the role of water, sanitation, and hygiene in nutrition. Te year was also critical in seting the future devel- opment agenda at the global and national levels.


THERE WAS MUCH TO CELEBRATE IN 2014


Poor and middle income countries showed strong economic and agricultural growth in 2014. As of October 2014, annual growth of gross domestic product (GDP) in emerging market and develop- ing countries averaged 4.4 percent—in contrast with just 1.8 percent in the advanced economies— according to the International Monetary Fund.3 To combat hunger and poverty, it will be important for this economic growth to raise the incomes and improve the well-being of the poorest people; we do not yet know whether this happened in 2014. Food-importing developing countries also


received a boon in the form of lower food prices. World food prices fell in 2014 to their lowest level


As of October 2014, annual growth of gross domestic product (GDP) in emerging market and developing countries averaged 4.4 percent—in contrast with just 1.8 percent in the advanced economies.


since 2010, according to the Food Price Index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). One contributor to lower food prices was the decline in the price of oil, which is an important component in global food production. Between June and December 2014, the price of oil fell by nearly half. By contributing to lower food prices, falling oil prices are likely to be, by and large, good for global food security and nutrition. More important, much progress has been made


at the country level. Countries in South Asia took a number of steps to combat poverty and hunger,


2 STRONG ADVANCES AND STUBBORN SETBACKS


including various social protection measures. India’s 2013 National Food Security Act, which calls for pro- viding highly subsidized food grains to two-thirds of the country’s population, was fully implemented by 5 of India’s 29 states and partly implemented by 6 other states.4 Te question remains how to manage the pro- gram beter and target it more closely to the neediest people in order to reduce the overall cost and ensure that it promotes good nutrition. India also adopted a scheme to help the country’s poor open 75 million bank accounts; although the accounts would start with a zero balance, they represent a first step in increasing poor people’s participation in the finan- cial system. Similarly, Pakistan aimed to bring the poor into the financial system by partly guaranteeing credit for smallholder farmers. Because such schemes have had mixed success in other South Asian coun- tries, their effectiveness and long-term financial viability will need to be carefully monitored. Nepal adopted a new 20-year Agricultural Development Strategy designed to reduce poverty through agri- culture-led growth. And despite the fact that geneti- cally modified crops still generate much debate in the region, Bangladesh approved the commercial cultiva- tion of genetically modified Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant under government supervision. In 2014, 20 small eggplant farmers were given Bt seedlings for cultivation; the government plans to increase Bt egg- plant cultivation in the next five years.5 Africa as a region showed solid economic growth


and has slowly pushed down rates of poverty and hunger. Foreign direct investment in the region has been increasing in recent years, contributing to eco- nomic growth and development, and Africa’s share of global trade and trade in agricultural products has been on the rise. At the African Union Summit in June, African heads of state and government adopted the Malabo Declaration, commiting themselves to agriculture-led growth as laid out in the Comprehen- sive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), launched in 2003. Also in the Malabo Declaration, these leaders commited to ending hunger and halving poverty by 2025 (see Chapter 9), tripling intra-African trade in agricultural commod- ities, and building agriculture’s resilience to climate variability and shocks. Indeed, trade within Africa is already on the upswing, though from an admitedly


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