MINISTERIAL MEETING ON WORLD FOOD SECURITY |
Quebec City, Canada 14-16 October 1995 |
REPORT OF THE MINISTERIAL MEETING ON WORLD FOOD SECURITY |
1. The Ministerial Meeting on World Food Security took place from 14 to 16 October 1995 in Quebec City, Canada, in the Ballroom of the Château Frontenac - the hall where, 50 years before, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) had been established. The Meeting was hosted by the Government of Canada.
2. The Right Honorable Romeo LeBlanc, Governor General of Canada, addressed the gathering at the Inaugural Ceremony. Dignitaries from the Province and City of Quebec also were present.
3. Following the Inaugural Ceremony, the Meeting of Ministers was opened by the Director-General of FAO. The Meeting selected as its Chairman H.E. Ralph Goodale, Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food, Canada, and as Vice-Chairmen: H.E. M. Frédéric Augustin Kodock, Ministre d'Etat chargé de l'Agriculture, Cameroon; H.E. Liu Jiang, Minister for Agriculture, China; H.E. Señora Regina Revilla Pedreira, Secretaria General de Alimentación, Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Spain; H.E. Señor Francisco Labastida Ochoa, Secretario de Agricultura, Ganadería y Desarrollo Rural, Mexico; H.E. Assad Mustafa, Minister for Agriculture, Syria; and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Tupouto'a, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tonga.
4. The Agenda is contained in Annex A, and the List of Participants in Annex B. The proceedings of the Ministerial Meeting, as summarized by the Chairman and accepted by the participants, are given below. The address of the Director-General to the Ministerial Meeting is reproduced in Annex C.
Chairman's remarks
5. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, the following is a summary of what I see as the main points emerging from our very interesting, relevant and productive discussions at this Ministerial Meeting on World Food Security. As agreed, this Chairman's Summary is prepared and presented under my own responsibility. I would however like to take this opportunity to thank the vice-chairs for their assistance throughout the meeting, and particularly for their comments on this summary.
Introduction
6. Ministers of Agriculture, other Ministers, and high-level representatives from 145 nations gathered in Quebec City, Canada from 14 to 16 October 1995, to consider together the challenge of achieving universal food security. The meeting took place at the Château Frontenac, where, 50 years earlier, delegates from 44 nations had founded FAO, the first of the United Nations specialized agencies. The Ministerial Meeting on World Food Security was convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and hosted by the Canadian Government.
7. The main item on the agenda was "Preparations for the World Food Summit (Rome 13-17 November 1996)", with two sub-topics entitled "General Considerations for the Achievement of World Food Security" and "Investment to Achieve Food for All".
Highlights of the discussion
8. In his introductory statement, Dr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO, made the point that the presence of hunger, undernutrition and food insecurity in extensive parts of the world, particularly in Africa, have real and serious implications for people everywhere. He drew attention to efforts on the part of FAO to develop dynamic, clearly focused programmes to serve development in the domains of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and nutrition.
9. The Director-General drew attention to the various forms of investment for food security. While noting that expenditure in agriculture from all sources had been declining significantly, and that the rural and agricultural sectors in particular had suffered greatly from this negative trend, Dr Diouf spoke with guarded optimism about the immense scope for investors in the development of agriculture. National policies were required to encourage domestic savings and investment, and to create an enabling environment for private interventions. Private and public investments had to go hand in hand, and be carefully integrated to achieve maximum results.
10. Mr Edgard Pisani, Chairman of the Symposium, then presented the Meeting with a summary of the outcome of the 1995 FAO/Quebec Symposium, "People at the Heart of Development", which had taken place in Quebec City during the preceding three days. Mr Pisani told the Ministers that the Symposium's participants had come from a wide variety of backgrounds and fields of endeavour, including science and research, the private sector, government, multilateral development organizations and the broad non-governmental sector. This diverse gathering of individuals had found agreement on a number of important points related to the quest for universal food security, which should be of value in preparing for the World Food Summit. They believed, for example, that efforts to increase production and productivity would be inadequate unless guided by intelligent analysis of prevailing social and institutional phenomena. Future productivity gains clearly would have to be environmentally sustainable, in order for the Earth to continue to feed its expanding population. The fifteen solutions proposed by the Symposium were made available to participants in the Ministerial Meeting.
11. The Ministers also heard a statement by Mr Rene Salazar, of Searice in the Philippines. Mr Salazar presented a summary of the conclusions of the "Global Assembly on Food Security", a meeting of non-governmental organizations which had taken place in Quebec City from 8 to 10 October, immediately preceding the Symposium, as a further contribution to the World Food Summit. The Assembly had concluded, inter alia, that food security was a fundamental human right and the supreme obligation of governments to ensure.
12. The Meeting was also informed of the conclusions of a consultation on food security just completed in Managua.
13. In the general debate which followed these initial statements, the Ministers and other delegates reaffirmed their commitment to the multilateral system of cooperation under the United Nations framework, and in particular to the goals, objectives, and work of the FAO in the fields of food and agriculture. The achievements of FAO in its first 50 years of existence were highlighted by many speakers. Ministers underlined in particular, the importance of the Organization's work in international codes and standards, agricultural policy advice, integrated pest management, transboundary pests and diseases, responsible fishing, genetic resource management, forest development, early warning systems, sectoral analysis and food quality control. They also underlined the importance of FAO's work in providing technical assistance to developing countries.
14. At the same time, deep concern was expressed at the fact that the Organization's mission was far from complete, in that over 800 million people were currently suffering from hunger and chronic malnutrition, many of these women and children, and that unstable and uncertain food availability continued to plague many parts of the developing world, particularly in Africa. The Meeting thus viewed these discussions as an important and timely occasion to review the problems and challenges posed by this precarious situation, and as an essential step in the preparations for the World Food Summit to be held in Rome in November 1996.
15. In this context, the Ministers expressed their support for the FAO Director-General's initiative to convene the World Food Summit, as a means of focusing international attention on a serious and still emerging problem which would require broad-based and concerted action at all levels to address the persistent and often deep-rooted issues linked to the overall goal of achieving food security and ensuring availability of and access to food for all.
16. On the topic of the achievement of world food security, Ministers recognized the primary responsibility of each country for the pursuit of this goal, and the challenge posed by rapidly expanding populations in many of the developing countries and growing environmental constraints on agricultural production. While impressive progress has been made in increasing food supplies since FAO's establishment 50 years ago, there is evidence that the supply of good arable land is fast diminishing, and that yield increases appear to be plateauing for major food crops such as wheat and rice. Much of the increased food supplies needed to feed growing and increasingly urbanized populations will have to come from environmentally sustainable intensification of production, including establishment of infrastructure to permit greater water control, the development of effective research, extension services, credit appropriate to local conditions, marketing and other agricultural services, and the targeted and judicious use of appropriate inputs, including the promotion of their local production where that is feasible. It was noted that situations of instability and natural disaster hampered efforts to achieve socio-economic development and long-lasting food security and diverted scarce resources.
17. Food security was seen by the Ministers as being a complex subject, with various dimensions at household, farming system, national, sub-regional, regional and global levels. Noting that many low-income developing countries continue to face chronic food deficits, the need for concerted action by governments with the support of the international community was underlined. It was also noted that increasing effective demand for food in rapidly developing economies is an important factor for global food security. This was seen as especially important in an increasingly inter-related world, where problems of food and food insecurity take on a global dimension. In this context, the Ministers welcomed the clear priority that FAO was now giving to the food security issue in its major normative and operational programmes.
18. In noting that poverty in the developing countries was in large part concentrated in rural areas, the Ministers made a clear connection between poverty and food insecurity. Increases in food production, and agricultural growth generally, were viewed as an essential element in addressing most poverty issues in developing countries.
19. Beyond the need to produce more food, the Ministers recognized that problems of food security were very often those of access and food distribution. Many speakers referred to the need to strengthen access to basic foodstuffs through eradicating poverty and increasing incomes generally, both in rural and urban areas. To achieve food for all, genuine efforts were required to promote an equitable sharing of the fruits of growth and economic development, including among vulnerable groups and marginalized populations within countries. This was also necessary in order to mitigate the problem of migration of rural populations to unprepared urban centres.
20. In achieving food security, a number of Ministers paid special attention to the important role of women who were a main source of food production in many countries and who also played an indispensable entrepreneurial role in the food system, particularly in Africa. It was necessary for women to have full access to appropriate agricultural services and inputs, and to benefit from legal and legislative frameworks to ensure their vital contribution to food security.
21. Ministers stressed that future increases in food production must be sustainable over the long term and seek to preserve and even enhance the natural resource environment within which production takes place. In this connection the need to protect and conserve long-term soil fertility and utilize scarce water resources efficiently and effectively was particularly underlined. Reference was also made to the valuable contribution of forests and watersheds in guaranteeing a sustainable natural resource base essential to the achievement of food for all for future generations. Several Ministers also noted the importance of sustainable fisheries development in attaining food security, and the need to protect and manage sustainably coastal, deep-sea and inland fisheries resources.
22. Taking note of an apparent rising trend in the international prices of some basic foodstuffs, a number of Ministers made reference to the possible impacts on developing countries' food supplies of the recent conclusion of the Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations. Nevertheless, the opening of markets consequent upon this agreement is projected to stimulate trade in food and agricultural products, and FAO's practical role in assisting its member countries to capitalize upon opportunities and undertake adjustments in this connection was emphasized.
23. The Ministers and other participants brought a wealth of ideas and a range of national experiences to the debate on the subject of Investment to Achieve Food for All. They agreed that investment, combined with the political will to restructure their policies in favour of agriculture, was essential for promoting food and agricultural growth in rural areas which contained the majority of the world's poorest people. In commending the background paper FAO had prepared on this subject as analytical and relevant, the Ministers noted the important and even predominant role played by private investment in generating food and agricultural growth, especially through resources allocated by farmers themselves. In this context, the substantial contribution of women was again emphasized, as was the importance of the mobilization of local savings. Private investments, not only at farm level but also for the provision of inputs and services, and for the processing, storage, distribution and marketing of outputs, were seen as vital to increased food and agricultural production.
24. At the same time, the meeting underlined the key supporting and complementary role played by public investments for agricultural growth and for rural development generally. Such investments, which in numerous developing countries and especially the Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) needed to be backed up by cooperation with from multilateral financing institutions or other international funding sources, were critical for providing basic infrastructure, including for irrigation and water control, and carefully selected public goods and services. These along with an appropriate policy environment, were essential to encourage and support private resource flows into food and agricultural development, and in this sense could have important catalytic and multiplier effects. While international flows to assist the developing countries would always be small in relation to the overall capital needed for agricultural and rural growth, their potential impact was viewed as significant, particularly in the LDCs.
25. Finally, in looking to the future role of FAO, Ministers called for increased coordination and cooperative partnerships, including with international financial institutions, other agencies, and NGOs and the private sector, with a view to maximizing the impact of scarce resources. Through such collaboration, Member Nations were confident that FAO would make a significant contribution to development goals - including universal food security - in the decades to come.
26. Following the conclusion of their substantive debate, the Ministers reconvened for a special Commemorative Observance of FAO's Fiftieth Anniversary. After the screening of a video feature on the theme of "Food for All", the Ministers were addressed by two special guests - Ambassador Juan Felipe Yriart, signatory for Uruguay to the Constitution of FAO in October 1945, and Professor Stefan Fisera, of the Slovak Republic, a member of the Czechoslovakian delegation to the first session of the FAO Conference on 16 October 1945.
27. The Chairman delivered a statement to the Ministers on behalf of the Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada. The Director-General then addressed the Meeting. This was followed by a message from His Holiness Pope John Paul II, presented by Monsignor Alois Wagner.
28. The Ministerial Meeting approved by acclamation the FAO Fiftieth Anniversary Declaration on Food and Agriculture, also known as the "Quebec Declaration", for onforwarding to, and adoption by, the 28th Session of the FAO Conference.
29. The Chairman presented the Director-General with a Commemorative Album, copies of which were given to all Ministers. Finally, the Chairman and the Director-General together unveiled a plaque commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary, noting that it was to be mounted on the exterior of the Château Frontenac, next to an existing plaque commemorating the creation of FAO in 1945.
30. Special guests invited to the Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Observance were Mr José Ramón López Portillo, Independent Chairman of the FAO Council and his spouse, Dr Dieter F.R. Bommer, Chairman of the FAO Programme Committee, and Dr Edouard Saouma, former Director-General of FAO, and his spouse. (Mr López Portillo and Dr Bommer also attended the Ministerial Meeting.) Messrs Jean Chapdelaine, Ewart Reid, André Patry and Harry Winsor, Canadians citizens who had been present at the first FAO Conference at Château Frontenac in October 1945, were also present as special guests.
1. Opening of the Session
2. Election of the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen
3. Adoption of the Agenda and Timetable
4. Statement by the Director-General
5. Outcome of the Discussions of 1995 FAO/Quebec Symposium "People at the Heart of Development"
6. Preparations for the World Food Summit (Rome, 13-17 November 1996)
- General Considerations for the Achievement of World Food Security
- Investment to Achieve Food for All
7. Any Other Business
8. Closing Remarks by the Director-General and the Chairman
9. WORLD FOOD DAY - Observance of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(Not available)
The generous hospitality of Canada, the province of Quebec and Quebec City has afforded us the opportunity to make the Fiftieth Anniversary of FAO a return to our roots. This is indeed a return and not merely - or even mostly - a romantic pilgrimage to the birthplace of our Organization. It is also an occasion, at a time when humanity is in great peril, to regain the spirit and enthusiasm that inspired our founding fathers half a century ago, and an opportunity for us to regain strength and creativity.
This Ministerial Meeting is part of a process that has already produced an important symposium on people at the heart of development, and that will culminate next year in the World Food Summit. You are being asked to review the conclusions of the Symposium and at the same time to make substantial preparations for the Summit. Clearly, after such frank discussion among representatives of governments, business, organizations and the academic world, only a top-level gathering such as this could set in train the policy-making and people's mobilization process that is so vital if we are to achieve our final goal of wiping out hunger and its root-cause, poverty, from the face of the earth and, to cite our slogan for the fifteenth World Food Day and the Fiftieth Anniversary of FAO, of securing "Food for All".
I have had and will continue to have occasion to expound the problem, but there is no need for that here as the positions you occupy make you uniquely well-informed; I have rarely had the opportunity to address an audience so well aware of the fact that it is unacceptable, indeed impossible, to go on living in a world which has 800 million undernourished people in the developing countries, including nearly 200 million children under the age of five suffering from acute or chronic protein or energy deficiencies. Your very presence here today despite your many responsibilities is ample evidence of the importance that you and your governments attach to the problem which is facing us today with critical urgency.
You more than anyone understand that our only salvation is to win the race between food production and population growth in the developing countries, which is precisely where most of the 3 billion additional people in the world in the year 2030 will be living. The crux of the problem is therefore to devise ways to boost food production in Third World countries fast, substantially and sustainably, particularly in the least — privileged ones — the 88 low-income, food-deficit countries, exactly half of which are in Africa, with a further 19 in Asia and the Pacific, 9 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4 in the Near East and 12 in Europe and the former Soviet Republics.
This is of course an immense undertaking, fraught with difficulties. But is it one, as some seem so quick to believe, that is beyond the ability of this human race that has so successfully embarked upon the conquest of space, unlocked the secrets of matter and harnessed its energy, brought about a revolution in genetics and found cures for diseases that were fatal only yesterday? No, we would not be here today, and FAO would not have fought for 50 years and be preparing so vigorously for future combat were we not firmly convinced that the final victory will be ours and that our goal not only can but must be attained. For this to happen, we will have to wage and carry through a wide-ranging campaign that attacks the technical, financial and policy dimensions of the problem all at the same time.
All three are closely interlinked, but the technical dimension comes more specifically within the province of FAO. Our major prospective studies provide the basis for our work: the most recent, Agriculture: Towards 2010, analyses the foreseeable needs and existing potential for expanding farmland and raising yields. FAO has also sought to learn from the past, particularly from the Green Revolution which produced spectacular results, particularly in Asia and the Pacific, where available per caput food supplies are now 35 percent above what they were 30 years ago, whereas barely a generation ago, common sense had it that the region would never be able to feed itself. Based on this information, FAO has resolved to launch a new Green Revolution, skirting the shoals upon which the first nearly ran aground, that is, basically, the problems of adverse environmental impact and the risk of benefiting the wealthier, better-educated farmers and sidelining the poorer ones.
The Organization has worked very hard to come up with dynamic and clearly-focused programmes to serve development in the domains of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and nutrition. This is not the place to dwell at length on the subject and so I shall simply mention two special programmes that I proposed and the FAO Council approved in June 1994: we attach special importance to them for they are destined to have a swift impact on agricultural production, especially food production.
The first is the Special Programme on Food Production in Support of Food Security in Low-income, Food-deficit Countries. The programme format is to select pilot projects, apply appropriate technology (particularly for water control), adopt production systems that safeguard environmental imperatives, promote appropriate economic policies and build national capacities. Based on the participation of farming communities and extension workers, within a context of socially equitable measures, particularly for the least privileged, the programme aims to increase food supplies, stabilize yields and boost work and income opportunities in agriculture.
The second programme is the "Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases". Initially, it will focus on desert locust and rinderpest, two cyclical scourges that are particularly virulent in Africa, the Near East and Southwest Asia.
It is perfectly clear that even the best-laid plans will remain a dead letter without the necessary means to implement them. The kind of agricultural growth we need to achieve implies truly massive injections of capital; high-performance, on-target technology; inputs, knowledge and know-how: in short, aid and investment on an unprecedented scale.
This brings me to the subject of official development assistance, for which the United Nations had set a target of 0.7 percent of gross domestic product for donor countries so many years ago. We are all familiar with the problems that have arisen over the years in achieving this goal, and the fact that only a few countries have reached it and even fewer exceeded it. The end of the cold war had raised great hopes: there was no longer any rationale for the arms race and so the immense outlay of human and financial resources that it devoured to no purpose could now be redeployed and retargeted to the peaceful business of development, which would generate prosperity and well-being for all humankind.
These high hopes were cruelly dashed. We are now in fact moving further from the 0.7 percent goal, not closer: donor country GDP earmarked for official development assistance, which stood at 0.34 percent in 1970, had dropped to 0.29 percent by 1994. The brunt of this reduction was borne by the agricultural sector, which received less both in absolute and percentage terms. Calculated in constant 1990 dollars, assistance fell from 16 billion dollars in 1981-83 to 11 billion in 1991-93. During the same period, agriculture's share dropped from 24.5 to 16 percent.
Yet there are increasing signs of economic recovery. The performance of several countries that have successfully broken away from underdevelopment, and the efforts of many others to engage in structural adjustment, would normally be expected to rekindle confidence and trigger a renewed flow of aid. Substantial problems, though, still stand in the way. A large portion of the resources that the principal donors are prepared to hand the international agencies has been, and continues to be, taken up by the many peace-keeping operations in the world to halt conflict, bloodshed and massacre. As for bilateral assistance, there is no sign of renewal other than for military aid, and, with a few praiseworthy exceptions, the decline only worsens. It would therefore be pointless to expect any increase in flow of aid until peace and order have been restored in the world.
But investment is more than just official development assistance. Savings should be encouraged within countries. This would stimulate national public and private funding and at the same time create an enabling environment for supplementary private investment from abroad.
There is immense scope for investors in the development of agriculture. But, investment is required in a vast range of domains if we are to assure strong growth of production, remove the element of risk, avoid losses and facilitate commodity marketing. A far from exhaustive list would include technology transfer, equipment and inputs of all sorts, management of forest resources, development of aquaculture and related industries, the design and construction of hydro-agricultural systems within an integrated watershed management and water control plan, protection against crop losses by pest and disease control, new infrastructures such as storage facilities, roads and transport networks, and development of human resources through teaching, training and extension.
Such undertakings require in-depth feasibility studies and "bankable" projects governed by a host of parameters: economic and financial viability; medium- and long-term impact; optimal size of project; selection of technologies; absorption capacity; protection of the natural and cultural environment; greater responsibilities given over to national officers and local populations; fair distribution of benefits.
The economic "take-off" of many developing countries initiated by agricultural growth should herald further successes, with spin-off in terms of growth and employment also being felt in the developed countries, thus encouraging further investment in countries with promise for the future.
Clearly, investment priorities will vary from one region to another. In Asia, where the benefits of the Green Revolution may level off, the focus should be on renovating irrigation schemes, installing drainage systems and regulating rights of access to water. In Africa, where there is so much to do but where irrigation covers barely 7 percent of farmland, any modernization is conditional upon hydro-agricultural programmes carried out at community level, while in Latin America market-based agrarian reform would seem to be a top priority.
It is not easy to gauge the level of investment that is needed to attain the growth targets outlined in FAO's study Agriculture: towards 2010, but it is in sub-Saharan Africa in particular that net investment in production and marketing will have to be substantially raised.
Investment efficiency is just as important as volume. In this connection, the structural adjustments already in place have helped reduce ineffective measures and structures, and have also acted as an incentive for private investment. There are still, however, many instances of economic and social bias, and the problems of transition have not always been addressed and resolved appropriately.
It is of course for the developing countries themselves to finance the bulk of the investments they need for economic growth. Some of this capital should come from public revenue, export earnings and savings, but the greatest potential in many countries lies in mobilizing the farming population to engage in investment activity. However, many of these countries also require strong external support to reinforce their national effort.
Genuine food security will only become a reality in the world if all the interested parties — developing and developed country governments, private investors and international funding agencies — demonstrate that they have the clear, coherent and sustained political will to make it happen, even if this entails questioning concepts, criteria and attitudes that have long been taken for granted.
Whether the focus is on the technical, the financial or the political, there is one key element that must always be borne foremost in mind - the time dimension. Time in agriculture (and even more so in forestry) is not the same as in industry or the tertiary sector. The pace is slower. Changes do not happen overnight. Results take time to emerge. Analysis of trends needs to cover the medium or long term if it is to have any significance. Implementation and evaluation need to be framed in a much longer perspective. In short, the patience of the farmer must become the principal virtue of the investor.
The implications of food security are vital for the world today, for what we have before us is no less than the survival of humanity. If, through misfortune, we found ourselves unable to avoid famine, if our efforts to achieve "food for all" are proved to be in vain, then all of us, whether rich or poor, would be facing the same dangers, wherever we might be. Such, Honourable Ministers, is the nature of the challenge that our governments and peoples have to take up now and in the future. May this return to our roots, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of FAO, help us to regain the vision, hope, energy and determination that marked the birth and life of our Organization. The Ministerial Meeting that opens this morning will thus serve as a beacon of hope and mark a decisive step in the fulfilment of the dream - or rather the grand unequivocal design - of our founding fathers: to free humanity from hunger.
Thank you