While we must continue to respond urgently to immediate food crises, say aid organisations, both donors and humanitarian agencies need also to focus on eliminating the underlying causes that create the crisis

In an attempt to find solutions to the current global food crisis, a three-day forum with more than 60 policy experts from 30 leading international aid organisations got underway at the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome on April 16. “What we are really talking about is how to address the underlying causes of hunger,” said Dr Robert Glasser, Secretary General of CARE International, who made the opening speech.

The conference, entitled ‘Rethinking Food Security in Humanitarian Response’ was organised by two leading international relief and development organisations, CARE and Oxfam International.

Discussions will tackle a number of issues raised by a new report from Tufts University, which notes that while fewer people are dying today from major disasters, a greater number are being affected by food shortages resulting from smaller events, droughts and civil unrest which often fail to make international headlines but have a devastating cumulative impact on the economies of developing countries.

Right now, for example, we see distressing signs of another serious hunger crisis in central Somalia affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

Increased focus on disaster risk reduction, agricultural production -- particularly for small farmers -- the creation of social safety nets, and targeted protection of livelihoods of those who are economically vulnerable are needed to enable people to get back on their feet.

“Until now, most of the aid response to hunger has been mobilised in reaction to disasters that have already taken place. While we must continue to respond urgently to immediate food crises, both donors and humanitarian agencies need also to focus on eliminating the underlying causes that create the crisis,” says a media release by CARE.

The Tufts paper provides an overview of trends and future challenges in food security. It considers the effectiveness of the “humanitarian system” in addressing food insecurity and whether the current institutional set-up is fit for service. It also examines links between “chronic” and “transitory” food insecurity, and whether current approaches to prevention and response appropriately bridge these two forms of vulnerability.

Despite years of international relief efforts, hunger is on the rise. The number is increasing by 4 million people a year, thanks to spiralling food prices. Recently, the World Food Programme (WFP), which feeds 73 million people in the world, said that if it did not get an extra US$ 500 million this year to cover the hike in food and fuel costs, its food aid would have to be rationed. An estimated 10 million people die from the effects of malnutrition each year, and 850 million suffer from hunger worldwide.

Recently, World Bank President Robert B Zoellick said that the crisis of surging food prices could mean “seven lost years” in the fight against worldwide poverty and has called for a “new deal on global food policy”.

Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme, says that the time has come for governments around the world to invest in their farmers.

In a related development, leading food aid groups gathered in Kansas City, USA, earlier this week calling for a “green revolution” that would help impoverished regions develop their own agriculture economies rather than rely on US-grown food.

Source: www.careinternational.org, April 17, 2008
            AP, April 15, 2008
            ndtv.com, April 15, 2008