Partnering For Food Security: Moving Forward

A Proposal from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

At the G8 “plus” meeting held in L’Aquila in July 2009, a joint statement was endorsed which expressed the commitment of participants to “take decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty through improving food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture,” and to work together to: 1) support country-led processes; 2) ensure a comprehensive approach to food security; 3) strategically coordinate assistance; 4) support a strong role for multilateral institutions; and 5) sustain a robust commitment of financial resources, including $20 billion in resources pledged at the G8 Summit. We convened a meeting in New York on September 26, 2009 to broaden support for these principles and to move this agenda forward.

Points of Agreement

• We support the principles of the L’Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security.
  
• We agree to continue building a Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security (GPAFS), which includes support for the ongoing Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Committee on Food Security (CFS) reform processes and the work of the UN High Level Task Force (HLTF).
  
• We have a common understanding of the importance of taking a comprehensive approach to improving global food security—one that includes agricultural development, research, trade, social safety nets, emergency food assistance, and nutrition.
  
• In Africa, we recognize that the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) provides a framework through which we will coordinate our support for agriculture and food security, and we will support similar efforts in other regions.
  
• Consistent with the Accra Agenda for Action, we will work through, and in support of, country-led processes and build on existing platforms.

The Way Forward

We propose the following steps to move these principles into action:

• Intensify support for ongoing efforts to advance effective country-led and regional strategies; develop country investment plans and programs to achieve the goals of these strategies; ensure mutual accountability through public benchmarks, indicators, and a peer review framework to measure progress; and develop a flexible financing architecture that includes well-coordinated bilateral and multilateral mechanisms to support these integrated country-led strategies and investment plans.
  
• Support and expand North-South, South-South and Trilateral cooperation for the development and implementation of country-led, comprehensive plans.
  
• Work with regional economic communities, associations, organizations and agencies to strengthen their mechanisms for financial and technical cooperation with donors and other stakeholders to support country-led strategies and investment plans and to facilitate regional economic integration.
  
• Support the on-going reform processes aimed at improved efficiency and effectiveness of existing international organizations and agencies, including the consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and FAO.
  
• Strengthen international coordination on financing and joint actions in global processes, including through the framework of the UN High Level Task Force.
  
• Adhere to the commitment of $20 billion over three years through a coordinated, comprehensive strategy “focused on sustainable agriculture development, while keeping a strong commitment to ensure adequate emergency food aid assistance,” in accord with the L’Aquila statement.
  
• Monitor and evaluate our contributions to ensure transparency and accountability.