BARBADIAN MARLON GRANT-LEWIS will go to the United States this month as the latest Eastern Caribbean participant in the United States Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).
The field officer with the Barbados Agricultural Society will take part in a two week project on US foreign policy and food security with 14 other candidates from around the world.
United by their professional pursuits, the participants are a diverse group, hailing from as far as Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India, and Vietnam. The programme offers the opportunity for this varied group to network with professional counterparts (both US and international) in order to increase information sharing.
Grant-Lewis’ programme will examine US policies on food security, global hunger, and sustainable economic development; explain how sustainable agricultural development policies and trade flows are linked to food security; examine mandatory sustainability standards and technologies to support agricultural development; explain US efforts to enhance existing and create new local infrastructures to reduce hunger and food insecurity; examine the links between food security and agricultural productivity, climate change, water scarcity and competition for energy resources from industry and urbanization; and examine how food security is linked to environmental, energy and political security.
IVLP, which begins on August 18, will open in Washington, D.C. and end in Sacramento, California on August 29. The national itinerary will also include travel in smaller groups on city splits to Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and St. Louis, Missouri.
It is the Department of State’s premier, professional exchange programme. The programme brings together emerging leaders in their respective professions to learn how US experts in that profession operate and to share best practices with the other candidates who hail from the same region and across the globe. (PR/NB)
