[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 26 (Friday, February 7, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Page 7265]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-02423]


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 Notices
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  Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 26 / Friday, February 7, 2020 / 
Notices  

[[Page 7265]]



AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT


Board for International Food and Agricultural Development; Notice 
of Meeting

    Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, notice is hereby 
given of a public meeting of the Board for International Food and 
Agricultural Development (BIFAD), Agricultural Growth, Structural 
Transformation, and the Journey to Self-Reliance: Implications for 
USAID Programming. The meeting will be held on March 25, 2020 from 9:00 
a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EDT in Washington, DC at the National Press Club, 
Holeman Lounge, 529 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20045. A public comment 
period is scheduled from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m., EDT: The meeting will be 
livestreamed and accessible at http://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/international-programs/bifad/bifad-meetings.html.
    The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is 
reorienting its strategies, partnership models, and program practices 
to achieve greater development outcomes and strive toward a future 
where foreign assistance is no longer necessary. The approach, outlined 
in the Agency's new Policy Framework, emphasizes the concept of ``self-
reliance''--defined as the capacity and commitment of a country to 
plan, finance, and implement solutions to solve its own development 
challenges in an effective, inclusive, and accountable way. Empowering 
host country governments and partners to achieve locally sustainable 
results, helping countries mobilize public and private resources, 
strengthening local capacities, and accelerating enterprise-driven 
development are part of a strategy that prioritizes enduring 
partnerships and fosters stable, resilient, and prosperous countries.
    In the food and agricultural sectors, accelerating productivity 
growth is understood to be a central factor underpinning inclusive 
development, poverty reduction, and the structural transformation of 
economies--how underdeveloped and agrarian-based countries shift from 
subsistence agriculture to a commercially oriented economy with diverse 
agricultural, manufacturing, and service sectors. Recent evidence shows 
that growth in the agriculture sector is more effective at reducing 
poverty than growth in other sectors, especially in low-income 
countries where USAID works.
    The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development 
(BIFAD), an advisory committee to USAID, will convene a public meeting 
seeking to better understand the concept of structural transformation, 
how raising the total productivity of resources in agriculture 
stimulates this transformation, and how this in turn contributes to 
countries' progression toward self-reliance. The meeting will hear from 
experts on some emerging success stories in agricultural and structural 
transformation, distill lessons and identify knowledge gaps from these 
experiences, and identify implications of this evidence for USAID's 
priorities for development and social safety net programming 
investments for agriculture and food security.
    On the basis of testimony, including public comments, shared at the 
meeting, BIFAD will provide formal findings, conclusions, and 
recommendations to the Agency on best-bet operational and programmatic 
investments for catalyzing agricultural productivity and structural 
transformation.
    BIFAD is a seven-member, presidentially appointed advisory board to 
USAID established in 1975 under Title XII of the Foreign Assistance 
Act, as amended. The provisions of Title XII concern bringing assets of 
U.S. universities to bear on development challenges in agriculture and 
food security, and the BIFAD's role is to help carry out this function.
    For questions about registration, please contact Susan Johnson at 
(202) 478-6023. For questions about BIFAD, please contact Clara Cohen, 
Designated Federal Officer for BIFAD in the Bureau for Food Security at 
USAID. Interested persons may write to her in care of the U.S. Agency 
for International Development, Ronald Reagan Building, Bureau for Food 
Security, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20523-2110, email 
her at [email protected], or telephone her at (202) 712-0119.

Clara Cohen,
Designated Federal Officer.
[FR Doc. 2020-02423 Filed 2-6-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE P