FOOD-AGRICULTURE: Countdown to Summit on Food Security

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Michael Keats

ROME, Sep 16 1996 (IPS) - The countdown to the World Food Summit begins in Rome Thursday with the start of final negotiating sessions by government working groups and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to produce agreement on plans to provide “Food for All.”

NGOs, many of whom already are dubious of a successful Summit outcome, meet Sep 19-21 to thrash out final positions and proposals on a draft Policy Statement and Plan of Action being prepared by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The Committee meets Sep 23-27 to approve the final version of the Action Plan to be adopted by Heads of State and Government at the Rome Summit Nov 13-17.

“There is a fear among some people that, in the end, there may be not be a real commitment from those who have more, to help those who have less,” Kay Killingsworth, Secretary General of the World Food Summit, told IPS in an interview at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) – host to the summit parley.

“But we have to take into account we are still in the middle of negotiations, so it is absolutely premature to say what the outcome of the Summit will be,” she said. “While one understands the expressions of concern, the point must be made not to assume that the die is cast early in the negotiating process.”

“Food for All” is the catch cry of the FAO-organised summit. NGOs will also meet again Rome Nov 11-17 but South Asian NGOs, at a meeting in New Delhi last month, expressed concern that “instead of recognising and responding to the deepening food crisis, the Summit will merely reinforce the trade liberalisation agenda in the name of Food Security.”

The Asian NGOs also feared that the question of responsibility of the international community and international organisation for food security was still in “square brackets” in the Action Plan.

Killingsworth, however, stresed that “when you see bracketed text, it only means that there is no agreement – at this stage. One doesn’t need to assume that because something is in brackets it will necessarily go out (of the final document); it is only an indication that it is a knottier problem than some other issues and that agreement has not yet been reached.”

FAO remained “absolutely confident that all member countries are going about the negotiating process with a great sense of how very important it is to all of us, the international community and every individual country,” she said.

The Summit was not intended to be a simple pledging conference of donor nations to assist resource-poor countries.

“We have to differentiate between making donations to a fund and committing yourself to an effort of international solidarity which is going to extend over many years,” Killingsworth said. “We are not talking about a plan of action for two years, we are talking of until the year 2010 – with a perspective of until 2030!”

FAO has estimated annual investment of 166 billion dollars from private and public sectors – at national, regional and international level – is needed to produce enough food for the growing world population and allow adequate food access by the poor. Current expenditure is put at 135 billion dollars a year.

The food situation has been aggravated by declining supplies of cereals, with stocks currently at their lowest level in 20 years, according to FAO surveys, and the current low level of stocks is likely to last at least another 12 months. Moreover, declining surpluses due to the reduction of price support and export subsidies in several major producing countries is likely to lead to higher prices for developing countries which are regular importers, as well as to cuts in food aid to them, FAO believes.

It is against this backdrop that Heads of State or governments from 176 countries will gather in Rome in November.

“One of the things we expect to come out of the summit process will be a greater momentum at the national level among all the actors in the process – governmental and non-governmental – to give more impetus to achieve greater food security within their national context,” Killingsworth said.

She explained the basic format of the November summit would be to approve a political policy statement, the 44-page Plan of Action and a series of seven commitments taken from the policy statement.

“Each commitment deals with one general aspect of the problem of World food security,” she said.

“The first is about the overall policy environment – the enabling environment to achieve food security.

“The second deals with the burning question of access to food.

“Third is basically orientated toward dealing with humanitarian assistance – what we do in emergencies, food problems caused by natural disasters or civil strife – the whole question of food aid in emrgency situations.

“Four is a commitment dealing with sustainable agricultural production, increasing productivity in the countries where this will most be needed in the comming years.

“Five is a commitment on trade.

“Six is about promition of investment – in human resources , sustainable food and agricultural systems, rural development and the use of resources – national and international.

“Finally, number seven is basically a followup commitment: how are we to implement all this, who will be responsible for what – at national and international levels.”

The pre-summit negotiations were now at their “crucial and most important phase,” Killingsworth said. “Unlike other conferences we don’t expect documents to be still in the negotiating process when the summit begins. We are very optimistic remaining differences can be resolved before then.”