriculture. Early in December 2009, Rwanda, the first country to complete its CAADP Compact, convened the continent's first CAADP Post-Compact meeting to unveil its Agriculture Investment Program and invite donors and investors to commit their support.
        
Thanks to your support in 2009, the Partnership played a critical role in elevating the priority of "more and better" investment in African agriculture and food security.  Together, we ensured that our African partners had "a seat at the table" to highlight their commitment to agricultural development and to emphasize the importance of assistance that is more responsive to country-determined priorities.
 
In late February 2010, the Partnership will hold its second annual Africa-US conference on agriculture and food security.  The theme of the 2010 conference is "Putting Principles into Action:  A US-Africa Forum on Food Security in sub-Saharan Africa."  The conference will bring together US and African leaders from the public sector, business community, and civil society to discuss pragmatic options for changing the way that US development assistance is planned and managed in order to "put into action" the principles agreed at the G8 L'Aquila and World Food Summit meetings:
 

Please explore our brand-new website, www.partnership-africa.org, to view information on our upcoming February forum and also to download information on our 2009 events and publications, including: