Expert Commentary - A Deficit in Political Will?

In response to the FAO World Summit on Food Security, the Global Agricultural Development Initiative solicited commentary by leading agricultural development and food security experts to provide expert analysis of the Summit's proceedings.

Per Pinstrup-Andersen

H. E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Professor of Applied Economics, Cornell University; Professor of Agricultural Economics, Copenhagen University; Former Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)   Bio

The Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security agreed to by Summit participants on November 16, 2009, states as its first strategic objective to “Ensure urgent national, regional and global action to fully realize the target of Millennium Development Goal 1 and the 1996 World Food Summit goal, namely to reduce respectively the proportion and the number of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition by half by 2015.”  Unfortunately, countries have already agreed to this commitment on many occasions, and little progress in alleviating the problems of global hunger and malnutrition has been made.

For example, the Rome Declaration from the 1996 World Food Summit says that: “We pledge our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.” Such pledges and promises have been made time and time again, yet according to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the number of undernourished people has continued to increase annually.  Although some countries, such as China and Vietnam, have taken these pledges seriously and decreased the number of impoverished living within their borders, many others have not. 

So why are declarations and pledges and the multitude of plans that followed not resulting in the action required to meet them?  Is it just a lack of political will on the part of many national governments?  Do these governments really not intend to take promises made at international conferences seriously?  Or do they not have the resources or knowledge to do what needs to be done?

I believe we have the resources, technology, and know-how at the global level needed to eradicate hunger.  But, unequal distribution of resources and lack of political will at the country levels are serious problems.  The commitment made at the G8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy to allocate $20 billion over three years to a food security initiative, as well as the new U.S. food security initiative, are important steps to provide necessary resources.  However, these commitments will only be effective if developing countries that receive the assistance can mobilize the political will to prioritize agricultural development, rural infrastructure investments, and other food security-related activities. 

The Declaration of the World Food Security Summit states correctly that food security is a national responsibility and that action plans should be country-led.  But what will it take to mobilize the political will to move from plans to action?  That is the most important question facing parents in poor countries who are watching their children die from hunger and malnutrition.  Five million died last year.  How many will die this year and for how long do these families have to suffer because policy-makers have other priorities?