Charles Landow highlights stories and reports on African agriculture, the global middle class, and the G20 economies in this week’s Missing Pieces. Enjoy the reading and the weekend.

• Africa’s Food Security: UNDP this week published the first Africa Human Development Report. The focus: food security. Overall, Africa remains “on the bottom rung” of the Human Development Index (HDI), but this may change, since “nine of the ten countries with the largest gains in HDI” over the past decade are African. The report offers extensive analysis of both the proximate causes of food insecurity and malnutrition, such as low yields and micronutrient deficiencies, and broader factors such as climate change and gender relations. Governance and inequity are crucial, too. As the last chapter argues, “interventions to strengthen food security have greater impact when women, the poor, and the vulnerable have a key role in decision-making.” Read more »

While I was visiting Saudi Arabia last week, King Abdullah fired one of the most popular Islamic leaders in the Kingdom from his government position. Sheikh Abdel Mohsen Obeikan was an advisor to the royal court until last week when, in a single line, the king ordered that the sheikh resign from his post. The reaction was swift. In newspapers, on Facebook, and on Twitter, Obeikan’s supporters and detractors speculated, gloated over, and lamented the sheikh’s inglorious fall. While it is still not clear what happened, it is safe to say that this is yet another episode in Saudi Arabia’s internal struggle to define the role of women in society. Read more »

This past weekend, I had the honor of being the commencement speaker at Effat University, a private university for women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was hardly the staid affair I expected. Colorful klieg lights lit the way of arriving parents and dignitaries; forget “Pomp and Circumstance”—the more than two hundred graduates and faculty paraded in to a pulsating techno beat, while stage fog swirled to dramatic effect. The array of high-heeled shoes under the graduates’ sky-blue abayas was breathtaking—everything from six inch high, hot-pink platform wedges, to cowboy boots, to the latest snakeskin and metallic Manolo Blahniks. Read more »

This week on the blog, I’m covering developments in mobile technology. On Tuesday, I discussed an NGO’s efforts to use mobile technology to make direct cash transfers to poor families in Kenya; yesterday, I featured a guest post from Henriette Kolb, CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, who noted how mobile innovations can help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Today, I’m reflecting on an interesting meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations featuring three experts on implementing mobile technology for economic growth: Ann Mei Chang, senior adviser for women and technology, Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State; Alex Counts, CEO of the Grameen Foundation; and Scott C. Ratzan, vice president of global health at Johnson & Johnson. The meeting was part of our Women and Technology series sponsored by the ExxonMobil Foundation. Read more »

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s post on mobile money and cash transfers, I’m covering developments in mobile technology this week on the blog. Today, I have a guest post from Henriette Kolb, CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, who will discuss how mobile value added services designed for women entrepreneurs in emerging markets can help them grow their businesses. The Cherie Blair Foundation has made women’s access to mobile technology a focus of its work. Tomorrow, I will do a recap of a meeting I’m hosting at CFR on ways to harness mobile technology for global economic growth. Read more »

This week on the blog, I’m going to be looking at mobile money again. Today’s post examines how a new NGO–enabled by the rapid spread of mobile technology–is experimenting with cash transfers to alleviate poverty. Later in the week I will have a guest post from the Cherie Blair Foundation on new research on the potential of mobile services to benefit women entrepreneurs. I will then do a recap of a meeting I’m hosting on Thursday at CFR on ways to harness mobile technology for global economic growth with speakers Ann Mei Chang, senior adviser for women and technology, Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State; Alex Counts, CEO of the Grameen Foundation; and Scott C. Ratzan, vice president of global health at Johnson & Johnson. Stay tuned! Read more »

In this edition of Missing Pieces, Charles Landow highlights stories from three developing regions, as well as Washington, DC. Enjoy!

• USAID’s Changing Approach: Several articles illustrate the advance of business-oriented thinking at USAID. First, in an interview with ForeignPolicy.com, Administrator Rajiv Shah says his goal is “to make sure that when we’re spending taxpayer resources, we’re doing it with that absolute focus that we are making an investment against generating a result.” Meanwhile, a recent section of USAID’s Frontlines magazine focuses on public-private partnerships. Agency official Maura O’Neill writes that for sustainable development gains, “crafting effective public-private partnerships is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.” Interestingly, for all the enthusiasm, Harvard professor Jane Nelson says in the magazine that “remarkably little research has been done on assessing the ‘return on investment’ of partnerships.” For more, see Isobel Coleman’s interview with Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg. Read more »

Last month I posted a blog summarizing the views of Calestous Juma, professor of the practice of international development at Harvard, on the potential of genetically modified crops to improve Africa’s agricultural productivity. Many of the comments that readers sent in complained that the post was one-sided–a valid criticism–so today I thought I would look at this topic again. Read more »

Libya’s emergence from years of dictatorship is predictably a rocky one. The country is moving toward its first post-Qaddafi national elections next month, but the process is marked by considerable confusion and deep disagreements. Yesterday, Libyan candidates and voters began registering for June elections for a constituent assembly that will be tasked with writing a new constitution. However, a recent law restricting political parties has sparked some bewilderment. Last week, the NTC banned political parties “based on religion or ethnicity or tribe,” but the implications are not clear. When the law was first announced, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party complained, “We don’t understand this law … it could mean nothing or it could mean that none of us could participate in the election.” It is also unclear how the law affects parties organized around regional issues, a key factor in Libyan politics. Read more »