G8/G20 Summits Policy Brief January 2010

Canada, June 2010

Food, Hunger and Agriculture

W
For questions or feedback e applaud the efforts of the international community to address the critical condi-
please contact: tion of hunger. We urge meaningful civil society engagement as decisive to suc-
cessful sustainable food security. Families and communities are on the front lines
Robert Zachritz of this struggle. Long-term food security depends on meeting communities and households
Director of Advocacy and needs by:
Government Relations • increasing sustainable agricultural productivity;
World Vision • raising the earning potential of poor people;
202-572-6404 • preparing for future hunger-related emergencies by developing disaster risk reduction
rzachrit@worldvision.org capabilities and early warning systems;
• boosting resiliency by investing in social protection, safety nets, and nutrition and health
John Ruthrauff delivery systems at the community level;
Senior Manager of • Promoting participation of small farmers in agricultural markets and trade opportunities at
Member Advocacy all levels, including the provision of technical assistance.
InterAction
jruthrauff@interaction.org
202-552-6523 Recommendations
InterAction’s G8/G20 NGO Coordination Group urges the U.S. government to take a strong
leadership role at the June 2010 G8 Muskoka Summit and G20 Toronto Summit. We
request that the following recommendations be included in the respective communiqués.
Contributors
• Bread for the World 1. Fully fund and create a mechanism to document the three-year $20 billion commit-
• CARE ment made in the L’Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security in Italy, 2009.
• InterAction
• Save the Children 2. Continue the G8 Expert Group on Global Food Security created at the 2008 G8 Japan
• Water Advocates Summit and empower it to monitor the Global Food Security commitments made by
• World Vision the G8 nations in 2008 and 2009.

3. Ensure civil society—including smallholder farmer organizations—is integrated as

a full partner into: (a) country-level planning and food security programs; (b) gover-
nance, technical assistance and implementation structures of the Global Agriculture
and Food Security Program, a World Bank Multi-donor Trust Fund; and (c) reformed
world institutions (i.e. reform of the Committee on Food Security) and the emerging
global partnership on nutrition, agriculture and food security.

4. Reiterate support for a holistic response to food insecurity as described in the 2009
L’Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security: (a) support humanitarian assistance,
www.InterAction.org social safety nets, nutrition, and agricultural productivity programs, focusing particu-
lar attention on women farmers; and (b) ensure that agriculture-related trade agree-
ments strengthen and do not harm food security and promote participation, including
1400 16th Street, NW
Suite 210 through the provision of technical assistance, at local, national, regional, and interna-
Washington, DC 20036 tional levels.
202-667-8227
 Problem
Effectively addressing both the chronic and acute aspects
of hunger will require that the G8/G20 countries provide
balanced and flexible support for a range of programs to
meet emergency, intermediate, and long-term needs. It is
imperative that the G8/G20 significantly increase its sup-
port for nutrition and agricultural development in the devel-
oping world. Key principles include building alliances and
broad-based political and financial commitment among
public and private development partners.
Today, over 1 billion people suffer from hunger. Hunger
and malnutrition remain the #1 risk to global health, kill-
ing more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
Resources from the United States and other countries to
address hunger have fallen short of the levels needed.
Although substantial pledges of aid have been made, to
date no mechanism exists to track the disbursement of com-
mitted funds.
Hunger will not be conquered by handing out food, or
by increasing agricultural production alone. The underlying
causes of hunger and malnutrition must be addressed with
an integrated approach spanning emergency and devel-
opment programming that includes safe water, sanitation,
nutrition, and hygiene.
Background
In keeping with America’s generosity over many decades
of responding to the needs of hungry people around the
world, alleviating hunger worldwide is a top priority of the
Obama Administration. An Inter-Agency Task Force has
been created to ensure a whole-of-government approach
titled the Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative. The
Pittsburgh G20 Summit tasked the World Bank with creating
a multilateral fund. The G20 Leaders’ Statement at the Pitts-
burgh Summit in September 2009 stated:
We call on the World Bank to work with interested donors
and organizations to develop a multilateral trust fund to
scale-up agricultural assistance to low-income countries.
This will help support innovative bilateral and multilateral
efforts to improve global nutrition and build sustainable
agricultural systems, including programs like those devel-
oped through the Comprehensive African Agricultural
Development Program (CAADP). It should be designed
to ensure country ownership and rapid disbursement
of funds, fully respecting the aid effectiveness principles
agreed in Accra, and facilitate the participation of private
foundations, businesses, and non-governmental organi-
zations (NGOs) in this historic effort. These efforts should
complement the UN Comprehensive Framework for
Action. We ask the World Bank, the African Development
Bank, UN, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Inter-
national Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World
Food Programme (WFP) and other stakeholders to coor-
dinate their efforts, including through country-led mecha-
nisms, in order to complement and reinforce other existing
multilateral and bilateral efforts to tackle food insecurity.
In June 2008, more than 180 countries, including more
than 40 heads of state, participated in the High Level Con-
ference on World Food Security in Rome, Italy. The G8 mem-
ber states declared at the 2008 Hokkaido Summit their
commitment to addressing the urgent needs of the most
vulnerable people suffering from the global food crisis of
2008. In L’Aquila, Italy, the G8 Leaders, plus many other
countries and international institutions released the L’Aquila
Joint Statement on Global Food Security and pledged $20
billion over the next three years through a “coordinated,
comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agricul-
ture development, while keeping a strong commitment to
ensure adequate emergency food aid assistance.” And, in the
year 2000, 189 nations including the United States, pledged
to cut the proportion of people suffering from hunger in
half by 2015, as part of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
Multiple organizations contributed to one or more of the recommendations in
this policy statement. The statement is not designed to be a consensus position
and has not been explicitly endorsed by the contributing organizations, the
InterAction Board, or its 193 member organizations.
Additional Policy Briefs are available on the InterAction web site:
www.InterAction.org /canada-2010-g8g20-summit.
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