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Hala Abou Ali - 2017 IFPRI Egypt Seminar in partnership with FEPS - Cairo University
1. 2017 Global Food Policy
Report and MENA Region
Hala Abou-Ali
habouali@feps.edu.eg
FEPS-IFPRI Seminar
24 May 2017
2. Outline
• Take home messages
• MENA region / Arab Countries and the report
• Way forward
3. Take Home Messages (1/3)
Food security and Nutrition
• National food security strategies, should be integrated into urban development
strategies.
• Integrating nutrition education into social safety net programs can boost nutritional
outcomes. (Takaful and Karama)
• Policies to help rural small-scale farmers increase productivity and move up to
commercially oriented systems or to participate in nonfarm economic activities are
important.
• Investments in rural areas and less-favored areas can provide win-win outcomes for
both the rural and urban poor.
• Revision of regulations, laws and legislation
• Promoting “reformulation” of processed foods
• Foods available in schools
• Policy action specific to soft drinks
4. Take Home Messages (2/3)
Agriculture value chain
• As developing countries’ economies grow and urbanization takes off, greater
attention on the part of policy makers to the post-farmgate segment of staple-
food value chains is required.
• Thus, emphasis should be placed on enabling the private sector’s involvement
and providing incentives for the sector to support national food security
objectives.
• The indirect role of the governments is important in enabling and at times
providing incentives for the food system transformation.
• As food and agricultural markets develop, quality and food safety standards will
become increasingly important in these growing domestic markets of developing
countries. (Importance of FDAs)
5. Take Home Messages (3/3)
Informal Food Markets
They are..
• the main source of food for many of the urban poor;
• improves food affordability through both incomes and prices;
• Violent crackdowns on the sector can have serious consequences for urban food security.
To do…
• upgrade or build new marketplaces
• more focus on education and training to improve hygienic behavior and develop best
practices
• Participatory engagement of street vendors and marketers in reforming anachronistic
legislation
6. MENA Region/Arab Countries and the Report (1/2)
• Conflict and security
• Climate change
• Wave of legislative reform to accommodate international conventions
is an important challenge to food security
7. MENA Region/Arab Countries and the Report (2/2)
• Legal frameworks, related to the issue of seed and to rules that
concern access to seed.
• The concept of ‘intellectual property’ and its application to plant
varieties is a new area of law for many developing countries.
• Support or oppose the right to food and other human rights;
whether they are suitable for the agricultural conditions in developing
countries ; and the importance of formal versus farmer-managed
seed systems.
9. Way Forward (1/3)
Demographic
dynamics and trends
Food diet trends Land availability
Agriculture
production
Climate Change Water Scarcity
Sustainable Safety
Nets given
opportunity cost of
public funds
10. Way Forward (2/3)
• A wide range of policy instruments is available for dealing with food
security, and countries may not have adopted the most efficient ones
at the present time.
• What potential policies that could be implemented on the country level?
• How can we move into a regional integration context suggesting regional
based policies?
• How can MENA countries and the European Union, as neighboring regions,
revive and strengthen their longstanding links?
11. Way Forward (3/3)
• Several aspects can be targeted by policies:
• Trends in food diets and the underlying demographic trends;
• Food waste and losses (post-crop in developing countries, or during the distribution or
processing stages in developed countries);
• Technical progress in agriculture (improving crop yields) in a context of climate change.
• Empirical comparative studies in developing countries that have/haven’t
implemented UPOV 91 is needed to better understand:
• human rights to food impact assessments;
• Farmers’ Rights; and
• agricultural biodiversity.
• How monopolistic behavior affect the agricultural value chain?
The main challenge is in fact to solve the following equation: due to demographic and food diet trends, land available for food production is becoming scarce (especially when considering competition with biofuel production), and agricultural productivity may be limited by the impact of climate change, resulting in diminishing availability of water resources. Water is therefore the limiting factor in the equation, as it conditions the increase in crop yields given current production techniques. At the national level, social safety nets should be considered but will not be sustainable because of the opportunity cost of public funds. A wide range of policy instruments is available for dealing with food security, and countries may not have adopted the most efficient ones at the present time.