Background
The Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the Plan of Action adopted at the World Food Summits in 1996 and 2002 brought to fore the global commitment to eliminate hunger and malnutrition and achieve sustainable food security for all. This commitment was further reaffirmed in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) following the Millennium Summit in 2000. MDGs are now widely accepted as the framework for development action as well as the measurement of development progress. Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger - the main goal articulated in MDG-1 - leads the development agenda.
The challenge of sustainable agriculture and rural development to alleviate hunger and poverty against the backdrop of an increasingly globalized and liberalized agricultural trade (as embodied in WTO agreements) transcends national boundaries. Strategies require exchanges of useful experiences as well as consolidation of efforts for a comprehensive advocacy of fundamental policy and institutional support to achieve the development goals.
On the occasion of the World Food Day 2003, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO-RAP) launched the Round Table for a Regional Alliance Against Hunger (RAAH). Noting the initiative as timely and strategic, participants of this meeting emphasized that hunger eradication requires policy reforms to empower the poor and to commit resources for agriculture and rural development.
The RAAH round table recognized that governments have a major responsibility for improving the policy framework for agricultural and rural development and for making required investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research. Emphasizing the role of the private sector and agribusiness, inter alia, in developing and disseminating improved technology and ensuring remunerative farm prices, round table members recommended that FAO-RAP prepare suitable guidelines, taking into account the initiatives that have been successfully implemented by countries in the region and that provide a dynamic and mutually reinforcing framework of policies and actions.
Considering the above, there is a need to expand and strengthen the regional alliance in order to discuss and identify modalities that can address the fundamental policy and institutional issues relating to the MDGs on poverty and hunger.
On this account, the Policy Assistance Branch of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAPP) with the Project GCP/RAS/188/JPN and in collaboration with the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) organized a regional workshop on "Policy Issues and Investment Options to Avert Hunger and Food Insecurity in Asia".
Workshop objectives
The aims of the workshop were to discuss collaborative strategies, policy instruments and country experiences that relate to reducing food insecurity and poverty in the context of increasing globalization and agricultural trade liberalization, and to determine how the agriculture and rural sector ought to respond to emerging challenges. It provided RAPP with an up-to-date perspective of the priority areas and research agenda of leading policy institutes in the region, particularly SEARCA and those comprising the Asia-Pacific Agricultural Policy Forum, with respect to enabling policies and programmes for sustained agricultural and rural development. It also provided a forum to discuss the following:
RAPP’s collaboration with the regional and national policy institutes;
Collaboration and exchange of information at the policy level between and among institutes from high-, middle- and low-income countries.
Through this joint work, it is hoped that the FAO Policy Assistance Branch for Asia and the Pacific could enhance the provision of effective policy assistance to developing member countries.
Participants
The participants were members of the leading policy centres and institutions from countries in the region - e.g. from high-income countries (Japan, Republic of Korea and the United States of America), middle-income countries (Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand) and low-income countries (India and Nepal). These organizations normally function as policy "think tanks" and have an influential role in shaping polices and programmes in their countries. Most notably, in attendance was H.E. Shin Sakurai, M.P., Japan and current chair of the Food Security Committee, Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population Development (AFPPD), who delivered remarks on Japan’s cooperative activities.
Papers presented
The workshop featured the keynote paper entitled "Averting hunger and food insecurity in Asia" presented by SEARCA Director, Prof. Arsenio M. Balisacan. Thematic papers on key development concerns in agriculture and rural development were then presented. Prof. Huang Jikun, Director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), presented the first thematic paper, which focused on China’s agricultural research and development, particularly the reforms, challenges and implications for developing countries. Prof. Wilfredo P. David, Chancellor of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB), followed with his presentation on water resources and irrigation policy issues in Asia. Rural institutions, agricultural development and pro-poor economic growth were the focus of the thematic paper delivered by Prof. James Roumasset from the University of Hawaii. The main aim of each paper was to synthesize the key policy and research issues critical to advancing agricultural development and food security in developing countries of Asia.
Speakers on the second day came from the participating institutions that prioritized poverty and food security in their current research agendas. They included Mr Kyoung-soo Hong from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) of Korea and Mr Akio Yamamoto from JA-ZENCHU of Japan. They presented issues concerning Korean and Japanese agricultural cooperative development, respectively. Dr Donato Antiporta, Senior Policy Adviser at RAPP and Prof. Tirso Paris from UPLB discussed an overview of the regional policy assistance work carried out within the framework of GCP/RAS/188/JPN - Support to the Policy Assistance Branch on agricultural policy simulation work in China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Meanwhile, other leading policy centres in Asia were also given a chance to present their current research work.
