Using sustainable food value chain development (SFVCD) approaches to reduce poverty presents both great opportunities and daunting challenges. SFVCD requires a systems approach to identifying root problems, innovative thinking to find effective solutions and broad-based partnerships to implement programmes that have an impact at scale. In practice, however, a misunderstanding of its fundamental nature can easily result in value-chain projects having limited or non-sustainable impact. Furthermore, development practitioners around the world are learning valuable lessons from both failures and successes, but many of these are not well disseminated. This new set of handbooks aims to address these gaps by providing practical guidance on SFVCD to a target audience of policy-makers, project designers and field practitioners. This first handbook provides a solid conceptual foundation on which to build the subsequent handbooks. It (1) clearly defines the concept of a sustainable food value chain; (2) presents and discusses a development paradigm that integrates the multidimensional concepts of sustainability and value added; (3) presents, discusses and illustrates ten principles that underlie SFVCD; and (4) discusses the potential and limitations of using the value-chain concept in food-systems development. By doing so, the handbook makes a strong case for placing SFVCD at the heart of any strategy aimed at reducing poverty and hunger in the long run.

`This is a "must read" for anyone interested in value chain finance.---Kenneth Shwedel, Agricultural Economist --Book Jacket.

Milk has played a major contribution to the human diet in many different countries across the world since the dawn of time. The dairy cow was domesticated over 6000 years ago, she was the object of worship in the Middle East 2000 years before Christ, and milk and milk products are mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible. Milk and dairy products have become a major part of the human diet in many countries. It is not surprising therefore, that over many years considerable attention has been paid to improving the quality of milk. We have worked to improve the yield, the compositional quality and the hygienic quality, and have striven to minimise the level of contaminants which can find access to this, perhaps our most natural, unrefined and highly nutritious foodstuff. The chain of people involved in the milk industry extends from milk production-farmers, veterinarians and farm advisors-through transport to processing-quality controllers, manufacturers-and on to retailers, legislators, nutritionists, dairy educators and consumers. All will be interested in the quality parameters of milk which are reg ularly measured for commercial reasons, for trade, for legal requirements and for reasons of nutrition.

Ambitious in nature, the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) adopted by the Fourth United Nations Conference on the LDCs (UN LDC IV) in 2011, sets out a development path for LDCs for the coming decade. Successful implementation of the IPoA requires identification of delivery tools for specific targets, provision of necessary financial and non-financial resources, and a strengthened monitoring mechanism. LDC IV Monitor, an independent partnership of eight interested organisations, aims to add value by enhancing transparency, accountability and efficiency of the official monitoring and review mechanism of the IPoA. LDC IV Monitor’s first set of two reports, produced outside of the official intergovernmental process, provide credible, evidence-based and policy-oriented assessment of the delivery status of the promises contained in the IPoA. The Synthesis Report, derived from the critical analyses of the state of play concerning the IPoA, presents the broad messages and key recommendations. The volume on Analytical Perspectives addresses a wide spectrum of issues including articulation of a composite IPoA index, building of productive capacity, trade in goods and services, delivery of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), flows of different forms of development finance, and consequences of climate change. The publications seek to contribute towards crafting national and international policies to support graduation of the LDCs through structural transformation of their economies.