USDA/FAS Grant: Enhancing Food System Resilience Through Country Action Planning

Background

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides leadership on food, water, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, the best available science, and effective management. Within USDA, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) provides technical agricultural assistance to foreign countries to make agricultural policy decisions based on evidence, science, and international rules and standards for safe, sustainable trade and food security. USDA’s extensive science and technology enterprise, including research, education and extension, result in innovations that support a safe, sustainable, and competitive U.S. food system with co-benefits that span the globe.

FAS seeks to support a variety of international programming related to food security, the effects of climate change, and resilience through existing or new project-specific agreements with variety of partners, including USAID, the U.S. Department of State, and other federal agencies, and in collaboration with public and private-sector stakeholders and partners.

Feed the Future (FtF) is the U.S. Government’s interagency global food security program, authorized and funded at approximately $1 billion per year under the Global Food Security Act (GFSA), guided by the Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS). USDA is one of the U.S. Government agencies in FtF and provides support to FtF through technical advice and analysis, in part by drawing expertise from primarily from the USDA community of USDA technical agencies and land grant universities.

Scope

USDA seeks to support applied regionally- or country-specific research and analysis in food and agricultural systems, and expert consultations in support of the initiation, development, revision or renewal of Feed the Future country action plans and strategies to improve food security and nutrition outcomes in the 20 Feed the Future countries.

The recipient of this award will be part of the USDA/FAS-led effort to provide regionally- or country-specific research- and analysis-based food and agricultural systems expert consultations for initiating, developing, revising, or renewing their country action plans or strategies for implementing the U.S Government’s Feed the Future program. As such, specific studies, analyses, assessments, etc. will be identified and determined collaboratively after award.

The recipient will assemble teams of experts who will support the development of action plans and strategies that transform and strengthen the resilience of food systems as well as enable the Feed the Future program to meet its objectives.

Through this activity, USDA seems to achieve the following three outcomes:

• Engaging regionally- or country-specific technical expertise in food and agricultural systems and other areas of food and agricultural sciences that can be used in developing action plans and strategies to reduce food insecurity.

• Improving understanding of circumstances through research and analyses, in consultation with partners including U.S. Government personnel, by addressing research questions relevant to developing and implementing strategies and action plans to achieve the objectives of Feed the Future.

• Publish and otherwise disseminate written reports and other information products based on the recipient’s research and analyses to support the country strategies and plans, and that can use in explaining FtF strategies and plans.