IAT04-WR01_2
Speakers
Workshop Report:
The food crisis and aid
issues
Thursday, July 9, 2009
International Aid & Trade, Washington D.C.
By Vaishali Honawar
A
lglobal food crisis that
exploded last year is far from
over, and unless checked, could
escalate to a point where a third
of the world’s population could be
food insecure by 2025, speakers
warned during a workshop titled
“The food crisis and aid issues.”
The number of people going hungry
has risen from 850 million to 1 billion
in a single year, as a result of high
food prices and the global economic
downturn, according to the Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United
Nations. Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, the
Chief of the Policy and Development
Branch of the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Human Affairs
(OCHA), said that in 80 per cent of the
countries, the price of food is 50 per
cent higher today than it was in 2004,
and they are never again expected
to drop to pre-2004 levels. OCHA,
in partnership with other international
INTERNATIONAL AID + TRADE
Workshop Report
Hansjoerg
Strohmeyer
Chief of Policy and
Development Branch,
United Nations Office
for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA)
Finbarr Curran
Director of Field and
Energency support
Office (FESO), UN
World Food
Programme (WFP)
Gary Clements
Director, Office
of Agriculture,
agencies, mobilizes humanitarian
Biotechnology, and
support during disasters and
Textile Trade Affairs
emergencies.
Economic, Energy, and Business
The increasing price of oil has also Affairs, U.S. Department of State
further impacted the food crisis, Mr.
Strohmeyer added. “The moment oil Dr. Shaun Ferris
prices climb beyond a certain level, Senior Technical
it will have serious implications on Advisor for Agriculture
agriculture. “The buzzword is volatility,” and the Environment,
Catholic Relief
he said. “No one can predict which
Services (CRS).
way this will go.”
Silke Pietzsch
Food Security
“The number of Advisor, Action
people going hungry has Against Hunger
risen from 850 million to
1 billion in a single year,
as a result of high food
prices and the global
economic downturn.”
In laying out solutions, Strohmeyer
pointed to a Comprehensive
Framework of Action to combat the Workshop report from the
food crisis that was produced last 2009 Aid & Trade Event
year by a task force convened by
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
This task force included several U.N.
agencies as well as the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the
World Health Organization, and the
World Trade Organization.
The Comprehensive Framework for
Action calls for a multi-step approach 9-10 July 2009
to combat the food crisis, including Washington D.C., USA
emergency food assistance for those Building Partnerships for Relief & Development
affected, assistance for small farmers Procurement & Logistics
Getting the right equipment to the right place at the right time
to boost local food production, and
adjusting trade and tax policies.
1
Workshop Report
“We were trying to draft an innovative
approach to [resolve the food crisis],”
Mr. Strohmeyer said, adding: “Although
the crisis is now a year old, most of the
problems are still valid.”
Finbarr Curran, director of the Field
and Emergency Support Office
(FESO) of the World Food Programme
(WFP), the U.N.’s frontline agency in
the fight against global hunger, said
the problems that created the crisis
will continue. “High prices of food are
here to stay; the high price of fuel is
here to stay. There are issues of water
[shortage] and soil erosion…we realize
we are facing a very different world.”
He detailed the holistic approach being
taken by the World Food Programme
is taking to combat the crisis. In
2008, the WFP supplied food to 102
million people, and bought US $1.1
billion worth of food in 73 developing
countries.
The WFP’s Purchase for Progress
program, or P4P, gives smallholder and
low-income farmers the know-how
and tools to maximize crop production.
Further, it helps hundreds of thousands
of smallholder farmers gain access
to reliable markets to sell their surplus
crops at competitive prices.
“This helps not just farmers but the
whole community and ultimately the
whole world,” commented Curran.
P4P initiatives will now be piloted
in 21 countries over the next five
years including Asia, Africa and Latin
America. The food, WFP cought by
from farmers will go toward feeding the
hungry in the same country. The Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation and
the Howard G. Buffet Foundation have
committed $79 million to P4P.
Bruce White of Catholic Relief Services
(CRS), a faith-based group based
in the United States that works on
alleviating disease and poverty globally,
said the only positive outcome of the
food crisis was that it grabbed the
world’s attention. “The U.S. policy is
that both [former president George W.
Bush] and [President] Obama have
embraced ending hunger and poverty
by 2015,” he said. However, he added,
the U.S. government does not have
a comprehensive strategy on fighting
world hunger.
White explained that CRS is supporting
a bill recently introduced in Congress
2
that would implement a comprehensive
plan to address global hunger and
increase food security. The bipartisan
‘Roadmap to End Global Hunger and
Promote Food Security Act of 2009’ bill
outlines a comprehensive plan for the
short, intermediate and long term.
“In 2008, the WFP
supplied food to 102 million
people, and bought US $1.1
billion worth of food in 73
developing countries.”
The comprehensive strategy
includes emergency response and
management, safety nets, nutrition and
agricultural development. The bill also
proposes appointment of a coordinator
on Global Hunger and Food Security
in the White House and creates a
bipartisan, bicameral select committee
on hunger within Congress to focus on
global hunger.
Gary Clements, director of the Office of
Agriculture, Biotechnology, and Textile
Trade Affairs at the U.S. Department of
State, offered a sobering statistic: half
of all children’s deaths in the developing
world stem from malnutrition.
Mr. Clements reminded the audience
of President Barack Obama’s
commitment to fight poverty and
hunger. During his inauguration
address in January this year, President
Obama said, “To the people of poor
nations, we pledge to work alongside
IAT04-WR01_2
you to make your farms flourish and let
clean waters flow; to nourish starved
bodies and feed hungry minds.”
The Obama administration is now
working on a strategic initiative to
increase agricultural productivity and
end world hunger. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, who is spearheading
this effort, has said that this would
include improving farmers’ access to
quality seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, tools
and credit, improving food storage and
processing facilities, and supporting
women farmers, Clements said the
President has also announced a
doubling of aid for agricultural growth
in developing countries to more than
US$1 billion in 2010.
The need is to find sustainable
agricultural solutions, including
increasing agricultural productivity with
a focus on the small farmer.
“Our goal in the long term is to reduce
emergency aid by making countries
more self-sufficient,” he added.
Silke Pietzch, Food Security Advisor
with Action Against Hunger, a
New York-based organization that
has programs to fight malnutrition
in 40 countries, emphasized the
importance of preparing in advance
for emergencies.
Donor and funding cycles, she said,
need to change so that those affected
get aid soon after an emergency,
when it is needed most. “Working
before emergencies is much more
effective and cheaper than after,”
warned Ms. Pietzch.
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