The slogan of this year’s international “Policies against Hunger” conference – the eighth such conference to be organised by the German government – was “Improving Governance for Food Security and Nutrition”. More than 250 people attended the event in mid-June 2010, which at the invitation of the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture was held in Berlin. They came to fi nd out how the international community’s latest declarations and resolutions on improving coordination and coherence in food security can actually be implemented: what is the future role of the reformed Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and other existing initiatives and institutions in securing the world food supply? How can national and regional strategies be woven into the global tapestry? And how can the private sector’s involvement in food security and nutrition be promoted?

CFS as catalyst
Participants expressly and unanimously welcomed the reform of the Committee on World Food Security that was agreed in October 2009. The CFS will in future form a central component of the Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition and serve as a global platform for the coordination of scientific knowledge in this area. The intention is that it should include all stakeholders in the decision-making process, especially those who are most at risk of hunger and malnutrition – small farmers, land workers, indigenous and nomadic peoples, fi shing communities – and in particular the women within these groups. However, Manfred Konukiewitz, Head of the Global and Sectoral Policies Directorate at the German Fedneral Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), stressed that the global level cannot substitute requisite measures at national and regional level. The CFS should play a catalytic role in initiating a multi-stakeholder process at country level. The conference’s final recommendations stressed that national and regional policies on food security should be based on the subsidiarity principle, the right to food being implemented defi nitely as part of national strategies.

Right to food threatened by land acquisitions
Oliver de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, emphasised that the CFS must also address the issue of land rights: the recent growth in the acquisition of land by foreign investors jeopardises the right to food. Many communities are being expelled from their land; foreign direct investment also places small farmers in a position of direct competition with the owners of large plantations – a competition in which, with their lower levels of mechanisation and smaller capital resources, they are at a disadvantage.

Ilse Aigner, German Federal Minister of Agriculture, said that policy-makers must ensure that this foreign investment also leads to higher incomes for poor and marginalised population groups. At the same she stressed that greater private investment in the agricultural sectors and rural areas of developing countries is necessary to promote food security and nutrition. To be certain of creating an environment that safeguards both the interests of investors and those of the local community, investment should be based on the Voluntary Guidelines on Good Governance on Land and Natural Resources currently being drawn up by the FAO and the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that the UN is working on. According to the minister, the rights of agricultural workers, the transparency of investment, anticorruption rules and the involvement of local people must be key aspects of such guidelines and principles. All rules must of course conform to international human rights standards.

Putting nutrition in the centre
Delegates repeatedly asked how the necessity of suffi cient and healthy nutrition could successfully be enshrined in all decisions on food security. Flavio Valente, Secretary-General of FIAN International, reminded listeners of the complexity of the issue: within the United Nations alone 17 agencies are involved in nutrition, requiring an enormous amount of coordination. It is important to involve women’s rights; in many countries there is no regulation that enables women to take charge of their family’s nutrition. The specialty of nutrition should be linked with the competences of the CFS. David Nabarro,  Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition of the UN Secretary-General, reminded the audience that nutrition during pregnancy and in the first two years of life is crucial to children’s development. Undernourished children grow up with stunted brains and do less well in education. Women, however, must often compete with household demand in matters of nutrition. “Nutrition has to be at the centre of all development endeavours”, stated Nabarro. He  also pointed out that countries that have successfully tackled malnutrition have made nutrition a cornerstone of their social policy.

What about money?
The issue of fi nancing was of course not ignored at the conference. At the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, held in July 2009, 22 billion US dollars were pledged for the development of agriculture in the next three years: is this really “new” money? “Not all that has been pledged is additional”, said David Nabarro. But assurances have been given that the money will be made available for re-programming in relation to nutrition and agriculture. And according to the OECD, 6 billion of the 22 billion US dollars really is “new” money. A large part of the funding is already on the way and is being spent in the countries concerned
through international organisations such as IFAD and regional initiatives,
said Nabarro.

(sri)

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