FAO e-Consultation on Hunger, Food and Nutrition Security
Theme 1:
Question:
What do you see as the key lessons learned during the current Millennium Development Goals
(MDG) Framework (1990-2015), in particular in relation to the MDGs of relevance to hunger, food
insecurity and malnutrition?
What do you consider the main challenges and opportunities towards achieving food and nutrition
security in the coming years?
Key Lessons:
It has been recognized that progress on the MDG 1.C (halving the proportion of people suffering
from hunger between 1990-2015) is hampered in several countries. The MDG’s are centred on
results; however, to achieve a long term improvement on the indicators, it is imperative that the
objectives are enshrined in sound policies that aim at and support food sovereignty and food
security. There is need for a change in agriculture, trade and social policies because the current
national and regional policies and international agreements produce contradictory effects on the
progress towards food sovereignty and food security. Policies, especially in the fields of agriculture
and trade, need to be tuned to the attainment of food security and food sovereignty. Industrialised
countries have to ensure coherence in their policies affecting developing countries so that these
policies are not impeding the achievement of food security and food sovereignty. A change of
policies is thus essential to achieve improvements on food sovereignty.
Challenges:
1. The main challenge is to change policies in such a way that they aim at and support Food
Sovereignty and Food Security in all countries.
Future approaches should focus on a change in policies, so that policies in different sectors do not
have a negative impact on food security and food sovereignty. Improving food sovereignty implies
improving the global trade and finance system. Food prices have been driven up by numerous factors
in recent years such as food speculation, increased demand for food and biofuels and lack of food
reserves. This has a devastating impact on poor consumers, which use a significant part of their
income for food. The current WTO-system leaves very little policy space for developing countries to
devise and implement policies related to food security and food sovereignty. A future challenge is the
elimination of such constraints that affect food security and food sovereignty.
2. Not to consider “food” as a commodity like any other, as it is vital for the life and the survival
of humanity. Food should not be considered as a “tradable commodity” and should be kept
out of the WTO Agreements.
The progressive deregulation of the financial commodity market has given rise to speculation on
food, which contributes to the rise of the world food prices. High world food prices prevent the
access of the poor to their Right to adequate food. Therefore financial markets should be regulated
to prevent speculation on food.
The elimination of export subsidies and other kinds of subsidies that affect food sovereignty and food
security in developing countries should be a priority within the WTO, because they have a
devastating effect on the food security and food sovereignty of family farmers.
3. To increase the production of family farmers while assisting them to keep their traditional
modes of production.
In developing countries, family farmers occupy a central role in ensuring access to food for them,
their families and the local community. In developing countries agriculture is the most important
source of employment and of livelihoods for rural populations. Increasing the production levels of
family farming, by improving family farmers’ access to land and credit, improves the livelihoods of
rural households, which is vital in ensuring food security and food sovereignty in developing
countries.
Opportunities:
1. To support the commitment of African countries towards greater budget allocations for
agriculture
African countries committed themselves to dedicate 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. The
FAO could be instrumental in helping countries to overcome their budgetary constraints in order to
fulfil this commitment. The challenge lies in ensuring that family farmers are the first beneficiaries of
such policies.
2. To promote an ecological and sustainable food production
An ecological sustainable food production system will require an elimination of unsuitable modes of
production, like for example the industrial agriculture and large scale land grabbing investments,
which affect negatively the food sovereignty and the right to food of local communities in developing
nations and provoke displacements of local communities. Policies that promote such investments
should be changed in the light of the negative effects they produce for developing nations and their
communities.
3. The FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries
and Forests in the Context of National Food Security are an opportunity if they are
transformed into a legally binding framework.
The underlying purpose the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of
Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security is to achieve food security and
food sovereignty for all. However, to ensure a change in policy aimed at the purpose of food security
and food sovereignty, these guidelines should become legally binding for companies and
governments. The principle of extra-territorial jurisdiction should also be developed and enforced by
national judicial systems.
In many developing countries, however, the effective implementation of these guidelines, in
particular concerning the access to land for family farmers, is being hindered by large-scale land
grabs. A 5-year moratorium on land grabbing would allow developing countries to achieve a
simplified land reform ensuring family farmers of the rights on the land they cultivate and to
transpose the FAO Guidelines into their national laws. Such an option could be discussed at the
Committee on World Food Security.
Theme 2:
Question:
What works best? Drawing on existing knowledge, please tell us how we should go about addressing
the hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition challenges head on.
Provide us with your own experiences and insights. For example, how important are questions of
improved governance, rights-based approaches, accountability and political commitment in
achieving food and nutrition security?
Furthermore, how could we best draw upon current initiatives, including the Zero Hunger Challenge,
launched by the UN Secretary General at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development
(www.zerohungerchallenge.org), and the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and
Nutrition elaborated by the CFS?
Answer:
Governance and accountability mechanisms for responsible investment in agriculture should be in
place. The FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and
Forests in the Context of National Food Security should become legally binding for companies and
governments. The principle of extra-territorial jurisdiction should be developed and enforced by
national judicial systems.
Theme 3:
Question:
For the Post-2015 Global Development Framework to be complete, global (and regional or national)
objectives, targets and indicators will be identified towards tackling hunger, food insecurity and
malnutrition. A set of objectives has been put forward by the UN Secretary-General under Zero
Hunger Challenge (ZHC):
a. 100% access to adequate food all year round
b. Zero stunted children less than 2 years old.
c. All food systems are sustainable
d. 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income
e. Zero loss or waste of food.
Please provide us with your feedback on the above list of objectives – or provide your own
proposals. Should some objectives be country-specific, or regional, rather than global? Should the
objectives be time-bound?
Answer:
The objectives are clear but what is needed is that they are backed by policies that fully support Food
Sovereignty and Food Security and that would allow the achievement of these objectives.
Objectives:
a. Access to credit and to inputs, and improved storage conditions for family farmers are vital to
reach this objective. The lack of credit obliges family farmers to sell most of their production at the
moment of harvest, because they need the money to repay the inputs and to cover family needs.
When they run out of food, they have to buy it at a higher price during the dry season what often
obliges them to contract a debt. Access to credit will prevent them from losing money in this process
of selling food and then buying it. Improved storage conditions would prevent the spoilage of food
and this would reduce family farmers’ need of buying food at a high price during the dry season.
Mechanisms should be devised to allow financially strained family farmers in developing countries to
buy inputs and to access credit. A minimum price policy should be in place in order to ensure decent
living conditions for family farmers. This objective should be country-specific as climate factors differ
from country to country, e.g. a lower than average rainy season has significant impact on the harvest.
c. Family farmers are essential in the pathway towards sustainable food production that leads to
food sovereignty. They are the ones ensuring livelihoods for themselves and their families. A
sustainable food production system would allow the rural poor to enjoy the Right to adequate food.
Additionally, a sustainable food production system would allow family farmers to use and to
conserve their natural resources and to gain a sufficient income from their production. Food
production systems should also be environmentally sustainable, drawing on sustainable techniques
and methods, e.g. traditional agricultural methods.
Existing local traditional agricultural systems provide a balanced method for local communities to
deal with challenges such as feeding people, pressures on livelihoods and biodiversity, sustainable
use of natural resources, regeneration of the soils and climate change. Such agricultural systems are
appropriate to local economies and societies drawing on indigenous knowledge of the eco-system.
d. Improving rural infrastructure for family farmers is essential to reach this objective. Adequate
irrigation systems, mechanisms providing access to inputs, adequate food storage conditions, and
transport and distribution systems need to be put in place. The proposals from the report
“Agriculture at a crossroads” of the International Assessment of Agriculture Knowledge, Science and
Technology for Development go in this direction and they recognize the vital importance of
traditional and local agricultural knowledge. While the proposals of the Alliance for Green Revolution
in Africa are tuned to the needs of the agro-food industry and not the those of family farmers.
e. Adequate food storage and transport mechanisms should be put in place to prevent great loss of
food. Especially, in rural areas storage conditions should be improved. Food is often lost due to bad
storage quality. Furthermore, sustainable transport and distribution chains should equally be
established to prevent the loss of food and food spoilage.