Devex Dish: Gender and food guidelines ‘torpedoed’ at UN

The Committee on World Food Security, or CFS, is meeting this week in Rome for its annual plenary, and was expecting to adopt a set of Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment, which aimed to “advance gender equality, women’s and girls’ rights, and women’s empowerment as part of their efforts to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.”

But a group of conservative nations have “torpedoed” the process, claiming they didn’t believe consensus could be reached on the document, which must be approved by all CFS member nations. At issue? A set of phrases that the countries, led by Indonesia and including Russia and China, objected to — even though the language already appears in other U.N.-adopted documents.

Phrases referencing the LGBTQ community were particularly contentious, a U.N. official close to the negotiation process tells me. The offending words include “sexual and gender-based violence,” “women and girls in all their diversity,” “sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights,” and “sexual orientation.”

“Everybody knows that you cannot — you will not — reach global food security without addressing gender equality,” the official tells me. “Despite telling the world they’re champions of gender in the G20, [Indonesia] meanwhile — the delegation in Rome — is completely destroying something of meaning for gender equality.”

On Tuesday at the plenary in Rome, CFS held a session to commemorate the International Day of Rural Women, and to encourage the body to continue negotiations on the gender guidelines — which it did. South Africa delivered a statement on behalf of about 50 countries that expressed support for the process, while no one from the opposition spoke. Proponents of the guidelines tell me they’re relieved the gender work isn’t dead — but the earliest it could now be adopted is a year from now.

Exclusive: Conservative nations block UN gender and food guidelines

Rising costs

The food crisis is front and center at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings here in Washington, D.C. this week. IMF launched its latest World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, and my colleague Shabtai Gold confirms the bleak news we were all expecting: Inflation is expected to peak at 9.5%, and it will hit low- and middle-income nations the hardest.

During an event Tuesday focused on spiking food and fuel prices, World Bank Managing Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg said it is important that financing packages support short-term food security needs and also focus on the “resilience agenda.”

“You need to act on this very quickly to provide the necessary support,” he said. “How can countries become more resilient against future crises?”

IMF: 'The worst is yet to come' for the global economy

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And the title goes to …

The World Food Programme claims to be the world’s largest humanitarian organization. But is it? My colleague David Ainsworth looks at the numbers to rank the largest organizations in aid. Though it’s not clear what metrics WFP uses to reach that definition, David concludes that the agency may have a leg to stand on in the “most people helped” category.

The organization assisted 128 million people last year, so it can certainly make a case to have provided more people with humanitarian support than anyone else.

DevExplains: What are the largest organizations in aid? (Pro)

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GM no?

Over 4 million people in Kenya are currently facing hunger due to a prolonged drought following four consecutive failed rainy seasons. In an attempt to improve food security in the country, the newly elected government has lifted a ban on the importation and cultivation of genetically modified crops that was introduced in 2012 after a now-retracted paper linked GMOs to cancer.

Eric Korir, a principle biosafety officer at the National Biosafety Authority, said the lower cost of production of GMO foods means lower prices for consumers.

But some advocates have opposed the authorization. Claire Nasike, a project lead at Greenpeace, said GM crops give control of seeds to multinational corporations and that the crops will cause contamination and loss of biodiversity through pollination.

BIBA Kenya, another group advocating against GMOs, has set up a petition to stop the Kenyan government’s decision to lift the ban on GMO foods, calling the move “a clear violation of the principles of the Human Right to Adequate Food.”

Read more: Kenya lifts ban on genetically modified foods despite strong opposition

Small wonder

For decades it was widely believed that 2 billion people suffer from the “hidden hunger” of micronutrient deficiencies. But a new study by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, or GAIN, shows that it’s likely far higher: 2 in 3 women between 15 and 49 years of age are deficient in one or more micronutrients, and in some countries, that soars to 9 in 10.  

In an op-ed for Devex, Ty Beal and Mduduzi NN Mbuya of GAIN, and Lynnette Neufeld of FAO say poor access to nutritious foods is a major driver of this type of malnutrition. And this has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the food and fuel price crises resulting from the war in Ukraine, and droughts and other extreme weather events.

Opinion: What can be done to address widespread 'hidden hunger'?

Chew on this

Japan's food producers are looking to promote domestic consumption of rice flour-based products as an alternative to more costly bread and noodles. [Kyodo News]

A backlog of ships at a monitoring center in Istanbul is putting a strain on the Ukraine-Russia Black Sea grain export deal that has enabled Ukraine to export millions of metric tons of wheat. [Financial Times]

Acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 19 “hunger hotspots” during the outlook period from October 2022 to January 2023. [FAO]

Rumbi Chakamba contributed to this edition of Dish.