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This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

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Roger Thurow - Outrage & Inspire

FIGHTING HUNGER: LAW OF THE LAND

From across the pond, amid the sniping and bickering of the current election season in the United Kingdom, comes a worthy idea: enshrining in law the nation’s commitment to provide a certain level of foreign development aid.

In a rare flash of agreement, the contentious leaders of the three main parties – Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Labour, David Cameron of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg – have all pledged to provide foreign aid equal to 0.7% of gross national income each year beginning in 2013.  (That level has long been the rhetorical goal of rich countries, going back more than four decades.  Most countries have fallen short; Britain is just up to 0.52%.)

Election promises go up in smoke in the U.K. as they do in the U.S.  But this one looks like it might indeed be etched in legislative stone.  A draft law published earlier this year, before the electioneering began, would require the UK to spend at least 0.7% on development aid annually.  Even the queen is for it.

UPDATE: May 20th Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is pleased to announce:

Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security: Progress to Date and Strategies for Success 

May 20, 2010 | Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, Washington, D.C. | 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Cochairs

Catherine Bertini, executive director, UN World Food Program (1992-2002)

Dan Glickman, secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture (1995-2001)

Purpose

The Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security purposes to build and sustain the gathering momentum for change in U.S. food security and agricultural development policy. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is pleased to announce that the event will feature the release of the Feed the Future Guide, the implementation strategy for the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative. 

The Honorable Rajiv Shah, administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development, will discuss the Feed the Future Guide and how this USG initiative will be realized through partnerships with recipient countries, bilateral and multilateral donors, and civil society and private sector stakeholders. Panel discussions and keynote speakers will then provide constructive and provocative thinking on how to address policy and implementation challenges confronting U.S. and international food security activities and discuss how the political, financial, and technical support for this Initiative can be sustained over the long-term.

Approximately 250 senior leaders from the Administration; Congress; and the business, policy, NGO, and international organization communities are expected to attend.  

Cosponsors

The Chicago Council is pleased to partner with the following organizations for this event:

• Bread for the World
• Concern Worldwide
• Global Harvest Initiative
• InterAction
• International Center for Research on Women
• International Food Policy Research Institute
• ONE Campaign
• Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa
• United States Institute of Peace
• World Food Prize Foundation

Additional Materials

• Concept Paper 
• Working Agenda 

Further Information 

Registration for this event is by invitation only.  

To request further information about the symposium, please contact Lindsay Iversen at liversen@thechicagocouncil.org or (312) 821-7560.

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah Announces 20 Feed the Future Initiative Focus Countries

At a high-level nutrition roundtable over the weekend co-hosted by Canada, Japan, the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the World Bank, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah announced the 20 focus countries of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future, initiative that targets the causes of hunger and aims to reduce poverty, hunger, and undernutrition.

In 2008, the Lancet identified just 36 countries that stunted for lack of adequate food. Based on this global burden of undernutrition and other criteria that examined the prevalence and dynamics of poverty, country commitment, and opportunities for agriculture-led growth, the 20 Feed the Future focus countries are: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia in Africa; Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Tajikistan in Asia; and Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and, Nicaragua in Latin America.

“One billion people worldwide are hungry,” noted Dr. Shah. “Each year, inadequate nutrition contributes to 3.5 million deaths among children under five. Undernutrition robs the developing world of critical human capital and capacity, and undermines other development investments in health, education, and economic growth. It also perpetuates the cycle of poverty and hunger by leading to poor health, lower levels of educational attainment, and reduced productivity and lifetime earnings."

The full press release on the announcement can be found here.

Center for Strategic and International Studies Releases "Cultivating Global Food Security: A Strategy for U.S. Leadership on Productivity, Agricultural Research, and Trade"

The Center for Strategic and International Studies' Task Force on Food Security released its latest report yesterday, "Cultivating Global Food Security: A Strategy for U.S. Leadership on Productivity, Agricultural Research and Trade." The publication is authored by CSIS' Johanna Nesseth Tuttle and J. Stephen Morrison, as well as the Task Force on Food Security cochairs Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Senator Richard G. Lugar, and Representative Betty McCollum.

The report's recommendations - from leaders in government, business, academia, and the nongovernmental and philanthropy communities - emphasize the importance of U.S. leadership and commitment to improving food security and making agriculture a priority for broader U.S. development efforts. The publication provides insights and policy initiatives on three main pillars for achieving long-term global food security: boosting agricultural productivity, especially in developing countries; strategically investing in agricultural research and development to increase productivity; and energizing the trade agenda to play a strong role in improving food security.

Expert Commentary - Status Report on the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program

By Christopher Delgado, Strategy and Policy Adviser, Agriculture and Rural Development Department, Sustainable Development Network, The World Bank Group; Head, Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) Coordination Unit, The World Bank Group

A Status Report on the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program

The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) is a multilateral mechanism to assist in the implementation of pledges made by the G8++ at L’Aquila in July 2009 and set up in response to a request from the G20 in Pittsburgh in September, 2009. The objective of this new mechanism is to address the underfunding of country and regional agriculture and food security strategic investment plans already being developed by countries in consultation with donors and other stakeholders at the country-level, thereby making aid more predictable in contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 1 to cut hunger and poverty by half by 2015. 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science Devotes Special Mini Issue to the 2008 Global Food Crisis

Some terrific weekend reading included a mini issue on the 2008 global food crisis, recently published in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, or PNAS. Three papers in this issue of PNAS indicate that improving local food security is a multiscale challenge, because the processes that generate hunger and unsustainable development originate in multiple locations. The contributions that these papers make strive to show that sustainable development, defined as the successful reconciliation of economic development, environmental conservation, and social equity, is a political ecologic process and outcome. 

Abstracts of the pieces can be found below, as well as the email addresses of the corresponding authors in the event that your institution does not have a subscription to the journal and would like a copy.

This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

Photos taken at the announcement on the International Commitment to Fight Global Hunger and Poverty. Photos courtesy of the World Bank. 

 

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Roger Thurow - Outrage & Inspire

A GREEN-LETTER DAY

Earth Day was a green-letter day in the fight against global hunger.

Clamor was raised.  Action was taken.  Momentum was accelerated.

Earth Day in Washington was all about growing more things.  Particularly growing more food.  And especially helping the small farmers of the poorest countries – who are also the world’s hungriest people -- grow more food.

Global Agricultural Development Initiative Cochairs Bertini, Glickman Testify Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on Global Food Security

Click here to watch the recorded broadcast of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "Promoting Global Food Security: Next Steps for Congress and the Administration."

Opening Statement by Senator Kerry

“As we gather here on Earth Day, we must recognize that this already urgent challenge is poised to grow in the years ahead as climate change creates new strains on food supplies everywhere,” said Chairman Kerry.  “This hearing comes at a moment when our International Affairs Budget is once again being challenged.  Even in a tough budget environment, short-changing programs like these will deliver little budget relief at enormous cost to our global efforts, including food security.  I am committed to protecting these vital programs.”

Opening Statement by Senator Lugar

“We live in a world where more than one billion people suffer from chronic food insecurity – a figure that has increased by nearly 100 million people since Senator Casey and I introduced legislation just last year. An estimated 25,000 people die each day from malnutrition-related causes. Experts advise us that chronic hunger leads to decreased child survival, impaired cognitive and physical development of children, and weaker immune system function, including resistance to HIV/AIDS. These grave humanitarian consequences are sufficient cause for us to strengthen our approach to global food security. But we have an even bigger problem. A dangerous confluence of factors threatens to severely limit food production in some regions as the world’s population continues to expand. Between 1970 and 1990, global aggregate farm yield rose by an average of 2 percent each year. Since 1990, however, aggregate farm yield has risen by an annual average of just 1.1 percent. These trends threaten the fundamental welfare of a large share of the world’s population.”