Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
10 July 2009
Brussels — G8 leaders pledged USD 20bn Friday to boost food security in the world's poorest countries, as African presidents and prime ministers and representatives of international bodies joined the group of rich industrialised countries to assess the impact of the global recession on the world's poorest countries.
CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, welcomed the initiative spearheaded by Barack Obama, to invest in agricultural capacity in the South. It also welcomed the final declaration's attention to smallholder farmers in developing countries, but argued financial commitments are insufficient.
CIDSE member organisations CAFOD (UK), Cordaid (NL) and FOCSIV (Italy) expressed their disappointment. "The G8's focus on smallholder farmers and women in particular is positive, but the financial commitments are not," Bob van Dillen, Cordaid Policy Officer said. "The G8 sets aside $20bn for the coming 3 years, while they have spent $13bn in just the past 18 months. This simply means $20bn won't be enough to feed the world's one billion hungry."
CAFOD's Head of Policy Joanne Green added: "Tonight one billion people will go to bed hungry because the established economic model isn't working. And climate change will only increase the vulnerability of the poorest people as land and soil is degraded." "Initiatives such as those to support small-scale farmers to become less reliant on the peaks and troughs of the global food market are vital. And even more essential is the G8's need to ensure their promises are carried out in full."
The development agencies are concerned the good intentions of the G8's 'seven principles' announced Friday do not mirror their own national policies on food and trade. The G8 must look to their own policies to ensure the poorest are not subject to market-distorting subsidies and product dumping.
The proposed management of the pledged funds by the World Bank also raises doubts. Sergio Marelli, Director of Italian CIDSE member FOCSIV, commented, "The UN is far more suitable and competent for this purpose, as food security is one of their key objectives."
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