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September 2010

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The Wallace Center at Winrock International and USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service are co-leading a national Value Chain Research Collaboration, which concluded with the recent Value Chain Writeshop in Kansas City. This collaboration focuses on best practices across the country for getting small and medium farm products to larger buyers and markets with a regional food systems approach. The writeshop brought together public and private leaders from around the United States, working in a values-based food supply chain to share and synthesize their collective learning, and to create a set of tools for the practical application of this to those in the field.


Winrock International President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Tugwell was featured in the September issue of Monday Developments magazine, published by InterAction. The cover story, authored by Tugwell, focuses on a broad discussion of climate change and recommended swift, decisive actions required to preserve and continue decades of development progress.


The New England Farmers Union (NEFU), in partnership with Winrock’s Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), was recently awarded a Conservation Innovation Grant by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service for their project entitled “Developing stakeholder-driven, scientifically-based opportunities for New England farmers to participate in carbon offset markets.” Through engagement with regional producers and potential buyers, the project aims to identify agricultural practices that can result in credit-able greenhouse gas emissions reductions, thereby providing additional revenue streams for New England farmers.  NEFU is a grass-roots organization focused on protecting and enhancing the economic well-being and quality of life of family farmers, fishermen, foresters and consumers in all six New England states.


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 Winrock International Celebrates 25-Year Anniversary with President Bill Clinton
President Bill Clinton speaks as Winrock President Frank Tugwell listens during Winrock's 25th Anniversary event in Little Rock.On Sept. 8, Winrock International celebrated a milestone year in its commitment to improving lives and livelihoods worldwide. In honor of the organization’s 25th year, Winrock International welcomed President Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker for an anniversary luncheon in Little Rock, during which Clinton praised Winrock for serving as a successful standard for other NGOs on how to leverage funding and partnerships to bring lasting solutions to the problems of poor communities around the world.

“One of the reasons that I love Winrock is because you think about … how to address these problems faster, better, less expensively so that you provide a model for what can be done by others,” Clinton said.

“I think what Winrock has done such a good job of is trying to answer the how question [which is] … ‘Whatever it is that you propose to do and however much money you have or don’t have to spend on it, how do you propose to do it so that you can turn your good intentions into real changes in other people’s lives?’"

The anniversary celebration – which also included addresses by former U.S. Senator from Arkansas David Pryor, Winrock President & CEO Frank Tugwell and Winrock Board Chairman Brooks Browne – was held at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center as part of a series of worldwide events honoring Winrock International's 25th year of empowering the disadvantaged, increasing economic opportunities and sustaining natural resources.

[Watch the video of President Clinton's entire keynote address from Winrock International's 25th anniversary celebration in Little Rock.]

Scholarship Recipients From Winrock-Implemented GEE Program Meet with Education Advisor to US Special Envoy to Sudan
Scholarship recipients from GEE program meet with the education advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy to SudanLast month, Dr. Mark Emblidge, the education advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, visited scholarship recipients from the Winrock International-implemented Gender Equity Through Education (GEE) program. The visit took place at the Dr. John Garang Memorial Secondary School in Juba, Central Equatoria State, in southern Sudan, which is a national school designed to bring students from all over the southern states to attend school in an atmosphere that reduces ethnic divisions and promotes nationalism.

Hosted by the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) Ministry of Education, Department of Secondary Education and the GEE project, Emblidge toured the school, met with school administrators and teaching staff, and visited with the GEE scholarship recipients. Emblidge listened to the students requests and expressed his admiration for them as the future leaders of southern Sudan.

The goal of the USAID-funded Gender Equity Through Education (GEE) program is to provide incentives that will encourage girls to complete secondary school and mentor women to enter the teaching profession. The program works to reduce financial, infrastructural, social and institutional barriers for girls and women to attend secondary school and teacher training.

US Ambassador to Uganda Visits Officials with NUDEIL Project in Gulu, Northern Uganda
The U.S. Ambassador to Uganda visits officials with NUDEIL.In August, the United States ambassador to Uganda, Jerry P. Lanier, and the acting USAID mission director, John Mark Winfield, visited officials with the Northern Uganda Development of Enhanced Local Governance, Infrastructure, and Livelihoods (NUDEIL) project in Gulu, Northern Uganda. The NUDEIL project puts Winrock International at the forefront of USAID’s new endeavor to change the way the United States delivers aid to developing nations.

In line with the Paris Accords, USAID has contracted Winrock to support this first-of-its-kind direct-to-districts budget and infrastructure support project. USAID has not provided government-to-government budget support in Uganda for many years and the NUDEIL project is the first step for the United States to bring development assistance in line with this important International agreement.

Winrock International is providing support to USAID and to four NUDEIL districts: Gulu, Oyam, Amuru and Kitgum, which are the implementing partners. Winrock is providing engineering assistance, staffing assistance, equipment procurement and general oversight of the funds as they move through the Ugandan Government procurement system. The funding will rehabilitate farm to market roads, water points and primary schools.
       


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