Number 17, May 2012
briefing paper
From L’Aquila to Camp David:
UN Photo
Sustaining the Momentum on
Global Food and Nutrition Security
by Faustine Wabwire
Key Points
• U.S. leadership on global hunger and food security has been instrumental in leveraging substantial additional resources and reversing decades
of decline in funding for agricultural development.
• The 2012 G-8 Summit at Camp David is an important opportunity for
President Obama and other G-8 leaders to take stock of the progress
made by the 2009 G-8 Summit’s L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI)
and reaffirm their commitment to improve smallholder agriculture.
• Since 2009, the United States has also helped raise awareness of the urgency
of improving nutrition in the critical 1,000 Day window between pregnancy
and age 2. G-8 leaders should endorse the Scaling Up Nutrition movement,
commit to a bold nutrition target to mobilize action, and ensure that investments in agriculture are improving maternal and child nutrition.
• Building on the foundation laid by AFSI, future investments should also
focus on building resilience in communities; strengthening local capacity to address chronic food insecurity and respond to crises; mainstreaming gender; and adapting to climate change.
• Moving forward, it is critical that there is greater transparency around
commitments and investments.
Faustine Wabwire is foreign assistance policy analyst for Bread for the World Institute.
Bread for the World Institute provides policy
analysis on hunger and strategies to end it.
The Institute educates its network, opinion
leaders, policy makers and the public about
hunger in the United States and abroad.
www.bread.org
Abstract
Increases in global hunger and poverty
caused by sudden spikes in the prices of
staple foods in 2007-2008 and 2010-2011
have underscored the urgency of improving agricultural productivity in developing
countries to lift people out of poverty and
improve food and nutrition security.
In July 2009, G-8 leaders, gathered in
L’Aquila, Italy, responded to the global
food price crisis. The U.S. proposal to invest significantly more effort and resources
in agriculture won support from other donor countries, who committed to providing $22 billion in financing for agriculture
and food security over three years. This became known as the L’Aquila Food Security
Initiative (AFSI).
The United States is on track to fulfill
its pledges of $3.5 billion, but according
to 2011 estimates most donors were falling
short. Feed the Future is the United States’
primary contribution to AFSI.
As G-8 president in 2012, the United
States has an important opportunity to
build on the progress made in the last three
years to increase investments in smallholder agriculture and integrate nutrition into
agriculture and food security efforts.
Continued food price volatility and future challenges to food security, including
population growth and climate change, require sustained investments. At the Camp
David G-8 Summit, leaders should build on
this foundation and tackle the unfinished
agenda, prioritizing nutrition, community
resilience, capacity building, women’s empowerment, and agricultural research.