OPINION:A conference in Dublin today addresses how we can better nourish those who need more food, writes Tom Arnold
THE GLOBAL financial crisis provides a chilling backdrop to Concern's international conference on world hunger, with Kofi Annan as the keynote speaker, being held today in Dublin. All over the world, political leaders and bankers are struggling to keep intact the essential elements of a functioning financial system. When this is achieved, the inevitable consequences of the financial crisis - slower or negative economic growth, higher unemployment, weakened public finances - will have to be dealt with.
If we in the developed world have major concerns about the financial crisis and its economic consequences, the poorest of the world have even greater fears. Over the past year, the number of hungry people in the world increased from some 850 million to 925 million, as a direct result of higher food and energy prices. Since early 2007, protests about high food prices and general living costs have occurred in almost 60 countries, with violence occurring in more than 20 of these. The current crisis will push the number of hungry people to well over one billion, about one-sixth of the world's population.
We had two main objectives in organising the conference: (a) to inform political and public opinion about the continuing scale of hunger in the world, with its enormous human and economic costs; and (b) to identify policy changes and innovations which, if implemented, could significantly reduce the number of hungry people.
The costs of hunger are not sufficiently widely known. Half of the almost 10 million children under the age of five who die annually do so from a combination of malnutrition and easily preventable disease. Tens of millions of children suffer from physical and mental stunting as a result of chronic malnourishment of pregnant women and children under two years. The costs in terms of lost human potential and economic development of countries are enormous.
The sharp increase in food prices over the past year has had particularly serious consequences for the very poorest - the ultra-poor - who live on less than 50 cent a day - and spend 50-70 per cent of that meagre income on food. In many of Concern's African and Asian countries of operation, we have observed that this group has reduced their food intake, and the quality of their diet and micronutrient intake has worsened.
The high food prices in the first half of 2008 had one potentially positive effect. For the first time since the early 1970s, food security moved close to the top of the international political agenda. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who has sent a message to today's conference, set up a high-level taskforce to draw up the elements of an effective response to the food price crisis. Following extensive consultation, it produced a comprehensive framework for action, setting out the short- and long-term measures necessary to improve food security. The cost of implementation was estimated at an additional $25-40 billion annually. In light of the scale of recent interventions by governments to rescue financial institutions, this must seem like a bargain.
The G8 Summit in Japan, held in July, discussed the food price crisis on the basis of a 10-point plan of action presented by the World Bank. The G8 leaders made some positive-sounding commitments to action - but came up with no additional money.
The EU is considering using €1 billion in savings from its 2008 budget, savings due to higher world food prices and a consequently lower support cost for the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), to enable African countries provide inputs to their farmers for the next production cycle. MEP Gay Mitchell has played a positive role in shepherding the proposal through the European Parliament but the final decision has to be taken by the council.
But the brutal reality is that, notwithstanding the good analysis and the political commitments made at UN, G8 and EU level, very few additional resources have been found to translate commitments into actions. In addition, the price of food and commodities has fallen in recent months, possibly inducing a false sense of complacency among political leaders. And the scale of the current financial crisis has, necessarily, consumed the attention of political leaders and policymaker across the world.
Today's conference will remind political leaders and policymakers that the issue of hunger remains of critical importance, that it can only be resolved if high-level political will is applied to it and that, with policy change and innovation, the number of hungry people can be significantly reduced.
Kofi Annan, who is president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, brings a unique moral authority in calling on political leaders in developing and developed countries to give greater priority to ending hunger. Prof Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN secretary general, and Dr Joachim von Braun of the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute are among the world's leading experts on food policy and hunger alleviation.
Minister for Development Peter Power will give the Government's response to the recently published report of the Irish Hunger Task Force, chaired by former minister for agriculture and food Joe Walsh. The report highlighted two key policy priorities. African governments need to give greater priority to agricultural and rural development in their development strategies and investment plans. Scaling up investment in programmes to improve nutrition for pregnant women and for children under two years is also vital.
The taskforce recommended that these priorities should inform spending within Ireland's aid programme and that 20 per cent of the programme should be devoted to hunger alleviation by 2012. Ireland should also take a leadership role in advocating for these priorities at international level.
The Government's aid allocation in this year's Budget means that it is on track to meet the 0.7 per cent aid target by 2012. It is a commendable decision on behalf of the Irish people showing that, even when we are going through very painful economic times, we retain our solidarity with poor people going through infinitely more difficult times
But increased aid levels from traditional donors, even well-targeted, will not be enough to deal with the wider issue of hunger and food security. New donors, such as Saudi Arabia which contributed $500 million (€368 million) to the World Food Programme earlier this year, other oil producing countries and newly emerging developing countries must be encouraged play their part.
New partnerships between bodies such as the Gates Foundation, the private sector and NGOs have a key role to play. And, most importantly of all, governments in developing countries, with sustained support from donors, must put in place the appropriate policy framework to fast-track their peoples from the scourge of hunger.
• Tom Arnold is chief executive of Concern Worldwide and a member of the Government's hunger taskforce. He is also a governor of the Irish Times Trust, owner of The Irish Times