House of Commons - Global Food Security - International Development Committee

Global Food Security - International Development Committee Contents

1 Introduction

1. In 2012, the G8 launched a New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, an alliance of G8 countries, developing country governments and private companies. Over 60 companies are involved, half of which are African; total commitments from business are over $4 billion. The New Alliance aims to invest in countries which use reforms to promote investment and agricultural activity.[1]

2. The G8 will return to the subject during the UK's Presidency in 2013. As well as hosting the G8 summit on 17-18 June,[2] on 8 June the UK will host an event called "Nutrition for Growth: Beating hunger through nutrition and science".[3] Concurrently a large-scale campaign ("Enough Food for Everyone IF") is being run by over 200 UK- and Ireland-based NGOs.[4] In a specially-recorded message to coincide with the launch of the campaign, the Prime Minister stated that:

Nearly a billion people around the world do not get enough food. And undernutrition holds back the growth and development of millions of children.

This is simply not acceptable in 2013.

3. According to the website of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), "Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."[6] Food insecurity (the lack of such conditions) is one of the defining issues of our times. Across the world almost 870 million people suffer from hunger.[7] The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) included a target to reduce the number of people suffering from hunger by half between 1990 and 2015,[8] and we anticipate that hunger will also feature in the post-2015 development goals when the MDGs expire. While progress against the MDG target on hunger has been better than some feared, this progress has been achieved largely in East Asia and Latin America: progress is lagging in South Asia, Western Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.[9]

4. For important crops such as rice, wheat, maize and soybeans, yield growth rates have slowed globally. The decline in yield growth rates has been observed in both developed and developing countries.[10] Overfishing also poses a serious problem: fish stocks are under strain from fishing which is either poorly regulated, unregulated or simply illegal. It has been suggested that all species of seafood which are currently fished will be extinct by 2048.[11]

5. At the African Union summit in July 2003, African leaders signed the Maputo Declaration, committing their governments to spending 10% of national budgets on agriculture, and achieving 6% annual growth rates in agriculture by 2008.[12] Yet in a study of African countries conducted by ONE, an NGO, nine of the 19 countries studied were found to have reduced their agriculture budgets since the signing of the Maputo Declaration. Only four of the 19 countries had met the 10% target, with another two close behind.[13] Donor funding for agriculture has shown a slight increase in recent years, but the historical trend is one of decline.[14] In its written evidence, ONE reports that donor funding for agriculture fell by 72% between 1988 and 2003.[15] Throughout this period NGOs played in valuable role in providing much-needed support to smallholder farmers.[16]

6. Box 1 illustrates the various ways in which DFID works on food security through its bilateral programmes.

Box 1

DFID's bilateral work on food security

There are three main strands to DFID's bilateral work on food security:

Supporting the provision of public goods (e.g. infrastructure; research) and an 'enabling environment' for the agricultural sector, including work on land tenure reform;
Supporting smallholders who may not otherwise be commercially viable, through work on resilience, diversification and social protection;
Supporting the integration of smallholders into markets and value chains, e.g. by helping smallholder co-operatives to access credit and agricultural inputs.

Source: adapted from Ev 102

7. There are a number of major international institutions and initiatives working on food security. Box 2 provides details of these.

Box 2

Key institutions and initiatives

UN World Food Programme (WFP): WFP focuses on humanitarian assistance, with two-thirds of its budget used for humanitarian purposes. In 2012, the UK was the fourth-largest contributor to WFP, providing over £126 million. Most of the UK's contribution to WFP (84%) was for specific projects. The UK has recently begun providing some of its funding on a multi-year basis. The UK sometimes provides in-kind contributions to WFP, and DFID also provides a 'core' contribution, having agreed to provide £100 million over a four-year period.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): FAO offers policy advice, both at country level and global level, and co-ordinates the negotiation of relevant international standards and treaties. It leads the UN's humanitarian agriculture cluster, and will co-lead the food security cluster. The UK provides 'core' funding to FAO, making it FAO's fifrh-largest contributor. The UK also provides project-specific funding which is used for policy work, work on livelihoods (including livestock), emergency and rehabilitation work, and longer-term development work.

UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): IFAD provides loans and grants to approximately 119 national governments, for work in rural areas. These loans and grants are used to fund work in rural areas, including projects on capacity building; female empowerment; yield improvement; smallholder adaptation to climate change; and natural resource management. The UK was the largest contributor to the most recent replenishment of IFAD. DFID has also made a specific contribution to IFAD's Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), to which it is the largest contributor.

Zero Hunger Challenge: This was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012. It aims to ensure sufficient food for all throughout the year.

UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS): The CFS seeks to facilitate co-operation between governments, international organisations, the private sector and civil society organisations (CSOs). Its functions are as follows:

·  Co-ordination - initially at global level, but subsequently also at regional and national levels;
·  Policy convergence;
·  Support and advice to national governments and regional organisations;
·  Development of monitoring, so as to facilitate accountability and sharing of best practice.

Source: adapted from Qq 69, 105; Ev 61, 84, 90, 100-101; Ev w46; DFID, Multilateral Aid Review, March 2011, pp 173, 183, 205.

Our inquiry

8. As a Committee, we recognise that the issue of food security is fundamental to international development. We produced a report on this area during the last Parliament, looking specifically at the work of the World Food Programme (WFP).[17] Given the increasing focus on food security during the UK's G8 Presidency, we feel that this is an opportune time to return to the issue. In this inquiry we consider what steps DFID could take to improve global food security, while also considering broader issues affecting the global food system. Some of the issues we cover also feature in recent reports by other Committees, including the Environmental Audit Committee's report on "Sustainable Food"[18] and the Energy and Climate Change Committee's report on "The road to UNFCC COP 18 and beyond".[19]

9. Our report begins (Chapter 2) with a detailed examination of the long-term factors affecting demand for and supply of food. In Chapter 3, we consider how these factors, together with more short-term policy decisions such as export bans, have contributed to recent food price "shocks" or "spikes", and how to reduce the magnitude of these shocks. Finally, in Chapter 4, we consider how best to protect the most vulnerable when shocks occur.

10. We received 40 pieces of written evidence from a wide range of individuals and organisations including academics, corporations and NGOs. We also held three oral evidence sessions. Witnesses at the oral sessions included Lynne Featherstone MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development; Norman Baker MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport; and representatives of WFP, FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Government Office for Science. In support of this inquiry we visited Ethiopia, a country which has endured well-documented challenges related to food security in the past, but which has made considerable progress in recent years. We spent time in Amhara and Benishangul-Gumuz states as well as in Addis Ababa. Finally, we are grateful to Rob Bailey of Chatham House for serving as our Specialist Adviser in this inquiry.

1 Ev w111 Back

2 "UK Presidency of G8 2013", Inside Government, www.gov.uk Back

3 Ev 107 Back

4 "Who we are", Enough Food for Everyone IF, enoughfoodif.org Back

5 "David Cameron's message to anti-hunger IF campaign", Inside Government, 23 January 2013, www.gov.uk Back

6 "Food security statistics", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, www.fao.org Back

7 UN FAO, The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2012, p 8 Back

8 Official list of MDG indicators, effective 15 January 2008, www.un.org Back

9 Ev 59 Back

10 UN FAO, Investing in Agriculture for a Better Future: The State of Food and Agriculture 2012, p 105 Back

11 Bernice Lee et al, Resources Futures (Chatham House, 2012), p 29 Back

12 Ev w111 Back