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Food Aid in Africa. Thoughts from the Field. (Link to post on Rachel Laudan's Blog)

Food Aid in Africa. Thoughts from the Field
This might be of interest to some of you in my various networks. Rachel Laudan is an historian of science, technology and food. When I'm not posting on my own blog I can be found occasionally posting comments on her posts about the politics of food. One of these days I'll start writing my own critiques here.

Diana Buja works in Burundi on a goat and agriculture rehabilitation project. She also sent me photos of a school in Burundi that wants to participate in my Seed Bank online exchange program (Green Education Exchange). Her criticisms about food aid in Africa and the "political underbelly" at the local, national and global levels are spot on.

A Historian’s Take on Food and Food Politics

Food Aid in Africa. Thoughts from the Field

Published January 5, 2009 by Rachel Laudan

Diana Buja, known to many of you on this list, offered this long comment on foreign aid in response to one of my posts on Michael Pollan’s Farmer-in-Chief.  Because it is the result of years of work and reflection on food in Africa, I am posting it in full.  Public Law 480, just as a reminder, has been the guiding US government framework for food aid since it was passed in 1954.

“Yes, food/farming = war/foreign policy = food/farming…

I have been on the ‘receiving’ end of PL480 (Public Law 480) for a number of years.  I.e., projects that I have been / am involved with  that *must* use left-over crops from the US in order to qualify for very much needed food aid assistance for seriously starving folk.  Often times the products are not what local folk can eat (hey, but can beggars be choosers?! - goes the bureaucratic response…).

Over decades, without local compliance, ‘we’ have been gradually changing local food preferences from indigenous and highly (disease/drought) resistant food crops - such as colocasia, millet and sorghum - to highly refined and fragile crops - primarily maize & milk powder & corn oil - the staples of PL480 and, in the case of the European Union, powdered milk food-dumping.

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Green Education Exchange Program (Seed Bank Project) within the Algerian Context

Excerpt from series of papers on Green Algeria (I was in a very optimistic mood).

ACA: GREEN ALGERIA’s primary sectors are education, the environment, agriculture, and renewable energy. Our goal is to strengthen Algeria’s knowledge-based economy at multiple levels through education, strategic partnerships and research and development alliances. Our strategy for practical implementation at the local level is to start small by promoting and accelerating existing programs and projects through complementary initiatives.

Education: Build Local, Think Global

Algeria was one of twenty countries to participate in the first demo phase of NEPAD’s e-Schools initiative. NEPAD provides an infrastructure-building plan for implementing ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) in education across the continent, with each country responsible for its own structure.

Human capital is a critical economic resource for sustainable development. In an increasingly interconnected world, knowledge is a tool and a product shared through networks. Utilizing an education partnership strategy ACA’s GREEN EDUCATION EXCHANGE and GASCN (Green Algeria School and Community Network) create interface between infrastructures, content, connectivity, collaboration, and learning communities.

GREEN EDUCATION EXCHANGE e-learning program provides opportunities for teachers and students to enhance international competitiveness through English language acquisition; increased digital literacy for active participation in information driven societies; and by building local knowledge domains for virtual campuses and research and development alliances. 

However, Africa cannot bridge the global digital divide as a mere repository of external data. Participating schools are curriculum partners, not passive beneficiaries. End-users must actively engage in content creation and sharing to become architects of their own knowledge databases. GREEN EDUCATION EXCHANGE is an exchange of equals.