Food and
Nutrition Security Should Stay High on the Agenda at the G20
Meetings
By Shenggen Fan
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
June 15, 2012
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
June 15, 2012
Food and nutrition security must remain at the top of the agendaas G20
leaders prepare to meet in Los Cabos, Mexico next week. Severe food and
nutrition insecurity continues to persist, the key drivers behind the food
crises in 2007/08 and 2011 have not been resolved, and the current global
economic crisis is further worsening the situation. According to the 2011 Global
Hunger Index, more than 50 countries are experiencing “extremely alarming,”
“alarming,” or “serious” levels of hunger; Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
continue to be hunger hot spots.
Ensuring food and nutrition security
will become even more difficult due to the growing complexity of global
challenges, such as population growth, increasing consumer demand from the
growing middle class in developing countries, high and volatile food prices,
energy scarcity, and climate change. Against this worrisome background,
development aid from donors dropped for the first time in 15 years, falling by 3
percent from 2010 to 2011.
Last year’s G20 Summit led to important
actions in strengthening global food security efforts and resolving problems
related to price spikes and volatility. Of these actions, one that has shown
progress is the creation of the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS),
which includes indicators such as the Excessive Food Price Variability Warning
System developed by IFPRI and the Rapid Response Forum (RRF). However,
progress has been slow on most of the other actions. For example, the
Agricultural Price Risk Management tool has not shown significant progress and
only the Agricultural Price Risk Management (APRM) + Platform on Agricultural
Risk Management (PARM) has been launched but it still needs validation, and no
clear action has been taken with regard to other risk-coping tools. Similarly,
there has not been significant progress on financial regulation and the regional
humanitarian reserves pilot.
This year, the G20 must take additional
steps to rein in food price volatility byaddressing structural problems and
responding to long-term drivers of food security. Priority actions should
include assuring the implementation of the action plan of 2011 by reducing the
competition between food and fuel, promoting free and open trade to calm food
markets, and supporting regional humanitarian food reserves to address food
emergencies.
G20 leaders should also continue to emphasize innovative
partnerships to address food security issues, including strengthening the
engagement of nonstate actors, especially the private sector, in global food
security efforts. In addition, the G20 is an opportunity to engage with
emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China as they increase
their role in global policymaking, especially in forging South–South
cooperation.
While price volatility is still an issue, this year there
is also a strong focus on increasing food production and productivity, promoting
food security, and fostering economic growth in a sustainable manner. G20
leaders should focus on productivity and assuring sustainability, by examining
agricultural research and development and crop yield
stagnation.
Scaled-up investments in science and technology and
support for improved country capacities are fundamental to accelerating progress
and achieving development objectives. Technological innovations such as
biotechnology, nanotechnology, and biofortification, are crucial to increasing
agricultural productivity, building resilience to weather-related shocks,
enhancing the nutritional value of food crops, and ensuring food safety.
Similarly significant efforts should be made to improve the access to inputs
such as improved seeds and fertilizer.
IFPRI makes the following
recommendations to the G20 policymakers:
- Speed up progress on action-plan items from previous G20 meetings and develop clear accountability indicators;
- Keep food and nutrition security at the top of the agenda of current and future G20 meetings;
- Invest in agricultural research and development and improve farmers’ access to improved seeds and fertilizer;
- Improve information to better prioritize needed investment to increase sustainable agricultural productivity;
- Avoid excessive market speculation by providing more timely, accurate information on food prices, stocks and production;
- Increase the availability of weather information to improve the capacity of appropriate early warning mechanisms to climate shocks and to increase the availability of weather index insurance suppliers; and
- Enable a positive environment in which to increase and link private and public investments in agriculture and encourage mutual accountability between governments, the public and private sectors, and civil society.
IFPRI, a member of the CGIAR Consortium, contributed to the International
Organization and B20 documents to provide background information and
recommendations for the G20 members. As a premium global food policy research
institute, IFPRI is well positioned to share evidence-based research on food and
nutrition security and provide support to country-led strategies for
strengthening food policy capacities.
The International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was
established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and
international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the
developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the
poorer groups in those countries. It is a member of the CGIAR Consortium.
No comments:
Post a Comment