On 17 October 2003 - one day after the observance of World Food Day 2003 - the FAO regional office in Bangkok organized a half-day round-table meeting of stakeholders to initiate a regional alliance against hunger (RAAH) in support of and to facilitate local and national initiatives by which the poor and hungry are enabled to achieve food security on a sustainable basis. The roundtable participants (see annex 2) will serve as the nucleus to develop a strong multi-stakeholder partnership rallying around the common cause of eradication of hunger and full-fledged institutional mechanisms to achieve it.
The objectives of the roundtable meeting were to discuss the rationale and mission of the regional alliance against hunger as a framework for support and advocacy for action by governments, donor and UN agencies, civil society organizations, academia and the private sector for enhanced food security in the region; and to exchange views and perspectives on possible modalities of cooperation amongst stakeholders and follow-up activities that can be undertaken.
Diverse institutions and individuals, who recognize the feasibility and urgency of making progress towards the reduction of hunger, and who are committed to encouraging their peers and an array of national institutions to do more towards reducing hunger are identified as the stakeholders for the RAAH. Thus the forum to promote the regional alliance might include representatives of government ministries or departments concerned with agriculture and food security issues, civic leaders, and representatives of parliamentary committees on agriculture, farmers’ organizations, chambers of commerce, business associations, private companies, political associations, religious groups, relevant academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, the FAO National Committee, and private individuals, among others.
The outcome of the meeting is reflected in the summary by the chair-person.
Summary by the chairperson
On the occasion of World Food Day 2003, a group of concerned stake-holders from the Asia-Pacific region was invited by FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific to a round table discussion on a regional alliance against hunger (RAAH). The participants comprised policy makers, representatives of civil society, academic institutions and the private sector. The round table was chaired by Sartaj Aziz.
The participants noted with concern that despite efforts to accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty only limited progress has been achieved in moving towards the World Food Summit (WFS) target of halving the number of undernourished population by 2015. Currently, more than 60 percent of the world’s undernourished population lives in Asia and the Pacific. There are wide differences among the sub-regions in their success in reducing poverty and hunger closely associated with their economic performance and investment in social capital. Poverty and hunger is particularly serious in South Asia and in small islands in the Pacific.
In this context the round table felt the decision of the World Food Summit: five years later (WFS: fyl), held in June 2002, to build an International alliance against hunger was both timely and important. The next step is to make this alliance effective and identify the priorities, policies and actions that must be taken at the national, regional and international level to move towards the WFS goal at the required pace.
The round table emphasized that hunger eradication requires strong and sustained political will, backed up with broad stakeholder alliance at national regional and local levels favoring policy reforms that empower the poor and ensure commitment of resources for agriculture and rural development.
The round table recommended that each developing member country should formulate, as a part of its commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and WFS Declaration, a national strategy to reduce hunger, either as a separate strategy or as a sub-strategy of its national poverty reduction strategy where some initiatives have already been launched. This can be reinforced by further reform and actions to speed up their implementation at the national and local levels.
The round table recognized that while governments have a major responsibility to improve the policy framework for agricultural and rural development, and make the required investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research, other stakeholder must actively participate to achieve the objective of reducing poverty and hungry. National level alliances against hunger should be supplemented by local level alliances that can identify the hungry, organize the poor to access the projects and services that are available and identify factors that affect the nutrition situation and livelihood of poor households. These local alliances should network with other local alliances to ensure that government policies and investment priorities favour the poor.
The round table also emphasized the importance of the private sector in disseminating improved technology and ensuring remunerative prices to farmers for their produce. Agribusiness enterprises should therefore be involved in the national and local alliances against hunger.
The round table recommended that the FAO regional office in Bangkok should formulate suitable guidelines that can assist national government and civil society organization to formulate or strengthen their national or local strategies and set up national alliances to combat hunger and poverty by 2015. The guidelines should take into account several initiatives that have been successfully implemented by many countries in the region and provide a dynamic and mutually reinforcing framework of policies, and actions.
The round table identified several key factors that should be kept in view by the stakeholders in evolving their respective strategies to reduce hunger:
¨ Rapid and broadly based growth in agricultural and rural development as fundamental elements of the strategy to eradicate hunger.
¨ Policy and institutional environment must empower the rural poor who are largely dependent on the agriculture sector for employment and livelihood.
¨ Macroeconomic framework, public expenditure and investment policies should favour the poor in development and promote their specific endowments and assets, including land, water, credit and technology.
¨ An efficient system of food distribution that will provide food at reasonable prices throughout the year throughout the country.
¨ Safety nets are needed for those who are disadvantaged and would not be able to participate in the mainstream of development on their own.
¨ Expansion of non-farm employment is critical for reducing poverty and hunger in rural and urban areas.
¨ Sustainable development requires conservation and development of resources that poor depend on, namely land, water and forests.
¨ Steps should be taken to ensure that budgetary support to social sectors (e.g. education and health services) is continually expanded and these services reach the poor on a priority basis.
¨ Sustained agricultural growth will require strong government support for agricultural research to generate improved agricultural technologies and provision of required inputs.
The round table emphasized that these national strategies to reduce hunger will not be able to achieve the MDG or WFS target within the required timeframe unless these are fully supported by the international community through larger allocations of official development assistance for agricultural and rural development, and by reducing agricultural subsidies in the OECD countries. In this context, FAO member countries should also explore further possibilities for greater south-south cooperation and provide adequate resources to support suitable initiatives.
Meanwhile, the round table recommended that regional networks of different stakeholders and various alliances at different levels, horizontally and vertically, should be organized to discuss country experiences with different strategies and results, draw appropriate lessons, promote successful approaches for adaptation elsewhere and provide policy inputs to government. These arrangements can be reviewed periodically.
The round table suggested that the composition of the round table be expanded to constitute a nucleus of a regional alliance against hunger in the Asia-Pacific region.
