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The double whammy of high food prices and the economic meltdown has pushed more than 100 million people into poverty and hunger.
Although international prices have come down from their record highs in 2008, they have yet to drop to their levels before the food crisis, and the risk of volatility continues. Average food prices in May 2009 were about 24 percent higher than they were in 2006.
And, in many developing countries, the cost of basic food staples is stubbornly high.
Unemployment and reduced wages, remittances and government services – by-products of the economic slump – threaten to add to the woes of the world’s poorest people, who already spend between 60 and 80 percent of their income on food.
Smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, are caught in a double bind, unable to afford quality inputs to grow more crops to feed their families and improve their incomes.
International response to the food crisis
As early as July 2007, FAO warned of the then developing food price crisis. In December 2007, it launched its Initiative on Soaring Food Prices – known as the ISFP – to help small producers raise their output and earn more.
FAO contributed significantly to the work of the UN High-Level Task Force on the Global Food Crisis, which was created in April 2008. One outcome was the Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA), a global strategy and action plan designed to soften the immediate blow of high food prices while addressing longer-term measures to achieve sustainable food security.
FAO’s initiatives to help increase smallholder farmer food production and build longer-term resilience are in line with the CFA’s short- and long-term goals.
FAO action to date
FAO is engaged in over 90 countries, helping to boost food production through the supply of improved seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs and technical assistance.
Thanks to a significant contribution from the European Union in May 2009, FAO has begun carrying out projects in 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in support of small farmers affected by the global food crisis. These projects are funded by the EU € 1 billion Food Facility.
From 2008 to 2009, a series of inter-agency assessment missions and rapid appraisals within the framework of the EU Food Facility were carried out in nearly 60 countries, which are summarised in Responding to the food crisis: synthesis of medium-term measures proposed in inter-agency assessments.
FAO has provided policy advice to governments. An overview and analysis of different policy responses to high food prices is featured in Guide for immediate country-level action, while Country responses to the food security crisis looks at the preliminary implications of policies pursued.
FAO has also scaled up its monitoring of food prices at consumer and wholesale level, degrees of food insecurity in vulnerable countries and the impact of rising food prices at the global, regional and country level through its Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS).
Moving towards long-term food security
It is clear that efforts need to be ramped up at all levels to improve food and nutrition security over the long term and help build the resilience of vulnerable farmers to future shocks, including market volatility and climate change.
To this end, FAO is supporting governments’ efforts to increase the food production of smallholder farmers through sustained access to quality inputs, improved rural infrastructure, better management of natural resources and greater access to technical assistance, capacity building, credit and markets.
FAO is also advocating for increased investment in agriculture – from Official Development Assistance (ODA) to public spending and private investments – as a way to get agriculture back on track in the fight against poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
Funding
Many of the emergency measures have been supported through FAO’s own funding, in the form of Technical Cooperation Programme projects, totalling USD 37.3 million. The European Union contributed USD 283 million to FAO through the EU Food Facility.
Other donors to the ISFP include: Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank.
The total funding envelope stands at USD 385 million.
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