Millennium Villages Project
The Tropical Agriculture Program leads The Millennium Villages Project, an initiative by the Earth Institute at Columbia University. The purpose of the Millennium Villages Project is to empower participating villages in rural Africa to achieve all eight Millennium Development Goals over a five year time-frame.
Scientists in agriculture, health, applied economics, energy, water, sanitation, nutrition, environment, and information technology are working together with effective local partners and governments to show how rural African communities can lift themselves out of poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals if they have access to proven and powerful technologies to improve their farm productivity, health, education, and access to markets.
Go to the Millennium Villages Project website
The MDG Centre, East and Southern Africa
With support from UNIDO, UNDP, and ICRAF, the Millennium Villages Project has established a Technical Support Center in Nairobi, Kenya to assist national governments in developing action plans to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Directed by Dr. Glenn Denning, Associate Director of the Tropical Agriculture Program, the Center will be staffed by specialists in agriculture, health, water, and poverty alleviation, under the overall management of Dr. Pedro Sanchez.
Go to the MDG Centre website
Earth Institute’s Cross-Cutting Initiative on Food, Ecology, Human Nutrition, and Health
The Tropical Agriculture Program provides leadership of the Earth Institute’s Cross-Cutting Initiative on Food, Ecology, Human Nutrition, and Health. This interdisciplinary research effort in Uganda and Western Kenya to develop the relationships between agriculture, nutrition and health is conducted jointly with Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition and its Center for Global Health and Economic Development (CGHED).
Hunger Hotspots in Africa, Asia and Latin America
The Tropical Agriculture Program in close cooperation with CIESIN, IFPRI and the Swaminathan Foundation is conducting an analysis of the Hunger Hotspots in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Hunger Hotspots are sub national units that have higher percentage and number of underweight children. As part of this project, we are conducting analyses at the meso and micro levels that will let us test the relative impact of household factors and geographic and climatic factors on patterns of malnutrition. Other relevant political and socioeconomic issues will be added into the analysis by incorporating the expertise and knowledge that our local partners have.