Why Kufour won the World Food Prize
BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
On Wednesday, June 22, 2011, Ghana and indeed the entire world, was greeted with news of Ghana’s immediate past President, John Agyekum Kufour, sharing honours with Brazil’s former President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as joint winner of the 2011 World Food Prize and the first Ghanaian to do so.
A press release from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which announced this, stated that the two former Presidents had the 2011 World Food Prize conferred on them during a ceremony at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, June 21, 2011.
The joint winners will however be formally presented with the World Food Prize in a ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa on October 13, in conjunction with the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium.
According to the IFPRI release, former President Kufour, who is a distinguished member of the IFPRI 2020 Advisory Council and participated in the IFPRI 2020 conference in India on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health in February, won the award as a result of prudent policies initiated by his government towards food sufficiency.
“His administration helped to initiate or continue improvements in farming, nutrition, education, healthcare, and infrastructure, leading to significant positive changes in Ghana during the first decade of the new millennium.
“Today, Ghana is regarded as one of the most successful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It recently attained middle-income status and will likely achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty in half before the target year of 2015,” the IFPRI stated.
In an overview of Kufour’s performance that made him merit the award, the World Food Prize initiators stated “Under President Kufour’s leadership, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of its people who suffer from hunger, and the proportion of people living on less than a dollar per day, on course to achieve UN Millenium Development Goal 1 before the 2015 deadline.
“Continuing Ghana’s tradition of stability, President Kufour prioritised national agricultural policies: Ghana saw a reduction in its poverty rate from 51.7 percent in 1991 to 26.5 percent in 2008, and hunger was reduced from 34 percent in 1990 down to 9 percent in 2004.”
They further stated that “President Kufour’s economic reforms, including the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy, provided incentives and strengthened public investments in the agricultural and food sector — the backbone of Ghana’s economy — which grew at a rate of 5.5 percent between 2003 and 2008,” adding that”Growth in the agricultural sector drove expansion in the national economy, with GDP quadrupling to 8.4 percent by 2008.”
“Under President Kufour, the Agricultural Extension Service was reactivated and special attention paid to educating farmers on best practices. As a result, Ghana’s cocoa production doubled between 2002 and 2005, and food crops such as maize, cassava, yams and plantains increased significantly, as did livestock production.
What also impressed the foundation and sponsors of the World Food Prize was Kufour’s essay recently published by IFPRI titled Ghana’s Transformation, in which Ghana’s former President gives a first-person account of his years as president, describing some of his administration’s most successful projects, especially those related to agriculture.
In the essay, President Kufour, who is currently a Global Ambassador against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme says, “Food is the most basic of needs, it decides not just the health of individuals but also the health of communities.”
The former President, who describes food security as the catalyst for improving an economy and instituting democracy, served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana from 2001–08.
This year marks the 25th anniversary (silver jubilee) of the prestigious award, which recognises individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.
Achievements by this year’s winners also demonstrate that committed leadership combined with evidence-based policies can eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, says IFPRI.
Conferring the prize on Brazil’s former president as joint winner, the World Food Prize Foundation said “President Lula da Silva made reducing poverty and hunger a top priority when he assumed the presidency of Brazil in 2003.
“The country’s Zero Hunger network of programmes represents one of the world’s leading efforts to decrease hunger and improve nutrition, providing greater access to food and education, increasing rural incomes, and empowering the poor. Under his leadership, Brazil cut hunger in half, exceeding the first Millennium Development Goal.”
IFPRI opines that by honoring those who have worked successfully toward this goal, the World Food Prize calls attention to what has been done to improve global food security and what can be accomplished in the future.
The World Food Prize was founded by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in world agriculture, in 1986. His research led to the Green Revolution in Asia and made huge strides in the fight against hunger.
In 1990, businessman and philanthropist John Ruan assumed sponsorship of The Prize and established The World Food Prize Foundation, located in Des Moines, Iowa.
Laureates of the World Food Prize, which comes with an amount of $250,000 and has already chalked 25 years of existence, have over the years included Dr. Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan,1987 (India), Dr. Robert F. Chandler, Jr., 1988 (USA), Dr. Verghese Kurien, 1989 (India), Dr. John S. Niederhauser , 1990 (United States), Dr. Nevin S. Scrimshaw, 1991(USA), Dr. Edward F. Knipling & Dr. Raymond Bushland, 1992 (USA) and He Kang, 1993 (China).
Others have been Dr. Muhammad Yunus, 1994 (Bangladesh), Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, 1995 (Switzerland), Henry M. Beachell & Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush, 1996 (USA and India), Dr. Perry L. Adkisson & Dr. Ray F. Smith, 1997 (USA), B.R. Barwale, 1998 (India), Dr. Walter Plowright, 1999 (UK), Dr. Evangelina Villegas & Dr. Surinder K. Vasal , 2000 (Mexico and India), Dr. Per Pinstrup- Andersen, 2001 (Denmark) and Dr. Pedro A. Sanchez, 2002 (USA).
The rest are Catherine Bertini, 2003 (USA), Prof. Yuan Longping & Dr. Monty Jones, 2004 (China and Sierra Leone), Dr. Modadugu Gupta, 2005 (India), Edson Lobato, Dr. A. Colin McClung & Alysson Paolinelli, 2006 (Brazil, USA, Brazil), Dr. Philip E. Nelson, 2007 (USA), Hon. Robert Dole & Hon. George McGovern, 2008 (USA), Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, 2009 (Ethiopia) and David Beckmann and Jo Luck, 2010 (USA).
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has issued a congratulatory message to former President Kufour for winning the food prize, while the World Food Prize Laureate has dedicated the award to Ghana.
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| President Kufuor serving school children in Kibera, Nairobi in Kenya in 2010. |
On Wednesday, June 22, 2011, Ghana and indeed the entire world, was greeted with news of Ghana’s immediate past President, John Agyekum Kufour, sharing honours with Brazil’s former President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as joint winner of the 2011 World Food Prize and the first Ghanaian to do so.
A press release from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which announced this, stated that the two former Presidents had the 2011 World Food Prize conferred on them during a ceremony at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, June 21, 2011.
The joint winners will however be formally presented with the World Food Prize in a ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa on October 13, in conjunction with the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium.
According to the IFPRI release, former President Kufour, who is a distinguished member of the IFPRI 2020 Advisory Council and participated in the IFPRI 2020 conference in India on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health in February, won the award as a result of prudent policies initiated by his government towards food sufficiency.
“His administration helped to initiate or continue improvements in farming, nutrition, education, healthcare, and infrastructure, leading to significant positive changes in Ghana during the first decade of the new millennium.
“Today, Ghana is regarded as one of the most successful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It recently attained middle-income status and will likely achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty in half before the target year of 2015,” the IFPRI stated.
In an overview of Kufour’s performance that made him merit the award, the World Food Prize initiators stated “Under President Kufour’s leadership, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of its people who suffer from hunger, and the proportion of people living on less than a dollar per day, on course to achieve UN Millenium Development Goal 1 before the 2015 deadline.
“Continuing Ghana’s tradition of stability, President Kufour prioritised national agricultural policies: Ghana saw a reduction in its poverty rate from 51.7 percent in 1991 to 26.5 percent in 2008, and hunger was reduced from 34 percent in 1990 down to 9 percent in 2004.”
They further stated that “President Kufour’s economic reforms, including the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy, provided incentives and strengthened public investments in the agricultural and food sector — the backbone of Ghana’s economy — which grew at a rate of 5.5 percent between 2003 and 2008,” adding that”Growth in the agricultural sector drove expansion in the national economy, with GDP quadrupling to 8.4 percent by 2008.”
“Under President Kufour, the Agricultural Extension Service was reactivated and special attention paid to educating farmers on best practices. As a result, Ghana’s cocoa production doubled between 2002 and 2005, and food crops such as maize, cassava, yams and plantains increased significantly, as did livestock production.
What also impressed the foundation and sponsors of the World Food Prize was Kufour’s essay recently published by IFPRI titled Ghana’s Transformation, in which Ghana’s former President gives a first-person account of his years as president, describing some of his administration’s most successful projects, especially those related to agriculture.
In the essay, President Kufour, who is currently a Global Ambassador against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme says, “Food is the most basic of needs, it decides not just the health of individuals but also the health of communities.”
The former President, who describes food security as the catalyst for improving an economy and instituting democracy, served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana from 2001–08.
This year marks the 25th anniversary (silver jubilee) of the prestigious award, which recognises individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.
Achievements by this year’s winners also demonstrate that committed leadership combined with evidence-based policies can eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, says IFPRI.
Conferring the prize on Brazil’s former president as joint winner, the World Food Prize Foundation said “President Lula da Silva made reducing poverty and hunger a top priority when he assumed the presidency of Brazil in 2003.
“The country’s Zero Hunger network of programmes represents one of the world’s leading efforts to decrease hunger and improve nutrition, providing greater access to food and education, increasing rural incomes, and empowering the poor. Under his leadership, Brazil cut hunger in half, exceeding the first Millennium Development Goal.”
IFPRI opines that by honoring those who have worked successfully toward this goal, the World Food Prize calls attention to what has been done to improve global food security and what can be accomplished in the future.
The World Food Prize was founded by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in world agriculture, in 1986. His research led to the Green Revolution in Asia and made huge strides in the fight against hunger.
In 1990, businessman and philanthropist John Ruan assumed sponsorship of The Prize and established The World Food Prize Foundation, located in Des Moines, Iowa.
Laureates of the World Food Prize, which comes with an amount of $250,000 and has already chalked 25 years of existence, have over the years included Dr. Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan,1987 (India), Dr. Robert F. Chandler, Jr., 1988 (USA), Dr. Verghese Kurien, 1989 (India), Dr. John S. Niederhauser , 1990 (United States), Dr. Nevin S. Scrimshaw, 1991(USA), Dr. Edward F. Knipling & Dr. Raymond Bushland, 1992 (USA) and He Kang, 1993 (China).
Others have been Dr. Muhammad Yunus, 1994 (Bangladesh), Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, 1995 (Switzerland), Henry M. Beachell & Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush, 1996 (USA and India), Dr. Perry L. Adkisson & Dr. Ray F. Smith, 1997 (USA), B.R. Barwale, 1998 (India), Dr. Walter Plowright, 1999 (UK), Dr. Evangelina Villegas & Dr. Surinder K. Vasal , 2000 (Mexico and India), Dr. Per Pinstrup- Andersen, 2001 (Denmark) and Dr. Pedro A. Sanchez, 2002 (USA).
The rest are Catherine Bertini, 2003 (USA), Prof. Yuan Longping & Dr. Monty Jones, 2004 (China and Sierra Leone), Dr. Modadugu Gupta, 2005 (India), Edson Lobato, Dr. A. Colin McClung & Alysson Paolinelli, 2006 (Brazil, USA, Brazil), Dr. Philip E. Nelson, 2007 (USA), Hon. Robert Dole & Hon. George McGovern, 2008 (USA), Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, 2009 (Ethiopia) and David Beckmann and Jo Luck, 2010 (USA).
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana has issued a congratulatory message to former President Kufour for winning the food prize, while the World Food Prize Laureate has dedicated the award to Ghana.
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