Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

I would like to see two issues investigated and analyzed carefully:

1) Food security and nutrition through agroecology.  This would ideally begin with a HLPE report on agroecology.

2) Rights-based monitoring of food security and nutrition.  Again, this could begin with a HLPE report reviewing the existing rights-based monitoring systems that are in place;  but it should fall within the purview of the OEWG on Monitoring.

In the attached essay I call on the CFS to give attention to the food security of infants and young children, with a view to establishing new global regulations for processed baby foods and other measures.

The document is also available at

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kent/FOODSECURITYOFINFANTS.docx

Aloha, George Kent

1. What issues should be addressed by the Committee in the biennium 2016-2017?

Marginalization of women from policy making processes is an important area that needs to be addressed by investing on women farmers' leadership building. At the same time, in developing countries like Nepal, the public agencies yet not being satisfactorily accountable to respond to the gender gaps in food security and nutritional issues. Supply of good seeds, fertilizer, and related agricultural inputs by the service providers/duty bearers has been irregular and untimely. However where there is regular irrigation services, women oriented extension services and genuine locally managed private companies such as, agro vets , women feel less loaded and more motivated towards commercialized agriculture through crop diversification and market networking. Appropriate technology such as, integrated pest management, farmers field school, etc. have been rewarding to help women make better benefits encouraging their maximum contribution. In the coming years, more attention needed to be given towards

• leadership building of women farmers
• innovate time saving and labor saving technology for farmers,
• linking to private sector services, such as, mobile banking to encourage direct linkage between women and marketing
• strengthening locally established private agro vets
• strengthening women's cooperatives from where they can mobilize easy money for support agricultural production
• Promote regional network of women farmers to enhance "informal learning banks" from successful cases of improved production and marketing practices
• Promote "local women agriculturists" through informal training, extension education and certification based on proven cases rather than counting on formal education only

1. Explain the issue and describe why you are proposing it;

Due to increasing male out migration, women farmers do suffer from increased workload and food insecurity due to leaving land fallow under the pressure of shortage of labor for agricultural work, increasing price of staple food items that they cannot afford, absence of appropriate market linkages and facilities for enabling the local farmers to market their production, women specifically suffer because most of them are inadequately informed about the available services and facilities and policies for extension services. In this context, building women's leadership in claiming services, inputs, technologies and benefits from agricultural duty bearers, they can manage food production and utilization effectively for nutrition and income.

1. What kind of activity do you propose to address this issue? Which kind of CFS workstream should be put in place to address it?

Already answered under Q.1. Morever until and unless service provider organizations are made gender sensitive, efforts remain gender neutral or gender blind. Gender responsive budgeting and gender audit systems must be mainstreamed and carefully monitored by gender networks at country level along with mainstreaming status reports into overall CEDAW reporting and MDG reporting, which compel service providers to perform towards equitable service provisions. CFS workstream can be effective if they are more oriented towards ground level work, having good agricultural and nutritional qualification.

1. A major workstream: gender balanced and field oriented , well qualified and more from local level extension workers
2. Another type of workstream: Sociologists that can provide complementary assistance to the achievement of equitable impact
3. An HLPE report

1. what issues should be addressed by the Committee in the biennium 2016-2017?

The concept "Food Security" is not well understood by many decision makers especially because in many languages the the term does not exist and/or it is confused with  the term "Food Safety". To ensure sectors working with "Food Security" routinely consider NUTRITION as a pre-requisite to ensure "Food Security" then instead of the terminology "Food Security" and "Nutrition" - these two should be merged and new terminology of "Food and Nutrition Security" addressed and recommended by CFS.

2. Explain why? (see attached for more information)

The term "food and nutrition security" reflects the multisector collaboration needed between those working with food security and nutrition and separate "silos".  This new term expresses an integrated resilience and development goals to help guide implementation of policy and costeffective programmatic action.

If Food and Nutrition Security are viewed through a POLICY COHERENT lens the related programmes will be more likely to achieve their goals including:

1. Policy Coherence for Resilience Development.

2. Nutrition Insecurity hinders Resilience and Development.

3. Role of Sustainable Agriculture and Food production is primarily to feed people biodiverse, nutritious foods aligned with dietary intake recommendations and environmental sustainablity.

4. Post-2015 Agenda presents renewed opportunity, based on robust evidence, how to better reduce stunted growth in both economic and human health terms.

5. Climated Change and Green Growth cannot be successfully addressed unless reduction of malnutrition is explicitly considered.

Dear all,

Firstly thank you to the CFS Secretariat for opening this important topic for discussion. The International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) proposes that for the 2016-2017 biennium, the CFS builds up on the outcomes of the post-2015 agenda in order to foster policy coherence between the various agencies, and state and non-state actors in the private sector and civil society.

In particular we suggest that the CFS prioritizes the following topic that is imperative to rural development especially in the most impoverished regions of the world:

Women’s empowerment

Gender equality is important in agriculture as a vehicle towards food and nutrition security for all. More female policy and decision-makers are needed to represent and reflect the challenges faced by women farmers, especially smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa who face a double yield gap: one with the developed world and the other with male farmers in their own communities. Female farmers require access to land, credit, and technology in order to achieve the basic human right of feeding their families.

According to the World Bank only 16.2% of ministerial-level positions are held by women worldwide, leaving women with little power at policy level. This has a huge impact on the ability of governments to supply all farmers with the necessary inputs and tools, as the needs and struggles of female farmers are not communicated at this level.

Last month the World Bank and advocacy group ONE released the report ‘Levelling the field: Improving opportunities for women farmers in Africa’. The report addresses the yield-gap between women and men in Africa. Despite the fact that Africa’s women farmers make up nearly half of the labour force in agriculture but on average produce less per hectare than men. Previous statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture’s (FAO) 2010-11 State of Food Insecurity in the World report revealed if women were given equal access to resources agriculture output would increase by2.5-4% in developing countries.

Lastly, both a HLPE report and/or a major workstream would be appropriate to address the issue of women empowerment both in the field and in the policy arena to promote food and nutrition security for all.

Thank you.

Resources:

http://www.worldbank.org/mdgs/gender.html

http://www.one.org/international/policy/levelling-the-field-improving-opportunities-for-women-farmers-in-africa/?source=blogIntUK132103182014

http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/

Suggested issues to be addressed by CFS from 2016 on:

There is a belated urgency for CFS members to, once and for all, address and hopefully seek consensus on issues that have been chronically postponed as front-line issues.

Although the list is by no means complete, I refer to:

·      Seeking a greater balance in CFS for both a food AND a nutrition focus; the latter has, more often than not, received shortschrift.

·      The role, attention and funding that needs to be given to development centered on an agroecological approach (not forgetting fisheries).

·      The replacement of the concept of food security by the concept of food sovereignty.

·      A more coherent and aggressive strategy for CFS members to fight what amounts to a corporate take-over of agriculture, food and nutrition.

·      A complementary strategy to unmask bad PPPs and their inherent conflicts of interest.

·      The role of philanthrocapitalism in shaping policy and financing biased approaches to development.

·      The unresolved issues of food and nutrition governance.

The list above hardly needs to add an ‘explanation why I propose them here’. The evidence is scattered now all over and all of these issues have come up in the post-2015 discussions.

This brings me to another key issue for the CFS to address starting in 2016, i.e., the monitoring of food and nutrition commitments made in the post 2015 years.

Last but not least, let me point out two key issues: 

(i)            I contend that after 10 years of experience with the Voluntary Guidelines it is time to critique ‘voluntarianism’ and refocus our efforts on regulation and accountability. CFS ought to play a central role in this.

(ii)          CFS has done next to nothing proactively to advance approaching the food and nutrition problems from the human rights perspective. This cannot wait till 2016!

The challenge now is to peg activities to the ideas/issues here presented so they become part of the major workstream of CFS including recommendations to the HLPE. This is hardly the space to do this. I volunteer to be part of a group to embark in these discussions.

Claudio Schuftan, Ho hi Minh City

[email protected]

1. What issues should be addressed by the Committee in the biennium 2016-2017?

• Women are the central drivers of change: Subsistence farming is often an immediate means to food security at the household level.
• National and regional capacity to address food insecurity must be strengthened: Governance constraints and continuing challenges at the national and regional levels can undermine efforts to respond to food insecurity. The level of institutional capacity is considered a key determinant for the attainment of food security objectives in many countries. Specific governance issues related to food insecurity vary enormously within countries and regions. Lack of integration between national policies and implementation mechanisms at the local level, such as investments in infrastructure to support “farm – to – market” transportation and “access – to – market” information, and limited extension services to ensure appropriation by farmers of new agricultural practices that could boost sustainable agricultural productivity are examples of important factors limiting improvements to food security.

2. Explain the issue and describe why you are proposing it:

1. Achieving food security is a significant and growing challenge in the developing world and highly critical to alleviating poverty. People’s health and education and their ability to work, assert their rights, and achieve equality are compromised by not having food security. In developing countries, women and girls are the most susceptible to the impacts of food insecurity because they have less access to and control over resources than men.
2. There are numerous causes of food insecurity. These include population growth and rising food, transportation, and agricultural costs. As well, the recent economic downturn has resulted in reduced global investment in food and agricultural development.

3. What kind of activity do you propose to address this issue? Which kind of CFS workstream should be put in place to address it?

While improved ‘green water’ management will contribute to meeting the increased food demand, investments in ‘blue water’ infrastructure, such as dams and irrigation systems, are still needed. These investments need to ensure optimal returns to society at large, including more ‘jobs per drop’. A large proportion of the world’s food production is based on un-sustainable exploitation of groundwater that at the same time are threatened by increasing pollution by agro-chemicals.