HUNGER

1. Policy Background
2. Useful Documents
3. Links

1. Policy Background

With sustainable rural development strategies, food security was one of six priorities set out recently in the integrated framework for Community development activities whose purpose was to refocus EU policies on poverty reduction.

Experts believe that the world is quite capable of producing sufficient food to sustain its current population of six billion. Food insecurities arise, however, because of distribution problems: the rich countries produce too much food; the poor countries, too little. Over-production in rich countries, like the member states of the EU, may be the result of farming subsidies; under-production in the developed world may be influenced by a low level of agricultural investment.

The Commission's view is that the best way to achieve food security for all is to implement a broad-based policy for sustainable growth and poverty reduction. Growth is a necessary condition for food security because it will contribute to increased investment in food production and the economic strength to allow countries to import food if necessary. But growth is not a sufficient condition for food security. If people's access to food is to be permanently improved then poverty has to be tackled first - and it is towards relieving poverty that the main thrust of the EU's development policies are directed.

The other great cause of food insecurity is conflict. The EU's attention to promoting democracy and good governance, preventing conflict and building peace, is helping to tackle this aspect of food insecurity.

In a report last November, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that there are some 815 million chronically malnourished people in the world. In addition more than 30 countries, involving a total of some 50 million people, are facing what they describe as a severe food emergency. A world summit in 1996, in which the European nations were fully involved, pledged to halve the numbers of the world's hungry over a twenty year period. More than five years into that period the FAO is concerned that progress has been slow. At present rates it will take, they estimate, 60 years to take 400 million out of their current state of chronic malnourishment.

The EU well understands these problems. The Union already delivers large amounts of food aid to regions suffering from famine. The value of such food aid, and food security operations in developing countries generally in the year 2000, amounted to over EUR 450 million, of which some EUR 300 million went on food and EUR 150 on logistics. This included emergency food aid such as that supplied in crisis situations following natural or man-made disasters.

At one time the provision of such food-aid was linked to the necessity to dispose of the agricultural surpluses that arose as a by-product of the Common Agricultural Policy. This was rightly criticised. The policy distorted local markets and did nothing to address the fundamental causes of food insecurity. It has now been ended. Today the EU provides food aid only in specific situations where it is the most appropriate instrument to tackle nutritional problems and food shortages. The sole objective is to save lives during emergencies, to provide a safety nets for vulnerable groups and to facilitate the transition between relief, rehabilitation and long term development. Besides, more than 30 per cent is now purchased locally - a figure that is expected to increase. To compensate for the loss of food aid, provision of financial assistance has been increased.

Having changed its own policies in this regard and indeed having been at the forefront of international efforts to improve the management of food aid, the EU is now trying to persuade
some other major food producing countries to follow suit by seeking strengthened WTO provisions in this area.

While a billion people look to fish for their food security, the sustainability of global fisheries is of major concern. In the Commission's view, most of the fisheries available to developing countries are now fully exploited if not already over-fished, and are subject to competing pressures from local fishermen using traditional methods, industrial fishing based in developing countries and fishing fleets originating from developed countries.

The EU is taking stock of its own actions. While it supports the development of the fisheries sector in many developing countries, focusing on the interests of poor local fishing communities, it is also negotiating access for EU fishing fleets to developing country fisheries. The search is on to balance better the need to ensure sustainable fisheries management with the interests of the Common Fisheries Policy.

2. Useful Documents

A. Promoting Food Security and Poverty Reduction through Broad-Based Economic Growth: A view from the European Union. Speech delivered by Commissioner Poul Nielson at the Conference on "Sustainable Food Security for all by 2020," International Food Policy Research Institute: Bonn, Germany, 4-6 September 2001

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to be invited here today to address this important conference. With close to 800 million people still suffering from hunger and malnutrition, the attention given to food security at this conference is a moral imperative. Five years ago the World Food Summit set a target of reducing the total number of undernourished people by half no later than 2015. We are not on a path to reach that target. In the run-up to the five-year review of the World Food Summit, it is time to take a critical look at our policies and actions. And so, I would like to spend the next twenty minutes outlining my vision of food security, and the actions that need to be taken by the international community and national governments. More…..

B. Parliaments Told To Raise Profile of the World's Hungry: Article EuropaWorld 23 November 2001

Dr Jacques Diouf, the indefatigable head of the UN's Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was at it again last week, spelling out the grim statistics of the world's hungry and urging the full-bellied world to do something more about it, including setting national targets for reducing the numbers of hungry people in each country. The occasion was a meeting in Berlin of the Heads of Parliamentary Committees of EU Member States, EU Accession countries and the Russian Duma, and the message of the FAO head - and the title of his address - were the responsibilities of parliaments for world nutrition. More…

C. 33 Countries Face Food Emergency According to Latest UN Report: EuropaWorld Article, 9 March 2001

Despite some improved weather conditions 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from exceptional food emergencies caused mostly by natural disasters and civil strife, but there are problems in all Continents except Australia says the latest edition of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report Foodcrops and Shortages. In addition five countries - Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Jordan and Tajikistan - have unfavorable prospects for current crops. The report underlines the continuing difficulty facing the world of growing sufficient food to meet internationally agreed targets for reducing the numbers of people facing hunger and malnutrition. More…

D. Food Security: Extract From Commission's Rural Development Policy Document
A major review concluded that there are four core concepts implicit in the notion of 'secure access to enough food at all times'. These are sufficiency of food; adequate access to it; security (involving some balance between vulnerability, risk and insurance) and time, where insecurity can be chronic, transitory or cyclical. (Maxwell and Frankenberger, 1992). These concepts are important at both national and household levels. There is also a global dimension, particularly for low income food deficit countries (LIFDCs). More…

E. Le Programme Communautaire d'Aide et de Sécurité Alimentaire
Objectifs et Principes: Le processus de réforme a trouvé son aboutissement juridique le 27 juin 1996 avec le règlement du Conseil N°1292/96 concernant la politique et la gestion de l'aide alimentaire et des actions spécifiques d'appui à la sécurité alimentaire. Ce nouveau règlement répond à 3 grandes orientations de la nouvelle politique :

· le renforcement du partenariat avec les pays bénéficiaires
La co-responsabilité du gouvernement du pays bénéficiaire doit s'exprimer à travers l'élaboration concertée d'une politique de sécurité alimentaire, dans un souci de transparence et d'efficacité. More... (Document in French)

3. Links

UN Food and Agriculture Organisation: http://www.fao.org
UN World Food Programme: http://www.wfp.org
EuropaWorld Famine and Malnutrition Pages
EU Commission DG Development and Humanitarian Affairs
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/development/index_en.htm