The World Food Summit

Charles E. Hanrahan

Senior Specialist in Agricultural Policy
Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division

November 6, 1996

96-886 ENR

Background

On November 13-17, 1996, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will host a World Food Summit in Rome. The Summit's goal is to "renew the commitment of world leaders at the highest level to the eradication of hunger and malnutrition and the achievement of food security for all, through the adoption of concerted policies and actions at global, regional, and national levels.'1 The Summit, according to organizers, is not a pledging conference, nor is it aimed at creating new financial mechanisms, institutions or bureaucracies. The Summit will issue a policy declaration and adopt a plan of action for dealing with the problem of world food insecurity. In preparing for the Summit, each participating nation is to consider independently how it can contribute to the goal of food security for all.

The Problem of World Food Security. Globally food supplies are adequate to feed the world's population, but many in developing countries do not have access to an adequate diet. According to FAO, an estimated 800 million people in the developing countries do not have access to enough food to sustain an active life and face chronic malnutrition. In addition, the United Nations estimates that 199 million children under the age of 5 suffer from acute or chronic protein and energy deficiencies. FAO lists 88 countries mainly in Africa and Asia as low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs).

The problem of world food security was last addressed by the international community at the World Food Conference in 1974. At that conference, Governments in the UN system, proclaimed that "every man, woman, and child has the inalienable right to be free from hunger and malnutrition in order to develop their mental and physical faculties." The conference adopted the goal, now considered highly unrealistic, of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition "within a decade."

The U.S. Country Paper. U.S. preparation for the World Food Summit has been carried out by an interagency group involving the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and the Agency for International Development. The interagency group has consulted often with interested Members and committees of the Congress. U.S. preparation has consisted largely of drafting a country position paper, contributing to a North American regional paper (along with Canada), and participating in negotiations in FAO's Committee on World Food Security, over the Summit documents.

The country paper lists four principles to guide U.S. participation in the World Food Summit:

· Adoption of appropriate national policies by all countries as the foundation of food security at all levels;

· Assertion of the U.S. role in assisting other countries to overcome hunger and malnutrition through U.S. leadership in agricultural, fisheries, and trade policies; development assistance; agricultural research; long-term environmental forecasting; and, as necessary, food aid;

· Promotion of the critical role of sustainable development in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors in achieving food security; and

· Recognition of the essential role of women, population stabilization, education, and health in the food security equation.

The paper emphasizes that the most important prerequisite for improving food security within a country is the development and implementation of an appropriate national policy framework. Among the elements of appropriate national policies are economic policies that promote private efficient markets rather than substitute government action for markets; basic health and sanitary services, basic education, and voluntary population stabilization; a macroeconomic and trade environment with linkages to global markets; policies that provide incentives for sustainable management of natural resources; investment in agricultural research and technical education; and fighting graft and corruption in the political and economic systems.

Major Issues

Completing the Policy Declaration and the Draft Plan of Action has been complicated by disagreements over such issues as the relationship of trade liberalization and food security; legal recognition of a right to food; the link between population stabilization and reproductive health of women and food security; and responsibility within the UN system for implementation and monitoring action plans adopted by the Summit.

Trade Liberalization. The contribution of trade liberalization to food security has been the most contentious issue. Not only are there differences over this issue between developed and the developing countries, there are also differences among the developed countries. The U.S. position paper lists as one of its contributions to global food security working with countries to achieve freer trade and to assure that the benefits from trade are equitably realized in accord with the Uruguay Round Agreement on agriculture. Countries that have opened their economies to freer trade, the U.S. paper argues, have had greater success in enhancing food security. Other developed countries, notably, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have also stressed the positive contribution of trade liberalization to food security. On the other hand, developed countries like Japan and Switzerland, joined by newly industrializing countries like South Korea and Indonesia, have argued in favor of national self-sufficiency in foodstuffs and for protecting food production and producers from competition from the world market. These countries contend that food products are not merely commodities, but have a strong social and cultural dimension warranting special treatment in international trade.

The strongest opposition to trade liberalization comes from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have been actively involved in pre-Summit preparations. A majority of NGO participants in the FAO/NGO Consultation on the World Food Summit (September 19-21, 1996) declared that trade liberalization is not the solution to the problem of food security and, in many cases, undermines it. The NGOs call for renegotiation of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture in 2000 when it is set to expire to exempt all "staple food crops from trade liberalization commitments."

In contrast to their criticism of the Agreement on Agriculture, the developing countries and NGOs endorse the Uruguay Round "Decision on Measures Concerning the Possible Negative Effects of the Reform Program on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Countries," the so-called Marrakesh Declaration. In the Marrakesh Declaration, member countries of the World Trade Organization agreed to establish mechanisms to ensure that the availability of food aid to developing countries would not be adversely affected by the Agreement on Agriculture.

At issue with respect to the Marrakesh Declaration is whether or not the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture has adversely affected the food situation in the net food-importing countries. Some developing countries, citing high grain prices and declining food aid, argue that this is the case; other countries, including the United States, argue that current short world supplies and high world market prices for grains do not result from implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement but from supply conditions in some of the major exporting countries.

The impact of debt on food security is a related macroeconomic issue. The U.S. position paper is silent on the relationship between debt and food security. Japan, for its part, in other international for a (the Paris Club of creditor countries for example) has argued against too much leniency in providing relief for debtor countries. On the other hand, many developing countries and the NGOs call for writing off completely the debts of the least-developed countries. They see debt as responsible for converting agriculture from domestic food production to cash crops for export to generate revenue to service debt thus aggravating food shortages, increasing import dependence, and degrading the environment.

Right to Food. A wide spectrum of countries, including most developing countries, Canada, the European Union, and the Vatican, have endorsed the concept that the right to food, which is already enumerated in the United Nation's 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, is a fundamental human right. The Pope, who will open the Summit, is expected to endorse this concept. The Vatican's country paper prepared for the Summit states that "...the right to food is a universal human right." The United States and some of the other developed countries have opposed endorsing the concept of a legal right to food and want the Summit documents to use less specific language, referring to food as, for example, "a sufficient means for an adequate standard of living." Declaring food a "right" could lead to legal actions requiring the provision of food aid or to special provisions for food in international trade agreements--which links this issue with positions taken by various countries or NGOs on the trade liberalization issue.

Population Stabilization, Reproductive Health and Food Security. At the UN Conference on Population and Development (Cairo 1994), the United States sought to emphasize the linkages between food security and population stabilization and rational population distribution. The Platform of Action adopted at the UN's Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995) focused global attention on the importance of increasing women's access to education, health services, productive resources, and employment, and fully involving women in power structures and decision making. The U.S. position paper sees a special role for women in promoting food security as a logical follow-on to the conclusions reached at Beijing.

Efforts in Summit preparatory meetings to include specific references in Summit documents to linkages between population stabilization or reproductive health to food security have met some resistance. The United States argues in its position paper that its support of population stabilization and reproductive health services is not an endorsement of either population control or abortion. The Vatican and a number of developing countries questioned including references to population stabilization and reproductive health in draft Summit documents. Support for stressing reproductive health services in relation to food security does come from the NGO community, however. NGOs call for government policies which "facilitate the productive and reproductive roles of women and men through better access to education, credit, technology, infrastructure, and basic health care, including reproductive health care and family planning services."

Responsibility for Follow-Up of the Summit Action Plan. The role of FAO vis-a-vis the rest of the UN system in implementing and monitoring the Plan of Action to be adopted by the Summit is an issue. FAO has had major responsibility within the UN system for food and agricultural matters. In the wake of various conferences held under UN auspices in recent years, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has established administrative machinery for coordinating implementation of the action plans of these conferences. The issue is how to allocate responsibility among the UN agencies, including FAO, for both implementation and monitoring of actions recommended by the Summit.

The Final Declaration and Plan of Action

The Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action were completed on October 31 and will be submitted to the Summit for adoption. FAO's Committee on Food Security which drafted the final Summit documents was able to agree on compromise language that dealt with the sensitive issues of trade liberalization, the right to food, population and reproductive health, and responsibility for Summit follow-up. The Summit documents call for reducing the numbers of undernourished to half their present level by 2015--by 2010 if possible. To meet that goal, Summit participants (Heads of State or Governments or their representatives) are called upon to commit themselves to ensure an enabling environment of policies that will contribute to food security for all.

The Summit Declaration and Plan identify trade as a key element in achieving world food security. The Plan commits Summit participants to ensure that trade polices are conducive to fostering food security through "a fair and market-oriented world trading system." The Plan calls for full implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture by all countries without delay. The Plan acknowledges that some least-developed and net food-importing developing countries "may experience short term negative effects in terms of the availability of adequate supplies of basic foodstuffs from external sources on reasonable terms...." To deal with that, the Plan calls for full implementation of the Marrakesh Declaration.

While the Summit Declaration reaffirms the right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food, it does not guarantee this right. Primary responsibility for realizing the right to adequate food for all rests with individual governments.

Population and health policy with respect to food security are also addressed in the Summit Documents. The Declaration states that "early stabilization of the world population" is part of a framework for poverty eradication which is "critical to improve access to food." Governments should promote access for all people to primary health care, which would include reproductive health services, consistent with the Cairo Program of Action. The Cairo Program defines reproductive health care to include among other things: family-planning counseling, information, education, prenatal health care, infant and women's health care, and prevention and treatment of infertility. With respect to abortion, the Cairo Platform states (paragraph 8.25) that "(i)n no way should abortion be promoted by governments as a method of family planning."

National Governments have the primary responsibility for creating the economic and political environment for assuring food security for their citizens. But, the Plan notes, the international community and the UN system, including FAO, also have important contributions to make to the goal of food security for all. Basically, coordinating the activities of all the UN agencies involved in implementing the Summit Plan of Action will go to the administrative machinery set up by the UN to oversee implementation of programs of action adopted by all the various international conferences the UN has conducted. Responsibility for monitoring follow-up to the World Food Summit will rest with the Committee on Food Security, an agency of the FAO. In the field, FAO and other UN agencies should work with the UN's resident coordinator for country-level implementation of the Summit's Plan of Action.

Congressional Interest

Preparations for the Summit have been taking place while Congress is in recess and during an election year. Even so, a number of Members have shown interest in the World Food Summit and a few are expected to attend the Summit. Three House Members wrote the President of their concern that the Summit might endorse measures that would threaten the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and result in some Third World nations' closing their markets to American agricultural exports. They called for the Administration to boycott the Summit if its documents call for closing these markets. The documents submitted to the Summit for adoption do not include such recommendations. During the 105th Congress, Members and relevant committees may want to examine the Summit Declaration and Plan of Action in relation to U.S. development assistance, food aid, and agricultural trade policy.