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FOOD SECURITY

FOOD SECURITY. Lorenzo Boffi, Nik Stoop, Karla Newendorp, A’kos Szebeni. GOALS AND TARGETS: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER Target 1C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. INDICATORS:

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FOOD SECURITY

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  1. FOOD SECURITY • Lorenzo Boffi, Nik Stoop, Karla Newendorp, A’kos Szebeni

  2. GOALS AND TARGETS: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER Target 1C: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger INDICATORS: 1.8 Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age 1.9 proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption Millennium Development Goal #1

  3. WHAT IS FOOD SECURITY? • Food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life • Source: FAO State of Food Security 2007

  4. Some Numbers… • Nearly 30 per cent of the world’s population is currently suffering from one or more forms of malnutrition • Approximately 840 million people are undernourished or • chronically food insecure • 2.8 million children and 300,000 women die every year due to malnutrition • in developing countries • According to FAO,if each of the developing regions continues to reduce hunger at • the current pace,only South America and the Caribbean will reach the MDG target • of cutting the proportion of hungry people by half • None will reach the more ambitious World • Food Summit goal of halving the number of hungry people

  5. WHAT IS HUNGER? uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food the recurring and involuntary lack of access to food • HUNGER IN A SUBJECTIVE SENSE • CALORIE MEASURE INDICATOR adopted by FAO (OBJECTIVE SENSE) • Average amount of food available per person • Level of inequality in access to that food • The minimum number of calories required for an average person

  6. CAUSES OF HUNGER more than just the production of food and meeting demand CAUSES OF HUNGER are related to the causes of POVERTY

  7. CAUSES OF HUNGER • 1. POVERTY ITSELF (poverty leads to people being unable to afford food • and hence people go hungry) • Increase in the food prices driven by: • 1) supply disruptions • 2) expanding world population • 3) urbanization • 4) inappropriate agricultural policies, • including subsidies in developed • countries • INCREASING EMPHASIS ON EXPORT-ORIENTED AGRICULTURE • IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES as a result of the debt problem and IMF and World Bank solutions to this problem as a legacy of colonial policies

  8. CAUSES OF HUNGER • WAR • FAMINE • DROUGHT • OVERFISHING • GOVERNANCE

  9. MDG 2: Universal primary education • Reaching this goal is heavily dependant on achieving food security • Hunger deprives children from their will and ability to learn • Poor households cannot afford to send their children to school- no money for education fees, textbooks… • - not able/willing to pay the opportunity cost of schooling • World Food Program: School Feeding as incentive Results: higher education enrollment

  10. MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women • Household Food Security: “The capacity of households to procure a stable and sustainable basket of adequate food” (IFAD) • Women play a key role in the strategies to reach Household Food Security • Study conducted in 63 countries in 2005: Gains in women’s education => 43% of total progress in declining malnutrition between 1970-1995 • Cycle that passes on hunger from one generation to the nextUNICEF: break the cycle => education of girls

  11. MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases • Food insecurity enhances the transition from HIV to AIDS. • Pregnant women who are infected by HIV have a greater chance of transmitting the virus to their unborn children when they are food insecure. • The treatment of HIV/AIDS is lot less effective in the absence of food security. • People who lack the right diets and micronutrients are more susceptible to get affected by tuberculosis. • The transition from infection to active TB and eventually dead will happen at a faster rate when the patient is suffering from food insecurity. • Direct relationship between agriculture and the spread of malaria.

  12. Relationship between food security, gender issues and AIDS: figure from a case study in Ethiopia

  13. Rising Food Prices • What are the causes of rising food prices? • There is a danger that a lot of the progress made will be reversed! • 1. CHANGING DIETS: increased demand for meat and dairy in rapidly developing countries such as China, Brazil, India, and Russia have caused serious supply shortages • 2. SUBSIDIES AND MARKET DISTORTION: free market limitations such as trade rules, tariffs, etc • 3. CLIMATE CHANGE: droughts, floods, more frequent extreme weather, heat waves, general increase in temperature have led to disruptions in agricultural productivity and reduced crop yields • 4. SOARING INPUT AND PRODUCTION COSTS: crude oil, natural gas, fertilizer, seeds, land, shipping – major increases over past 5 years • 5. RISING FOOD PRICES DISPROPORTIONALY AFFECT POOR as the poor tend to spend a higher percentage of their income on food

  14. Malnutrition • FOUR CRITICAL FACTORS FOR COMBATTING MALNUTRITION: • 1. continued progress must be made to reduce rate of population growth • 2. scientific research must provide for safe, reliable, higher-yielding staple crop varieties • 3. increased economic investment must be directed to agricultural modernization • 4. greater efforts must be made to bring about equitable distribution of food supplies

  15. Malnutrition • FAO REPORT “Current State of Food Security 2007” recommendations: • focusing programs and investments on “hotspots” of poverty and undernourishment; enhancing the productivity of smallholder agriculture; creating the right conditions for private investment, including transparency and good governance; making world trade work for the poor, with safety nets put in place for vulnerable groups; and a rapid increase in the level of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.7 percent of GDP, as promised.

  16. Malnutrition- things to note • MDGs target PROPORTION, whereas World Food Summit targets actual NUMBER of people • The WFS target is the more ambitious of the two • Keeping the World Food Summit pledge would require reducing the number of undernourished by 31 million every year until 2015 • Reducing hunger will be particularly difficult for countries characterized by :historically very high levels of hunger prevalence, very low food consumption, low economic growth prospects, high population growth rates and a limited agricultural resource base • contributing to malnutrition is the lack of adequate food utilization: proper digestion and absorption of nutrients • Several billion people are classified as the HIDDEN HUNGRY. They may appear adequately fed, but suffer in some way from the lack of essential vitamins or minerals • Between 100 and 140 million children suffer from vitamin A deficiency, which can lead to blindness, diseases associated with this deficiency kill a million children a year. Some 20 million people worldwide are mentally handicapped as a result of iodine deficiency

  17. Change in Agricultural Output Potential in 2080 Due to Climate Change Source: Cline, 2007 Potential Effect of Climate Change on PRODUCTION CAPACITY

  18. International TradeAgricultural Support Policies • Out of the 24 countries that have the greatest comparative advantage in agriculture, 23 received food aid over the last 10 years, and 19 were LDCs UNU- WIDER no. 2006/141 • Systemic cause of food insecurity • Agricultural support policies • Protection measures for developed countries without a comparative advantage in agriculture • subsidies, tariff and non-tariff barriers • Price distortion

  19. Transfer of wealth Cheap food Low wages Internationally competitive “Rapid transformation of the economy” Premature De-agrarianization Destroy domestic production Unemployed Discourage specialization in capital intensive sectors “Import basic goods that could be produced domestically.” Subsidies Trade-centric vs Development Oriented

  20. “Agricultural support measures of advanced countries may thus be said to contribute to economic underdevelopment of developing countries, which is at the core of food insecurity.”-UNU-WIDER No.2006/141 FAO/I. Balderi, World Food Summit, ftp://ftp.fao.org/wfd/2006

  21. A slow change in policy • Doha rounds: Agriculture • Long term objective: establish fair and market oriented trading system through fundamental reform • Reduction (and eventually phase out) export subsidies • Substantial reductions of supports that distort trade *differential treatment for developing countries: ensure food security and rural development*

  22. Aid For Trade • Help developing countries (LDC) build trade capacity and infrastructure needed to benefit from open trade - part of ODA • Country owned trade strategies • Effective negotiation • Infrastructure • Telecommunications: link to global markets • Adjustment assistance • Productive capacity: diversify economy

  23. To assist development,Donor countries need to adjust both aid policies and trade policies to ensure coherence between the two. FAO/J. Cendon, ftp://ftp.fao.org/wfd/2006 “Trade policies must not undermine development… Advanced countries should therefore eliminate agriculture support measures.” UNU-WIDER 2006/141

  24. Major Actors in FOOD SECURITY • World Food Program • United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization • World Health Organization (WHO) • International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) • International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) • United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) • UNESCO • NGOs • Private Organizations • Philanthropic Institutions • National Agricultural Institutions • SWAPS

  25. For Further Consideration: • Impact of Bio-fuels on world food prices • Impact of FAO’s Special Program for Food Security • Forced migration and its effects on food security • Are genetically modified crops the answer to food supply shortages? • Reasons for the significant regional disparities in hunger reduction trends • World Food Program- school feeding and aid policies • WTO Doha Rounds • Effectiveness of different types of Aid architecture • Direct food aid versus aid for capacity building • Diversion of land for non-staple agricultural purposes (i.e tobacco, sugarcane, corn field for ethanol….) • Provisions for land rights and ownerships • AND MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE

  26. References • “Can we eradicate hunger? Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, United Nations University • “Trade reforms and food security” FAO paper • “The concept and definition of hunger and its relationship to food security” David H. Holben • “Food security: what have sciences to offer” Hall, A study for ICSU • “Causes of hunger” IFPRI policy brief • “World food summit” (FAO website) • http://www.gecafs.org/gecafs_conference_2008/documents/oxford_april_08_conference_summary.pdf • http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/agns/files/HLC1_Climate_Change_and_Food_Safety.pdf • http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.htm • Agricultural Support Measures of Advanced Countries and Food and Security in Developing Countries (UNU WIDER Michael Herrmann 2006) • Doha Development Agenda - www.wto.org • www.wfp.org • ftp://ftp.fao.org • “Aid For Trade” Can Turn Possibility Into Reality- Global Review • Household Food Security and Gender- www.ifad.org • Gender, HIV/AIDS and Food Security- Linkage and Integration Into Development Interventions” – Drylands Corporation Group • Agriculture, Food Security, Nutrition and the Millennium Development Goals” Joachim von Braun

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