Contact: Terry Denbow, University Relations, (517) 355-2262; or Peter McPherson, (517) 881-6200 cell or (515) 245-5500 at Iowa Conference Thursday

10/14/2004

Des Moines, Iowa – Peter McPherson, president of Michigan State University, announced today to an international audience that he and the chairperson of the African Union are formally calling for a global “Partnership With Africa,” that would be “this generation’s Alliance for Progress.”

The concept received immediate endorsement from Norman E. Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work with world agriculture. “This Partnership is a wonderful idea, with its focus on the long term,” Borlaug said. “Two-thirds of Africa is rural, and the infrastructure issues addressed in the Partnership have been of concern to me.”

Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Food Prize Foundation here, McPherson, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Reagan Administration, said he joins with Alpha Oumar Konare, head of the African Union and former president of Mali in calling for a “generation-long commitment to Africa, a continent where two-thirds of the people live in rural areas and that cries out for our help, a continent where reform – dramatic reform – can occur in our lifetimes.”

“I can think of no other challenge that so demands the blending of our ideals and our ideas in both visionary and pragmatic ways. I can think of no other challenge that offers as much promise for success if we do it right,” McPherson said.

“We need to improve security; we need to increase income; and we need to speed up the spread of democracy. Per capita food production is falling, and that trend needs a reversal we are convinced can be achieved.”

Monty Jones of Sierra Leone, 2004 World Food Prize Laureate, said, “As executive secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the Partnership to create an alliance for progress is a welcome initiative. I am bound to mention that it is FARA’s raison d’etre and prime goal to promote such multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary partnerships, and thereby achieve the level of impact in increased agricultural productivity that is required to win the war on poverty and hunger in Africa.”

McPherson said that emergency relief, no matter how impressive, “is no substitute for long-term productivity in Africa, and we must take advantage immediately of current interest in Africa and new, strong leadership there.

“Helping Africa solve its agricultural, technological, and infrastructure challenges is a moral imperative that can have historic practical results.”

McPherson noted that technology offers great promise for all sectors of Africa. “Recognizing that biotechnology must be applied within regulatory frameworks, we call for enhanced and expanded uses of biotechnology that can help solve, not just ease, agricultural problems,” he said.

“From pest management to livestock husbandry, from plant breeding to soil science the biotechnology is in place to help bring about a revolution, not merely an improvement there.”

Konare and McPherson, co-chairs of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, plan to begin their advocacy for this “big idea” by creating additional focus on long-term efforts of U.S. programs and linkages Africa.

“Now is the time for this,” McPherson said. “While the headlines from Africa might be bleak, there is a momentum of progress – and of hope – that must be leveraged very soon.”

McPherson cited as “signs of promise” recent increased U.S. aid – for example reversing a two-decade downward trend in agricultural work in Africa; considerations for more aid from Great Britain and Canada; commitments from non-governmental groups like Bread for the World; and “courageous and progressive new African leaders.”

“President Konare and I firmly believe that a new global partnership for Africa’s future can be – and will be – a landmark accomplishment for the first quarter of the 21^st century, and far beyond.”