WHAT IS FOOD SECURITY? ▸ UN 1975: “Availability at all times of adequate supplies of basic foodstuffs…to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption…and to offset fluctuations in production and prices” ▸ FAO 2009: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
FOOD SECURITY EXISTS WHEN… Lack of food security is lack of equality All People Food Security can be chronic or transient At all times It’s not only about availability but also Physical, social and economic access access Food security is not only about quantity Sufficient, safe and nutritious food but also quality and We must respect people’s culture Meets dietary needs and food preferences Food security underlies all human activity For an active and healthy life
COMPONENTS OF FOOD SECURITY
Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough to eat. It is not the characteristic of there not being enough to eat. Why don’t people have enough to eat if there is enough to eat?
FOOD SECURITY POLICY COURSE ▸ What is food security? ▸ How prevalent is food insecurity? ▸ How is the world trying to address food insecurity? ▸ Food security per pillar (access, utilization, resilience, availability) ▸ Major influencing factors: climate change, conflict, trade liberalization ▸ Special topics: humanitarian aid, land grabs....
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (2000)
MDG HUNGER GOAL ▸ Goal: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger ▸ Indicators: - Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age - Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption
HAVE WE ACHIEVED MDG 1C? ▸ Almost... For the developing world as a whole the proportion of undernourished people dropped from 23.3 per cent in 1990–1992 to 12.9 per cent in 2014–2016. ▸ 795 million people undernourished globally, down 167 million over the last 10 years, and 216 million less than in 1990–92.
REGIONAL BREAKDOWN ▸ 72 out of 129 countries achieved goal. Latin America, SE Asia, Central Asia, West Africa, succeeded. SAsia, Oceania, the Caribbean and S and E Africa, progressed but slower ▸ In SSA number of undernourished people even increased by 44 million between 1990–92 and 2014–16.
A TALE OF TWO REGIONS
FS SUCCESS FACTORS ▸ Good governance ▸ Political stability and the rule of law ▸ Absence of - Conflict and civil strife, - Weather-related shocks - Excessive food price volatility
IT IS EASIER TO ALLEVIATE POVERTY THAN HUNGER. WHY? ▸ The hungry are the poorest of the poor ▸ Hunger and poverty are mutually reinforcing ▸ Poor agricultural households lack access to sufficient, high-quality land and other natural resources or to remunerative sources of income (self-employment, wage labour)
POLICIES TO SUPPORT FOOD SECURITY ▸ Pro-poor economic growth ▸ Agricultural productivity growth/ Developing agricultural markets ▸ Building resilience/social protection
HUNGER TARGETS ▸ By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round ▸ End all forms of malnutrition , including stunting (height for age) and wasting (weight for height) in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons
HUNGER TARGETS CONTINUED ▸ Double agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women , indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
AND EVEN MORE TARGETS.... ▸ Maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species ▸ Ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change , extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality
MARKET-BASED TARGETS ▸ Increase investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries ▸ Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies ▸ Ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility
ARE WE ON TRACK TO SUCCEED?
Source: IFPRI Global Food Policy Report 2016
ZERO HUNGER CHALLENGE, 2012 ▸ Zero stunted children under the age of two ▸ 100% access to adequate food all year round ▸ All food systems are sustainable ▸ 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income ▸ Zero loss or waste of food
COMPONENTS OF FOOD SECURITY
HOW DO WE INCREASE ACCESS? ▸ Economic empowerment, especially in smallholder agriculture ▸ Increase women’s education ▸ Provide social safety nets ▸ Increase political voice ▸ Strengthen land rights ▸ Peace
HOW DO WE INCREASE ACCESS? “Agricultural investment is the most important and most effective strategy for poverty reduction in rural areas, where the majority of the world’s poorest people live.” World Bank, 2008 ▸ Raises farmer incomes ▸ Generates demand for other rural goods and services and creates employment and incomes for landless rural poor. ▸ Increases availability of food on the market and helps keep food prices low for urban and rural consumers ▸ Increases diversity of diets = better nutrition
¾ POOR AND HUNGRY PEOPLE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD LIVE IN RURAL AREAS Growth originating in agriculture is 3x as likely to alleviate extreme poverty
▸ 65% of Africans work in agriculture. ▸ Africa has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land. ▸ Yet….Africa is a net importer of food. Why?
HOW DO WE INCREASE ACCESS? ▸ Economic empowerment, especially in smallholder agriculture ▸ Increase political voice ▸ Strengthen land rights ▸ Increase women’s education ▸ Provide social safety nets ▸ Peace
WHO IS HUNGRY? 7/10 of the world’s hungry are… WOMEN
WHO IS HUNGRY? ▸ Women produce 60-80% of the developing country food and represent 43% of the agricultural labour force ▸ Millennium Development Goals: the most important intervention to halve hunger and malnutrition in the world is education of women ▸ Women more likely than men to spend their money on food for the household. ▸ BUT: Rural women receive less than 10% of total credit to farmers ▸ In most countries, women can’t own land, don’t have access to financial services or other inputs. The WFP estimates that if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million with a 50% reduction in severe child hunger.
HOW DO WE INCREASE ACCESS? ▸ Economic empowerment, especially in smallholder agriculture ▸ Increase political voice ▸ Strengthen land rights ▸ Increase women’s education ▸ Provide social safety nets ▸ Peace
SOCIAL PROTECTION ▸ Social insurance (protection against risk over time) ▸ Social assistance (payments and in-kind transfers to support and enable the poor) ▸ Social inclusion efforts (to enhance the capability of the marginalized to participate fully in economic and social life and to access social services)
TYPES OF PROTECTION PROGRAMS ▸ Public works programs (can exclude women, benefits not maintained, people need calories to work) ▸ Food subsidies (expensive, regressive) ▸ Grain reserves (big in 60s and 70s, less so now because costly and inefficient) ▸ School feeding programmes ▸ Nutritional supplements to children esp. 6mo.-2yrs ▸ Conditional cash transfers (eg if send kids to school or clinic, but harder to administer ▸ Unconditional cash/food transfers (esp in Africa where public service less developed)
SOCIAL PROTECTION ▸ Today, every country in the world has at least one social assistance program in place ▸ Social protection programs can help escape poverty, build resilience, facilitate prudent risk-taking, improve nutritional outcomes, empower women ▸ School-feeding programs in 130 countries. ▸ Unconditional cash transfers in 118 countries ▸ Conditional cash transfer and public works/ community asset programs expanding
RESILIENCE ▸ Resilience = long-term resilience to shocks and stressors ▸ Resilience is on the individual (psychological), household, community, organizational, ecological system or state level
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