Food and Agricultural Trade in Africa

Begins: Apr 30, 2007 09:00
Ends: Jun 01, 2007 17:00

Course Summary and Objectives
Agricultural trade is undoubtedly the single most important link between trade and poverty in Sub Saharan Africa, where farming accounts for more than two thirds of total employment and constitutes the main income source for the vast majority of the poor. In that context, the E-Learning Course: Food and Agricultural Trade in Africa fleshes out the key issues that are of special interest to African decision-makers and discusses the strategic agricultural trade issues associated with poverty reduction which are increasingly gaining interest in the region.

The main purpose of this 5-week E-learning Course is to strengthen the capacity of African policy makers, senior officials, advisors, and analysts to:understand the implications of recent trends and developments in agricultural trade flows, recent global market developments and how they can contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction;understand and effectively participate in international (bilateral, regional, or multilateral) agricultural trade negotiations; and;design and formulate efficient unilateral domestic trade policies in the face of the challenges and opportunities presented by the developments in the international food and agricultural markets.

Course Outline
The E-learning Course on Food and Agricultural Trade in Africa will take place over a five-week period (April 30 to June 01, 2007) and include 5 modules covering several important topics.

The modules for this course are:
Module
Dates
Resource Person
E-Module 1: Characteristics and Drivers of Africa’s Food and Agricultural Trade

Week 1
April 30 - May 04 Soamiely Andriamananjara,
Nicholas Sabwa
E-Module 2: Global Distortions in Agricultural Trade and Multilateral Agreements

Week 2
May 07 - May 11
Tim Josling
E-Module 3: Agriculture in Regional, Bilateral and Preferential Trade Agreements

Week 3
May 14 - May 18
Nicholas Sabwa
E-Module 4: Recent Developments in Private Sector (Vertical Coordination and Standards)

Week 4
May 21 - May 25 Spenser Henson
E-Module 5: Food and Agricultural Export Development and Other Strategic Issues

Week 5
May 28 - June 01 Alex McCalla

Course Structure and Organization
Each module consists of one or two mandatory readings, accompanied by a number of PowerPoint presentations and recommended readings that will provide more in-depth treatment of each topic.

The course will take place during 5 weeks. Participants will be expected to read the course materials at the beginning of the week. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of each week there will be an online discussion (not in real time) among participants guided by that week’s resource persons.

To successfully complete the course and receive a certificate of course completion from the WBI, each participant is required to (i) review the mandatory materials, (ii) connect several times each week to participate actively in the online discussion (1-2 messages in "most" weeks/modules).

Optional Project
Participants are also invited to prepare during the course and submit by Week 3 a concise action plan of priority reforms in their country or essay about your changed views and lessons learned from the course. Rather than making such a note a requirement, we offer it to those of you willing to produce such a document the incentive that such notes will be reviewed by both a agricultural trade expert and a Bank country economist and will only be posted with the permission of the note's author.