  Credit: ODI
By Nirode Masson
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
LONDON (IDN) - The food price spike followed by the financial and economic crisis has worsened global food insecurity. But beyond a grand commitment to doing more about food security, there is no agreement on specifics, says a new report.
The specifics on which an agreement has yet to be achieved are: a definition of what food assistance is, or the nature of a new food security architecture, and what should replace the Food Aid Convention due to expire in 2011.
However, the global spike in food prices has given impetus to efforts to re-examine food security at an international level. Subsequently, there have been a number of important recent developments.
In response to high food prices, the United Nations has established a High-Level Task Force (HLTF) and a Comprehensive Framework of Action (CFA), and a reformed Committee on Food Security (CFS) was endorsed at the World Summit on Food Security in November 2009.
At the L’Aquila G8 summit in July 2009, governments pledged a total of $20 billion, including a significant proportion of new financial commitments. A new food security cluster, part of the sectoral coordination mechanism for humanitarian crises and jointly led by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was agreed in early 2010.
The World Bank Group set up the Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) in May 2008 to provide immediate relief to countries hit by high food prices, and in early 2010 established the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) trust fund.
The UN Secretary General identified the right to food as a third track of the Comprehensive Framework for Action at the Madrid High Level Conference on Food Security in January 2009. The UN High-Level Task Force has emphasized the need to address all aspects of food systems from a human rights perspective.
In line with this aim, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has joined the High Level Task Force.
Against this backdrop, the report entitled 'Food aid and food assistance in emergency and transitional contexts - A review of current thinking', pleads for new food architecture and a Food Aid Convention (FAC) that responds adequately to the changing times.
"The future of the Food Aid Convention is of significant importance," because it is the only legal instrument for ensuring minimum levels of food aid, the authors of the report by the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) say.
The FAC became the subject of informal discussions in December 2009, which brought forth contrasting views amongst signatories and other stakeholders about the future of the Convention, In fact, some governments consider it an irrelevance linked to a past era of surplus food disposal and food aid in-kind.
Nevertheless, those taking the view that it can and should be revitalized as a key component of a new food security architecture have been given an opportunity to find a widely acceptable formula when the G8 development ministers in April affirmed their belief "in a FAC for the 21st century that focuses on providing appropriate and effective food assistance to vulnerable populations".
Key unresolved issues, according to the authors of the report, include:
- The basic purpose of the FAC.
- Should the FAC continue to be concerned with trade issues through a link to the Agreement on Agriculture of the World Trade Organization?
- If not, where should the agreement be based, at the International Grains Council (IGC), within the Rome-based FAO food security structure or conceivably as an aid funders’ agreement within the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) aid architecture?
- What should be included as contributions: all forms of food assistance (when there is an agreed definition), or only humanitarian assistance?
- How should these commitments be expressed: wholly as cash, physically in tonnage terms or in some combination, as previously?
- FAC membership would open to new funders willing to make minimum annual commitments, but should membership also be extended to include representatives of recipient partner countries or even civil society?
- Monitoring and reporting are weak, so how can these be made more effective?
- Overall, is there going to be a collective interest, sufficient ingenuity amongst the negotiators and the political will to overcome differences?
The possible outcomes appear to include two broad options. First there is a minimalist option, perhaps involving re-labelling the FAC as a Food Assistance (as opposed to Food Aid) Convention, bringing in more funders and allowing cash funding of a wider range of assistance.
Says the report: "The more radical option would be to redefine the FAC's role, focusing more explicitly on assuring humanitarian assistance against global market and donor financial pressures and severing the trade connection, relocation to Paris or Rome and introducing genuine monitoring and peer review of performance (both of which are currently lacking)."
THE CONVENTION
The Food Aid Convention of 1999 is the latest in a long series of multilateral cooperation instruments. In operation since 1967, it is a separate legal instrument under the current International Grains Agreement of 1995, which also comprises the Grains Trade Convention. It is administered by the Food Aid Committee, using the services of the Secretariat of the IGC.
Under the FAC, donors pledge to provide annually specified minimum amounts or values of food aid to developing countries in the form of grains and other eligible products. The objective of the Convention is to contribute to world food security and to improve the ability of the international community to respond to emergency food situations and other food needs of developing countries.
FAC members make quality food aid available to developing countries with the greatest needs on a predictable basis, irrespective of fluctuations in world food prices and supplies.
As a framework of cooperation between food aid donors, the FAC aims to achieve greater efficiency in food aid operations. It also puts emphasis on the monitoring and evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of food aid operations, in support of food security in developing countries.
The Food Aid Committee consists of all parties to the Food Aid Convention. Donor members oversee the implementation of the Convention and exchange information on food aid needs and operations. The Committee holds two regular meetings a year.
The Committee's sessions may also be attended by observers from international organisations concerned with food aid. These include FAO, WFP, WTO, the OECD and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The Committee -- comprising of Argentina, Australia, Canada, European Union and its member States, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the United States -- monitors the performance of members' undertakings under the Convention, on the basis of records maintained by the IGC Secretariat based in London. It shares information on policy developments affecting food aid and discusses the world food situation and prospects in developing countries.
It also considers ways in which donors' aid efforts may best achieve their objectives, with emphasis on the evaluation of needs and on the effectiveness and impact of food aid operations. (IDN-InDepthNews/27.07.2010)
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