Thumbnail Image

Promoting agricultural inputs under the Food Aid Convention to increase food production in emergency-prone developing countries

Year of publication 2010

Pages 43 p.

Author Konandreas, P.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Assistance needs for the rapidly increasing emergency situations require more judicious responses on the part of donors, including the provision of critical agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and farming implements for reconstruction and recovery of the agriculture sector. The institutional framework governing food-related assistance has been at an impasse for some time, with the renegotiation of the Food Aid Convention (FAC) remaining in suspense, awaiting the conclusion of the un certain Doha Round of negotiations, although there have been fresh efforts to move the FAC process forward. The Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations is the key agency within the multilateral system responsible for coordinating donor efforts in the rehabilitation of agriculture in the aftermath of emergencies. The Organization has a keen interest in seeing that the FAC process is concluded soon, taking on board the new realities on the ground, in particular assisting affect ed communities to resume agricultural activity and return to self-reliance. An analysis of trends in natural and human-induced disasters over the last 30 years confirms the large increase in protracted emergency situations, whereby several countries experience a food emergency year after year. In addition, many of these countries suffer serious chronic food insecurity and these two problems (the transitory and the structural) cannot be addressed separately. A stop-gap approach based on sho rt-term food assistance is not sustainable in these situations. Interventions should also aim to break the cycle of long-term structural problems feeding into greater vulnerability in the short term. Increasing donor support in the form of agricultural inputs, together with meeting immediate food needs, is critical in expediting recovery and helping agricultural communities getting back on their feet. Meeting immediate food emergency needs has become the main priority of donors with nearly 80 percent of total food aid now used for that purpose compared with well below 20 percent up to 1990. At the same time donors’ funding arrangements have become more flexible with a large majority of donors providing cash resources to facilitate local purchases and triangular transactions, as well as funds for the purchase of agricultural inputs. While support for the agriculture sector within the United Nations Consolidated Appeals Process has increased in recent years, agriculture remains he avily underfunded in relation to identified needs and other sectors, with only 41 percent of the sector’s needs being met in recent years. Overall, FAO’s efforts in rehabilitation and recovery of the agriculture sector have been compromised by a lack of adequate funding. An analysis of a multitude of arrangements governing food-related assistance (the Consultative Sub-Committee on Surplus Disposal [CSSD], World Trade Organization [WTO] and FAC) shows that although they are guided by the legiti mate objective of food aid doing more good and less harm, often for a variety of reasons they are not conducive to a coherent framework and may compromise the effectiveness of this assistance. Among them, the FAC is much broader than the CSSD and the WTO, both as regards its food security objective and the specific provisions contained therein. Recognizing the importance of the FAC and expediting its negotiation to better meet its objectives has been the focus of attention by the internationa l community for some time and recent intensified 6 efforts by the Food Aid Committee aim at launching formal negotiations. This would also respond to recent policy initiatives and strategies of donors whereby humanitarian food assistance is increasingly seen as an integral part of efforts to address the structural causes of chronic food insecurity. The FAC is no longer seen as simply having an ‘instrument focus’ (i.e. food aid) but also a ‘problem focus’ (i.e. food security), becoming a part of the broader processes of needs assessment and the related longer-term developmental responses. This paper aims at making a contribution in the process of renegotiating the FAC, in particular as regards the recognition of the importance of agricultural inputs for the recovery and rehabilitation of the agriculture sector.

Language English

Also available in:
No results found.

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Making the Food Aid Convention meet the realities of the 21st century
    Some proposals for more effective interventions
    2010
    Also available in:
    Emergency situations have become increasingly frequent over the past 25 years, often coupled with acute and chronic food insecurity in the affected countries. International responses to these crises have generally focused on addressing immediate humanitarian needs, as evidenced by the growing share of food aid that is channeled to emergencies. However, achieving lasting food security would often require an integrated development approach that combines short-term relief measures with longer-term mitigation strategies. A reformed Food Aid Convention (FAC) could provide the institutional framework for more effective interventions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Food and Agriculture Based Approaches to safeguarding nutrition before, during and after emergencies: The experience of FAO 2010
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Agriculture has an important role to play as part of a more integrated package to tackle nutrition in emergencies. In order to maximise the impact of agricultural based responses, two “lenses” are important. First, a “nutrition lens” to ensure that projects and programmes are designed, implemented and monitored with nutritional outcomes in mind. Second, a “Disaster Risk Management” lens, which highlights the importance of reducing the impact of disasters through risk reduction and recovery actio ns in addition to standard response actions. FAO is involved in a range of emergency projects with assumed or measured nutritional impacts. The Organization is striving to apply both “lenses” to nutrition related interventions and to highlight the importance of agriculture related nutrition interventions in emergencies; however, there are a number of challenges. Meeting these challenges requires a blend of activities which include: awareness raising amongst the food security “community”; inco rporating nutrition-related approaches, defining objectives as well as required indicators for targeting and monitoring (e.g. dietary diversity for adults, diversity of complementary foods for children); building-up the evidence base on agriculture-nutrition linkages through improved effective and joint implementation, M&E and lessons sharing; advocating joint planning by agencies at country level using a shared conceptual and analytical framework for food and agricultural interventions; enhanc ed articulation between the new Food Security and already existing Nutrition clusters, and; strengthened enforcement of nutrition goals and mainstreaming in appeal programme and project documents and monitoring. Using the “right to food” principle to promote sustainable food based interventions in emergencies - promoting the dignity of people by supporting self-reliant livelihoods - is another area requiring a stronger focus.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Document
    Plan of Action for Southern Sudan. Emergency response and rehabilitation for food and agriculture August 2010 – August 2012 2010
    Also available in:
    No results found.
    Food insecurity and poverty are widespread across Southern Sudan, linked to decades of civil conflict, the disruption and loss of economic activities, displacement of a significant portion of the population, lack of basic infrastructure and the erosion of livelihood options. Southern Sudan faces one of the worst humanitarian and food-security situations in the world, with at least 1.5 million people relying on external assistance to meet their food needs. Traditional livelihood systems are root ed in the agriculture sector, employing a mix of livestock and crop production, fishing, wild food collection and trade. With about 80 percent of the population relying on agricultural production to meet their food and income needs, the role of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – the United Nations agency with the mandate for agriculture and rural development – is critical in strengthening the agriculture sector and contributing to wider peacebuilding efforts. In this Plan of Action (PoA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) outlines its emergency and rehabilitation programme for Southern Sudan in 2010–12. It does not include FAO’s long-term development programme, but is designed to complement the Organization’s ongoing development activities, as well as the interventions of United Nations agencies, Government and other partners which aim to mitigate the effects of recurrent crises while addressing their root causes. The ov erall purpose of the PoA is to improve preparedness and to make short-term responses in food and agriculture more effective. The programme relies heavily on a disaster risk management approach to the complex situation in Southern Sudan. This approach focuses on emergency relief, such as replacing lost assets or restoring livelihoods, as well as on early efforts as part of risk reduction that protect and sustain livelihoods. Such interventions can often be more effective than those delayed until people are in crisis. Given the complex and protracted nature of the crisis in Southern Sudan, FAO’s relief and recovery programming is enhanced by interventions that not only restore, but also protect and promote livelihoods in food and agriculture. The proposed priorities in this PoA will help FAO, its counterparts and partners to meet short-term needs in ways that strengthen the resilience of communities and lead to more effective and longer-term recovery. The three key areas of focus propose d in this PoA are based on an analysis of the current situation and of the main factors triggering food insecurity and assessments identifying and targeting vulnerable groups. These are: (i) improving food production; (ii) improving food accessibility; and (iii) improving agricultural productivity. These priorities have been expanded into fourteen sectoral programmes that detail the activities to be implemented by FAO in Southern Sudan to achieve the expected outcomes and address the specific ne eds identified in the five priority states of Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, Upper Nile and Warrap. The total budget for the PoA 2010–12 is USD 67 821 864.
Show more

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

No results found.