As part of the U.S. government effort to achieve global food security, the U.S. Department of State began the first of four 2024 Gilman Global Food Security Seminars today in Washington, D.C.
Designed to build the capacity of alumni of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship (Gilman) Program working on issues aligned with a key U.S. foreign policy goal, the seminars will engage participants with innovative practices and potential solutions to mitigate food insecurity around the world.
The seminar, convening 50 Gilman alumni, is the first in a series taking place this summer, with others planned in Colombia, New Zealand and Zimbabwe, and follows virtual sessions held in the spring. Organized by the U.S. embassies in those countries (with additional support from the Fulbright Commission in Colombia), each of the upcoming cohorts will include 25 Gilman alumni who will explore local solutions to global food security challenges.
The Gilman Program aims to broaden the participation of U.S. students in international education by providing scholarships to Pell Grant recipients to study or intern abroad. The Gilman alumni participating in the seminar series represent a range of professions working on global food security issues across the United States, including agriculture, nutrition, ecology, and policy making. All participants share the goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition and building resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food systems.
At the initial seminar, participants are meeting with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the World Bank, Oxfam America, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., and other organizations. Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences organized the Washington-based seminar through its Ag Sciences Global department.