Winrock International | Innovations Newsletter, July 2011

July 2011

Winrock International was recently selected to participate in Global Giving’s open challenge period for the month of August. Looking

forward, this represents a significant opportunity for Winrock to raise matching funds for projects if we successfully complete the challenge. Winrock must raise $4,000 from 50 donors by Aug. 31 for the challenge project, the Nike-sponsored Mata no Peito program. Funds raised for Mata no Peito will be used as seed investments for projects that protect and replant forests in Brazil. The loss of forests impacts the global climate and threatens the well-being and livelihoods of millions in Amazon and Atlantic forest communities. Winrock will launch the GlobalGiving campaign Aug. 2. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more information on the challenge starting that day.

Winrock’s nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR) has been recognized by the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) as an approved ICROA carbon offsetting standard. ICROA’s endorsement of ACR was finalized after a lengthy and rigorous review of the standard by ICROA directors and members. Synonymous with best practice in the voluntary carbon market, ICROA members are required to source offsets from projects verified under the most widely respected compliance and voluntary standards, as approved by ICROA. ACR is now added to the list, which also includes the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation programs, the Climate Action Reserve, the Gold Standard, and the Verified Carbon Standard.

Winrock’s Lisa Davis was recognized as Delta Leadership Network Member of the Year in recognition of her contributions to the network. Davis was selected for her leadership and proactive approach in helping implement the Arkansas Accelerating Entrepreneurship in the Delta symposium. She was honored in June.

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Winrock Hosts Delegation from East Asia to Discuss Biodiversity and Natural Resources

Winrock hosts delegation from East Asia to discuss biodiversity and natural resources

On July 11, Winrock International hosted a delegation of eight visitors from East Asia and the Pacific region and engaged them in a conversation about Winrock’s efforts to alleviate poverty and promote rural development through forestry and natural resource management initiatives.

The delegation, organized by the International Visitors Leadership Program of the U.S. Department of State visited Winrock as part of a program on “Protecting Natural Resources.” The visiting group sought to learn about programs designed to encourage conservation and biodiversity protection through the integration of sound environmental practices. The group included members who work in a variety of fields, including environmental, marine, wildlife and forestry protection and conservation. The delegation represented Burma, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and New Zealand.

Winrock representatives offered a presentation on topics delegation members were interested in, including how to engage local NGOs to monitor biodiversity as well as creating and managing park land. The conversation was hardly one-sided, however. “We really wanted to listen to them and try to engage in a dialogue,” said Winrock's John Kadyszewski. “Winrock is committed to capacity building and the development of leadership skills, especially within the next generation of leaders.”

Winrock’s Wallace Center Joins Collaboration to Reduce Global Poverty
Wallace Center logo

The Wallace Center at Winrock International has joined a collaborative effort to reduce poverty in the U.S. and across the globe using an innovative assessment tool used previously in developing countries.

Wallace Center has partnered with Costa-Rica based Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), in collaboration with Ford Foundation, to explore the application of a tool designed by CATIE and Ford Foundation, which has been piloted in 13 countries. This analytical tool assesses the impacts of value chain interventions at the household level. Together, the 13 case studies and the overall analysis of the tool’s application will contribute to a revised value chain design and assessment tool.

Wallace Center’s role has been to identify and design the tool’s adaption within a U.S. poverty context, monitor the research and results of the study, and present the findings in a Ford Foundation workshop in London in April. Wallace Center was engaged to identify the U.S. case study participant: Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD), which connects farmers to wholesale buyers and to consumers through farmer training, an aggregation, packing and distribution center and a regional branding program. The case study focused on ASD’s impact on limited-resource farmers and farm households in Southwest Virginia and Northeastern Tennessee. Many parts of the Appalachian region have been historically isolated, excluded from mainstream resources and services, and experience high levels of unemployment and poverty.

“It is exciting for us to be able to connect our domestic and international Enterprise and Agriculture work in this way,” said John Fisk, director of the Wallace Center. “Value chains have great potential but have been employed with mixed success when targeted to the needs of the poor. This collaboration will make a real contribution in advancing the design and assessment of the value chain approach.”

A policy brief is in development and will be co-published by Wallace Center and CATIE later this summer.

Paper Commissioned by Winrock International is Published in Food Security Journal

Paper commissioned by Winrock is published in food security journal

Dr. Rosamond Naylor’s original paper on the challenges of alleviating global hunger and poverty was published in the June issue of the journal, Food Security. The paper was commissioned by Winrock International as part of the organization’s 25th anniversary in 2010.

In addition to the paper, Naylor gave the keynote presentation as part of Winrock’s milestone year at a December symposium focused on Winrock’s role in the future of global development. Naylor is director of the Program on Food Security and the Environment, William Wrigley Senior Fellow, and professor of Environmental Earth Systems Science at Stanford University. Her academic and field research is focused on the environmental and equity dimensions of food production around the world.

Naylor’s paper, which can be read online, examines the ways in which the challenges of global hunger and poverty differ today from decades past. It also “explores several ways in which the traditional field of agricultural development needs to expand to address the broader issues of international security and human welfare,” the abstract notes.

“Winrock is committed to having a positive impact on the future of food security on our planet,” said Frank Tugwell, president and CEO of Winrock International. “Commissioning this paper was a step in better understanding the challenges we face as a global community."

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