Class of 2013
Eliza Warren-Shriner • Brunswick to Burkina Faso
E “This is an exciting time to be working here. It is becoming increasingly clear that smallholder farmers need support to increase production and access markets—it can’t just be one or the other.”
liza Warren-Shriner ’13, an environmental studies and Romance languages major with a chemistry minor, spent her first year after Bowdoin working for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Dakar, Senegal, through a Princeton in Africa Fellowship. During this time, she became involved in the Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative that examines “how WFP’s demand for local food crops can be leveraged to support smallholder farmers.” She now works for P4P as a consultant in WFP’s office in Burkina Faso. What are the latest developments with P4P? This is an exciting time to be working here. It is becoming increasingly clear that smallholder farmers need support to increase production and access to markets—it can’t just be one or the other. In many developing countries, WFP is one of just a few large buyers of local food crops that: 1) sign formal contracts, 2) maintain high quality standards, and 3) pay a premium for quality. The fact that the organization is now leveraging its position as a key buyer in developing markets to support smallholder farmers is huge. These farmers are also increasingly recognized as having a central—if not the central—role in ensuring food security in developing countries. The potential impact is high. Do you have a favorite Bowdoin memory? For my final project in my French senior seminar, I researched the French repas gastronomique, then designed and prepared a five-course meal around the senses to correspond with the course’s focus on the body. My professor let me use her kitchen, and despite a few mishaps (including breaking her casserole dish in her oven), a great meal with friends, classmates, and professors was a great way to end my Bowdoin career. Where do you hope to head next? The list is long! My actual next trip is home. I’m originally from Vermont, which is always a muchwelcome break from the desert, and Vermont, (along with Maine), is still among my favorite places in the world. In March, I’ll be moving to Burundi to work for One Acre Fund, a social enterprise that supplies smallhold farmers in East Africa with assetbased financing and agriculture training services to reduce hunger and poverty. I’m excited to get back to an area I fell in love with during my first visit!”
Photo: Oliver Parini