Allyson Gofton cooks the worst meal of her life
She’s on the television every night of the year with the spectacularly successful Food in a Minute series with tasty, nutritious and toothsome dishes that thousands upon thousands of Kiwis lap up with gusto. She’s done hundreds of delicious demonstrations for avid food fans where the spicy fragrance of a curry or the aroma of succulent roast pork has wafted across the mall, school hall or the country fair.
Allyson has long been a World Vision child sponsor and this year will get to meet the two children she sponsors in both Tanzania and Bangladesh. They are countries beginning to be severely affected by growing food insecurity and Allyson will see the effects first hand. “Aside from the sheer frustration any mother would have at not being able to feed her family adequately, it’s the downstream effects of stunted growth and brain development through malnutrition that will go on to affect entire generations that most alarms me”, says Allyson.
“I totally appreciate how times are tough here in New Zealand. Rising food costs are forcing Kiwis to make choices to cut back on foods like dairy and meat that were previously a huge part of our diet. But things are nowhere near as tough here as they are in other parts – and now I have the opportunity in some small way to raise awareness and encourage New Zealanders to think generously towards their fellow man”, says Allyson.
For more information, please contact Emma Sutcliffe, Communications and Advocacy Manager, emma.sutcliffe@worldivision.org.nz, (021 177 6951)
Food Summit Declaration, 2008
World Vision welcomes the Food Summit Declaration, agreed in Rome by 183 countries in June. The Declaration pledged to cut trade barriers and help poor farmers through immediate food aid as well as long-term investment in agriculture. The Declaration also addresses climate and biofuel issues. As such, it deals with many strands in the complex web of food insecurity, which we endorse.
However, we believe the Declaration didn’t adequately address the financial markets and their speculation in agricultural foodstuffs; it also fails to address the International Funding Institutions (World Bank, ADB etc) agricultural spend (or lack thereof).
The current crisis is not fuelled by a lack of food; it’s fuelled by the high cost of food, which lands squarely at the feet of government, IFI and financial market policy. In as much as the crisis can be attributed to climate and biofuels, it can also attributed to governance, policy, and trade regulations.
We call on all governments to resist pressures to impose taxes, quotas or other restrictions on the exports of foodstuffs or essential agricultural inputs such as fertilisers. Where such restrictions are in place we believe they should be unwound as quickly as possible to minimise their adverse impacts on food supply, prices and political stability. Restrictions on trade in agricultural products are also likely to exacerbate price volatility and consequently increase the uncertainty facing farmers when deciding whether to increase output. Moreover, artificially keeping down food prices through export restrictions subsidises higher income earners as well as the poor, and encourages hoarding in countries forced to pay the faster rising world prices.
We oppose the subsidisation of ethanol and biodiesel production from corn or other food crops because of its adverse impact, direct and indirect, on the supply and hence price of staple foodstuffs at a time when strong world demand and climate and other supply constraints are driving food prices to record levels. We believe it is essential that the economically and morally unjustified assistance being provided to biofuels be ended immediately.
The World Bank estimates that food price increases risk pushing 100 million people further into poverty. This challenge requires an immediate solution. World Vision thanks our government’s pledge of $7.5million to the UN food crisis effort, but requests to increase its current spend of 0.3% on international aid, to the promised 0.7% as agreed in 1970, 2002 and again in 2005.
As the world’s largest humanitarian agency we have long been watching, preparing and advocating for urgent action to be taken on food security. As the largest global handler/distributor of World Food Programme (WFP) food aid, World Vision is currently providing nearly 450,000 metric tonnes in 30 countries annually—this feeds about 7 million people a year.
Last year, we contributed more than $4 million worth of food through the WFP. We have partnerships with the WFP (a match scheme in which donor’s dollars are multiplied) in a number of countries this year, continuing to get food where it’s needed most. We are currently feeding people, through the WFP, in Kenya, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Our Food Crisis Task Force is currently mobilising a food crisis response to the cost of USD$450 million to be invested in short-term food aid and investment in agriculture and food security over the next three years. As it stands, the current high cost of food means World Vision New Zealand’s $4million contribution to WFP will fail to feed as many people as last year.
We understand and appreciate that New Zealand is feeling the impact pf the price crisis. Poor families here are feeling the crunch from high food and fuel costs. But whilst we recognise our own situation, we are acutely aware that it is far, far worse for millions of others. According to the World Bank, those on less that $2 per day spend roughly 75% of their incomes on staple foods; the impact of a 40% increase in the cost of food is spending 105% of their income on food—or simply doing without. And we don’t mean doing without a block of cheese or switching to Home Brands–we mean not feeding your children at all. Whilst middle income Kiwis complain of having to spend 50, 60 or even 70% of our incomes on our mortgages, we have little comprehension of what it means to spend 75% of our income on food.
This is a global problem that requires a global response. However, the power to make effective change lies mostly with developed nations – and as we rank 19th out of 177 on the UN Human Development Index, New Zealand could, and should be, part of the solution.
Food price crisis: A view from around the world
Chad
It was already very hot when Khadidja reached the village with her burden. She left early this morning and walked 8km from her home in order to look for the wild roots that have become the last feeding alternative for the family.
“We planted three hectares of rice last year but we have not harvested even a single spoon of it. It dried up completely because of the rains that stopped a month earlier,” Khadidja recalls. “To make it worse, we are going to die because do not have food to live on these days and not a grain of rice for seeds for this year’s rice planting.”
Nobody in Khadidja’s village has any rice in reserve in their house.
For the WV Chad food security team, the food need gap for the people in the 3 Canadian funded ADP of Lai is estimated at -259.65 metric tons.
Khadidja Lydie and her children appear to be healthy despite the food shortage the family is experiencing. She earns $1.50 by selling charcoal, which she immediately spends on sorghum.
“With the flour of sorghum, I will make porridge for children when I leave them to go and fetch wild roots in the bush” Khadidja said, “I don’t care about the quality of the food. The issue is how to make it available for the family.”
Khadidja travels long distance to the bush in search of the wild yams known as “sene”. It is a very toxic plant and takes lot of energy to make it ready for consumption.
“We boil the roots to peel the skin, and then we cut it into pieces before boiling it again for at least 3 times. After that, we put it in clean water fro at least ten hours and squeeze it to make sure that the entire toxin is removed. Now, we can add salt to it and eat it” Khadidja explains.
Afghanistan
Families across Afghanistan, particularly in the underserved provinces of Badghis and Ghor, are buckling under the double blows of both a global food shortage and severe drought.
Fatima*, 11, is in the third grade and loves the Dari language; her mother tongue, as well as her teacher, Miss Saleya. In the presence of guests, she is a shy and quiet child. Grasping her headscarf to her mouth, she lowers her eyes whenever she is addressed. “I like school,” she says softly, almost in a whisper. “I am a good student. One day, I would like to be a doctor.”
Yet it is unlikely Fatima will realise her dream. Recently, her father engaged her to a local man in exchange for 300,000 Afghanis, the equivalent of US$6,000.
Her mother, a frail 35-year old named Sausan*, is seated in a far corner of the room.
“We didn’t want to sell her,” she says wearily. “We didn’t want to do that. We wanted to wait until she was 20. But we were forced to …” Sausan’s voice grows softer and trails off. “There was no other way.”
“We have no money,” she explains. “How can nine of us eat on two maybe three dollars a day, with all the other expenses? We had to sell Fatima in order to pay all the people we owed.”
“These days the high price of food is affecting us in a bad way,” Sausan continues. "The family lives on very little – tea and bread, dried yogurt soup, some potatoes, lentils and chickpeas. It has been a long time since they tasted meat."
“In the past, my husband’s work as a daily laborer covered our expenses. But now, we are borrowing money just to buy food. We are in a very bad situation.”
Fatima and two other siblings receive monthly food rations through World Vision’s Food for Education programme, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. This feeding programme draws some 75,000 students to schools throughout Badghis and Ghor Provinces. But for many families, it is not enough.
As wheat prices skyrocket and fodder disappears, animals are being sold to subsidize family incomes. When there are no animals to sell, child brides like Fatima are the only available "assets."
“This drought is going no where. It’s here to stay,” says Mike McParland, Badghis Zone Manager.
“We are very concerned things will only grow worse, especially into the fall, and as the winter approaches. This is all we’re hearing about – from the government and from beneficiaries. The international community must respond.”
World Vision is seeking funding to provide food rations to the most desperate families in Badghis and Ghor Provinces. Non-food item kits will be pre-positioned in centers likely to experience an increase in migration (IDPs) as the situation worsens. In an effort to prevent the depletion of herds, animal fodder will be provided to families with livestock, as agriculture specialists are concerned the continued depletion could lead to a collapse of the domestic meat market.
As Sausan lists reasons for ‘selling’ her daughter, she says that Fatima won’t be forced to marry immediately. She can live at home and continue school for four more years. “In the agreement, we said she must.”
But with two sisters, now mothers, married off from age 11, Fatima will be fortunate if she is permitted to continue her schooling.
“All I ever dreamed of having was a good house, enough food and a healthy family – a peaceful country, too, where my children could get an education.”
Fatima shares much of her mother’s dream. “I wish we had a developed country. One that was peaceful and green…” Then she adds, “And democratic.”
*Names have been changed to protect the individuals.
Georgia
Marina, husband Badri, and their children live in a suburb of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in a two-room flat with five beds. Inside, a stark lack of furniture and signs of poverty are the first things you notice as you enter the room.
The future looks bleak, but times have been even tougher in the past. Now the rising cost of living and increased food prices are threatening to drive the family apart again. Two years ago, before receiving help from World Vision, the Psitidzes struggled to find rent money every month, and feed their growing children.
Marina’s husband worked as a security guard, earning a monthly income of 150 GEL (US$80). They would spend 90 GEL (60%) of that income on bread alone and the rest had to cover rent. Their meager diet consisted of bread and tea.
“Sometimes we could not buy bread and the children went hungry all day”, recalls Marina.
When the money ran out, Marina and Badri felt the only way they could provide for their children’s basic needs was to place them in a children’s institution. In Georgia, 90% of children in institutions have parents. “I made the hardest decision of my life- taking my children to the ‘orphanage’ was the only solution for us otherwise they would die of hunger,” says Marina.
“I lived there a year. I hate thinking of that time. I thought my parents left us there and we would never see them again. I cried all the time,” says 13-yearold Giorgi.
Today a Georgian family of this size needs about 350 GEL to live on. In 2004 the figure was 226 GEL. Inflation and rising global food and energy prices are hitting already vulnerable Georgian families the hardest. The prices of bread and wheat flour have risen 33 and 32 percent and the price of maize flour has risen 50 per cent. Sunflower oil, used widely by Georgians, has also increased by 65 percent, which also reflects the strong dependence of product prices on international market prices.
While the Psitidze family is presently coping with the help of neighbours, the government allowance and World Vision – the threat of having to abandon their children to an institution looms fiercely – for this family and for thousands like it across Georgia and Eastern Europe.
Senegal
Food is essential for people’s physical and spiritual growth, health, and energy; and especially for children who need to study at school. But when family members struggle to survive, life becomes hard to bear for children. This is the case of Ndiouck Faye, a 12-year-old girl living in Ndiop who told us why she left school.
"I live with my mother, Dibe Tine and my siblings, Lamine Faye (15) and Moulaye Faye (10). Until recently I was in school, in grade four. My father died four years ago and since then we have gone through many difficulties mainly related to food security. As we have no donkey or horse to work with in the farm, my mother partners with neighbours to till our land. Since my father’s death, we have not had a good harvest, which makes life more difficult for us.
"Things got worse this year as our food stock was used up by early January. It is very difficult to cover our food needs. On top of that my mother fell sick and could no longer find food for the family. Finally I was obliged to leave school to help in the house as I am the only girl that my mum has.
"My half brother, Doudou Thiaw, who has gone to Dakar to find work, tries to supports us; but it’s on an irregular basis. My mum struggles everyday to maintain her family. Thinking about her daily efforts meant I lost the motivation to go to school. We used to have three meals a day; but now we have come to two or one a day. Prices of goods (rice, oil, millet, maize etc.) have become so expensive that there is no way for us to afford a bag of rice or millet.
"Moreover, my mother had seven goats, but unfortunately a thief stole five of them. This is common in these hard times mainly in families whose head is a woman like ours. So now my mother has no livestock to sell in order to address our needs, and so often borrows by kilograms from neighbours or shopkeepers to provide at least for lunch and/or dinner, even if it is not always enough for us to eat our fill.
"When my dad was alive, we did not face these problems, but now that Mum is alone with her children, it is very difficult for her. I could no longer stand going to school, leaving my mother in such difficulties ..."
Chile
"Every day food is more expensive." These are words of despair from Berta, a 41-year-old single mother of four who earns the minimum legal wage as a cleaner in an industrial plant.
When Berta's children were still small, they were sponsored by World Vision. Berta worked as a cleaner at the ADP office. When Berta's 20-year marriage broke down some four years ago, she was forced to move to her mother’s where nine people live together.
For a year now, Chile has been in the grip of a food security crisis. Last winter, extraordinarily low temperatures froze the vegetable harvests. A long drought followed which destroyed pastures and thwarted sowing. The constant rise in oil prices and its effect on the energy industry has compounded the situation. In Chile, electricity is mostly produced by hydroelectric plants and the lack of rains during the recent drought evaporated their dams’ decreasing local supply.
The rising cost of transportation has also affected the country given its large geographic range. Many of the 155 communes declared as drought disaster zones have been drinking water supplied by trucks that are expensive to transport.
Dependence upon imported products has raised the price of staples for families like Berta's. Local rice production represents only 40% of national consumption. The rest of the country's rice comes mostly from neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay. Both countries have slowed their exports to satisfy their own internal demands.
The wholesale price of rice suffered a 55% increase, yet for Berta, her grocery bill has soared. Berta buys from a local grocery store where she is provided a line of credit that she pays back once a month. Because of rice prices, Berta decided to replace rice with pastas and legumes. Berta was shocked to find that dry beans for her children had doubled in price. Last spring, she also had to reduce drastically her household's consumption of fresh tomatoes and fruits.
Berta says that increasingly she is making soup for her children. “We cannot buy chicken anymore, only bones for the soup.” She cooks every other day to save on fuel and she makes up for the lack of calories by increasing the household consumption of bread.
After Germany, Chile is the country with the greatest bread per capita consumption in the world: 96kg a year. The price of bread has tripled since January. As a result, 25% of Berta’s wage is spent on bread alone. At present a kilogram of the cheapest kind of bread is over US$2. It is expected to rise to US$2.80 a kilogram. “ I thought about making bread myself, but gas is so expensive that it is not worthwhile.”
Several other factors are deepening the crisis, such as the use of agricultural land. As Chile has a buoyant wine industry, land which formerly produced rice, wheat or grass for cattle, is now converted into vineyards. There are plans also for Chile to produce grain by 2015 for an enormous biofuel plant.
Furthermore, people like Berta are often victims of local price distortions carried out by the same people who give her friendly credit for her food. The local grocer who provides month-long credit without mentioning interest rates, sells staple foods such as dry beans at a price 300% higher than at a supermarket.
But Berta only knows the local market and keeps struggling so that her children can accomplish their dreams, go to university and have a career. Her future is uncertain. Due to the price hikes of the last few months, which affect mostly the poorest 20% of the population, nearly 300.000 Chileans have fallen again below the poverty line and more households like Berta's will continue to suffer from a crisis which is both global and local in nature.
New partnership to improve food security in Southern Africa
Wednesday, 04 June 2008
World Vision International and the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) have launched a joint project that seeks to enhance the quality of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of relief and development programmes in World Vision sites.
The pilot phase of the project was launched this week in Mbabane, Swaziland and will be implemented in Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe over a two-year period. Implementation of the project will incorporate rural communities and technical experts from World Vision, FANRPAN and national universities.
The task of ensuring food security for the world’s growing population in the face of declining global food resources is daunting and requires more efficient and objective relief food programming and targeting that will ensure that the little food available goes where it is needed most. While the necessary role of food aid to respond to the "new emerging face of hunger" is not optional, it is critical to explore medium and long term solutions to make Southern Africa food secure.
A statistical index developed by FANRPAN – the Household Vulnerability Index (FANRPAN-HVI), introduces an objective basis for beneficiary selection and programme design in both relief and development interventions. The index quantifies vulnerability introduced into households by various factors which may be internal, such as human and livelihood assets; and/or external, as a result of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, climate changes, the macro-economy, and others.
The FANRPAN-HVI enables the categorisation of vulnerable households into three levels (1) Emergency – needing prolonged welfare support, (2) Acute – those in desperate need of short-term welfare and development support and (3) Coping – needing development support. The tool uses a livelihoods approach and enables communities to participate in data collation and analysis. The FANRPAN-HVI was developed with support from the European Union (EU) through the Southern African Development Community (2003 – 6) and field-tested with support from the Southern African Trust (2007).
FANRPAN-HVI for Food Aid - The index enables the effective targeting of households thereby ensuring that the little food available goes only to those households that need food the most.
FANRPAN-HVI for Development Programming - The index allows for the identification of the source of vulnerability within a household thereby making it possible to come up with intervention programmes that are specific to the identified problems.
FANRPAN-HVI for Policy Analysis and Advocacy - World Vision will be able to convert its many years of field-level presence into a robust and dynamic grassroots’ livelihoods database. With appropriate analysis, World Vision will be able to generate and package compelling evidence for policy and advocacy. Evidence generated from the pilot sites will be shared at the FANRPAN national multi-stakeholder dialogue platforms, with the synthesis from the three countries shared with senior policy makers through the SADC, COMESA and AU-NEPAD platforms.
FANRPAN-HVI for tracking impact - This HVI database will provide World Vision with quality baseline and longitudinal data for measuring and tracking the impact of its interventions.
"The food crisis has already sparked riots in some countries. It is therefore imperative that we develop better and more objective targeting mechanisms that not only help to mitigate conflict but also enable us to be efficient, cost-effective and rational in maximising the impact of food aid programs in the lives of the poor, particularly children," says Walter Middleton, Vice President Food Programming, World Vision International.
"Identifying deserving beneficiaries in a community when resources are a constraint requires appropriate tools, partnerships and community participation. FANRPAN appreciates the collaboration with World Vision as a demonstration of smart partnerships," said Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Chief Executive Officer, FANRP
Policy Calls: responding to the challenge of rising food prices
World Vision recognises that there are both short-term and long-term implications of the current food crisis. Urgent measures need to be put in place to ensure children and their families have access to nutritious food, as well as preventative measures to mitigate against the long-term impacts, sustain and promote livelihoods and protect future generations.
192 Countries have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This includes the right to survival and adequate nutrition. In responding to the current crisis World Vision calls upon all nations to honour their commitments.
These policy calls cover the following issues:
- Prioritising children
- Food aid
- Disaster prevention / safety nets
- Structural issues (aid/effectiveness, trade, agriculture)
- Research
- Biofuels
- Role of civil society
- Export restrictions
- Financial speculation
- World Vision calls on the international community to prioritise protection of children’s rights through:
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The prevention of child hunger and under-nutrition in its response to the current crisis.
All people have the right to food. For children under 5, however, the absence of food or the right kinds of foods can result in disastrous consequences such as stunting, where physical development is impeded, rendering children more vulnerable to disease and limiting cognitive development. Children under 2 are particularly vulnerable. In the current crisis we believe 35 million children are at increased risk of malnutrition; 10 million of those children are under five years old.
It is not, however, enough to prevent more children becoming hungry. The current crisis exposes the reality that, while the world produces enough food to feed all its inhabitants, 146 million children under 5 are underweight. The solutions to the problem of child hunger are known and affordable. MDG1 commits the international community to halving this number by 2015. At the current rate of progress we will fail to meet this goal.
Support is needed for nutritional programs to ensure enough food and diversify the diets of children. This includes exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months and improved complementary feeding practices between 6-24 months. Theses are the only interventions that will prevent the rise in malnutrition during the 6 to 24 month window. From 24 to 60 months it is important that food is supplemented with appropriate micronutrients to continue physical and cognitive development.
WV supports a comprehensive program to achieve MDG 1, Target 2 (halving the number of children under 5 who are malnourished).
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Ensuring the right to education is respected.
Although vital, preventing malnutrition is not sufficient to protect the rights of children. As families seek to mitigate the effects of rising food prices on family budgets they may be forced to engage in coping strategies such as selling productive assets. In some cases families may feel it is necessary to withdraw children from school to earn additional income.
In addition to the focus on children under 5, therefore, measures are needed to ensure that the right to education is respected. Systems need to be strengthened to monitor this as a proxy indicator of the impact on older children and youth.
For children under 5 early childhood development is crucial. The growing crisis will impact on the early childhood opportunities of children in this age group and all efforts must be made to ensure contextually appropriate formal and informal early childhood development activities are supported. Policy and practices that promote the parental role and protect children in the face of the crisis need to be strengthened and supported.
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Ensuring health systems are strengthened.
As this crisis grows, the health systems and structures that children under 5 and their families access will come under increasing pressure. Attention must be given to ensure that adequate nutrition monitoring capacity is available at all levels. Staff need to be appropriately trained and necessary interventions strengthened and where needed scaled up.
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Protecting the rights of the most vulnerable.
Orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs): In many countries where the crisis is hitting hardest, the prevalence rates of HIV and AIDS is also high. Currently there are an estimated 20 million OVCs globally. There are potentially increased risks facing OVCs regarding access to nutritious food, potential exploitation and further marginalization.
Refugees, unregistered children and other non-citizens: In responding to the crisis, governments will often prioritise the interests of their own citizens. WV calls on all nations to recognize that human rights apply regardless of nationality. Unregistered migrants and refugees will often already be living on the margins of society. Their vulnerability will be heightened in the current crisis.
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World Vision welcomes the recent pledges by the international community. We call on governments to ensure that international pledges are fulfilled.
The additional food aid commitments should be targeted towards the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. That food aid should be allocated according to a local tailored approach that is appropriate to each context and takes into account availability and access issues. WV recognises that there are three key elements of food aid that need to be addressed:
- The immediate shortfall of funding,
- addressing pre-existing unmet pledges, and
- additional needs – the dimensions of this final area is not yet fully understood and urgently needs to be monitored to determine where and how they unfold.
- There is need for an immediate increase in funding to protect the food security of vulnerable communities (with a focus on preventing child hunger and under-nutrition). This funding should include:
- Introduction of and support for contextually appropriate social protection and safely net programmes
- Disaster risk reduction
- Income diversification for rural and urban dwellers
- Ensure financial services such as insurance and credit are available for small scale farmers and urban dwellers
- Adaptation initiatives to respond to climate change
The current international aid architecture does not adequately address the funding gap between humanitarian assistance and longer-term development initiatives. Subsequently, there is no clear place where a response to this crisis is housed. Increases in food prices present a significant risk to the livelihoods of people living in poverty or those who are only marginally above that state. Families and communities need urgent assistance to ensure that the development gains of the last ten years are not reversed in order to enable them to better protect the interests of their children. This assistance will need to be tailored to their context.
World Vision joins with other NGOs in the call for a system that is light, nimble and flexible to be able to respond to the current crisis and address this gap in the current aid structure.
At the national level government should enact policies to prevent food shortages, promote livelihoods and social protection mechanisms.
There is an opportunity within the current crisis for small-scale farmers to benefit from rising prices. In order to take advantage of this opportunity help is urgently needed to assist those farmers to increase production and take their goods to market.
In 2008, international meetings should be used to address the structural causes of food insecurity.
In 2008, the international community has an opportunity to convert rhetoric to action. In 2005, global leaders promised that they would act to reduce poverty. They have failed to live up to this promise. Aid from G8 nations has actually reduced since 2005 and the so-called ‘Development Round’ of the WTO remains incomplete.
The World Bank estimates that food price increases risk pushing 100 million people further into poverty. This challenge requires an immediate solution. World Vision supports Gordon Brown’s call for food price increases to be a focus of the G8’s July meeting.
World Vision calls on the international community to establish time bound commitments to meeting the 0.7 target for ODA. Further, we call on the G8 to honour the ‘Gleneagles commitment’ to an extra $50billion by 2010.
In relation to the Doha development round we call for negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture to:
- Put an end to trade distorting agricultural policies and subsidies by wealthy nations that prevent farmers in developing countries from accessing wealthy markets; and
- Allow developing countries the policy space to protect the interest of marginalized farmers and promote agricultural development.
- In this time of increased food insecurity it is imperative that the WTO does not restrict the ability of NGOs to distribute food aid based their assessment of emergency need in contexts where they are operational
Investing in Agriculture:
- WV calls for greater investment in agricultural production –small scale and commercial enterprise (the World Bank estimates the need for $800m). Note: WV acknowledges recent research that suggests that the investment in agriculture is more effective in reducing poverty than other forms of investment. We call for increased funding to include an emphasis on the particular needs of small-producers
- Promotion of the utilization of “forgotten crops” which are locally adopted and contain high nutritional value like local varieties of millets and pulses
Conditionality has limited the viability of government poverty reduction strategies. WV supports the use of target-based conditionality, allowing government the flex to develop local plans and strategies to achieve targets. All conditionality can only be effective if donors invest in the capacity of government to deliver poverty-reducing services to their people. WV also firmly opposes conditionally drive cuts in basic social services.
- World Vision calls for immediate research and data collection to predict emerging needs and enable better targeting of responses. WV supports utilization of locally available resources and adopted response to these needs.
- Biofuels are one driver of the current crisis.
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World Vision opposes the subsidisation of ethanol and biodiesel production from corn or other food crops because of its adverse impact, direct and indirect, on the supply and hence price of staple foodstuffs.
The subsidisation of ethanol and biodiesel by developing and developed countries to expand liquid fossil fuel supplies has a number of distinct disadvantages, and only limited benefits. In general, subsidisation of any activity puts that activity at an advantage relevant to others.
This will encourage more of the subsidised product or service to be produced, inevitably drawing resources – land, equipment, skilled labour – away from other activities. In the case of subsidised biofuels made from corn or other food crops, this means that crops are being turned from food to fuel production, and more resources are being devoted to expanding biofuel crop production at the expense of increased food output. At a time when strong world demand and climate and other supply constraints are driving food prices to record levels,
World Vision believes it is essential that the economically and morally unjustified assistance being provided to biofuels be ended immediately.
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World Vision calls for an immediate process of monitoring the impact on commodity prices, hunger and the environment of the diversion of crops away from food towards biofuels.
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Donors should provide additional assistance to developing countries to mitigate the impacts.
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World Vision calls for the international community to include civil society in the structures that are established to respond to this crisis.
WV affirms the swift response of the UN to the crisis. The task-force established by Ban Ki-Moon promises to offer a coordinated approach on behalf of the multilateral community. It is important that the view of civil society are represented both within that forum and at national levels to ensure that their experience at community level is brought to bear on the shape of policy and programme dialogue.
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World Vision calls on all governments to resist pressures to impose taxes, quotas or other restrictions on the exports of foodstuffs or essential agricultural inputs such as fertilisers.
Where such restrictions are in place World Vision believes they should be unwound as quickly as possible to minimise their adverse impacts on food supply, prices and political stability.
The imposition of export restrictions by food exporting countries, particular middle and high income countries, will simultaneously dampen the price signals in those countries for farmers to expand production, and make the position of the most vulnerable food importing countries even more precarious. Restrictions on trade in agricultural products are also likely to exacerbate price volatility and consequently increase the uncertainty facing farmers when deciding whether to increase output. As governments have a strong short term political incentive to restrict food exports, it will be difficult to convince them of the undesirability of their policy actions while the food crisis is acute. Further, the WTO has no restrictions on the use of export taxes, and permits export quotas if adequately justified However, it is still important to argue against the economic logic of such policies and to point out the longer term difficulty in lifting restrictions when conditions improve. This will particularly be the case for countries with large urban populations who will oppose any price rises resulting from a resumption in food exports. Moreover, artificially keeping down food prices through export restrictions subsidises higher income earners as well as the poor, and encourages hoarding in countries forced to pay the faster rising world prices.
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Financial speculation in foodstuffs. World Vision is aware of speculation currently exacerbating food price rises and calls on governments to monitor the operation of agricultural derivatives markets to ensure that they work to reduce price volatility and uncertainty in the interests of farmers, food processors and consumers.
World Vision is aware that this is a complex area. Futures markets in agricultural commodities have a long history. They allow growers and food processors to reduce risk associated with price fluctuations, and are capable of evening out fluctuations in prices within and across countries. They consequently may encourage farmers to increase plantings because they can lock-in the price they will receive for part or all of their crop. There is, however, evidence that it is having an undesirable effect in the short term.
