Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to remove all countries from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s hunger map by 2030.
That’s why he is using Brazil’s presidency of the Group of 20 largest economies this year to champion a new alliance that will better connect countries to the resources that already exist to fight hunger. It’s not a new source of funding, but a broker designed to create alignment among existing players.
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Funding sources might be multilateral banks, regional development banks, wealthy nations, and philanthropies, according to Renato Godinho, a special adviser to Brazil’s Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger.
Member countries will be able to submit proposals for inclusion in a “policy basket.” If the proposal is selected, then the alliance will match the countries to available funds and expertise.
The alliance’s staff will weigh proposals against a strict criteria that includes evidence that the policy idea can be implemented by national and local governments and that it is buttressed by academic research, reports Devex contributor Jorge Valencia.
They will also consider whether it will contribute to achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals — never mind that they have recently come under fire from the new Oxfam executive director, who said the targets were not designed to withstand the ongoing polycrisis of coinciding catastrophes, including COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Add to that mounting global hunger, which now affects nearly 1 out of every 10 people on the planet.
Even if the new alliance can’t get all of the SDGs on track, the architects are convinced they can help deliver on SDG 2’s promise of ending hunger by 2030. And the idea has drawn a broad base of support from other national leaders and multilateral institutions and advocates.
“Agreeing on a clear set of policies, evidence, and pragmatic interventions could help align efforts so everybody's working off the same song sheet,” says Asma Lateef, policy director at the SDG2 Advocacy Hub.
At the moment, the alliance is soliciting country commitments as its organizers scramble to get much of the infrastructure in place in time for the G20 leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro in November.
Read: Inside Brazil’s plan to cut world hunger by 2030
See also: SDGs were doomed to fail from the start, new Oxfam chief warns (Pro)
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African heads of state graced the opening ceremony of the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, on Tuesday as business and government leaders joined global development experts for a week aimed at spurring investment in the agricultural sector.
Energized delegates sporting colorful traditional African clothing stood out among the well-tailored suits, adding a bit of sparkle to the technical conversations taking place in the events and panels, my colleague David Njagi reports from Kigali. At the opening ceremony, Agnes Kalibata, president of AGRA — which is hosting the event — emphasized that the conversation on food systems transformation had overcome odds to attract more than 5,000 participants.
“We want governments and leaders of the industry to tell us what they want to see work differently,” she said.
Among the big announcements so far:
• The launch of an African Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan to better integrate vegetables into African food systems, particularly amid the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, urbanization, and homogenization of diets.
• The Norwegian government announced the launch of a $35 million fund to support African small and medium-sized agrifood enterprises. It is part of the Deal Room, a new forum initiative to accelerate investment in African agriculture.
• AGRA unveiled its annual agriculture status report which this year focuses on encouraging private-sector investment in African food systems transformation.
• UNICEF announced First Foods Africa, a new initiative to support local production and consumption of nutritious, affordable, and sustainable food and food supplements for very young children.
There is much work ahead, participants told David.
“We will only really change the food system and transform it if we change our fundamental attitudes towards food, shaped and formed over many decades particularly with the Green Revolution. My magic word would really be to awaken systems thinking and integrated thinking among policymakers,” said Peiman Milani, director of the food initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation.
Watch this space for more coverage of the forum from David.
Related: African groups want ‘reparations’ for Green Revolution’s shortcomings
Pull up another seat at the table, because the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils movement is growing again.
The U.S.-backed program, which focuses on climate-proofing food systems through healthy soils and climate-resilient crops, launched in Africa last year and expanded to Guatemala earlier this year. Now the Pacific islands are joining the party, with the introduction of the Pacific Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils, or PACS, last week.
Like the earlier iterations, PACS will work with local farmers and experts to collaborate on land management practices and share information on underinvested, but nutritious crops. The program will be led by the Pacific Community, a development organization led by the region’s 22 countries and territories. The United States and Australia are putting a combined $2.6 million into the program, while New Zealand will add a set of “complementary agricultural investments” in the region.
“We’ve got a good idea of what the climate change impacts are likely to do to our crops as far as production: we know we have to prepare for more salt in the soil, and we know we have to prepare for longer drought periods,” Karen Mapusua, the director of the Pacific Community’s land resources division, tells my colleague Elissa Miolene. “But we don’t know what the change in climate is going to do to the nutritional value of our crops, so there’s a big gap there.”
Better understanding these crops, Mapusua says, might end up benefiting the rest of the world — especially because in many cases, the Pacific islands have been the first to be hit by climate change’s worst effects.
Read: Pacific islands join US climate-resilient crops initiative
Background: A US-led initiative to climate-proof crops heads to Central America
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With nearly every one of the 2.15 million people living in the Gaza Strip facing high levels of food insecurity, staff at USAID believe the most effective way to get food relief to them is by opening land crossings.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration pushed ahead with a $230 million maritime corridor, instead.
Known as the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore modular system, or JLOTS, it helped deliver 20 million pounds of aid into Gaza. But from the time it opened in late June, the system contended with security issues, access obstacles, and rough weather that ultimately cut its intended lifespan from 90 days to 20 days. As a result, it only fed 450,000 of the 1.5 million people it was intended to help.
A newly released report from USAID’s Office of Inspector General said agency staff always thought the priority should have been land crossings. But once Biden announced the decision to pursue JLOTS in March, the agency was forced to switch gears, as Elissa reports.
After the report’s release, agency officials told her the system was seen as additive and not a replacement for land routes.
With the multistakeholder network of food security experts IPC reporting that 495,000 people in Gaza face “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity — the stage immediately before famine — the USAID report is certain to fuel questions about whether JLOTS was worth the resources.
Read: USAID warned against building the Gaza pier. It happened anyway (Pro)
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Elissa Miolene and David Njagi contributed to this edition of Devex Dish.