Global Food Crisis: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Tuesday that he will lead a high-powered task force to coordinate the efforts of the United Nations system in addressing the global crisis arising from the surge in food prices.
The Task Force on the Global Food Crisis will bring together the heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes and the Bretton Woods institutions - the world Bank and IMF, as well as experts within the UN and leading authorities from the international community.
The announcement came after a two-day meeting of the Chief Executive Board (CEB) – which brings together 27 heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes – chaired by the Secretary-General in the Swiss city of Bern.
In a press communiqué issued following the meeting, the CEB called on the international community to urgently provide the $755 million in emergency funds needed for the UN to feed millions of hungry people worldwide, as the first of a series of concrete measures to be taken.
The UN agency chiefs, whose regular spring meeting turned into a summit on the food crisis, also called for a rapid conclusion of the Doha development round on trade barriers, to scale down what they called “trade distorting subsidies” that had damaged food production in developing countries.
“We see mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition which has severely strained the capacities of humanitarian agencies to meet humanitarian needs, especially as promised funding has not yet materialized,”Ban told a news conference in Bern.
He warned that “without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.”
Protests and riots have broken out in some countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. Ban noted that escalating energy prices, lack of investment in agriculture, increasing demand, trade distorting subsidies and recurrent bad weather are among the reasons for the surge in prices.
The food crisis “threatens to undo all our good work,” Ban noted later in the day in a lecture delivered in Geneva, the first of a series organized by the UN office there and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
“If not managed properly, it could touch off a cascade of related crises – affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world,”he said.
In addition to the immediate priority of feeding the hungry, Ban emphasized the need to “ensure food for tomorrow,” by giving small farmers the support they need to assure their next harvest.
UN agencies are already taking concrete measures to address the crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed an emergency initiative to provide low-income countries with the seeds and inputs to boost production and is calling for $1.7 billion in funding.
In addition, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is making available an additional $200 million to poor farmers in the most affected countries to boost food production.
“I am confident that we can deal with the global food crisis. We have the resources. We have the knowledge. We know what to do. We should therefore consider this not only as a problem but also as an opportunity,”the Secretary-General added, as he called on world leaders to attend the High-Level Conference on Food Security, to be held in Rome from 3 to 5 June.
The issue of food prices will be discussed in Rome and Presidents Sarkozy of France and Lula of Brazil have confirmed that they will be there.
While high food prices exacerbate food insecurity and create social tensions there was a danger of the emergency overshadowing the longer-term aspects, FAO head Dr Jacques Diouf warned.
“To ensure that small farmers and rural households benefit from higher food prices, we need to create a favourable policy environment that relaxes the constraints facing the private sector, farmers and traders,” he said.
That would mean reversing the decline in the level of public resources spent on agriculture and rural development and investing more in agriculture, Dr Diouf said. Investments by the private sector in agriculture and related sectors would be forthcoming if appropriate investments in public goods were put in place
Constraints not just low prices
Besides historically low prices, farmers in the developing world have had to battle constraints including lack of infrastructure such as transport and communications, access to technology and extension services and well-functioning marketing and credit systems.
Lack of irrigation, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, was another major problem that must be resolved.When food prices soared in the 1970s many Asian governments chose to invest in irrigation and agricultural research, and this set the stage for rapid productivity growth that saved millions from poverty and hunger, Dr Diouf recalled.
“A similar response is urgently needed today – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.
“We are urging countries not to use export bans,” said Robert Zoellick, World Bank President.“These controls encourage hoarding, drive up prices and hurt the poorest people around the world who are struggling to feed themselves.”
