Photo Above: Small-holder farm where Kenyan woman farmer, Teresia (right) plants cabbage and other vegetables. She also owns a small dairy cooperative.

Last Friday the NGO world applauded the announcement of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, a new $3B commitment by G-8 nations, African countries and private sector partners to lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years (USAID). This commitment primarily looks to boost African agriculture, particularly small-holder farmers.

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will launch first in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Ghana and will soon move to Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and other African nations that are participating in the Grow Africa Partnership.

The $22B pledged at L’Aquila in 2009 for the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI) apparently has not all been dispersed and there has yet to be current accountability on what has been paid and what hasn’t. According to the Deauville Accountability Report around half of the $22 billion has been rolled out into programs. $1.2B has been pledged to the World Bank-supervised Global Agricultural and Food Security Program (GAFSP). According to GAFSP, while all of the pledged dollars have not been received, there is an accountability report showing the funders who have provided full funding and those who still need to fulfill their pledges.