Figure 2: L’Aquila Financial Pledge Breakdown by Donor
3.5
1.7
0.5
0.7
0.3
2.0
3.0
0.4
3.0
2.2
3.8
1.0
0.4
I Australia I Canada
I EC I France I Germany I Italy I Japan I Netherlands I Russia I Spain I Sweden I UK I US
Source: ONE
coordination and alignment with country-led and regional
agriculture and rural development programs to make
food security interventions more effective. For example,
to improve coordination and governance, AFSI partners
agreed to support ongoing reforms in the FAO Committee
on World Food Security and the Consultative Group for
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). They also
agreed to strengthen the Global Partnership for Agriculture,
Food Security, and Nutrition.
AFSI commitments provide a structured response to hunger and food insecurity. The Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security (see box on page 4) serve as a basis
for turning political commitments into action and outcomes
at the community level. They call for changes in the policies and governance of donors, such as aligning with country
investment plans, supporting innovation, and modernizing
multilateral efforts to build global food security by making
them more efficient. Donors also committed to taking a gender sensitive approach to food security and investments. Evidence shows that providing women and men the same access
to resources such as land, seeds, and credit would raise total
agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4 percent,
contributing to food security and economic growth.7
This common understanding of pathways to eradicate
hunger was endorsed at the 2009 World Summit on Food
Security.
Progress of the AFSI Pledges
Many G-8 member states have faced constraints in meeting their obligations under the L’Aquila agreement, particularly in funding for the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a trust fund managed by the World
Bank that channels G-8 pledges at L’Aquila to country-led
agricultural development and investment plans. Countries
and regional initiatives such as the Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) are already
developing such plans in consultation with donors and local
stakeholders. Multilateral initiatives such as GAFSP can play
a critical role in establishing more predictable streams of assistance for development goals. Agricultural development is
essential to meeting many of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, particularly Goal 1, to cut hunger and extreme
poverty in half by 2015.
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Financial Commitments
AFSI financial commitments are supposed to be met by
the end of 2012. So far, the record on honoring AFSI pledges
is mixed. There has been some progress, but most donors
are falling far short of what is needed to raise the promised
funds by the end of the year. To date, donors have met only
22 percent of the total AFSI financial pledge. Moreover, most
partners have not reported on how they plan to fulfill their financial commitments, nor have they demonstrated the level
of political will and momentum needed to end hunger, poverty, and malnutrition.
A core group of members, however, has not only fulfilled
(or is on track to fulfill) its pledges, but has taken advantage
of participating in AFSI to bring agricultural development
and food security to the forefront of their respective national
foreign assistance strategies.8 The United States has appropriated resources for 90 percent of its $3.5 billion pledge
and continues to disburse the funds. The government of the
United Kingdom said it has already disbursed 80 percent of
its pledge and expects to provide the full amount by the end
of 2012. Canada has disbursed nearly 90 percent of the $1
billion it pledged.
Following an AFSI donor meeting led by the United States
on February 2-3, 2012, donors agreed to report publicly not
only how much they are providing of the $22 billion pledged
at L’Aquila but also, for the first time, key information on
their programs. These include the primary beneficiary countries of their food security assistance, their program focus
and objectives, and how they are measuring progress (indicators and results to date). The reporting will also describe how
each donor is working to meet the AFSI nonfinancial commitment: doing development assistance differently to make
a greater impact on food security.
Nonfinancial Commitments
Donor Coordination: When AFSI was developed, donors
did not agree to consistent pledge years or a uniform
system for measuring progress. Most donors agreed to
report their progress toward fulfilling commitments as the
disbursements were made, but the United States, Germany,
and Japan