Utilizing Adaptive Management to Harness Change: Lessons from the Feed the Future DRC Fall Armyworm Activity
Join us on October 19 for a virtual Borlaug Dialogue side event on leveraging adaptive management to harness change.
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Adaptive management enables development projects to be flexible and responsive in the face of change. Drawing on lessons from the Feed the Future DRC Fall Armyworm Activity, which supports small-scale producers in pest management in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venture37 hosted a Borlaug Dialogue webinar on October 19, which provided best practices for establishing and maintaining an adaptive management approach in development projects. Panelists highlighted key considerations for an adaptive management approach, including how the project has utilized data and continuous learning to harness change, and how stakeholders have pivoted and scaled their work. Operating over an area roughly the size of Western Europe, the project was facing considerable challenges in ensuring oversight of dispersed project activities by limited regionally based program staff. Through key adaptations, Venture37 has diversified its approach in favor of one that is more locally driven and impactful. This is improving impact and promoting resilience and sustainability beyond the life of the project.
Featured Panelists
Jamie Leifker
Keynote Speaker
VP New Markets and Growth Initiatives;
WinField United
Jamie Leifker is VP, New Markets and Growth Initiatives for
WinField United. WinField United provides farmers with agriculture solutions, products, and services to help them make the right decisions from planning through harvest. Jamie loves agronomy, farming, and the teamwork it invites to achieve continuous improvement and success. His team is fully committed to generating timely and actionable insights, to help retailers and farmers arrive at a more profitable outcome by understanding the relationship between in season crop inputs response to seed varieties and soil health measurements. His experience in sales, marketing, ag technology, and business development roles fuels the teams’ intent toward delivering meaningful solutions leading to increased ROI supported by input use efficiency, yield, quality, and carbon. Jamie lives in Blaine, Minnesota with his wife Catari and their three boys Jack, Jonah, and Max.
Moustapha Gaye
Chief of Party, Feed the Future Management of Fall Armyworm (MFAW) in Maize for Smallholder Farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Activity;
Land O'Lakes Venture37
Moustapha Gaye is the Chief of Party for the Feed the Future Management of Fall Armyworm (MFAW) in Maize for Smallholder Farmers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Activity. He has over 30 years of international development experience, sixteen of which have been in chief of party roles for large U.S.-government-funded programs. He is experienced in food security; health and nutrition; good governance; community engagement; gender integration; private sector engagement; monitoring, evaluation, and learning; financial management; and environmental compliance. He holds an M.S. degree in agricultural economics from New Mexico State University and an M.S. degree in economics from the University of Dakar, Senegal.
Danielle NiedermaierSenior Manager, Global Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Team;
Land O’Lakes Venture37
Danielle Niedermaier is a Senior Manager on the Land O’Lakes Venture37 Global Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team. She has over 15 years of global development experience across 18 countries in crops, livestock, dairy, nutrition, private sector engagement, market systems development, and women’s empowerment. Danielle started out her development career as a sustainable agriculture Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal and has a master’s degree from Cornell University.
About the Borlaug Dialogue
The Norman E. Borlaug International, known informally as the "Borlaug Dialogue," each year brings together individuals from more than 65 countries to address cutting-edge issues related to global food security and nutrition. The gathering convenes a wide array of scientific experts, policy leaders, business executives and farmers and has been called "the premier conference in the world on global agriculture." Through the Borlaug Dialogue, the World Food Prize Foundation helps build alliances in the struggle against world hunger and malnutrition.
Learn more about the Borlaug Dialogue. 