The document discusses food security challenges in the Near East and North Africa region. It notes that the region faces issues like limited water resources, high population growth, and dependence on food imports. To address these challenges, the document recommends a three pillar approach: 1) strengthening safety nets and access to resources, 2) enhancing domestic food supplies through investment, and 3) reducing market volatility through improved infrastructure and financial instruments. The global community has made reducing hunger a priority, and organizations like FAO are taking an integrated approach focused on sustainable resource management and nutrition to help food insecure regions.
1. Abdessalam OuldAhmed,Abdessalam OuldAhmed,
FAO Assistant Director General andFAO Assistant Director General and
Regional RepresentativeRegional Representative
Near East and North Africa RegionalNear East and North Africa Regional
Office, Cairo, EgyptOffice, Cairo, Egypt
June 25, 2013June 25, 2013
Food Security in the Near East and North Africa:Food Security in the Near East and North Africa:
Situation, Challenges and Strategic OptionsSituation, Challenges and Strategic Options
2. Outline
I. Situation of food insecurity at the global level and Recent Developments:
changing trends in global food prices and supplies
II. Situation of food insecurity in the Near East and North Africa (NENA)
Major challenges facing food security in the Near East and North Africa (NENA)
I. How the World is responding?
I. What needs to be done?
4. High levels of undernourishment in the World
With almost 870 million people chronically undernourished in 2010–12,
the number of hungry people in the world is unacceptably high.
The vast majority, more than 850 million, live in developing countries
5. MDG-1 hunger target
More progress in reducing hunger in developing world than previously thought.
MDG target within reach, only if adequate and appropriate actions to reverse
slowdown after 2006.
6. … poverty at the root of the problem
Adequacy of global supply
not the problem
10. Food requirement and sources: What is
expected by 2050
Food demand to increase by 70 %
cereal demand up by 1 billion tonnes
meat demand up by 200 million tonnes
these projections exclude biofuels
Where will it come from?
small increase in cultivated area
90 % from increased yields and cropping
intensity
improved seeds
increased use of inputs (esp. water and fertilizer)
13. Climate change, water and food security
IPCC predicts: increase in temp., sea level,
extreme weather and a decrease in precipitation
Increased drought will
Increase rural to urban migration
Increase gap between rich and poor
Fuel social tensions and strain public finances
As a result, food security risks will increase,
particularly in dry land countries
14. Food Security
Potential
Carbon Mitigation
Potential
Food Security Potential : High
Carbon Mitigation Potential: Low
•Expand crop onto marginal lands
•Expand high energy -intensive irrigation
Food Security Potential : Low
Carbon Mitigation Potential: Low
• Bare fallow
• Continuous cropping without use if nutrients
• Over-grazing
Food Security Potential : High
Carbon Mitigation Potential: High
•Restore degraded land
•Expand low energy-intensive irrigation
•Soil & water conservation structures/techniques
•Agro-forestry options that increase food or
incomes
Food Security Potential : Low
Carbon Mitigation Potential: High
•Reforestation/afforestation
•Restore organic soils
•Agro-forestry options with limited food or
income benefits
Synergies/tradeoffs between food security and
CC mitigation
Source: Food Security and Agricultural Mitigation in Developing Countries: Options for Capturing Synergies, FAO 2009
16. Countries in the Near East differ widely in terms of
their natural and human resources and economic
development, but they face common challenges in
agriculture and food security:
Dry land environment with Limited and fragile natural resource base,
particularly water: per capita renewable water per annum is estimated at 700
cubic meters compared with a World average of 6,400 cubic meters
High Population growth and in the region: average population growth rate
in the region is estimated at 2.2 percent per annum, which is among the
highest in the World
Frequent incidence of natural disasters (drought, desertification, desert
locust, floods) and their aggravation by climate change
Major Structural Challenges Facing the
Near East and North Africa
17. Some of the key drivers of food insecurity in the region
Poverty is at the core of the food security problem in the region. The
poor spend anywhere from 35 to 65 percent of their income on food.
Food security is predominantly an access issue rather than availability
in the market
Inequality: The poorest quintile of the region’s population claim less
than 8% of national income
Conflicts and civil unrest – continue to pose challenges to farming and
related activities in Yemen, Iraq, Palestine, Syria and Sudan; civilian
displacement and loss of productive assets increases vulnerability to
food insecurity
Unemployment rates are high; especially among youth, and many
people depend on informal jobs
18. As a result, dependence of the region on food
imports is high and is projected to increase over time
Imports
0
40,000
80,000
120,000
160,000
2000 2010 2020 2030
'000MTofcereal(includingfeed)
Demand
Domestic supply
Source: Adapted from IFPRI, 2008
Dependence on cereal imports will increase
19. Near East and North Africa countries are highly
dependent on food imports
Cereal Net Imports/Exports (Million Metric Tons), by Region, 2010Cereal Net Imports/Exports (Million Metric Tons), by Region, 2010Cereal Net Imports/Exports (Million Metric Tons), by Region, 2010Cereal Net Imports/Exports (Million Metric Tons), by Region, 2010
-76
NENA
Region
-60+ 20+ 20
-6
-20
+18
+101+101
+23+23
22. 1111
2222 enhancing domestic food sources
3333 enhancing markets and managing their volatility
Countries need to consider how they can combine
these three pillars to create a comprehensive and
integrated strategy
Addressing Food Security in NENA
strengthening safety nets, providing people with
access to resources, markets and family
planning services, and promoting education
A food security strategy forthe region rests
on three pillars:
24. The first pillar strengthens safety nets and promotes greater
access to family planning services and education
The First PillarThe First PillarThe First PillarThe First Pillar
Improve the targeting of safety nets
Make safety nets scalable
Employ cash transfers rather than in-kind
subsidies
Strengthen program coordination and
enhance payment mechanisms
Ensure sufficient resources are allocated to
education and to family planning services
Educate families about the benefits of a well-
balanced diet to sustain long-term health
benefits
Fortify staple foods with essential vitamins
and minerals
1111
Stronger safety nets are critical to
protect those in need
Greater access to education has
health benefits and reduces cereal
demand
25. The second pillar enhances domestic food supplies by
investing in research and development and rural livelihoods
The Second PillarThe Second PillarThe Second PillarThe Second Pillar
2222
Supply ConsiderationsSupply Considerations
Productivity gains reduce price risk and are the critical
counterweight to increasing food demand
Investment needs to be targeted to ensure water is put to its
highest value use
Research and development can lead to new technologies that
will drive up productivity
Investments in rural livelihoods will help rural communities
make the most of their resources
26. The third pillar reduces exposure to market volatility by
improving supply chains and using financial instruments
The Third PillarThe Third PillarThe Third PillarThe Third Pillar
3333
Invest in infrastructure
- Fixed infrastructure such as silos and
roads
- Mobile infrastructure such as boats and
trucks
- Intellectual infrastructure such as patents
and IT
Reduce food losses
Create bonded warehouses
Partner with key suppliers
Futures: Especially attractive to oil-rich
countries with access to credit
Options: Provide greater flexibility than
futures
Swaps and loans: World Bank offers
clients commodity swaps and structures
commodity-linked loans
Improving supply chains can reduce
marketing and transportation costs
as well as quantity risks
Effective use of diverse financial
instruments can reduce exposure to
price risk
28. Food Security: Global Goals
Eradicating hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity is top on
global agenda: MDG1; FAO Food Security Summits; G8
Summit at L’Aquila; G-20 Summit in Seoul 2010; meeting of
Agriculture Ministers in Paris, June 2011; Rio +20; discussions
on post 2015 development agenda, etc.
29. Outline
How FAO is responding to the recent development in
foo security challenges?
30. FAO New Strategic Framework
Upgrading goal: eradicating hunger
Approach: an integrated approach to nutrition, food
security and sustainable natural resource management,
taking full account of the impact of climate change
Objectives: five cross-cutting strategic objectives
Objective 2 (SO2) calls for “increasing and improving
provision of goods and services from agriculture,
forestry and fisheries in a sustainable manner”
31. • Addressing malnutrition requires a multi-sectoral approach that includes
complementary interventions in food systems, public health and education
• Agricultural growth is particularly effective in reducing hunger and malnutrition
and that economic and agricultural growth should be “nutrition-sensitive”
• Investing in agriculture is one of the most effective strategies for reducing
poverty and hunger and promoting sustainability
• Social protection is crucial for accelerating hunger reduction
• Closing the gender gap in agriculture would generate significant gains for the
agriculture sector and for society
• Addressing the structural imbalance between food production and consumption
• To accelerate hunger reduction, decisive public action is needed:
• Political commitment,
• Institutions, Institutions, Institutions …
Global Food Security: Some Key Lessons
Learned from the Past
Hinweis der Redaktion
Messages : Poverty is at the root of the hunger problem. High prevalence of hunger is associated with desperately low per capita incomes. As incomes improve prevalence of hunger drops fast. The propensity to consume more with increasing incomes is very strong Even in richer countries there is hunger. In all cases it is not the lack of supplies at the global level responsible for hunger. There has always been enough food globally but poor people cannot gain economic access to it. They lack income. Poverty is at the root of problem!
Messages : A recent FAO study presented at Copenhagen looked into across a range of ag. practices and their impacts on food security and adaptation to climate change (through increasing ag. productivity and resilience) climate change mitigation (through impacts on carbon sequestration in soils, plants and trees as well as emission reductions). The study found that there are many opportunities for realizing synergies between adaptation, mitigation and food security but we need a policy and investment framework that can recognize and value cross-sectoral benefits to realize them. Expansion of marginal lands illustrates that there are some actions that can be considered to generate short run benefits to food security, but tradeoffs with mitigation (and actually a whole range of environmental impacts) in both the short and long run. Even expansion of high-energy intensive agriculture is not sustainable in the long run either which means that policies for ag. in the 21st century need to be looking beyond short run gains - to the long run sustainability -and a key issue is providing farmers with incentives/support to assume short run costs (in the form of opportunity and/or investment costs) in order to adopt systems that have long term sustainability.