Devex Dish: How to bring nutrition into the climate tent

This year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, agenda officially includes an agriculture and food systems day — something food systems advocates were hoping to see at last year’s event following momentum created at the U.N. Food Systems Summit. But still lacking explicit mention at the annual gathering of climate change experts? Nutrition.

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Executive Director Lawrence Haddad — who told me last year that he’d “never talked to so many climate people in my life” as he did as chair of a UNFSS action track — is working to make sure nutrition stays on the climate agenda, and vice versa.

“If you work on food systems and nutrition, you cannot not work on the environment. That realization has set in for lots of people, including us,” Haddad recently told me of how GAIN is continuing to prioritize linking its work to climate, and how to expand nutrition’s tent to include the climate community.

That includes an ongoing partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and its Food Practice Global Lead João Campari — also former UNFSS chair and one of those “climate people.”

“If you try to fix food insecurity with a disregard for climate, climate will come and haunt food systems later,” Campari told me. “If you try to address climate without taking into consideration food, you’re not going to be resolving it.”

But without explicit mention of nutrition at COP 27, how far can the partnership go? Write to me with your thoughts at dish@devex.com.

Read: Nutrition and climate advocates seek fruitful alliance ahead of COP 27

All aboard

The first shipment of grain that will go directly to the World Food Programme left a Ukrainian port on Tuesday, the 18th vessel to depart the mined coastal waters to deliver commodities to the global market. The ship, which WFP said was carrying 23,000 metric tons of wheat grain, is bound for the Horn of Africa, where the agency is currently responding to a crippling drought. WFP Executive Director David Beasley called opening Ukrainian ports “the single most important thing we can do right now to help the world’s hungry.”

U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power said Tuesday that the agency, in partnership with the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Minderoo Foundation, supported the humanitarian shipment, which will eventually dock in Ethiopia. She also announced over $68 million in additional funding to WFP to “purchase, move, and store up to 150,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat to help respond to the global food crisis.”

A mouthful

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaking earlier this month in Ghana, pointed to the war in Ukraine, in addition to conflicts on the African continent itself, as contributors — along with COVID-19, climate change, and energy costs — to the struggle for many to access adequate food.

Thomas-Greenfield is one of three high-ranking U.S. diplomats — USAID chief Power and Secretary of State Antony Blinken also recently made trips to Africa — to emphasize Russia’s culpability in rising food prices in the countries she visited. The Russian foreign minister also traveled to Africa last month to make Russia’s case that Western sanctions are to blame.

In her remarks in Ghana, Thomas-Greenfield acknowledged that some Africans “don’t really want to be pressured to pick a side,” but she felt compelled to “present the facts.”

And the U.S. is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to aiding African countries who are suffering: The State Department said it is working with Congress to allocate $336.5 million to bilateral programs for sub-Saharan African countries, and as of Aug. 8, the U.S. has provided nearly $1 billion in emergency food assistance in 2022 for African countries.

Ripple effect

Oxfam GB has had to pivot its work in Horn, East, and Central Africa — which covers everything from peace programs to water and sanitation — to respond to the food crisis, according to Parvin Ngala, Oxfam GB’s director for the region. In an interview with Devex, Ngala details how Oxfam is changing its work to meet current needs — and how donors must react.

Q&A: Oxfam pivots to tackle the food crisis in Africa (Pro)

+ This Q&A is the first in a Devex Pro series on how organizations are responding to the global food crisis. Pro members can also read about how smart farming is used in Kenya to tackle the food crisis. Not yet a Pro member? Sign up now and start your 15-day free trial.

Number munching

That is the inflation level at which nearly all low- and middle-income countries remain between April and July 2022, according to a food security update released this week by the World Bank. Many countries are experiencing double-digit inflation, my colleague Shabtai Gold writes, although there is some good news: Prices for wheat, maize, and rice — while elevated versus levels seen before the Russian invasion of Ukraine — have moderated and stabilized in recent weeks.

The bank has predicted that food prices will remain at “historically high levels” through the end of 2024, with the food crisis exacerbated by trade restrictions put in place by countries hoarding commodities. But the Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index saw key staples such as vegetable oil and cereals going down by double digits, with the total July index down 8.6% from June. The price of every cereal measure fell, with wheat down the most at as much as 14.5% — a decrease partly attributable to the grain deal reached between Ukraine and Russia, and partly to the Northern Hemisphere harvests coming online.

World Bank: Food uncertainty rife, prices high even after Ukraine deal

Chew on this

World Central Kitchen’s CEO is parting ways with the organization. [World Central Kitchen]

Pope Francis said Sunday that the war in Ukraine is causing the world to forget about global hunger. [Reuters]

Data sets on food security are often not sex disaggregated, but a new study from CARE finds that 150 million more women than men were food insecure in 2021. [CARE]

FAO is using a $10 million loan from the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund to scale up fertilizer procurement in Tigray. [FAO]