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Cultivating Innovation: A Response to the Food Price Crisis Watch Video Connection Speed: High Speed Low Speed    Event Title : Cultivating Innovation: A Response to the Food Price Crisis Date : 9/26/2008 Duration : 85 minutes Language  : English Country/Region : World Keyword :  Agriculture and Rural Development  Rural Development  Economic Development Presenter : Flor Cassassuce Gordon Conway Fionna Douglas Christoph Kohlmeyer Ian  Thorpe Juergen Voegle | Related Material | Recommendations |Related B-SPAN Videos |  DESCRIPTION  Tough times call for creative measures. When applied to the world’s food price crisis, innovative ways to address complex problems is essential. On the onset of one of the world’s most profound recessions, the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department hosted a day-long event to discuss ground-breaking projects that will impact farming, water sanitation and microfinance initiatives in developing countries. The event took place on September 26, 2008 at the World Bank. The Opening Plenary was prefaced by World Bank Director of Agriculture in Rural Development Department Juergen Voegle and Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for International Development in the UK Gordon Conway. Joining them were winners of the Development Marketplace Competition, Ian Thorpe, Chief Executive Officer of Pump Aid and Flor Cassassuce, Project Coordinator of Niparaja AC. In the first presentation, Conway discussed the importance of technological innovation, referencing the Green Revolution as a model of product and creative means to help small farmers in Africa and Asia. At a low-cost and low-tech level, agricultural innovators can help design smarter fertilizer for drought-affected areas, and contraptions such as the “turtle pump” for water filtration. Offering an example of such innovation was Thorpe, who spoke of the success of the elephant pump and toilet in Africa. A concept dating to ancient China, the pump is designed as a self-filtering mechanism that addresses clean water, basic sanitation and food security concerns. Cassassuce concluded the session. She discussed her project in Baja California Sur of Mexico, proposing a universal database where NGO’s, inter-government organizations and development officials can access several case-studies from countries undergoing the same projects. Cassassuce suggested collaboration with engineers who would be interested in scaling up projects, sharing their mechanical expertise in designing new tools. In the Question and Answer period, the audience asked the presenters about their approach to making innovation sustainable, especially in countries where this is a challenge economically. The session ended with closing remarks by Kohlmeyer, BMZ and Chairman of the Board for the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development.  RELATED MATERIALS   Draft Program: Cultivating Innovation: A Response to the Food Price Crisis (PDF) Cultivating Innovation: A Response to the Food Price Crisis (PDF) Related World Bank and Other Links: World Bank: Agriculture and Rural Development Related B-SPAN Events: Cultivation, Innovation and Sustainable Growth Restoring Global Balance Together: Session 2 RELATED B-SPAN EVENTS Agriculture and Rural Development (26) Rural Development (38) Economic Development (416)