ERC/04/3

Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION

II. COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF REGIONS TOWARD THE ATTAINMENT OF WFS GOALS

III. GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY OUTLOOK

IV. THE WAY AHEAD

V. PROGRESS TOWARDS MEETING THE WFS GOAL IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

A. Diverse Levels of Undernourishment in the FAO European COUNTRIES

B. The Record of FAO European COUNTRIES in Reducing Undernourishment

VI. THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

A. Food Access: Poverty in THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

B. Food Use and Utilization: Malnutrition in CEE and CIS Countries and turkey

VII. FURTHER PROGRESS IN REDUCING FOOD INSECURITY IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

REFERENCES

I. INTRODUCTION

1. This document provides a summary of the salient follow-up actions taken at the regional and sub-regional levels to implement the World Food Summit Plan of Action. By the time of the next Regional Conference, in 2006, all countries should be half way to achieving the World Food Summit goal of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015. Therefore the Regional Conference in 2004 provides an excellent opportunity for collective reflection on the progress achieved to date. The main aim of this document is to highlight the region's particular needs, opportunities and weaknesses. This review is being conducted to affirm, inform, motivate, consult and seek advice on the successes and barriers of all the existing programmes aimed at reducing hunger.

2. The existence of hunger in a world of plenty is not just a moral outrage; it is also short-sighted from an economic viewpoint: hungry people make poor workers, they are bad learners (if they go to school at all), they are prone to sickness and they die young. Hunger is also transmitted across generations, as underfed mothers give birth to underweight children whose potential for mental and physical activity is impaired. The productivity of individuals and the growth of entire nations are severely compromised by widespread hunger. Hence, it is in the self-interest of every country to eradicate hunger.

3. Rapid progress in cutting the incidence of chronic hunger is possible if political will is mobilized. A twin-track approach is required, combining the promotion of quick-response agricultural growth, led by small farmers, with targeted programmes to ensure that hungry people who have neither the capacity to produce their own food nor the means to buy it can have access to adequate supplies. Such approaches are mutually reinforcing, since programmes to enhance direct and immediate access to food offer new outlets for expanded production. Countries that have followed this approach are seeing the benefits.

II. COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF REGIONS TOWARD THE ATTAINMENT OF WFS GOALS

4. Worldwide, FAO latest estimates indicate that 842 million people were undernourished in 1999-2001. This includes 10 million in the industrialized countries, 34 million in countries in transition and 798 million in developing countries. In the case of the developing world this represents a decrease of just 19 million since 1990-92, the benchmark period used at the WFS. Thus, the average annual decrease since the Summit has been only 2.1 million, far below the level required to reach the WFS goal. It means that progress would now have to be accelerated to 26 million per year, more than 12 times the current rate of reduction, in order to reach that goal.

5. But there are a few countries which achieved progress in reducing the number of undernourished. China alone achieved a reduction of 58 million since 1990-92. Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Peru, Thailand and Viet Nam have all achieved reductions of more than 3 million, helping to offset an increase of 76 million in 47 countries where progress has stalled. But if China and these seven countries are set aside, the number of undernourished people in the rest of the developing world has increased by over 60 million since the WFS benchmark period.

III. GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY OUTLOOK

6. Food availability, in terms of kcal/person/day, is the key variable used for measuring and evaluating the evolution of the world food situation. The world has made significant progress in raising food supply per person. The levels of average national food consumption per person is likely to increase from 2680 kcal in 1997/99 to 2850 kcal in 2015 and close to 3000 kcal by 2030 (Table 1). This implies that the proportion of the population undernourished in the developing countries as a whole could decline from the 776 million in 1997/99 to 610 million in 2015 and to 440 million in 2030.

Table 1: Per capita food consumption (kcal/person/day)

Source: FAO, World Agriculture: towards 2015/2030.

7. The latest United Nations assessment of world population prospects indicates that the world population of 5.9 billion of the three-year average 1997/99 is likely to increase to 7.2 billion in 2015, and 8.3 billion in 2030. However, this increase in absolute numbers is a decrease in growth rate of world population; it peaked in the second half of the 1960s at 2.04 percent per annum and had fallen to 1.35 percent per annum by the second half of the 1990s. Further deceleration will bring it down to 1.1 percent in 2010-15, and to 0.8 percent in 2025-30. Practically all the increases of circa 70 million people on average till 2015 will be in the developing countries.

8. The slow pace of progress in reducing the absolute numbers undernourished notwithstanding, the considerable overall improvement implied by the projected numbers should not be downplayed. More and more people will be living in countries with medium to high levels of per capita food consumption. For example, by 2015, 81 percent of the world population will be living in countries with values of this variable exceeding 2700 kcal/person/day, up from 61 percent at present and 33 percent in the mid-1970s. Those living in countries with over 3000 kcal will be 48 percent of the world population in 2015 and 53 percent in 2030, up from 42 percent at present.

9. The number of countries with high incidence of undernourishment (over 25 percent of their population and most in need of international policy interventions will be reduced considerably: from 35 in 1997/99 to 22 in 2015 and to only five in 2030. None of them will be in the most populous class (over 100 million population in 1997/99). They will account for an ever-declining proportion of the undernourished, 72 million out of the 440 million in 2030 (1997/99: 250 million out of the 776 million).

10. There is a strong correlation between economic growth and the reduction of hunger. This effect, of course, does not occur automatically. But it can be seen that countries without economic growth or even a decline of GDP per capita were not able to reduce the number of malnourished in their country or even faced a considerable increase. Hence the economic growth rates of several countries that have low food consumption levels and significant incidence of undernourishment are likely to fall short of what would be required for significant poverty reduction by 2015.

11. According to the latest World Bank assessment for the period 2000-15 slow growth in the first five years of the projection period is expected to be followed by faster growth in the subsequent ten years, 2005-15. On average economic growth in developing countries is expected to reach 1.9 percent per annum in terms of per capita GDP. Higher growth rates are foreseen for all regions and country groups (particularly the reversal of declines in the transition economies) with the exception of East Asia.

12. The exogenous economic growth assumptions used here, together with the growth of population, are the major determinants of projected food consumption, hence also of the incidence of undernourishment.

IV. THE WAY AHEAD

13. What are the most efficient instruments and mechanisms to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)?  The following gives a brief survey of some of the latest intentions:

• The Anti-Hunger Programme outlines a twin-track approach to reduce the number of hungry people rapidly and sustainably. It would provide access to food and deliver immediate relief to those most desperately in need. In addition it would channel investment into sustainable agriculture and rural development, elevating productivity, incomes and hope in the rural areas in the developing world where more than three-quarters of the world's poor and hungry people live. The proposal also suggests key elements of a policy framework that would maximize the impact of these investments by inducing complementary flows of private investment enabling the poor and hungry to realize their full development potential.
• The Right to Adequate Food which is recognized in several instruments under international law describes the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The value added by the rights-based approach is that it spells out obligations and responsibilities of all duty bearers. It gives individuals and groups a claim vis-à-vis the State and States acting together to respect, protect and fulfil their adequate access to food. The rights-based approach also allows more precisely to judge which policy measures are necessary or should be avoided.
• The International Alliance against Hunger as an outcome of the WFS: five years later recognizes “the urgent need to reinforce efforts of all concerned partners as an international alliance against hunger, for the fulfilment of the 1996 Summit”. The aim of the alliance against hunger is first and foremost to facilitate initiatives at local and national levels by which the poor and hungry are enabled to achieve food security on a sustainable basis by mobilizing political will, technical expertise and financial resources.
• The Hunger Task Force, as an integral part of the Millennium Project, seeks to devise an implementation plan that will enable all developing countries to reduce the number of hungry and malnourished people by 400 million by 2015. The Task Force will strive to recommend programmes that fulfill the following six directives over a three-year time frame:
• Drastically increase food security of farmers in higher-risk environments and remote regions.
• Expand ownership and control of natural assets to poor households and communities.
• Improve agricultural input and product markets and business linkages to benefit the poor.
• Introduce community life cycle nutrition programmes.
• Improve famine prevention.
• Integrate hunger reduction strategies into national policies.

V. PROGRESS TOWARDS MEETING THE WFS GOAL IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

14. This section considers, first, the prevalence of undernourishment in the transition countries and Turkey of the FAO European region, and, second, the progress toward meeting the WFS goal of reducing the number of undernourished in the region and in individual countries. The principal overall indicator used to monitor progress toward the WFS goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by half by 2015 is the number of undernourished people.

15. The FAO European Region is extraordinarily diverse. It includes OECD countries, as well as countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) with relatively high rates of poverty. This paper reports on the food security situation in the transition economies and Turkey, because in the European Region these are the ones facing the most significant problems of undernourishment. It does not analyze developments in transition economies which fall within other FAO regions, since these countries are covered elsewhere. However, it does analyze developments within two non-member countries within the European region (Belarus and the Russian Federation), because of the importance of these countries in the region.

A. DIVERSE LEVELS OF UNDERNOURISHMENT IN THE FAO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

16. European region economies show a great deal of diversity in the incidence of undernourishment (Table 2). The incidence of undernourishement, the portion of the population that is undernourished, is the principal indicator used by FAO for measuring the severity of food insecurity in a country. In some of the Caucasus countries undernourishment is as severe as in many developing countries. Despite its moderate rate of undernourishment (4 percent), the Russian Federation has the largest number of undernourished, because of its size. The FAO European region also includes countries with levels of undernourishment comparable to levels in developed countries. In most EU accession countries, the level of undernourishment is rather low - between 0 and 6 percent. Turkey also has a rather low rate of undernourishment (3 percent). Between the CIS countries and the EU accession countries lie a number of Balkan countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro - where the level of undernourishment is elevated, but not as severe as in the CIS countries.

Table 2. Undernourishment in FAO European Region

Shaded areas indicate FAO non-member countries. – indicates lower than 2.5 percent.

Source: FAO State of Food Insecurity 2003.

17. Diverse levels of the prevalence of undernourishment in the region, as well as overall economic and political development, imply that it is difficult to make generalizations about the region as a whole. It makes much more sense to analyze developments by four sub-regions—the eight EU accession transition countries, Turkey, the Balkans and the CIS countries. There is some overlap in these three categories, since Bulgaria, Romania and possibly others are on track to EU accession, as well. However, the ranking of Table 2 supports this rough sub-division of the FAO European region.

B. THE RECORD OF FAO EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN REDUCING UNDERNOURISHMENT

18. At the World Food Summit governments committed themselves to the goal of halving the number of undernourished people in the world by 2015. To date, progress in the FAO European countries has been modest using the base year of 1993/95. Since that year the number of undernourished has decreased from 14.4 to 13.8  million persons. The largest improvement in undernourishment came in the most critically vulnerable countries, the Caucasus and Moldova, where there was a sizeable reduction in undernourishment from 7.4 to 5.5 million people. The 8 accession countries also reduced the number of undernourished slightly from 1.4 to 1.0 million, while in the Balkans and Belarus/the Russian Federation there has been a slight increase in the number of undernourished. In Turkey there was a sizeable increase in the undernourished population, from 1.0 to 1.8 million people.

Figure 1. Undernourishment in FAO European countries, 1993/95-1999/01

Note: For Turkey, data for 1993/95 is actually from 1990/92.

Source: FAO State of Food Insecurity 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.

19. The principal causes of food insecurity in the FAO European region help to explain the uneven record of changes in undernourishment there:

• man-made disasters (war, conflict, political and economic instability, with ensuing problems of refugees and displaced persons, in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova the Russian Federation and former Yugoslavia),
• natural disasters (prolonged drought in areas of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova),
• poverty (primarily in the CIS countries, Balkan countries and Turkey),
• lack of supportive policies and infrastructure for economic development, particularly in rural areas,
• breakdown of social safety nets in the region, and
• a lack of knowledge of proper nutrition in many countries of the region.

20. The existence of so many different causes of food insecurity makes it nearly impossible to draw general conclusions as to what have been the most effective policies to reduce food insecurity in the region. The presence of man-made disasters in the Caucasus countries, Moldova and former Yugoslavia in the early and mid-1990s led to quite high rates of both poverty and undernourishment. Rates of undernourishment subsequently fell dramatically in the Caucasus countries after the halt of hostilities. But these sharp rises and falls in undernourishment are conceptually separate from the underlying levels that depend on the growth of income inequality and poverty throughout the region.

21. Despite slight progress in the reduction of the number of undernourished in the FAO European countries, the current pace of reduction is not sufficient to meet the World Food Summit goal of reducing by half the number of hungry people by 2015 (Figure 2). A comparison of the “business as usual” and “on track” scenarios illustrates that at the current rate of decline, the FAO European countries will miss the WFS goal by more than 5 million persons.

Figure 2. Number of undernourished in the FAO European region: observed and projected comparison to World Food Summit target

Source: Based on figures in FAO State of Food Insecurity 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.

22. Some countries have had encouraging records in the reduction of the portion of their population undernourished (Table 3). Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia are all “on track” for reducing the number of undernourished by half by 2015. In terms of reducing the number of undernourished, the most successful countries have been Azerbaijan and Georgia. Both countries started from quite high levels of undernourishment (37 percent of the population in Azerbaijan and 45 percent in Georgia), nearly halving this portion by 1999/01. Both countries overcame armed conflict early in the 1990s and made sizeable initial reductions in the number of persons undernourished (between 1993/95 and 1996/98). More importantly, both continued the reduction of persons undernourished into the late 1990s, though the reduction of the number of undernourished in Georgia was partially reversed in 1999/01. In policy terms, each of these countries has made great progress since 1993 in economic reforms, both throughout the economy and in agriculture, including individualization of agricultural land and titling. Azerbaijan has had robust growth in GDP since 1997, and continuous growth in agriculture since 1998. Georgia has had more modest growth in GDP since 1995, and uneven growth in agricultural production between 1993 and 2001. Both countries have seen an improvement in the dietary energy supply available per capita in the country between 1993 and 2001.

Table 3. FAO European Countries and WFS Undernourishment Targets for 2015: Are Countries on Track?

Shaded areas indicate FAO non-member countries.

All figures are rounded. For Turkey, 1993/95 data is from 1990/92.

Source:FAO State of Food Insecurity, 2003, p.33.

VI. THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

23. A key element for a strategy for the further reduction of food insecurity in the FAO European region lies in the appreciation of the important underlying causes of food insecurity. These causes can be divided into man-made or natural disasters and underlying structural issues. Leaving aside the man-made and natural disasters that made for the sharp rises and falls in undernourishment in European region countries in the 1990s, the food insecurity situation of a country is commonly analyzed according to four main aspects: food availability, the stability of food supplies, access and food utilization and use. Food availability refers to the physical presence of food in a country or region. Food availability at the country level is often analyzed by summing projected food production, net imports and available stocks. Food availability has not been a problem for the European transition economies, except in instances of conflict. The stability of food supplies refers to variations in the domestic availability of food. Though domestic production varies from year to year, the countries of this region regularly import food or receive food aid to supplement domestic production when necessary. At the country level, then, stability of food supplies has not been a problem, with the exception of periods of conflict. Food access refers to the ability of households to afford enough food for a healthy diet. This aspect is certainly a substantial problem in a number of the countries in the FAO European region. Food use and utilization refer to the selection, composition, preparation and allocation of food within the household, as well as to the ability of the human body to absorb nutrients. More simply, food use and utilization refer to problems of nutrition, infant and child feeding practices and other such matters. There are quite significant problems in the European transition countries in these areas.

A. FOOD ACCESS: POVERTY IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

24. For most countries in the FAO European Region, poverty is a major problem. While, on average, poverty in the region is less than that in other regions, this average disguises the extent of poverty in some countries where it is as widespread as it is in many poorer countries in other regions. Moreover, many of the poor are concentrated in rural areas, and rely on agriculture as a source of employment and income. Reversing the backward trend of increasing poverty will require focused efforts on development in rural areas.

25. Poverty in the countries of this region is to a great extent a systemic phenomenon, related to the dissolution of the pre-1990s economic and political systems in Eastern Europe and the CIS and the difficult tasks of generating new employment under market conditions. Creation of a stable and supportive policy environment and employment creation have proved to be substantially more difficult than originally expected, particularly in the CIS countries. Difficulties in this transition process have caused a substantial increase in the prevalence of poverty in nearly all CEE and CIS countries in the 1990s, in stark contrast to other regions. The dearth of non-agricultural employment in rural areas is a good example of the employment problems faced in these countries.

Table 4. Population living below $2 per day at 1993 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) (headcount index (%))

*Includes the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, all CIS countries and Turkey.

Sources: World Bank GPM, 2003; Chen and Ravallion, 2001.

26. International comparisons of poverty commonly use international poverty lines developed by the World Bank. International poverty lines attempt to hold the real value of the poverty line constant between countries. The indicator allows for comparing and aggregating progress across countries in reducing the number of people living in poverty, and for monitoring trends at the global level. The population below $1 per day (typical of poverty lines in low-income economies) and population below $2 per day (typical of poverty lines in middle-income economies) are the percentages of the population living below those levels of consumption or income at 1993 prices, adjusted for purchasing power parity.

27. The prevalence of poverty in the Eastern Europe and CIS region in Table 4 is the lowest of all the regions, slightly lower than Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. This may be expected from a region that includes a number of OECD countries and 8 countries within the European Union. The prevalence of poverty in the poorer countries of the region (mostly CIS countries) is quite a bit more significant than the regional average. The CEE and CIS region was also the only region that underwent a substantial increase in poverty rates in the 1990s.

Table 5. Poverty and income in selected East European and CIS countries and Turkey relative to selected countries in other regions

Sources: World Bank WDI, 2003; World Bank GPM 2003.

28. To get an idea of the prevalence of poverty in some of the CEE and CIS countries, it is helpful to compare poverty in the poorer countries of this region with selected poor countries in the developing world (Table 5). This comparison shows that even the poorest countries in the region do not have the level of severe poverty (population below $1 per day) as in the very poor countries of the developing world. Nevertheless, the poorer countries of the region do have quite a large proportion of their populations below $2 per day, with the exceptions of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Furthermore, countries such as Ukraine and Turkmenistan, whose per capita incomes are now higher than low income countries, nevertheless have quite high levels of poverty. This combination of factors indicates that the distribution of income in these countries is extraordinarily uneven. Many middle income countries, such as Kazakhstan, Romania and the Russian Federation, have similar levels of poverty as their counterparts in Latin America. In many of the poorest countries in the CEE and CIS region poverty is more severe in rural areas. Moreover, many of the poor are concentrated in rural areas, and rely on agriculture as a source of employment and income.

B. FOOD USE AND UTILIZATION: MALNUTRITION IN CEE AND CIS COUNTRIES AND TURKEY

29. This section considers the three main problems of malnutrition observed in the CEE and CIS countries and Turkey: infant and child undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight. Though most attention with regard to malnutrition concerns undernutrition, the concept itself includes undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight or obesity. The region considered is quite diverse in terms of nutrition problems, just as in poverty issues. There are countries where undernutrition in children is highly prevalent, as well as countries where overweight and obesity are significant public health problems. In many CIS countries these two problems coexist—overweight in adults and undernutrition in children. To a great extent these two phenomena are the outcome of an underlying lack of knowledge on proper nutrition in these countries. The persistence of nutritional norms and recommendations developed in the Soviet Union contributes to this poor knowledge of proper nutrition.

30. Young children are particularly vulnerable to undernutrition, both for physiological and social reasons. Moreover, child undernutrition is particularly harmful to people and societies, because the effects are often not reversible in later life. Undernutrition in young children is commonly assessed using two indicators, stunting and wasting. These are anthropometric measurements, obtained through monitoring the weight, height and age of young children. Stunting indicates that the child has a low height for age, reflecting a sustained past episode or episodes of undernutrition. Wasting indicates that the child has a low weight for height, generally the result of weight loss associated with a recent period of starvation or disease.

31. Undernutrition in young children represents a public health problem in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Albania. Although nationally representative data are difficult to come by, available information shows substantial child undernutrition in these countries. Stunting rates exceeding 20 percent and wasting rates above 5 percent are considered a public health problem.

Table 6. Child undernutrition in selected countries

Note: i) The table shows the proportion of children in the designated age range that falls below two Z-scores of the WHO/NCHS standard (ii) Absence of figures signifies that no data is available.

Source: Rokx, et al , 2002, p. 18.

32. A likely cause of infant and child undernutrition in the region is poor knowledge about healthy nutrition behaviours and practices. This is suggested by the coexistence of a number of nutritional problems within the population which are difficult to explain by a combination of other causes. In many countries of the region high rates of undernutrition are observed in young children, while high overnutrition rates—overweight and obesity—are observed in adults. Moreover, micronutrient deficiencies for pregnant women, infants and children are observed that suggest poor knowledge of proper nutrition and feeding practices for expectant mothers, infants and young children. For infant and young children this includes poor infant feeding practices, primarily low rates of breastfeeding, early introduction of foods other than breast-milk and inadequate complementary feeding after 6 months. Certainly, poverty is a contributing factor in preventing exclusive breastfeeding of infants until 6 months, for example, but poor knowledge of infant feeding practices is known to contribute greatly to undernutrition problems in infants (Fleischer Michaelsen, et al., 2000, p. 31-33).

33. The major manifestations of micronutrient deficiencies in the region are anaemia (iron deficiency) and iodine deficiency. The prevalence of anaemia in young children and women of child-bearing age is quite high in the region (Table 7). The most severely affected countries are in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans, but Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine are also affected. Children between 6 months and 2 years and pregnant women are most at risk from anaemia. Iron deficiency anaemia impairs cognitive development in children and increases risk to women during pregnancy.

Table 7. Prevalence of anaemia in women and children in selected countries

Note: Absence of figures signifies that no data is available.

Source: Rokx, et al., 2002, p. 22.

34. Perhaps the most striking problem of nutrition throughout this region is overnutrition -overweight and obesity. In countries of this region between 50 and 70 percent of adults are overweight or obese. These rates make this region the highest risk for cardio-vascular disease in the world. Overweight leads to increased morbidity and mortality, particularly from cardio-vascular diseases and cancer. The primary causes of high rates of overweight and obesity in these countries are lack of knowledge on healthy nutrition, a tradition of high meat and dairy product consumption encouraged by nutrition policies that emphasize a high protein diet and national policies from the past to subsidize these foods and unhealthy lifestyles (sedentary lifestyle, smoking and alcohol consumption).

Table 8. Incidence of overweight and obesity in adults in selected countries

Source: Rokx, et al. ,2002, p. 26.

VII. FURTHER PROGRESS IN REDUCING FOOD INSECURITY IN THE FAO EUROPEAN REGION

35. This analysis of the underlying issues behind food insecurity in the countries of the FAO European region indicates that further progress in reducing food insecurity depends on progress in addressing poverty and improvements in household nutrition awareness and practices. In many countries of the region where poverty is widespread in rural areas governments have outlined rural development policies to address poverty and lack of employment opportunities in rural areas. In the past few years the low-income countries of the region have formulated Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and State Programmes for Poverty Reduction to address poverty in cooperation with the World Bank and other donors. Raising nutrition awareness and improving practices has received considerably less attention in the countries of the region generally, though a few countries are now addressing these problems through national plans of action on nutrition, as well as through school education programmes and projects to build capacity in food safety control.

36. FAO advocates a twin track approach to the resolution of these problems that combines immediate assistance to the most needy with programmes that promote agricultural growth. FAO poverty alleviation activities have traditionally concentrated on contributions to alleviating poverty in rural areas. First, poverty is often associated with gaps in technical, organizational, informational, financial or marketing matters for farmers, cooperatives or traders. FAO assists rural people in bridging such gaps, by providing new technology, training, capacity-building in group formation or mini-credits - all within the framework of its technical assistance projects.

37. Second, FAO is an advocate for correcting the policy bias against rural areas. While a focus on urban poverty will remain important in the region (and likely increase over the longer term), redressing the urban bias of government spending - namely, the far lower maintenance spending on rural infrastructure - will be critical for rural poverty reduction. The apparent bias against agriculture at the donor assistance level must also be corrected. While agriculture does have a smaller role in the region relative to its importance in other regions, it does remain a substantial part of most economies in this region (particularly the poorer ones), and efforts towards poverty reduction must be commensurate with the potential of agriculture and the rural non-farm economy’s potential for poverty reduction. Aid flows to agriculture in the CEE and CIS countries and Turkey still remain below 4 percent of total flows. This distribution of aid constitutes a major incongruity, given that agriculture in the region contributes 10 percent to GDP and employs over 20 percent of the work force. The role of agriculture, and in particular the importance of agriculture’s indirect effects on growth and poverty-reduction through increased value-adding opportunities off-farm, and expansion of rural non-farm employment, should be recognized.

38. Third, FAO works to ensure that agriculture is accorded the priority it deserves in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) process by working with the countries as the PRSP is formulated. Members of the international development community now orient their development support according to the Year 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that set out specific targets for the developing and transition world agreed in the Millennium Summit in New York. The first of the MDGs is the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. The low income countries of the FAO European region have, like developing countries, developed PRSPs, which provide a framework for domestic policies and programmes to reduce poverty in these countries, as well as a basis for coordinating development assistance. By working according to the priorities set out in the PRSPs, and by working with countries to strengthen the PRSP formulation for rural areas, FAO is a partner not only to the recipient country, but also to donors.

39. FAO and WHO assist governments in formulating national plans of action on nutrition and physical activity, with strategies on diet, involving many sectors, including civil society and the food industry. FAO has assisted governments in formulating and planning nutrition education programmes in schools and trained statistical services in survey methods and analysis of household nutrition data. FAO also works towards strengthening the capacities of government agencies responsible for food safety control, including meat inspection and meat technology.

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