FY’15 Annual Report for AID-OAA-A-14-00031

These meetings were held in conjunction with the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), which provided significant support for two studies/analyses during the fiscal year. The APLU Vice President for International Programs, Dr. M. Demment, joined the BIFAD familiarization visit to the iAGRI Project at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Tanzania and contributed substantively to the report resulting from the visit. BIFAD Chairman Deaton and Designated Federal Officer Owens made a familiarization visit to SUA in Tanzania to learn more about the iAGRI Project and to participate in a substantive discussion with Deans of Agriculture at Ethiopian Universities in Addis Ababa. The agendas for these public meetings and convenings are included in Appendix I. The reports from the BIFAD e-consultation and the familiarization visit to SUA are in Appendix II and III, respectively. The APLU provided support for the BIFAD public meeting, "Feeding the World in 2050: Agricultural Research Capacity and Youth Engagement," which was held on October 14, 2014. The meeting was attended by 50 speakers/panelists, with 16 of them being female. The meeting focused on the needs for agricultural research capacity to feed the world in 2050 and the role of youth engagement in food security efforts. BIFAD had two new members named by the President of the United States; James Ash and Cary Fowler. An orientation was planned for these new members, which included meetings with USAID staff, White House representatives, and APLU staff. The APLU organized the briefing materials for the orientation and also authored some of the various briefing materials needed by BIFAD for the meetings. The BIFAD Secretariat met 22 times during FY'15, either in face-to-face meetings or on conference calls. The focus of the meetings was planning for the executive planning session, the e-consultation, and the various BIFAD public meetings. The APLU arranged these meetings and either hosted them in their office or hosted the conference calls. The APLU also sent numerous communications to the US higher education community concerning various opportunities for university engagement with BIFAD and USAID. Two consultants were hired to facilitate the e-consultation, and both were female. The Senior Counselor directly supported three working groups, including the Awards, iAGRI familiarization, and e-consultation working groups. The BIFAD public meeting at Montana State University was held on April 9-10, 2015. The meeting focused on USAID Feed the Future Research Priorities and Effective Developments for Enhanced Nutrition in Smallholder Farming. The meeting included panel discussions, question-and-answer periods, and member outreach sessions. The APLU hosted the meeting and provided support for the various sessions. The BIFAD Secretariat distributed the agenda and supplementary materials for the meetings, as needed. The APLU also organized the BIFAD Secretariat meetings and distributed the agenda and supplementary materials. The BIFAD Secretariat met 22 times during FY'15, either in face-to-face meetings or on conference calls.