risk of food insecurity—led to the Arab Spring, mainly in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, but also in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen. Addressing the chal- lenges that gave rise to the Arab Spring will require more inclusive development strategies. To improve household food security, governments in the region will need to adopt policies that stimulate inclusive growth, such as employment generation for the young and poor, as well as expanded and well- targeted safety nets. African countries made significant progress in
implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agricul- ture Development Programme (CAADP) in 2011. Tis program is the African Union’s continent- wide framework to boost agricultural productivity and food security. Six countries signed compacts commiting them to achieving an agricultural sec- tor growth rate of 6 percent a year and to raising funding for the sector to at least 10 percent of the national budget—bringing the total number of signatory countries to 29. About 20 of these coun- tries have developed national investment plans, and 6 have received funding totaling US$270 bil- lion from the Global Agriculture and Food Secu- rity Program. In India, Parliament introduced the National
Food Security Bill, which would provide rice, wheat, and coarse grains at low prices to more than half of India’s 1.2 billion people, making it the world’s largest antihunger program. China announced plans to boost agricultural productiv- ity through increased public investments in water conservation and irrigation. Its water conservation investments will total about US$630 billion over the next 10 years. In Central America and the Caribbean, high
and volatile prices and natural disasters raised concerns about “a hungrier” region. In October 2011, the ministers of agriculture of the Americas approved a declaration emphasizing the impor- tance of increasing investment in agriculture to reduce hunger and poverty and help improve social stability in the hemisphere. In Europe and the United States, contin-
ued policy support to biofuel production, farm subsidies, a hostile atitude toward agricultural biotechnology (mainly in Europe), and trade
8 MAJOR FOOD POLICY DEVELOPMENTS IN 2011
protections have negatively affected the agricul- ture sector in developing countries.
OUTLOOK FOR 2012 AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION
Overall, 2011 and the years immediately preced- ing it have revealed serious weaknesses facing the global food system—lack of ability to respond to volatile food prices, extreme weather, and inad- equate response to food emergencies were among the most visible. But chronic, long-term problems such as food and nutrition insecurity also point to areas where the food system can do beter. We also face uncertainties. It is not yet clear whether the global economic slowdown will worsen or be reversed. Addressing all of these issues in a resource-scarce world will require keeping agri- culture and food security issues high on the global agenda in 2012 and beyond. Without preventive action, several hot spots
could erupt in food crisis in 2012. Early warn- ing systems are once again pointing to the risks posed by drought in Africa—this time in the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. Te experience in the Horn of Africa was a tragic reminder of the need to move quickly and aggressively to head off humanitarian crises. Uncertainty also surrounds North Korea, long a recipient of food aid, which is undergoing a leader- ship transition. Participants in the major international events
of 2012 need to keep the spotlight on food policy issues. Te G8 summit in the United States in May and the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, in June could reinforce those groups’ earlier emphasis on global food security and ensure that previous finan- cial commitments are honored. It is important that discussions and decisions at the Rio+20 conference on the green economy and sustainable develop- ment not neglect the poor, who need beter access to food, jobs, and natural resources, as well as a secure social protection system. More broadly, food policy decisionmak-
ers will face a number of challenges in 2012 and beyond. Te long-term problems of chronic food and nutrition insecurity persist, although they are
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