This means that everyone should get the food they need. No person in the world should be constantly hungry, and no person should become malnourished, especially pregnant women and children aged less than two.
Food is essential to all living beings. Producing it takes energy, land, technology and water. Food security is not just about getting everyone enough nutritious food – it is also about access, ending waste and moving toward sustainable, efficient production and consumption. The world will need about 50 percent more food by 2030. To produce enough food sustainably is a global challenge.
- 1. ENSURING FOOD ACCESS
The global prevalence of malnutrition and hunger remains unacceptably high. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that nearly 870 million people (12.5 percent of the global population or one in eight people) remained undernourished.Poverty is the main cause of hunger – most people are hungry or undernourished because they cannot afford sufficient nutritious food, not because of supply failures. Producing more food will be essential, but it will not alone ensure food security and good nutrition.
In developing countries, one in four children under the age of five (171 million children) are stunted due to chronic under-nutrition.At the same time, in developed countries, obesity rates have doubled over the last 30 years.In all countries, adequate nutrition in childhood improves learning as well as lifelong physical, emotional and cognitive development. It lifts the individual’s potential, and the country’s.
Participants in the Hunger, Food, Security and Nutritionconsultation stressed the importance of over-coming the dual challenges of under and imbalanced nutrition, which require a diversified diet made up of safe, sufficient, nutritious and affordable food over the life cycle, especially for women of reproductive age and children.They also highlighted the need to better connect social protection with food assistance safety nets as a way to ensure access to food and better nutrition among the poorest people.
Some feel that there is growing recognition of the importance of social protection within the post-2015 agenda. Boosting smallholder and rural incomes, and establishing social protection floors, including food assistance, with expanded access to safety nets was a priority in many contributions. Contributors differed on food price policy, with some contributors advocating market liberalization, and others calling for state interventions in food markets. Experts differ on how best to take this forward. What do you think?
Should all countries have food assistance safety nets?
Do you think social protections are important and if so, how should they be used?
Some argue that social protections can create a dependency syndrome whereby citizens expect things to be provided by the government, political leaders or by donors, instead of through self-reliance. Do you agree?
Concerning national policy issues, several contributions called for an intermediate goal calling for political commitments to end hunger by all states. Should the framework include a call for a level budgetary commitment to food security and nutrition – by all countries not just donors?
2.PRODUCING MORE SUSTAINABLEY
A rapidly growing and more affluent world population is increasing the demand for food.
The global population is projected to increase from 7 billion people today to 9 billion by 2050, with practically all of the increase expected to take place in less developed countries. Estimates indicate that global food production must increase by 60 percent to meet the demand for food and bio-fuels by 2050.
But it is not just a question of increasing production – poor management of natural resources is threatening our ability to sustainably maintain and increase levels of food production. There are planetary limits, which present challenges for sustainable food production and will require re-thinking food distribution systems, with more concentration on reducing waste and loss and improving access to markets. Increased food production will have to happen in the face of dwindling resources and increasing competition for those resources. More will have to be produced per unit of land, using less water, fertilizer and pesticides.
Moving to large-scale sustainable agriculture, while increasing the volume of food produced, is the great challenge we face. In its report, The High Level Panel contended that this challenge can be met, but will require a dramatic shift. “Agriculture has for many years suffered from neglect. Too few policies are in place to improve rural livelihoods. Too little investment has been made in research. This is true even as the goods and services produced in rural areas are in high demand— food as well as biofuels, eco-system services and carbon sequestration, to name a few.”
Specific investments, interventions and policies can deliver results. Agricultural investments reduce poverty more than investments in any other sector. In developed countries, agricultural research provides returns of 20 to 80 percent – a great investment in any economy.Investing in irrigation and agricultural extension services to spread the benefits of technology and innovationcan help smallholder agriculture achieve greater yields, sustainably, with less postharvest loss. Globally, sustainable food production will also require access to markets and financing, and enhanced tenure security.
In addition, it was put forward that sustainable food production and consumption requires a comprehensive approach that integrates the entire value chain of agricultural products, better quality, diverse and nutritious diets, local availability of food, efficient food distribution systems, and reduction of the estimated 30 percent waste of food produced in developed countries. Some also advocate for reducing the diversion of limited food resources to bio-fuels and animal feeds.
How can we increase investment in research and innovation that can move the world toward more sustainable food production? How should this be reflected in the new framework? How should it be reflected in national policies?
What are the roles of the private sector, academia, schools, local governments, philanthropist and civic organizations?
- 3. MULTI-SECTOR APPROACH TO FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION SECURITY
Both the High Level Panel and participants in the consultation agreed that hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition can be ended sustainably by 2025. However, they emphasized that achieving this ambition will require comprehensive, transformational and structural changes, as well as a comprehensive and multi-sector approach to food and nutrition security. Overall, the need for integrated action across sectors was stressed again and again, with strong synergies to action on health, education, water, energy, natural resource management and action on climate change.
Natural Resources
Progress in food security and nutrition will be ever more threatened as a result of pressure on and poor management of natural resources. The world’s ecosystems and biodiversity are already under extreme pressure from overexploitation and degradation. There is increasing environmental degradation of productive land and other productive natural resources. Over the past 40 years, approximately 30 percent of the world’s cropland (1.5 billion hectares) has become unproductive. Levels of groundwater are declining as a consequence of overuse. Without good management of natural resources, we could undo much of the progress achieved thus far in improving food security and nutrition.
Climate Change
Climate change is adding to the challenge of achieving sustainable food production and meeting the demands of a growing population. According to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian Affairs, some 70 percent of disasters are now climate related, up from 50 percent two decades ago, and their impact is aggravated by unsustainable management of natural resources. Extreme weather events often result in acute food crises. Increasingly, erratic weather patterns are leading to major year-on-year fluctuations in production levels, which contribute to high and volatile food prices. Events related to climate change are likely to intensify in the coming years, while rising temperatures are expected to reduce levels of agricultural productivity in large parts of the developing world.
Good Governance
The importance of good governance and political will as a key enabler
of action on food security and nutrition was recognized. Governance systems will be critical in formulating policies on trade, access to market, subsidies, the role of biofuels, as well as promoting stakeholder participation across sectors and
at all levels.
Economic Growth
Rapid urbanization (largely the result of rural‐to-urban migration, often linked to decreasing economic opportunities in traditional rural livelihoods) has generated a large new class of poor food buyers, who are highly vulnerable to rising prices and other risks. Inclusive economic growth is one of the most effective means of improving food security and nutrition, but food assistance and safety nets, promotion of rural employment and technical capacity building will also be critical enabling conditions in all countries.
Health
The need to integrate food-based responses with public health interventions at all levels was stressed. Under-nutrition can lead to poor physical and cognitive development, poor educational outcomes, lower resistance to illness, and increased risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. Overconsumption, likewise, increases risk of chronic diseases and associated health care costs.
In their report the High Level Panel suggested that the concept of goal or sector specific global partnerships should be a central part of the new development agenda. Participants in the consultations also agreed that efforts to coordinate and enforce already existing coordination and policy convergence mechanisms are of fundamental importance.
What kind of partnerships do you think need to be formed to ensure a multi-sector approach?
How should multi-sector approaches be reflected, promoted, mandated etc.… in the new framework?