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Resource mobilization
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Global Food Crisis (Comprehensive Framework for Action) (IFA-CFA)Sustainability of efforts to fight hunger requires both short-term safety nets to provide immediate relief, and longer-term investments to increase national agricultural production and improve income potential.
This twin-track approach, launched by FAO in 2003, is now embedded in the Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA), adopted by the UN High Level Task Force on Global Food Security in reaction to the global food price crisis of 2007–08. It provides a route to soften the immediate blow of high food prices and address longer term measures for sustainable food security.
FAO provides expertise on both sides of this approach, especially focusing on steps to prevent market volatility. This includes working with governments to help them increase their agricultural production and at the same time developing market systems that provide timely and transparent information, enabling early reactions to quell nervous markets. If you wish to become a partner in a specific activity, or are simply looking for more information, please see the section below for some of the key programmes which fall under this IFA, and where further resources are required for follow-up actions.
In Bangladesh, nearly 160 million people live in an area less than half the size of Italy and the population is expected to grow by about two million people per year. The country has managed to triple its rice production since independence 40 years ago, but feeding the rapidly growing population, especially given dwindling land and water resources and climate change pressures requires new strategies, technologies and innovation. more...What FAO has done: With FAO’s help, the Government is accordingly working to turn the country’s southern delta into an agricultural powerhouse.
These efforts have gathered steam thanks to initiatives like a US$109 million World Bank-funded recovery and rehabilitation project launched after the 2009 cyclone − with FAO heading up the agricultural component − and a recent US$50 million grant provided under the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative, obtained with FAO’s help.
Bangladesh's country investment plan for agriculture, food security and nutrition, prepared with FAO’s assistance, maps out the priority investment programmes needed to improve the availability of safe and nutritious food. Among other initiatives, FAO’s Climate Field Schools are helping farmers increase productivity and adapt to climate change by introducing new types of drought-resistant seeds and diversifying their crops.
Work is already under way to introduce new crop varieties in the coastal zone − seeds tolerant to saline and other stresses − and results have been good, with farmers getting higher yields. Smallholders are also being trained in new, climate-smart agricultural practices, from modifying cropping patterns in order to cope with changing weather to making balanced use of fertilizers and operating modern machinery.
What Next? Presently, 20 countries are implementing National Programmes for Food Security with FAO assistance, and 39 other are in different stages of formulation. Regional Programmes are operational in four regions and in different stages of preparation in a further 13 regions, with FAO promoting South-South Cooperation everywhere as an important vehicle for knowledge transfer. Continuing global food price increases and volatility lend extra urgency to boosting the food security of vulnerable countries and regions, making it vital that appropriate levels of funding are secured. Mexico is the 12th largest economy in the world. Given its level of development, the country is not considered a priority country for development cooperation by most international aid agencies. Yet Mexico still faces huge gaps between rich and poor, north and south, urban and rural. Over 40 percent of the country’s population is poor, living on less than USD 2 per day. Worse still, almost 20 percent is extremely poor and living on less than USD 1 per day. more...What FAO has done: With FAO’s support, Mexico’s National Programme for Food Security (PESA) has so far helped 120 000 families escape hunger and mobilized US$650 million in agricultural investments, which will improve the lives and diets of many more. The programme grew from small pilot interventions in a limited number of states to being operational in 18 states of the republic, through 132 Rural Development Agencies. PESA has become the main strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture to promote development in the most marginalized areas of the country. Amongst its activities are the introduction of improved, easily built cooking stoves; of water collection tanks; containers for grain; and, greenhouses. PESA has demonstrated the success of solutions put forward by project beneficiaries themselves to tackle complex food security problems. It has increased the availability of, and access to, food in highly marginal and poor areas, and ensured that support services reached them.
The main innovative features of PESA are:
· a deliberate focus on the most marginal regions and vulnerable groups;
· participatory and multidisciplinary methods to solving food and nutrition security problems;
· formulation of shared goals;
· an integrated approach to food security, taking account of gender and age.
What Next? Mexico’s example shows what a difference FAO interventions can make not only to individual countries but also to global food security. For boosting investment in developing world agriculture is necessary not only to reduce current levels of world hunger but to safeguard future world food supplies. This remains the ongoing challenge for FAO and partners and clearly merits priority donor support.
Incidences of hunger are decreasing steadily, but there is still some way to go to achieve Millennium Development Goal 1 - halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. The food security situation is satisfactory but localized shortages are expected in several regions; an estimated 350 000 people will require food assistance in 2011. Meanwhile, agriculture remains the main income generating activity. Most of this production is used for self-consumption and is characterized by low yields and low returns. more...What FAO has done: In Mozambique, FAO is working alongside other UN Agencies – IFAD and WFP especially – to boost agricultural production and help the country to achieve Millennium Development Goal 1 on halving hunger and poverty.
Specifically, FAO has assisted the Government of Mozambique in drawing up an Action Plan for Poverty Reduction 2010-2014, with special focus on the integration of Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) and Right to Food. It is also helped prepare a Strategic Plan for the Development of the Agricultural Sector 2010-2025 and a Multisector Action Plan for the Reduction of Chronic Malnutrition (2010 – 2020). The latter aims to accelerate the reduction of chronic malnutrition in children under five from 44% in 2008 to 20% in 2020 and to contribute to the reduction of child mortality.
The Mozambique Government’s Rural Development Strategy also formulated with FAO support is another key element in promoting growth of the agricultural sector, as is the adoption of a new Land Law designed to ensure that people have secure access to natural resources and to resolve tensions over land ownership following the end of the civil war in 1992.
FAO helped develop the key implementing regulations, without which the new law would have remained largely ineffective. These cover capacity building of the judiciary, government officers and paralegals in how to use the new laws to promote a participatory model of rural development.
What Next? FAO needs voluntary contributions to continue its work in Mozambique in this and other sectors, including fisheries, sustainable irrigation development and water resources development, including the finalization of the Corumana Dam, 100 km from Maputo, to its full supply level. The idea of Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools is to provide the large number of orphaned children in the world with essential livelihood skills so as to ensure their long-term food security. Research showed parents were dying before being able to pass on their farming knowledge to their children. more...What FAO has done: Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools are one of FAO’s most innovative and successful initiatives. They now operate in 18 countries, having originated in Mozambique.
Based on the "living classroom" method, students at field schools plant fruit and vegetable gardens in a corner of their schoolyard and, three times a week, break into groups to tend the garden and to watch what the plants are doing. A facilitator helps them, but they build self- confidence by forming their own opinions, for example, on what to do about a pest or disease, and defending their points of view in open debate with their peers. Students, aged between 12 and 18, are also taught how to run a business and other important skills, including how to protect themselves from HIV and AIDS.
The Field School approach is a winning one as evident from the eight young farmers’ cooperatives that have already been formed by ex-alumni in Mozambique. Over 20,000 orphans and other vulnerable children have graduated from the schools in the countries operating the scheme.
What Next? Increased voluntary funding will enable FAO to increase the number of field schools and that of children assisted. The programme not only helps ensure the long-term food security of the individuals involved – many of whom would otherwise have been condemned to poverty or a life of crime – but also that of communities benefiting from a continuing supply of skilled young farmers. |
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