Gloria Steele

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A career member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service, Gloria Steele was the USAID Mission Director for the Philippines and the Pacific Islands prior to her appointment as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Asia. Ms. Steele served as the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health. She assumed this position in January 2005, overseeing an average annual health program budget of $1.5 billion and a staff of 240. From 2001-2004, she served as Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia.

Rural Development and Food Security Forum 2019: Transformative Changes for Rural Prosperity and Nutritious Food

The Asia Pacific region has made significant progress in terms of reducing food insecurity. Despite the remarkable gains, the region is still faced with challenges such as the increasing demand, climate change, shrinking agriculture workforce, and unsustainable use of natural resources, among others. Promoting rural development is critical in helping solve food security issues and propelling economic development.

Mio Oka

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Mio Oka is currently the Director of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture Division in the South Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Since 2015, she has been responsible in administering several climate adaptation projects including flood and coastal management, water use efficiency, rural connectivity improvement and agriculture value chain projects in the following ADB developing member countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Jiangfeng Zhang

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Jiangfeng Zhang is the Director of Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Division, Southeast Asia Department, concurrently Co-Chair, Environment Thematic Group, of Asian Development Bank (ADB). Since 2002 to date, he has been leading and supporting the development, design, and implementation of agriculture, natural resources, and rural development sector projects covering countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central and West Asia.

Climate-Smart Agriculture Training for Practitioners

Climate change imposes a dynamic challenge on the food system in Asia and has already started impacting farming and food value chains in ADB’s developing member countries (DMCs). Climate adaptation and mitigation investments, hence, are relevant to the food and nutrition security agenda of Asia and the Pacific. While the impacts of climate change on food production and distribution have been well discussed and understood in general, practical knowledge of specific measures and activities and how to finance those are still lacking.

Eco-Compensation and Agriculture: Lessons from the United States, Questions for the People’s Republic of China

Why is agriculture important for eco-compensation? Agriculture is key to food security, rural livelihoods, economic growth, and human survival; but, it is also a major source of environmental degradation. Current farming practices (e.g., tillage, introduction of new plant varieties, application of fertilizers and pesticides, etc.) are associated with loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, desertification, and water and air pollution. Hence, it is vital for the People’s Republic of China to examine ways to improve the ecosystem functions of working farmlands.

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