OPINION:The number of hungry people in the world has more than doubled to one billion – G8 please note, writes TOM ARNOLD.
GLOBAL FOOD security is a political and economic priority for the first time since the early 1970s. That should be the key message from the decision by the G8 group of leading economic nations to endorse a “food security initiative” at their meeting in Italy this week. But this welcome decision needs to be followed up by further significant policy change at national and international level if food security is to be achieved for the world’s growing population over the coming decades.
The food price crisis in early 2008 pushed food security back on to the political agenda Rocketing food and energy prices led to food riots in over 30 countries. This, plus the wider global economic crisis, has increased the number of hungry people in the world from 850 million two years ago to over one billion today. The initial response to the food price crisis last year was positive. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, currently in Dublin, set up a High-Level Task Force on the food security crisis (HLTF), bringing together the heads of UN agencies dealing with food security. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN’s sponsored meeting in Rome in June 2008 agreed a comprehensive framework for action, a set of short- and longer-term measures aimed at increasing food security. The EU committed €1 billion of unspent funds to tackle the food crisis at the G8 meeting in Japan in July.
The evolving global economic crisis, triggered by the collapse of financial institutions from September 2008, appeared to push food security down the agenda again. But in 2009 a number of factors – the new US administration which has prioritised hunger and food security; a high-level meeting in Madrid on food security organised by the Spanish government; effective behind the scenes work of the HLTF led by Dr David Nabarro and pressure from civil society advocacy groups – have helped to restore the focus on hunger and have led to the G8’s initiative.
It is reported that the initiative will involve a commitment of $12 billion for agricultural development over the next three years. But before giving three cheers for the G8, two critical questions must be answered. Is the $12 billion additional resources or a repackaging of existing commitments? How can this initiative feed into sustained policy change aimed at increasing food security at household, national and global level?
Policy change is necessary in many countries which are currently food insecure. Investment in agricultural and rural development has been shamefully neglected over the past 30 years. Donors, including the World Bank, also bear responsibility for this. There must now be an acceptance that budget allocations to agriculture must increase and must be sustained. Much of the policy change required is straightforward:
- Ensure smallholder farmers get inputs on time and have an outlet for marketing their produce.
- Build rural infrastructure.
- Invest in rural institutions, including promoting farm organisations and women’s groups who can represent the interests of their members.
Developed countries must also be willing to change their policies. The G8 initiative has been presented as signalling a shift from food aid to long term investment in farming. This will pose an interesting challenge for the Obama administration in that it may need to confront the “Iron Triangle” of vested interests involving the farm lobby, the shipping lobby and the aid agencies which distribute food aid. These vested interests frustrated efforts by the Bush administration to allow some of the food aid budget to be used for purchases of food in the region close to where it is needed: the lobby has thus far won its battle that all US food aid should be sourced in the US.
Ireland has an important role to play in a world giving more priority to tackling hunger and promoting increased food security. The report of the Irish Hunger Task Force, launched by Ban Ki-moon in New York last September, identified two core policy changes which are necessary.
Smallholder African farmers, particularly women who account for most of the production, require more support through access to inputs and credit. Nutrition interventions must be drastically scaled up. Severe acute malnutrition must be tackled using a community-based approach using ready to use therapeutic food. There must be a much greater focus on preventing chronically malnourished people slipping into acute malnutrition and on providing adequate nutrition to pregnant women and children under two years.
The other key recommendation from the hunger taskforce was that Ireland should continue to be an advocate at international level for more effective action against hunger. The opportunity for such advocacy will present itself in November this year at the World Food Summit in Rome.
The history of such summits is not good: the gap between the promises and subsequent actions is great. At the first such summit in 1974, Dr Henry Kissinger made the pledge that “within 10 years, no child will go to bed hungry”.
The G8 food security initiative at least provides a positive backdrop to the summit. It should provide an opportunity to many developing countries to commit to the type of policy change necessary to increase their own food security. With one billion hungry people in the world, with growing populations and with the threat that climate change presents to agricultural production capacity, such a commitment is both critical and urgent. It is good politics and good economics to do so.
Tom Arnold is chief executive of Concern and chairman of the European Food Security Group, a network of 40 European NGOs. He is also a governor of The Irish Times Trust, proprietor of The Irish Times