different pledge periods. Some countries used 2009-2011,
others 2010-2012. Some used calendar years, while others
relied on specific fiscal years that lag calendar years. In
addition, some directed their assistance to specific programs
or countries.
This makes the process of tracking disbursements and any
comparison between countries challenging. AFSI partners
need to strengthen their efforts to provide data on disbursements, implementation of commitments, and allocation on
a more regular and uniform basis. The importance of coordinated efforts should not be underestimated, particularly in
a context of rising food prices. Well-coordinated initiatives
serve as a platform for sharing and advancing knowledge
and for shaping policy on global food security. Coordinating development efforts helps improve outcomes and build
transparency, accountability, and legitimacy for overall global poverty reduction.
• Most donors are not making a strong enough effort to
invest in country-led plans. Their commitment to supporting the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) is a good first step.
• Donors have made progress in taking a comprehensive
twin-track (both short-term and long-term) approach to
food security, especially now that they are looking at the
root causes of the food price crisis. During its 2011 presidency of the G-8 and the G-20 group of large economies, France prioritized the issue of food price volatility
and its impact on food security.
• With the exception of the U.K. multilateral aid review,
donors have not reported taking concrete steps to improve the effectiveness of multilateral organizations’
work on food security. Additionally, most donors have
not made contributions to GAFSP, which has led to financing gaps in country-led plans.
• The United States has created a five-year initiative and
is changing its bureaucratic structure to ensure the continuation and sustainability of its focus on food security.
No other donor has made pledges or policy changes beyond the initial three-year pledge period.
• So far, there has been minimal progress on targeting
women and integrating gender sensitivity into development plans.
• Donors need to improve their integration of environmental sustainability into their agriculture and food
security programs.
• Donors need to make significant improvements in reporting to achieve transparency and accountability on
the L’Aquila promises. The Deauville G-8 Accountability Report of May 2011 did not use a uniform system of
4 Briefing Paper, May 2012
Rome Principles for Sustainable
Global Food Security
1. Invest in country-owned plans, aimed at channeling
resources to well-designed and results-based programs
and partnerships.
2. Foster strategic coordination at national, regional, and
global level to improve governance, promote better
allocation of resources, avoid duplication of efforts,
and identify response gaps.
3. Strive for a comprehensive twin-track approach to food
security that consists of: 1) direct action to immediately
tackle hunger for the most vulnerable and 2) mediumand long-term sustainable agricultural, food security,
nutrition and rural development programs to eliminate
the root causes of hunger and poverty, including the
progressive realization of the right to adequate food.
4. Ensure a strong role for the multilateral system by
sustained improvements in efficiency, responsiveness,
coordination and effectiveness of multilateral institutions.
5. Deliver on sustained and accountable commitments,
phasing in investments responsibly to ensure returns,
using benchmarks and targets to measure progress
toward shared goals, and holding ourselves and other
stakeholders publicly accountable for achieving results.
Source: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/Summit/Docs/
Final_Declaration/WSFS09_Declaration.
measurement to review the progress donors have made,
which would have strengthened its findings.9
A sustained political and financial commitment by national governments, the G-8 countries, other nations, and the
private sector is critical to transforming smallholder farming
into a robust driving force for reducing hunger, poverty, and
malnutrition. Significantly greater investments in agricultural research will be needed if the global agriculture and food
system is to meet the demands created by a growing population, rising incomes, climate change, and resource scarcity.
Despite progress, more work remains to be done to fulfill
the L’Aquila commitment to “act with the scale and urgency
needed to achieve sustainable global food security.”
U.S. Contributions to AFSI
U.S. leadership has proven essential to global action on
food security. When the United States cut back on its support
for agricultural development at the end of the 1980s, the
efforts of most other developed countries waned as well.
More recently, however, the United States presented a new