Reshaping the Food System for Food Security & Nutrition

Shenggen Fan, February 2016

Reshaping the Food System for Food Security & Nutrition

I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e o n E u r a s i a n F o o d S e c u r i t y a n d N u t r i t i o n N e t w o r k &

E u r a s i a n S o i l P a r t n e r s h i p

B i s h k e k | F e b r u a r y 2 9 , 2 0 1 6

Shenggen FanDirector General | International Food Policy Research Institute


Key messages

• Despite progress, hunger and malnutrition are still

global challenges

• The global food system is increasingly vulnerable,

yet called to do more

• Reshaping the food system is critical

• A new global food system must deliver multiple

SDGs


0

10

20

30

40

World Central Asia South Asia SE Asia

1990-92

2014-16

Hunger and malnutrition are still global challenges

Prevalence of undernourishment (%)

Source: FAO 2015

Prevalence of adult overweight, 2014

Tajikistan UzbekistanKyrgyzstan

Prevalence of under-5 stunting (%)

Source: UNICEF/WHO/WB 2015

Central AsiaKazakhstan Turkmenistan

Kyrgyzstan51%

59% 55%

47%

Source: WHO 2015


The global food system is increasingly vulnerable, yet called to do more

Picture sources: Ngo Trung; USDA; Goyette; UNDP; Niehaus

Climate change, extreme weather events

Agriculture-related risks, food safety scandals

Growing land, water constraints

Persistent conflicts

Population growth, rising incomes, urbanization

The global food system is needed to play bigger role

in economic and social development


Reshaping the global food system is critical

Focus on crop yields

Production is the only concern

Food losses / waste do not matter

Consumers, private sector ignored

Food security is a supply problem

Small(holder) is always beautiful

Global governance dominated by

North and UN

OLDFocus on nutrition per unit of inputs

/ resources

Processing, storage, transportation

also key

Food losses / waste matter greatly

Consumers, private sector critical

Accessibility is major problem

Context specificity matters

Emerging economies play bigger

role

NEW

No attention to gender Gender has key role in agriculture


A new global food system must deliver

multiple SDGs

New food system

Inclusive

Nutritious and healthy

Climate-smart

Sustainable

Business-friendly

Productive Over half of SDGs relate to food security and nutrition


Pathways to a new global food system

Invest in agric. R&D to produce more with less

Fix the fundamentals: Marketing, infrastructure, trade

Empower women in agriculture

Transform smallholder agriculture

Ensure safety of food systems


Advance frontiers for sustainable intensification and better nutrition

• E.g. Breeding high yielding, climate-ready, high-nutrient crop varieties

(biofortification)

Precision irrigation has great potential

• Groundwater irrigation in Fergana Valley can improve soil salinity, health

and resilience of water, land and ecosystems (Karimov et al. 2014)

Invest in agric. R&D to produce more nutrition with less

Conservation of Fruit Tree Diversity in Central Asia Project

• Helped farmers produce drought-tolerant strains of fruit

• Farmers expanded orchards into degraded areas

• Restored landscapes improved grazing for animals,

whose meat and dairy products further enrich dietsSource: Bioversity 2014


Support inclusive marketing in food value chains

• Link smallholders to modern agrifoodvalue chains

Fix the fundamentals: Marketing, infrastructure…

Develop rural infrastructure

• Improving roads, rail, electricity

can reduce hunger and child

malnutrition in 15 years (Rosegrant et al 2015)

• Access to WASH strongly linked

to child stunting reduction (Smith and Haddad 2014)

Picture source: IFPRI

Uzbekistan Horticultural Support Project

Goals

• Target small scale actors in horticultural

value chain

• Focus on modernization of a privatized

horticulture sector

Benefits

• About 12,000 households

• Over 2,000 jobs Surkhandarya region

• Enhanced resilience of rural households

Source: IFAD 2012


…and open, transparent, and fair trade

Eliminate distortionary trade policies

• Harmful trade policies e.g. import tariffs and export bans, hurt the

poor and hinder efficiency of agricultural markets

Improve targeting of subsidies

• Resources can fund public goods and support nutritious food

production

Create global and regional grain reserves

• Located in poor, food importing countries

Picture sources: Wiki commons; neiljs; Ward


Increased food

for own

consumption

Increased

income

Reductions in

market pricesShifts in

preferences

Shifts in control

of resources

within

households

Gender equality

Health and nutrition

Women mediate pathways from agriculture to nutrition

Source: Arimond et al. 2010

Examples of interventions

• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Livestock and Rural Finance Development Project

helped women improve production, marketing and distribution of dairy (IFAD 2013)

• Uzbekistan: Rural Women Learning Alliance promotes strategies for

diversifying household incomes by cultivating non-traditional crops (CGIAR 2015)

Empower women in agriculture


• Must go beyond agric. indicators (e.g. productivity)

• New Global Food System Index: holistic measure of national food systems

• Six key dimensions: Inclusive, nutritious and healthy, climate-smart, sustainable, business-friendly, and productive

• Can help make governments accountable, set priorities to tackle weak nodes in the system

How to evaluate the global food system?

Example depiction of

Global Food System Index 0

25

50

75

100Productive

Inclusive

Nutritious andhealthy

Climate-smart

Sustainable

Business-friendly


To accelerate progress, evidence-based knowledge is needed:

Compact2025

End hunger and undernutrition


Compact2025—a partnership to end hunger and undernutrition

• Helps countries refine and implement pathways to

accelerate progress

• Supports nat’l and regional commitments with data,

evidence, accountability

• Breaks silos and works multisectorally

• Serves as a knowledge and innovation hub


Compact2025 provides evidence-based support to end hunger and undernutrition by 2025

National initiatives led by Ethiopia,

Rwanda, Malawi,

Bangladesh, and others

Regional commitments

led by the African Union

and others

International initiatives led

by SUN, GAIN, National

Information Platforms for Nutrition, and

others

Global goals e.g. Zero Hunger

Challenge, SDG2

Supporting other initiatives


I N N O V A T I O N L A B

Innovations in scaling up

Innovations in social marketing

S Y N T H E S I S

Nourishing MillionsCountry case studies

C O M M U N I C A T I O N SPortal, website, and mediaPolicy monitor and bulletin

D A TA , T R A C K I N G , A N D M O N I T O R I N G

Global Nutrition ReportGlobal Food Policy ReportGlobal Hunger Index

K N O W L E D G E &I N N O V AT I O N

H U B

Knowledge and Innovation Hub

Shenggen Fan, January 2016

A world free of hunger and undernutrition is within reach—

together, we will achieve it

For more information, contact

Shenggen Fan, Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), [email protected]

Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Chief of Staff and Head of 2020 Vision Initiative, IFPRI, [email protected]

Teunis van Rheenen Head of Partnerships and Business Development, IFPRI, [email protected]

Education

Reshaping the Food System for Food Security & Nutrition